After more than half a decade of deconstruction I face this question. It all started with deconstructing our worldview and how we view god. Moving on to deconstruct our traditions and our ways of being Christian. This is not weird and is done all the time. In progressive circles the hermeneutics of different Christian tribes are constantly being deconstructed and questioned. In the radical Christian tradition (Pete Rollins, John
Caputo, Kester Brewin et al.) one is even entertaining the thought of the death of god. And queer theologians are open seeing Jesus as a bi-sexual and sexually active. All of these questions are received and applauded in the respective theological tribes.
But as we moved on and started deconstructed our own sexuality, we moved on to deconstructing our own marriage and the mono-myth of modern society suddenly all of the voices grew silent. It was as if it’s all ok as long as it’s a theological, intellectual experiment. As long as the theology we entertain stays in church and maybe speaks into how we vote or what coffee we buy. But when our deconstruction and theological journey took us into the bedroom and started deconstructing the fabric of our modern society, then it became very uncomfortable even for the rebels and the progressives.
Nancy Wilson writes:
As Christians, we must construct new interpretations of the scriptures. In this task, I want to go too far! We’ve come a long way in a few years in the queer community. However, in terms of boldly and comfortably claiming our presence in the Bible, we haven’t gone far enough. — Nancy Wilson, Outing the Bible
For me it would seem incomplete and incongruent with the task we set ourselves to deconstruct only the theologies that concern church and our outward expression of faith. Jesus questioned the traditions and the structure of the very society he lived in, he boldly deconstructed the main narrative of the Jewish society and proposed a new story. Why should we do any less? Why would we accept the old story of faith, the old story of relating, the old story of how society works, the old story of marriage (that actually turns out to be a rather new story). We need a new story, we need new stories of how to be spiritual beings, new stories of how to be Christians, new stories of how to be church, new stories of how to relate to one another, new stories of relationships and marriages. Because frankly, the prevalent narrative today, clearly is not working.
Meanwhile, we must boldly begin to ask the questions, make suggestions, and “go too far.” — Nancy Wilson, Outing the Bible
So onward we go, into the unknown out into terra incognita to blaze new trails, to tell a new story. Some will think we have gone to far but I wonder if we can ever go far enough.
ARGH! Come ON! I did NOT just write for an hour on a comment and then have your site lose it, since you have rebooted it (and it does not remember my Disqus identity)?! I reject your reality and substitute my own!
Well, apparently I did. So. It was well written and well thought out, about the metaphor of the Journey and how, if you lead others on that journey, important it is to keep track (and make it visible) of your past. So that people easier understand where you are, and where you press on from there, if they can sort of track where you come from, originally. But soooo much more well put.
Hugs.