So I’ve found myself inadvertently watching episodes of The View recently. Not by choice mind you – in general I despise talk shows, I’ve never even seen a full episode of Oprah. But by the time I take Emma to the kid fit class at the Y, drop Aidan off in the nursery, and hop on the elliptical in a vague attempt to not be a complete blob, I get my choice of closed captioned ESPN, CNN, or The View. I hate sports and there is really just so much economic crisis one can take, so The View it is.
This morning I caught it in the middle of a discussion on religion and the afterlife. I’m not sure about the context and I didn’t catch the whole conversation (trying to turn sideways to read a screen while trying to keep up the cardio-fat-burn pace was a tad difficult), but the whole thing was just an interesting commentary on popular conceptions of religion in America. There was of course the confused questioning of terrorists who kill others to get their virgins in the afterlife and Whoopi Goldberg’s slamming of the Catholic church for selling indulgences (really). But then there was the typical dichotomy between physical and spiritual life. A couple of the ladies agreed with the Jewish perspective (as they described it) that it is what we do here on earth that matters. That our actions and how we treat others are what really matter. Of course this visibly upset Elizabeth Hasselbeck (who I will always think of as Elizabeth from Survivor), who emphatically made it known that if it is this life that matters then we’re all screwed. The only hope we can have is to escape all this and go to heaven when we die. And of course in typical talk show fashion, at this point just as the conversation was getting interesting, Barbara Walters jumped in with a freaking product promotion. Apparently no matter what we think of heaven and hell, we can all enjoy going to Chili’s.
I felt like shouting over the Janis Joplin blaring through my earbuds – “where’s the third way??!!!” Seriously, I’m sick of this either/or business. But as I thought about it, even within the church we have difficulty entertaining the idea that this life can be a both/and. The idea that our spirituality is intertwined with our physicality just isn’t discussed. We are far too accustomed to dividing life into doing good works or going to heaven when we die. We have become extreme caricatures like Whoopi and Elizabeth on The View – so entrench in our own ideology that we ignore the truth in what the other is saying. Our theology has descended to the level of daytime television.
I’m reminded of the pre-election thing both Obama and McCain did with Rick Warren. The evangelical church loved McCain’s answers to the faith questions because he was very clear and absolute. He choose a side and made his position known. Obama was far more the both/and guy. He saw the complexity in the issues and chose to acknowledge it. He didn’t succumb to the feel good easy answers, but was okay with the ambiguity and mystery that is simply a part of the faith. I admire that.
I’m sick of soundbites and either/or extremes when it comes to faith. I don’t care if it boosts ratings and grows your church following – ignoring truth for the sake of ideology just doesn’t make sense. Forget the popularity ploys of liberal vs. conservative or us vs. them, living in mystery is a far more faithful approach.