/Xtribe_Trott

Sacred Tribes Journal

Volume 1 Number 1 (2002):255-262 ISSN: 1941-8167

THE X-TRIBE: SOME CHRISTIAN TRIBAL MARKINGS Jon Trott Jesus People USA We Christians are one of many "sacred tribes" of peoples throughout the world. I define a sacred tribe as a tribe or group of people whose selfprofessed primary identity both as individuals and as a group center on meanings, beliefs, and practices derived from their perception of the Divine.

I am relieved to use 'sacred tribe' rather than that overused and abusive word 'cult.' I have written elsewhere at length on that topic, but here I simply cite J. I. Packer who in writing about the word "fundamentalist" underscores a problem all pejorative labelling words have: In the first place, it [fundamentalism] is a word that combines the vaguest conceptual meaning with the strongest emotional flavour. "Fundamentalist" has long been a term of ecclesiastical abuse, a theological swearword; and the important thing about a swear-word, of course, is not what it means but the feelings it expresses.... [Packer then cites a number of historical illustrations.]

There is no need to quote other examples; the point is clear. The verdict of history is that the use of vague prejudicial labels (and the more they are the one, the more they are the other) rules out the very possibility of charitable and constructive discussion. The interests of truth and love seem to demand that such labels be rigorously eschewed.[1]

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Dr. Packer's lesson regarding the use of the term fundamentalist against many of us X-Tribe members is also a lesson in not using similarly vague / biased language toward other sacred tribes. But can we differentiate between various sacred tribes without some sort of pejorative labeling? I think so, provided that we carefully define pejorative vs. descriptive. So, whether a Christian or a Scientologist, each tribe member ought to be able to face one's own history and/or the history and beliefs of one's tribe with honesty and integrity. The fact that not all of us do so is not necessarily a commentary upon our respective tribes as a whole.

Why the X? I choose to call us the 'X' Tribe because the symbol X is also a symbol of the cross; further, it is a 'crux' (as in "the crux of the matter"), an intersection, a conjoining of two into one. The term 'atonement' -- 'atone-ment' -- further illustrates the centrality of the cross / X in Christian symbolic life. The horizontal experience of human life is impacted by the vertical invasion of that life by the Divine Lover/Rescuer.

Like other sacred tribes, we X-ers have beliefs and practices which form and inform our self-understanding as well as our understanding of others and of God. Like many but not all other sacred tribes, we believe that our beliefs are rooted in Absolute Truth and Absolute Love. I will call these "markings."

Tribal Marking #1: Love To believe in absolutes does not cancel out the value of others' journeys who do not agree with us. We must not allow ourselves to fall into some sort of either/or fallacy; X-Tribe members believe both in absolute truth and in absolute love, the latter of which requires respecting other human beings' journey's toward or away from God, the former of which requires humility on our own part (we do not "have" truth but at best are only agents for the truth). Thus, I may engage a member of Scientology or Mormonism in a discussion, yet ought to remember that the person's own story may well be one in which they are moving toward belief in Jesus Christ and away from previous materialistic beliefs which precluded all God-searchings.

This doesn't rule out plain speaking at times, but it is instructive that Christ's harshest words seemed reserved almost totally to the "church folk" of his time rather than non-believers and "sinners." Since Christianity's story involves relationship between a God Who woos his

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Sacred Tribes Journal

Volume 1 Number 1 (2002):255-262 ISSN: 1941-8167

people rather than forcing them into relationship with him, our selfunderstanding (ideally, at least) necessitates a rejection of violence and / or coercion when trying to 'win' others to Christ. History does of course offer many exceptions to this ideal rule, but the biblical documents offer only evidence for it.

Paul's exquisite 1 Corinthians 13 chapter on love illustrates: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [boldface added] [2] Tribal Marking(s) #2: Truth (The Apostles' Creed) How cohesive are the X-Tribe's central beliefs? Remember, we're discussing here a tribe which has existed for 2,000 years and contains many sub-tribes with serious differences of belief and practice. The socalled "Apostles' Creed," so named due to the fact that it came into existence within fifty years of the founding of the New Testament Church, underscores beliefs nearly all Christians hold today: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell. [some manuscripts read, "He descended to the dead."[3]] The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

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I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic [as in universal] church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

Amen.[4] This creed reflects an astonishing breadth and specificity in a very few words. In it, we X-Tribers express the nature and person of God (Personal and Triune in nature), Jesus Christ's nature and mission, humanity's sinfulness apart from Christ, human immortality, the nature of the church (all those who have accepted the gospel, surrendered to Christ, and thus been indwelt by the Holy Spirit), heaven and hell's reality, and Christ's return one day to judge the living and the dead.

Though hardly fair to the reader, I will deliberately not attempt to further explain the doctrinal richness of the creed. That has been done elsewhere by theologians of every stripe and denominational affiliation. I would note, however, that many other statements of faith seem rooted in this creed however many additional themes and distinctives they carry.

There is, therefore, one addition which is not explicit in the creed but seems all too obvious upon reflection. That is the X-Tribe's nearly universal adherence to the Jewish/Christian Scriptures as their authority in matters of faith and practice. Though Roman Catholic and Protestant sub-tribes contextualize this discussion regarding authority differently, the issue of Scripture being God's revelation rather than man's meanderings is essentially agreed upon.

