Another Gem From Richard Rohr

I couldn’t help but post this:

We need much more of a lifestyle-based Christianity: not “What do you believe?” but “How do you live?” What you believe in your head asks almost nothing of you. Lifestyle asks everything of us, and every day, and on ever new levels of choice. It is a journey that never stops.

Our infatuation with beliefs and doctrines and ideas as the central and only part of our faith is partially a result of our being influenced by society – where the Greek emphasis on theoretical knowledge dominates our educational and (believe it or not) religious systems. While the defensive efforts of evangelicals to remain uninfluenced by culture are noble, the blatant unawareness of the ways in which culture has already infiltrated our version of Christianity is not so noble. There’s more than a bit of irony there.

Some may react defensively to my commentary – and suggest that our version the Christian life is very practical and lifestyle oriented. I can only speak from my perspective. My practicality was slightly misguided. The lifestyle element of my version of Christianity was an emphasis on external – and often petty – behaviours. My focus was the avoidance of certain behaviours (I don’t think I need to list them) that helped to project a squeaky image (at the expense of being honest, real, and transparent, I might add). And our practical efforts focus on getting people to think like we do - to espouse the very beliefs and doctrines we think are important. To think that is the reasonable response to the command - “go and make disciples” - is to severely devalue the words of Jesus. This is worth wrestling with.