Photo: Jerry Atnip
This is the third and final in a series, here and here, inspired by Jerry Atnip's photo series on Nashville's Tent City that brought together a Church of Christ and a Jewish Temple in the Buckle of the Bible Belt.
Since the Regan Revolution America has been stymied by labels. Nearly poisoned to death by polarization. The Religious Right Reared and Roared and we've been finger pointing, spatting, spitting and stalemated ever since.
I hate it. I watched it evolve. I saw the genesis of it and I see it's ugly, molded, toxic slime that coats our relations with each other as a nation today. And much of this time, I've slimmed along right in the green, gooey, gross Thick of It.
Labels have Done Us No Good.
Driving home from a photography show, I realized that I was attempting to affix labels that were not adhering. A "Conservative Church." A "Conservative Denomination." A "Liberal Cause." Bleh!
In respecting the humanity of Nashville's homeless Tent City and "being Jesus to you like you are Jesus to us"* Otter Creek Church -- located in an uber-wealthy suburban district one county removed -- has cut to the core. It COULD be said that this assumably Conservative Church has embraced the Liberal Cause of helping the homeless. Is such not the dominion of small, gritty, inner-city, sleeves-rolled up churches of much more liberal denominations?
Well. No....
"Jesus was a Liberal!" It's almost like a barnyard taunt, like: "Your mama wears army boots!" Followed by a "NAH-NA-Na-NAH-NA!" It's usually waved and flouted about by self-righteous Liberal Christians about the "Conservative" Christians" "giving Christianity a bad name." (I was once one of them doing the yelling and chest-thumping.)
But, really, Jesus was Jesus. And he did do some radical things in his day. And, in the rare, rare instances when a group who purportedly follows him really follows him, then it could...and dare I throw out "should?" mean getting down, dirty and...liberal?
But then, "liberal" doesn't fit this church if I try to peg them.
And so, I realize that I'm all caught up and swimming in the slime again. What this is, what this church is doing, is devoid of labels. It's about Being. And, about Doing. It's about Acting upon the incredibly beautiful Teachings of a God they Follow. And that...Is Something Rare. And beautiful. I am touched. I am moved. I've tossed the labels...And, I am humbled.
*I disclose my faith journey to Universalism here.
Edited to add that photographer Jerry Atnip now has his moving Tent City photos online: http://www.jerryatnip.com/photos/TentCityProject/
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