Tribal Marking #3: A Direct Encounter with God The fact that so many different denominations exist, with so many different practices and beliefs, has been used against Christianity as evidence that we are in fact separate tribes. But the apostles' creed argues otherwise. Our relationships to each other exist not because of denominational boundaries, but rather because of an intellectual and heartfelt acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

X-Tribers read the above and intone an 'amen,' but non-Xers are likely wondering just what we mean by such terminology. In the American context, at least, if not the context of the entire western world, concepts regarding the individual being "under the Lordship" of anyone smacks of

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heresy. The culture of intense individualism we inhabit (and I speak as an American here) is often at odds with all organized religions. To put it succinctly, American culture often encourages the Tribe of One. That is, I hold myself sole member and chief of the Jon Trott tribe. Any God, or human agents for God, who begin drawing borders around what beliefs and/or behaviors are acceptable risks incurring my wrath and rejection.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), inventor of the computer and mathematical genius, kept a document sewn in his coat for the last eight years of his life. That document, one individual's existential account of conversion, offers an example of the X-Tribe's understanding regarding God's personal nature and approachability:

The year of grace 1654, Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology.

Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others.

From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight, FIRE. GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob not of the philosophers and of the learned.

Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.

GOD of Jesus Christ.

My God and your God. Your GOD will be my God. Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD. He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.

Grandeur of the human soul.

Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.

Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.

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I have departed from him: They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.

My God, will you leave me?

Let me not be separated from him forever.

This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ.

I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.

Let me never be separated from him.

He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel: Renunciation, total and sweet.

Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.

Eternally in joy for a day's exercise on the earth.

May I not forget your words. Amen.[5] This writer's own conversion was much like Pascal's in its intensity and duration, a baptism in subjective experience that, though likely unconvincing to the observer, nonetheless was completely convincing to me the participant. It should be remembered that such surrenders to apparent subjectivity are often rooted in an intellectual struggle. Few of us are anywhere near as brilliant as a Pascal, yet our own intellectual world requires cohesion and sense. Christianity ought only be embraced if it, more than any other worldview, makes the most sense of a confusing, sad, and finite world.

Unlike Pascal's ecstatic, overwhelming experience of fire and joy, C. S. Lewis commented in his autobiography Surprised by Joy that he was initially "the most reluctant convert in all of England," surrendering only after an intense battle of mind against theism and (later) Christianity.

Again, there is something remarkably individualistic about becoming a member of the X-Tribe. Yet in both Lewis and Pascal, there is an undeniable similarity in the sense of abdication, surrender, and "submission" (Pascal's word) that seems foreign to westerners. Further, Pascal seemed immediately to realize that the unseen God's representatives on earth--his church--were also part of the equation.

"Complete submission to Jesus Christ and my director," he wrote, meaning of course the Catholic clergyperson to whom he went for confession, counsel, and repentance.

This theme of experienced love at the Divine Lover's hand brings up a related issue in loving the X-Tribe way. Love on its own isn't good enough. That is, it must be a love which loves the real and not the false.

Or, as Josef Pieper writes:

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Sacred Tribes Journal

Volume 1 Number 1 (2002):255-262 ISSN: 1941-8167

Granted, it is true that one cannot love until he has seen and understood. But understanding is vain if it fails to grasp a reality--if, that is, it is wrong. In other words, if independently of our seeing, perceiving and thinking it is not really 'good' that the beloved person exists, then all this approval is a deception, mistake, wishful thinking, a delusion. And then all love is an illusionary play of blind instinctual impulses, a trick of nature, as Schopenhauer says, an unreal mirage and a self-deception striking at the heart of the 'Lover's' own being.[6] If the Christian God is a delusion, we are fools no matter how lovely the delusion is experientially. X-Tribers believe that reality matters, and matters absolutely. Thus the abstract intellect is no good on its own, but neither is a mere experience unwedded to intellectual pursuit of the Divine. And it is here that, despite the wide differences we hold with other sacred tribes regarding the identity and nature of God, man's current predicament, and God's solution for that predicament, we believe many of those involved in so-called "cults" are actually farther toward the truth than their secularized counterparts. Regarding the comfortable unbeliever, it behooves us to remember Pascal's ponderings from Pensees: Nothing is so important to man as his own state, nothing is so formidable to him as eternity; and thus it is not natural that there should be men indifferent to the loss of their existence, and to the perils of everlasting suffering.

They are quite different with regard to all other things.

They are afraid of mere trifles; they foresee them; they feel them. And this same man who spends so many days and nights in rage and despair for the loss of office, or for some imaginary insult to his honour, is the very one who knows without anxiety and without emotion that he will lose all by death. It is a monstrous thing to see in the same heart and at the same time this sensibility to trifles and this strange insensibility to the greatest objects. It is an incomprehensible enchantment, and a supernatural slumber, which indicates as its cause an all-powerful force.[7]

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Meanwhile, our dialogue with those involved in other sacred tribes ought to reflect both truth and love, intertwined so that neither is anything without the other.

[1] - http://www.ucalgary.ca/%7Enurelweb/papers/packer/fundi-1.html [2] - 1 Corinthians 13: , New Revised Standard Version [3] - http://www.mit.edu/~tb/anglican/intro/lr-apostles-creed.html [4] - http://www.reformed.org/documents/apostles_creed.html [5] - http://www.users.csbsju.edu/~eknuth/pascal.html#English [6] - Faith, Hope, Love, Josef Pieper, Ignatius, p. 198.

[7] - http://eserver.org/philosophy/pascal-pensees.txt Pensees, Blaise Pascal, translated by W. F. Trotter.

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