but if you don't feel like reading the entire thing, pretty much what dominates this article is when the guy starts asking Sufjan about the tenets of Christian faith. The interviewer tries to be balanced, but overall, in his view, the negatives of the Church outweigh the positives. And what's most interesting is that Sufjan agrees:
The church is an institution and it’s incredibly corrupt obviously, but that’s because it’s full of dysfunctional people and people who are hurt and battered and abused. It’s very normal in any institution to have that kind of level of dysfunction. That’s unfortunate. I find it very difficult, I find church culture very difficult you know; I think a lot of churches now are just fundamentally flawed. But that’s true for any institution you know, that’s true for education, universities and it’s definitely true for corporations because of greed, and I think part of faith is having to be reconciled with a flawed community. But the principles, I don’t think the principles have changed. They can get skewed and they can get abused and dogma can reign supreme, but I think the fundamentals, it’s really just about love. Loving God and loving your neighbour and giving up everything for God. The principles of that, the basis of that is very pure and life changing.
I can see myself growing just as or even more disillusioned by church culture. Don't be mistaken. I deeply love the community I got to be a part of during college--learned so much. But to me, christians generally hold a dogmatic adherence to strict interpretations of scripture and underestimate how dismissive they've become to alternate points of view. Now that I'm older, I can see how those tendencies leave this world a mess.
If you read the whole interview, you may have noticed both the interviewer and Sufjan respond to each other very candidly, revealing enough to understand where each is coming from. Say what you will about their theology, but conversations like this probably aren't happening enough.
4 comments:
there's so much travel yet :)
one of my fav interviews... (not that many out there) sth to meditate on: "But the principles, I don’t think the principles have changed."
from another interview:
I do believe we are made with particular inclinations, particular gifts. I hardly think we chose these things, but we are not limited to them at all. It is both mysterious and genetic. I think freedom is a bluff. Especially in this country, we pride ourselves on the independence of the mind. But we are so narrow and mechanized. We spend our lives conditioned by society, working in cubicles, zombies at the computer, shopping in strip malls, franchise clothing stores, Starbucks coffee. I’m talking about myself here. We’ve lost our inheritance. We’re so uncreative. We’re Night of the Living Dead. All I’m asking is that we put off all this crappy fashion and get going on what we were made to do. Wake up, you zombies! Do you really want to contribute to the decline of civilization!?
— Sufjan Stevens
haha thanks brianna. What interview is that from?
Love God. Love people. I think sufj clearly demonstrated those principles in this interview. That's why this interview struck me. When they responded, the interviewer and sufj were being somewhat vulnerable, open, personal, interested...and it got somewhere. So, the point of my entry was that christians i know rarely have conversations like this, particularly with people who hold different lifestyles/views/beliefs, and that is sad.
I like Brianna's quote, and the Sufjan article you posted.
There was so much love and grace in his response. My favorite is when he said "Oh dear." Expressing remorse because the interviewer was hurt by Christianity. Not losing sight of the person in front of him. I feel like Sufjan definitely gets it, gets the whole scope of the Gospel.
I struggled with this quote at first, but I think I get it now: "There’s a necessity for casualness, you know, because I think fear and anxiety are not elements in faith. And I think doubt is important and questioning and all that. I think there’s been too much made from fear and condemnation to manipulate people. I think that’s an atrocity really."
Basically, our panic about the counterculturalism of the Gospel should vanish as we gaze upon Jesus and see that his story, now our story, is beautiful in an objective sense, and anyone can understand it.
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