Unequal Standing

Before you raise an intellectual pitchfork against me, hear me out.

There really are insignificant believers.

It’s very undemocratic – but so is the job market, and yet fewer pitchforks are raised against such a statement, even though it’s directly tied to the threat of poverty and homelessness.

Decent culture teaches us that all people have equal value as creations of God. It may not be apparent that this confuses us with the notion that we all have equal standing in faith – or at least, that most of us do to some degree or another. Maybe the fire and brimstone preacher, or the willingly impoverished priest in South America are of greater standing… obviously… so we think.

The parable of the ten talents Matt 25:14-30), and proximity to God in heaven (Mark 10:35-45), exemplify that this notion is not quite true.  Even worse, some people look exactly like believers, but aren’t at all (Matt 7:21), and will be treated so by God! If some are greater than others (in some sense or another), or maybe more legitimate than others through the exercising of their faith, why should we not ask meaningful questions regarding who is who in our everyday lives, and in our communities? Even better, why not ask ourselves which of these WE are?

What if the people in the group in which many are of “somewhat equal standing in faith” are sometimes not so, but are instead caught in a dynamic they do not understand – one in which ordinarily good values of community and compassion binds significant and insignificant believers in a dance in which neither group realizes the truth of what they are?

If the insignificant believer realizes that they consistently coast on communal nurture and Christian culture, will they confront the pain of a fraudulent identity?

If the significant believer realizes that they are through faith in suffering developing an identity that supersedes the status quo, will they be willing to accept the pain of that new true identity?

The fear of being alone, or not belonging, enables dynamics in which insignificant believers go without confrontation, and significant believers to suffer inferiority they mistakenly call “normal”.

If you need help confronting the parts of you that is an “insignificant believer” or need help standing up for the parts of you that is a “significant believer, drop a line in the contact form at the bottom of the page.

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