Going to Hell in a Handbasket

I heard a sermon the other day that implied that the reason crime is on the rise and society is falling apart is that society has abandoned God. I've heard this sort of claim before, of course, and it really bothers me. For one thing, it isn't at all clear that society is, in fact, falling apart. The claim is often based much more on perception than fact. For instance, the people supporting this claim often point to the rise in violent crime. But a quick look at Stats Canada shows that crime in this country (as is America) has been falling steadily since a peak in the early 1990's. in 2003 the homicide rate reached a 36 year low! Hardly evidence of a society in moral decline.

Of course, I'm not trying to argue that Canadian society has not become less Christian, merely that we Christians cannot go around claiming that terrible things have happened because of this loss. Our missional claim on the societies of the world need to be based on a positive message rather than nostalgia for a more civilized time. I hear Christians in Canada constantly tell and retell the story of how they once had incredible cultural cache and have lost it all. That narrative simply isn't a part of the Episcopal Church's story south of the border that I grew up with. Typically, when someone keeps telling the same story over and over it's because they haven't found the transformation they seek by the telling. I mean, they haven't gone beyond the story to the next stage. I could say a lot more about the role of story telling in healing, but I'll spare you. Essentially, there has be some kind of counter-story that responds to and transforms the presenting narrative. It's not just an interpretation of reflection; it actually uses the characters and world of the presenting story to construct a new, healing reality.

Anyway, all that is to say that the Canadian Anglican Church is still trying to figure out how to exist in a society that doesn't require it's existence. It's a question of vision. Yet who is brave enough to go into the desert to find it? Usually only the people God had driven into the desert. Sigh.

-t