fear

by austin pfeiffer

This past weekend I was in a classroom discussing ancient monasticism. Of course, new monasticism came up. In the midst of the conversation a man rose up and shared that truthfully he was nervous and scared of the "dangers" of such a life. And bang, there it is. I sat back and allowed the conversation to grow itself. The room was filled with evangelical Christians in the midst of discussing a local Church that was doing a series called "The Fight of Your Life" and involved the construction of an actual boxing ring in the auditorium. For me I was struck by a dilemma here. We are so concerned with the danger of young people lacking accountability in doctrine while trying to live out a pretty straightforward, missional life, but not interrogative with such confusing and blatant misuses of finances.

In the minor prophets it is littered with rebuke of God's people throwing festivals and celebrations of their piety while God's children starve and the Lord himself is thirsty for worship actually directed toward him. My propensity is to start conversations with assertions like these, however in the context, I knew I was out of my element. So once the roar died down I rose up to say, "uhh, yeah, I'm one of those kids...the kids in the houses, doing the monk-nouveau thing". I pointed out that some of us went to pretty "normal" churches, that we knew some peoples in America doing the same thing as us quite safe in their Christianity, and I think implied maybe for the gentlemen to site some examples of the "heresy potential" he believed were inevitable in such settings.

Intentional communities are certainly vulnerable to cult-like homogeneity in thinking and citizenry. They are also free from some accountability. For me its important in what we are doing to live first, respond second. Our goal is not to prove anything to anyone, but to act out our beliefs and force outsiders to draw conclusions from reality, not hypothetical. On a regular basis people assume we live in a fraternity environment where my wife is subjected to horrible machismo or that we are seeking to fracture the Church further. Of course nothing could be farther from the truth, in fact we are expressly working to unite the Church and commit to a lifestyle where my family's life is shared in responsibility with others therefore relieving burdens, not adding to them. So intellectually we can respond or we can keep living and pose the question back, "Where are these heretical dangers you hypothesize? Where is your evidence? And what do you suppose we do as young people to live out a passionate faith?"

This week I read a piece by John Shelby Spong on homosexuality where he essentially said, "I'm done discussing this with anyone who opposes me." What a foolish way to present your argument. Our argument is our life of course, and as such we will join the conversation by living Christianity in such a way. People may rebut our assertions with words of hypothesis, but until they can rebuke the simplicity of my comrades actions, I will be proud of our little corner in Winston-Salem, the Hawthorn block in San Diego, the neighborhood Kensington in Philadelphia, and the many places in between, arguing with loving action while their skeptics chat in the ivory tower.