Kinds of Choice
What is being offered to the church today is a multitude of choices. (Let me see: leeks or onions? I choose onions!) We are being told that when we select one of these choices, we are making a free choice. And we feel as though we are free when we make our selection from among the several choices.
This is not perfect freedom. As the philosopher Zizek writes in his book, On Belief:
… the truly free choice is a choice in which I do not merely choose between two or more options WITHIN a pre-given set of coordinates, but I choose to change this set of coordinates itself.
Zizek points out that Lenin differentiated between two kinds of freedom: “formal” and “actual”:
This is what the distinction between ‘formal’ and ‘actual’ freedom ultimately amounts to: ‘formal freedom’ is the freedom of choice WITHIN the coordinates of the existing power relations, while ‘actual freedom’ designates the site of an intervention which undermines these very coordinates.
I do not want to settle for formal freedom. And the church as well as other religious communities, I suspect, are under the illusion that this formal freedom is as good as it gets in this life. I refuse to accept this concession. We are actually given actual freedom. It is ours to live. It requires courage and transformation, but it is entirely ours. Zizek also writes:
We can go on making our small choices, ‘reinventing ourselves’ thoroughly, on condition that these choices do not seriously disturb the social and ideological balance.
Small choices. Reinventing ourselves within the prescribed parameters. Conditions. Don’t rock the boat. Keep balanced. This will go on forever. Unless I stop. Unless you stop.
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I don’t know about this one, David, although I do realize where you are coming from. To my way of thinking, however, the boat (each individual church) belongs to the whole; and if I choose to attach myself to it, then there sensibly follows that there are a few rules, some format to follow. My personal “boat”, at the same time, ought to remain mine to maintain. So I guess it comes down to choice, on our part, as to where we wish to anchor our vessel temporarily for fellowship. My first thoughts, anyhow, for whatever they’re worth…
I think that there is tension in any relationship, and especially in a relationship with Christ. I think that the boat analogy does not do well here and I will tell you why: because I believe that what David is doing is not getting out of the boat, but stretching the boundaries of what a relationship with Christ and others means.
I think that this following quote relates, in that sometimes “no” is not a negative answer, but rather addresses the nature of the question:
At one time a monk asked Master Joshu, “Does a dog have Buddha Nature or not?†Master Joshu answered, “No.â€
In the chapter of Shobogenzo titled Bussho or “Buddha Nature†Master Dogen talks about the meaning of this word “no†as it relates to a conversation between the fifth and sixth patriarchs. He says, “This ‘no’ is not the ‘no’ of ‘have’ or ‘have not.’ It is the no of no no.â€
The no of no no is a way of expression that we do not often hear. The no of no no means that even no is denied.
In other words, this is not the kind of no which we conceive in our brains as the conclusion to the question of whether something exists or not. The meaning of no as it is used here does not require any kind of thinking at all.
In regards to this koan there is no shortage of explanations that this “no†represents the no of no in other words the absolute no, or that it represents the absolute void, or that it’s something that cannot possibly be understood, or other similar nonsense which even those who spout it don’t seem to understand.
David, I thank God for this, it is one of the most important, and desperately-in-need-of
-being-said things I have read about the church. We have such a sanitised, sick little version of what should be truly upside down and life changing in it’s freedom. Let’s be brave and have this conversation together. Thank you for your contrariness!
thanks y’all.
David
Heres a good quote on Freedom
“As far goes your self control, as far goes your Freedom.”
Jesus changes us, we change ourselves. That’s enough.
[...] He wrote a post called “Kinds of Choice,” that literally made me almost come out of my chair with joy that someone else gets it . . . truly gets what I feel each and every day. There are so few people with whom I get this feeling . . . [...]
Christian thought gives lip service to the idea that we don’t know everything and there are great mysteries out there, as long as that idea points out how arrogant all the atheists are, but it doesn’t operate like it believes this to be true for Christianity.
Hence the organization, the creeds, and other devices to make sure everyone admits to the “truth.”