Monday, June 25, 2007

So any women on the go?

I had to restrain a strong desire to punch an elderly relative for this comment at my gran's funeral several years ago. Whether I had or not was irrelevant. In my moment of grief all she was interested in was my relationship status, not the fact I may have been upset. This is one of the things that really bugs me about the Christian community in the North at least. It's obsessed with relationships - which are a good thing but not everything, and in fact they have a very poor theology of relationships. There seems a massive pressure for people to get married. And so many christians get married so young, and some of those marriages run into problems. Northern Irish Christians all need to read some Hybels wisdom in Making Life Work (which is a fantastic book) or Fit to be Tied. It could only have good results.

Its one of the things that frustrates me about church. Sometimes I feel it would be easier to fit in if I was in a couple. Maybe I’m just more sensitive to it, having grown up with parents who split up when I was young, and mum sharing some really hurtful comments made by other Christian couples like – “if you were still together we could go out like we used to”. Can couples not spend time with single people? Are they so insecure about the stability of their relationship that they can’t be reminded of some of the harsh realities of life?

I was really pleased to hear a friend’s minister say from the front – "we will not be a church that only invites you for dinner if you’re a couple", recognising that disturbing reality that exists in some churches. In churches that clearly are missing something major about all that stuff Jesus kept talking about when he called his followers to love one another, to show hospitality. I don't remember there being any qualifiers, in fact that was the whole point of the good samaritan parable. Yet for single people churches can be lonely places.

It’s another reason why I have serious issues with John Eldridge. I read Wild at Heart a couple of years ago. While lots of people seem to think he says some good things, I had to restrain myself from throwing the book across the room on several occasions. His theology is woefully inadequate, especially when it comes to singleness. As in he doesn’t have a theology of singleness. I wondered why he didn’t really use Jesus as a role model for men – it would seem an obvious choice, but then Jesus was single and that kind of blows his theory out of the water. Passages like Matthew 19.12 and 1 Corinthians 7 are conveniently ignored by Eldridge where Jesus and Paul commend singleness.

Now I’m not just taking a pop at Eldridge but something that is endemic in the Christian community and has and is damaging lots of people. Churches sometimes assume marriage is the norm and everyone else needs married to sort them out.

In Genesis when God says its not good for man to be alone, I wonder if we read too much into that in taking it to be purely about marriage. If God lives in the community of the trinity surely what He was doing there was creating community for humanity – which is something larger than marriage, which is one expression of that. Maybe what our churches need more of is loving inclusive community with the recognition that marriage is not the be all and end all and recognition that singleness is exalted in the bible. Maybe then we might really see God’s kingdom touching earth and many of us who are broken and hurting actually finding a home…

Check out Tim Chester’s blog where he has been posting some great stuff on marriage and singleness – especially this morning’s post which precipitated this soapbox rant and has some fantastic stuff in it.

Soapbox - aware of the ironic timing of this post....

14 comments:

ScatterCode said...

Great post Sam! So true... you're not viewed as complete unless you have a partner in a lot of churches in the north (although I have to say, my church isn't too bad).
Apart from the hideousness of the phrase 'any men on the go?' (even if there were, I wouldn't him as 'on the go'!!!), it sums up an entirely wrong theology.
Don't even get me started on people who assume that if I invite them round for coffee, I'm also inviting their partner/spouse... grrrrrrrrr.....
I might do a blog on this myself at some point soon, you've wound me up now!

Anonymous said...

Top post from the soapbox. Even though I'm someone who has a woman "on the go" I agree entirely.
I think married / couples are both insensitive and over sensitive in varying measures to people who are single. They are insensitive when they assume you are a "married person in waiting" and are over sensitive when they think single people will not want to spend time with "boring marrieds". Some want to be treated as a 2-become-1 unit and others rightly want to resist the subsuming of their individuality into a duality.



Voxo... dual, individual, occasionally boring.

Anonymous said...

The reason you don't have a wife is probably people like me who hog all the women. I have a wife and a couple of other women on the go but you know Sam, its because I am just such a loving person, I have so much love to give.

Seriously though, superb post. You should think more about this and then write the definitive book from a man's perspective (Connally Gilliam wrote the definitive one for women).

Joy Bell said...

Irony? Can't think why!

ScatterCode said...

Yeah, I just spotted the final line about irony.... what's that about then, Mr Sam?

J-Mac said...

You need to see a doctor ;-)

neuro-praxis said...

But - if you have no woman, Sam, who will do your irony? And your cooky and cleany?

Anonymous said...

Hear hear! Man, that's some good stuff.


Maybe we could hook up...You don't have to answer right now, just think about it.

Sarah g said...

I have actually just laughed out loud...

such beauty to be found in this irony however!

Great post soapbox...

Rachel's blog said...

hehehe... "your irony and cooky and cleany." might laugh about that for the rest of my week.

yes, i'm having THAT much fun.

thinking maybe i need to learn from the king of rants about how to incite multiple commenting.

neuro-praxis said...

I despise Mark Driscoll. Sam, I hope you do too. Seeing as what he's evil, 'n' all.

Kate said...

Had the same thoughts about the 'Captiviating' book from the Elderidges. Although I was on a plane on the way from the US and throwing the book across the plane probably would have been considered it an act of terrorism!

Listened to yet another legendary Jon Piper talk on this subject. Find it at http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2007/2162_Single_in_Christ_A_Name_Better_Than_Sons_and_Daughters/

Kate said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

good blog spamster; i have often thought of elderidge as the publisher of "yank wank"; wishy-washy literature deeply rooted in cultural stereotypes rather than theology