Monday, September 24, 2007
Embracing the Enemy
I just read an incredible article in Fast Company magazine that you can find online here. It details the hiring of Adam Werbach, the youngest president of the Sierra Club and a member of the newest generation of fiery evangelists of environmentalism to the sustainability project recently launched by Wal-Mart. Overnight, Werbach became a pariah amongst the environmentalist community for selling his soul to the most evil corporation in America. The article is sympathetic to Werbach, something that compelled me to think more generally about the larger phenomenon I believe is occurring here.
It's really easy to hate Wal-Mart. Though I work for a company that probably rivals Wal-Mart in terms of wages and labor practices, it is Wal-Mart that gets plastered by labor advocacy groups more than any other corporation. Home Depot has a reputation as a green company because of its "no old growth" forestry practices, but Wal-Mart gets mocked for its efforts at reducing waste and creating sustainable retail stores (even though Home Depot probably uses just as much juice as a Wal-Mart does). All of this adds up to what I believe is a common social practice for group identity formation. Identification of a clear enemy is conducive to solidifying the opposing group's identity. In other words, environmentalists have a better sense of who they are if they have an enemy like Wal-Mart to identify. If you read the article I referenced, you'll see that many of Werbach's detractors would clearly rather see Wal-Mart continue its poor environmental practices and fight to destroy the company than see it become a sustainable company.
This way of thinking is so rampant in the Church that I wonder if we might be the experts at doing this. How many little churches who naturally foster a sense of intimacy and familiarity would sacrifice their right to scoff at mega-churches struggling to maintain closeness to see those mega-churches develop strong interconnectedness? One church on Sunday mornings is a sea of white hair and bald heads with almost no children present, while another church doesn't have a single member above 40 years old. Can they learn from each other, or would they rather see each other as too traditional or too contemporary to bother interacting with?
On a personal level, am I allowing a rich Catholic or a hard-line Calvinist or a liberal Lutheran pastor to show me why the way they express God is important? I sat across from a guy my age at a Bible study yesterday that just returned from Iraq. Am I going to tell him why he's not living his faith right, or why the choices he made to roll down the streets of Baghdad were wrong? That certainly would be easier than struggling through the difficult task of understanding how he's living his life for God and making tough choices I haven't had to make yet (or may never make). I instinctually know that the more people I decide are on the side of the enemy, the easier it will be to decide who's on the "right" side with me. But not only will I grow increasingly lonely as more and more people fill the ranks of the enemy, I will destroy the identity I've fought so hard to crystallize. As I said in a previous post, I much prefer to the evangelical interpretation of Jesus' outstretched arms on the cross (that he loved me personally "that much") the idea that Athanasius advanced, that Jesus died with arms outstretched to show how wide and how deep and to what an infinite measure his desire extends to save the whole world. Faced with that identity, who can remain our enemy for long?
It's really easy to hate Wal-Mart. Though I work for a company that probably rivals Wal-Mart in terms of wages and labor practices, it is Wal-Mart that gets plastered by labor advocacy groups more than any other corporation. Home Depot has a reputation as a green company because of its "no old growth" forestry practices, but Wal-Mart gets mocked for its efforts at reducing waste and creating sustainable retail stores (even though Home Depot probably uses just as much juice as a Wal-Mart does). All of this adds up to what I believe is a common social practice for group identity formation. Identification of a clear enemy is conducive to solidifying the opposing group's identity. In other words, environmentalists have a better sense of who they are if they have an enemy like Wal-Mart to identify. If you read the article I referenced, you'll see that many of Werbach's detractors would clearly rather see Wal-Mart continue its poor environmental practices and fight to destroy the company than see it become a sustainable company.
This way of thinking is so rampant in the Church that I wonder if we might be the experts at doing this. How many little churches who naturally foster a sense of intimacy and familiarity would sacrifice their right to scoff at mega-churches struggling to maintain closeness to see those mega-churches develop strong interconnectedness? One church on Sunday mornings is a sea of white hair and bald heads with almost no children present, while another church doesn't have a single member above 40 years old. Can they learn from each other, or would they rather see each other as too traditional or too contemporary to bother interacting with?
On a personal level, am I allowing a rich Catholic or a hard-line Calvinist or a liberal Lutheran pastor to show me why the way they express God is important? I sat across from a guy my age at a Bible study yesterday that just returned from Iraq. Am I going to tell him why he's not living his faith right, or why the choices he made to roll down the streets of Baghdad were wrong? That certainly would be easier than struggling through the difficult task of understanding how he's living his life for God and making tough choices I haven't had to make yet (or may never make). I instinctually know that the more people I decide are on the side of the enemy, the easier it will be to decide who's on the "right" side with me. But not only will I grow increasingly lonely as more and more people fill the ranks of the enemy, I will destroy the identity I've fought so hard to crystallize. As I said in a previous post, I much prefer to the evangelical interpretation of Jesus' outstretched arms on the cross (that he loved me personally "that much") the idea that Athanasius advanced, that Jesus died with arms outstretched to show how wide and how deep and to what an infinite measure his desire extends to save the whole world. Faced with that identity, who can remain our enemy for long?
Chris B., 4:02 PM
1 Comments:
Good thoughts worthy of reflection, my friend.
Mark Van Steenwyk, at 4:53 PM
