alert yourself to Syncretism

The Soil and the Sun.

I attended a concert last night. I invited so many people. I asked The Record if I could write about it. It’s a local Christian band, after all.

nope nope no.

My roommate and I showed up at the apartment in Wicker Park, connected to a liquor store, where the concert was to be held, at 8:12. (worried about being late) Only a few people were there. It was the band and a few friends. They took us out to coffee, we went back, stood outside for a while... people streamed in. Someone stated playing some music around 10:30. The Soil and the Sun, the band we’d gone to see, didn’t play until around 11:30. It was one of my favorite nights so far this school year. Loads of students and drop outs from Chicago colleges, artists and environmentalists, PBR’s and pizza, dreads and cigarettes, ...

Everywhere I’m not supposed to be,

because the City is a mission field.

Am I aloud to be here? To just sit, and take it in? Turns out, half the kids who show up attend Christian colleges. Am I aloud to immerse myself in such culture without reciting the community covenant? Or at least explaining to the people sitting next to me that my college forbids me to drink alcohol?

I’m tired of being labeled a heretic for living in the world.

I read a chapter out of The Next Christendom for my Christian Though class. It was meant to be discussed in class. I entered class jittery to hear my classmates’ responses to the reading. I was especially struck by the theme throughout the text proclaiming Christianity as “infinitely translatable,” and able to be “inculturated in different societies, and each in turn contribut[ing] to the larger package of Christian beliefs.” What could be a better impetus for conversation?

Turns out, no one made a comment about this reading. No one. When I commented about the quotes above, I got no response from the class. I asked “Well, do you think that Truth exists anywhere in Christianity anymore? Or has it been altered so much over so many generations and societies that we have nothing left to grasp? If we say every other culture that practices a slightly different version of worship than we do is syncretistic, then we are necessarily saying that a true Christian lifestyle is non-existent today. right?.......because think about how much the practice of Christianity has to have been altered over the past 2,000 years.”

space

space

silence

Later in the day I walked into Anthropology in the Contemporary World. We talked about a chapter on god/God. A quote was brought up from our reading in Social and Cultural Anthropology :A Very Short Introduction, “Such faiths were once labeled syncretistic by anthropologists, who now avoid the term since all faiths, even the most orthodox forms of world religions, are historical mixtures of diverse beliefs and practices. ...it is doubtful that any world religion could ever achieve as high level of orthodoxy among its members as it might wish.” 130

This is the same issue we were discussing...er, I was discussing in Christian thought. I realized how different my thought patterns are both because I would choose to study anthropology, and because I have studied anthropology.

Obviously I’m biased as an anthro. major, but I’m worried about the views we push at Wheaton, the discussions we encourage, the actions we condemn. Christian Thought is a class required of every student, and granted not all classes are discussing the same material or content we are studying in my class, I worry that the general ideas, topics, being entertained by our students, will not be effective in preparing us to be “whole and effective Christians” in Chicago, let alone the world.

I find it extremely important to examine our judgments made on other cultural forms of worship. I find it extremely important to examine our judgments made on other practices of Christianity in the U.S. And I find it absolutely necessary to examine our judgments made on the variety of expressions of Christianity one can find on Wheaton Campus. The only other options I see are students living their entire lives ignorant of the beauty of God’s ability to relate to us as individuals and separate cultures,(which I would argue would leave them in an unhealthy and dangerous place in relation to God and others), or one day undergoing serious trauma when something forces a student to see how ‘syncretistic’ our culture is.

I don’t mind people treating me like I’m a rebel for sitting around with kids who smoke pot at a concert. In fact, I find the edgy reputation enjoyable. But I do have a problem with my peers consequently worrying about my soul because of these interactions, and being too dignified, pure, wise, and terrified to allow these experiences to form their hearts as well.

I don’t need you to agree with me. But will you at least talk about it?