There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever
fears has not reached perfection in love.
--1 john 4:18
NRSV
Thank God for Marilynne Robinson. If you’re unfamiliar
with this author, google her right now then go find one of her works of fiction
or non-fiction and begin reading. She’s an antidote to our times in more ways
than one.
I came to know Robinson through her 2004 novel Gilead,
which is narrated by an aging
Congregational minister in mid-20th
Century small town Iowa, specifically the fictional town of Gilead, inspired by
the real town of Tabor, in southwest Iowa. You might think that the book would
appeal to me since I am a minister, but I confess to being averse to clergy
characters in fiction, TV and film. Few writers know much about clergy and
fewer still get it right. In this case, Robinson gets it right, and apparently
non-clergy loved the book too, because it won the Pulitzer prize.
In Gilead and the three sequels (the fourth has just been released), small town life is depicted with beauty but also honesty. These
books are not a nostalgia trip but an investigation of the difficulties that
come when you disagree with the actions and/or beliefs of someone you love.
Race, religion, gender and age all frustrate the neat and tidy convictions of
its characters. The books are optimistic without being schmaltzy, because the
mysteries of love bind these characters together despite the difficulties of
remaining in relationship.
If you are someone interested in the history of Kansas and Missouri, especially
the bloody border war between
abolitionists and slaveholders involving John Brown, the novel Gilead
dwells on this history through its narrator. John Ames, a Congregationalist
minister, shares his experiences with his grandfather who rode with John Brown
on some of his raids into Missouri. In his musings, Ames ponders the relationship
of faith to racism and violence, his thoughts have particular relevance for
2020 America.
Robinson’s fiction mirrors her own Christian faith.
She is a part of the United Church of Christ denomination as a member of the
Congregational United Church of Christ in Iowa City. The UCC was formed in 1957
as a merger of denominations including the Congregationalists of which some of
the characters in her novel were a part.
Why I like Robinson’s novels and I feel like her
writings (including her non-fiction collections of lectures) are an antidote
for our time is that they are permeated with a belief in the decency of people
in general and ordinary Americans in particular. In interviews and her
collected essays, Robinson has been critical of strains in American
Christianity that foment fear of the other and a type of exclusionary
nationalism. Among her fans is President
Barack Obama. In 2015, Obama sat down to interview Robinson and their
remarkable dialogue was reprinted in The New York Review of Books. In their dialogue, Robinson shares
the foundation of her beliefs:
Well, I
believe that people are images of God. There’s no alternative that is
theologically respectable to treating people in terms of that understanding.
What can I say? It seems to me as if democracy is the logical, the inevitable
consequence of this kind of religious humanism at its highest level. And it
[applies] to everyone. It’s the human image. It’s not any loyalty or tradition
or anything else; it’s being human that enlists the respect, the love of God
being implied in it.
She goes on to say this
about the most vocal and virulent strains of Christianity that promote
intolerance and exclusion:
Well, I don’t know how
seriously they do take their Christianity, because if you take something
seriously, you’re ready to encounter difficulty, run the risk, whatever. I
mean, when people are turning in on themselves—and God knows, arming themselves
and so on—against the imagined other, they’re not taking their Christianity
seriously. I don’t know—I mean, this has happened over and over again in the
history of Christianity, there’s no question about that, or other religions, as
we know.
But Christianity is profoundly
counterintuitive—“Love thy neighbor as thyself”—which I think properly
understood means your neighbor is as worthy of love as you are, not that you’re
actually going to be capable of this sort of superhuman feat. But you’re
supposed to run against the grain. It’s supposed to be difficult. It’s supposed
to be a challenge.
Through Rev. John Ames, the narrator of Gilead,
Robinson has some fantastic lines that illustrate her understanding of
Christianity. Here are a few of my favorites:
”Nothing true can be said about God from a posture of defense.”
“It seems
to me people tend to forget that we are to love our enemies, not to satisfy
some standard of righteousness but because God their Father loves them.”
“Love is
holy because it is like grace--the worthiness of its object is never really
what matters.”
“I
experience religious dread whenever I find myself thinking that I know the
limits of God’s grace, since I am utterly certain it exceeds any imagination a
human being might have of it. God does, after all, so love the world.”
In this time of
fearmongering politics, we need the steady calm voice Marilynne Robinson offers
through her characters. We need reminders that beneath the hateful and even
racist words of those we disagree with, there stands a human being, beloved by
God and no amount of disagreement we may have with them changes the bald fact
that God made them in the Divine image and loves them more than we can
comprehend. We need to be reminded that each of us is a recipient of God’s
grace and so are the people we so often demonize. As you read today’s political
news and cast your ballot this fall, remember the sacredness of each person
around you whether they return your love and respect or not.
Grace and Peace,
Chase
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