Confession

Yesterday, in conversation with a couple of anti-religious friends, one looked at me with disbelief and asked, “There are liberal Baptists?!”

I explained how some of the core Baptist tenants allow for all kinds of Baptists from the most fundamentalist to the very liberal, but it also got me thinking.

Now to be honest, this is not a new question. As a liberal Baptist, a member of the Alliance of Baptists and the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, it’s almost instinctual that when someone asks what my denomination is, my answer is “Baptist, but not that kind!” A fact I know I’ve mentioned before and which I’m sure many can relate to.

But that isn’t what this is about, so bear with me for a moment.

With recent news, especially in the US about people proclaiming, based on their Christian faith, that it is a burden on their religious rights to allow employees access to the whole range of birth control or even to file the “permission slip” with the insurance company to provide it separate from their own company-partially-subsidized insurance or that their religious rights require they be able to fire persons based on their gender identity or sexual orientation, I find myself wanting to defend, “Not all Christians!”

And yet, is the cry of “Not all Christians” really any better than the “Not all men” responses to the stories of women who have experienced various kinds of sexism and harassment? Somehow, I doubt it.

As Christians, many of us believe in the power of confession, which is where we need to start.

We have to not just pray, “Forgive us our debts/transgressions” and try not to think about what the corporate realities these represent are.

We must acknowledge the shameful past of imperial Christianity: forced conversions, the destruction of other faiths and their histories and temples, witch hunts, cultural appropriation, inquisitions, demonization and dehumanizing of those who would not convert. In the name of clearly defining the “us,” conversations and disagreements were silenced, labeled heretical, and that silence frequently enforced by violence and the power of the empire.

It is necessary that we remember that in the names of the church and God and Jesus there have been murders, wars, and genocides.

Before we throw around “the Bible says,” we must admit that the Bible has been used to support slavery and conquest, and is still used to promote the profits of corporations at the expense of employees and producers, including those who are in literal modern slavery. We need to confess that the Bible has been used to justify and support: child and spousal abuse, racism, and sexism, and that it is still used to support those as well as the now recognized cis-sexism and heterosexism.

It is time that we as a church confess our debts to the world, but those transgressions of the past and present, those for which we can make an amends and those in which are we trapped along with the rest of society because of large and complicated systems which will require a lot of work to undo.

And then we must shut up and listen. Listen to those who tell us why they’ve left the church. Listen to the stories of those who have survived spiritual abuse. Listen to the unspoken hurts in tears. Listen to those who condemn the church.

Then we should not proclaim, “Not all Christians” or “We’re different” or “Not that kind of Christian/Baptist.” But instead act. Work toward justice for all and to be one drop of water in the torrent which will tear down the systems of injustice. Then, and only then, can we be heard, though we will no longer need to defend ourselves or our God.