More Than Behavior

Back in the dark ages when I was a young teen, the group of guys I ran with would often recite the diddly "We don't smoke and we don't chew and we don't go with the girls that do. We ain't got no girlfriends!"

Other than reflecting our immaturity at that stage of life, this saying reflects the focus on behavior that was a part of our religious training. Right behavior was the third leg of our three-legged-stool understanding of being a Christian:

• what we believe, particularly accepting Jesus as our Savior (as opposed to what other churches believed - of course, what we believed was right), 
• church membership evidenced in regular participation in church activities (Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night), and 
• right behavior.  

A "good Christian" was defined by these three things. (For those who are counting, this blog is the fourth in my series on Doing Church in a Post-Christian World.)

The right behavior that was expected of a "good Christian" included active participation in all church events, reading the Bible daily, conforming to the accepted morals of the church and community, and avoiding immoral behavior (particularly, being sexually active and drinking - in spite of the diddly we sang).

Focusing on behavior is a common characteristic of religious groups of all stripes. Behavior - what we do and don't do - is an easy way to distinguish ourselves from others. It is also a subtle way of congratulating ourselves on being "right" or orthodox or pure or holy. But the focus on behavior has its downsides.

• The focus on behavior plays to the ego, fostering spiritual arrogance rather than humility. See Luke 18:9-14. 
• The focus on behavior allows us to hide behind an artificial sense of being OK. 
• The focus on behavior creates spiritual blindness rather than honest self-awareness. It blinds us to the sins of attitude and spirit. 
• The focus on behavior creates a culture of rules and laws - thou shalt, thou shalt not. 
• The focus on behavior encourages black-and-white, either-or, right-and-wrong thinking. 
• The focus on behavior leads to a critical, judgmental, condemning spirit that focuses on the failure of others while being blind to "the log in your own eye." See Luke 6:41-42. 
• The focus on behavior blocks compassion and mercy. See Luke 6:6-11; 13:10-17; 14:1-6; 11:42 & 46.
• The focus on behavior leaves the heart and mind unchanged. 
• The focus on behavior keeps us from embracing God's grace with joyful abandonment. 

Jesus challenged the focus on behavior, pointing to the condition of the heart as the proper focus. The heart, he said, was the source of behavior. See his little known parable in Luke 11:24-26, his comment about the inside of the cup in Luke 11:39-41, his teaching about "out of the heart," Mark 7:1-23.

One of the attractions of the focus on behavior is that it leaves us in power. We can change our behavior. We can do what is expected and avoid what is unacceptable. But we cannot change - we are powerless to change - the condition of our hearts or the attitudes that are so deeply ingrained. Only God can change those things. So our focus on behavior allows us to hide from facing the painful realities of our lives. It allows us to tip our hat towards God without really giving ourselves to God without reservation. It leaves us in control, rather than God.

 The current controversy in The UMC today is over behavior - the sexual behavior of those who have a same-sex orientation (in many parts of Africa, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death), UM clergy performing marriage ceremonies for same sex couples, UM Conferences ordaining openly gay individuals, the failure of UM bishops to adequately discipline clergy who violate The Discipline. In my opinion, this controversy exposes all the downsides of the focus on behavior.

By the grace of God, the Spirit has moved me beyond my three-legged-stool understanding of what it means to be a Christian. The Spirit has led me to think of being a Christian in terms of discipleship - being a follower of Jesus, learning and living the ways of God that Jesus taught so that I love as Jesus loved.

I can't help but wonder: how would a focus on loving as Jesus loved - rather than our focus on behavior and rules - impact today's controversy in The UMC?