Shirin McArthur

Dear Siblings in Christ,

A couple months ago, I listened online to a talk by professor Kevin Carnahan about Christian Realism. It’s a perspective I hadn’t encountered before, at least not in these terms. I thought I would share some of my thoughts about it here in case you might find the connections I’m making helpful.

In a simplistic nutshell, Christian Realism acknowledges the muddiness of Christian life. It posits that only God both understands and does things perfectly. We never will be perfect, so we can let that ideal go. In fact, we have to. We need to accept our frail and imperfect state. That doesn’t mean we give up our desire to live a “Christian” life or follow Jesus. It simply—and profoundly—right-sizes our expectations about ourselves and others.

The talk was part of a series on Faith and Politics, so Carnahan spent some time focusing on politics. The talk was recorded before President Biden endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. At the time, I was grateful for the chance to realize that my frustrations with both political parties are reasonable. Political parties are run by people with egos who are frequently interested in power and control. They are not, in any way, perfect. They are interested in winning, then fulfilling their agendas through the power that winning brings.

This is not to say that politicians have no heart or soul. Instead, it is to realize that we can’t expect them to act like Jesus—who did not seek to win in the human arena anyway. He wasn’t looking for power and control.

This brings me to another important connection that I’m making with the philosophy of Christian Realism. We need to recognize that frail and imperfect humans will usurp Christianity for their own ends. Emperor Constantine did that 1700 years ago, and people seeking power have done it ever since. Today, people are doing it through white Christian nationalism, which coopts Christ for a political agenda that I can’t imagine Jesus would ever recognize.

So, what do we do with all this? I think we need to keep reading, listening, discussing, and learning as a community. We need to know others’ agendas so we can speak up effectively when we disagree. We also need to recognize that each of us is imperfect. We need to bring compassion to our conversations and lower our expectations about what is possible.

One of the ways I’ll be doing that this fall is with Saint Philip’s ongoing antiracism discussion group. Starting Sunday, September 8, we will be discussing Jim Wallis’ new book The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy. To learn more and join in this conversation, please click here.

I encourage you to consider what else you could do—or will commit to doing—to continue learning as part of a broader faith community.

Peace,

—Shirin

A version of this message first appeared on my blog on August 26, 2024.