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Subverting the Empire: Critique as Construction

Part One - Why We Do What We Do
Part Two - Dangerous Criticism
Part Three - Undermining (featured in Next-Wave Magazine)
Part Four - Agitating
Part Five - Reminding

Subverting the Empire: Critique as Construction

Sometimes I think critique gets frowned upon. I mean I’m not trying to stir the pot or anything . . . but from time to time (a couple of times a week) I get an email or a stray comment that my blog tends to be negative. While it’s true that I don’t spend my time discussing the latest American Idol controversy or telling you about what I ate for breakfast . . . some would prefer that. Because they consider what I write to be destructive. Or at the very least non-constructive.

But I would disagree.

I’m not sure when “critique” took on such a negative connotation. I mean even black and white Webster doesn’t paint as bad of a picture as we do when they define critique as “an essay or article that gives a critical evaluation; a serious examination of something”.

I mean I’m not sure when giving something a critical evaluation or to examine something seriously became such a bad thing.

I certainly don’t hear anyone complaining when they go to the doctor for an examination. The doctor usually ends up critiquing our health. Which if done correctly allows us to make adjustments, change course, and live a healthy life. In this case, we are grateful for an honest critique.

If we take our car to the mechanic I would imagine that we would want our car to be critically evaluated and seriously examined. Without proper critique we might end up putting ourselves in a situation that would endanger our lives. Or those around us.

Critique is an important part of health. Critically evaluating or to seriously examine something is a way of ensuring and nurturing health.

But when it comes to the church . . . somehow we start to get all awkward. Scared. Timid. Too afraid to call a spade a spade. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. We don’t want to rock the boat.

We’d rather be quiet than stir the pot.

Honestly, I think the church needs a bunch of wild-eyed prophets who are full of concern and are prepared to critically evaluate.

Those who don’t like critique . . . are usually the ones who are fully aware of what it would mean to be critically evaluated. If they can dismiss the prophets . . . label critique as negative . . . and blame them for being destructive . . . then they can keep moving along in their slumber, lulled to sleep by what is safe.

I’ll never forget sitting in staff meetings watching people stumble over their words . . . walking on eggshells . . . so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings. Thinking things in their head. Even going as far to mention them behind closed doors. But unwilling to say them out loud when they needed to be said. These people weren’t prophets. They were managers.

I understand that just because you have something to say, doesn’t mean that you have a right to say it. I also understand that most critique is to full of arrogance to be heard correctly.

But that doesn’t negate the fact that there are times when things must be said and done and undermined and agitated and reminded of. These times are not once or twice a  year at a retreat. Or once a month at a staff meeting. Much like the metaphors in the Scriptures . . . they are to be like flames in our mouth.

The thing that concerns me about the church is not the apathy, materialism, nationalism, and militarism that is so prevalent. It’s the sheer silence that follow these things. Walk into a church on a Sunday morning and you will not hear words of prophets calling the community of God to repent. You will not hear words of subversion towards an empire. You will hear pragmaticism. You will hear how to have a happy marriage, amazing kids, and a rocking checkbook. And on a bad day you might hear about how “the homosexuals” are less than human and the cross is a symbol of war.

In this situation who is being more destructive? The soothsayers? The Jesus CEO’s? The lighting and sound guy? They’re the ones who lull people into deeper apathy. They are the ones who are too scared to lose money or hurt feelings. They are seeker sensitive after all.

If you don’t have any building at all . . . then you can afford to do nothing but construct.

But if you already have a building . . . and it’s leaning on one side, has holes in the roof, a split in the foundation . . . then you have to tear down before you can build. Deconstruct before you can construct.

In this case critique is construction. It’s not detached bitching. It’s concerned construction.

© 2007 IAmJoshBrown.