1. Idealism is Unethical
2. Idealism and Divorce
3. Stories to Challenge Religious Idealism
1. Idealism is Unethical
Idealism in a crooked world causes harm and results in injustice for the broken.
Redemption is an act of mercy that enables the broken to obtain a sense of dignity for living with the pain of their brokenness.
Idealism is unethical because it cannot address the complicated reality of human need. Idealism is the weapon of religious extremists; it blinds their humanity and erupts in violence.
Idealism is by nature extreme, it calls for unbending laws, laws that lack awareness of the human condition. It is a bipolar world of extremes like heaven and hell. But the mercy of God endures forever.
2. Idealism and Divorce
Idealists do not recognize the impossibility, or the harm caused through their pursuit. Idealism supposes human beings faced with brokenness and in need of grace can achieve an ethical standard that defies reality.
(Idealism can also be mixed with freedom’s possibility to choose aberrant forms of living that sit in opposition to life. This form of idealism can masquerade as good but is in fact harmful, and violent.)
In Matthew 19:3-12 Jesus’ idealistic response silences the Pharisees who sought to test him and bewilders his disciples. The response of Jesus is specifically for the Pharisees who justify their divorces via Moses. Jesus’ exposes their guilt as hardness of heart and their failure to understand the (written) law. The pericope in the gospel is not pertinent to real life issues such as abuse, neglect, and abandonment. The purpose of Jesus' response is to silence the Pharisees who sought to test him in order to subject him to their idealism and intended violence against him. His response also serves to offer us an interpretive lesson when reading the Torah.
3. Stories to Challenge Religious Idealism
When I was in seminary, we read a little book titled, ‘Situational Ethics’. It contains an intriguing story of a woman in a concentration camp who purposefully puts herself in a position to be raped in order to escape. She made this decision because the only escapees from the concentration camp were a couple of women who had been raped by the guard behind their building, became pregnant, and were sent to a hospital. The hospital’s lack of security enabled the women to escape.
In her thoughts the woman knew her husband was not of a nature to be able to raise their children and survive without her. So, she was driven to subject herself to rape and childbirth in order to escape and ensure her family flourished. Briefly, after being raped and sent to the hospital she escaped and rejoined her family. They fled to a safe country, and she gave birth to a child, a boy, she named him ‘Christian’ and told her family he saved her life and was the reason they were all together.
At this point our professor asked us if the woman had committed adultery. I sat silently; I was known for not thinking like everyone else. The students all adults in an evening class agreed she was guilty of adultery. Dr. Scott asked me for my thoughts. I began with three words, “She’s a hero”. Gasps filled the room; Dr. Scott had a big smile on his face. He was accustomed to asking for my opinion knowing that I didn’t think like everyone else.
I’m sure my own experiences in life had groomed me around complexities that most people in the U.S. do not ever imagine.
On another occasion I was sitting in an evening Bible Study directed by a couple who were speaking on marriage. As most folks whose marriage reaches into the decades, they were proud and confident, asserting that divorce was not an option for a Christian. Well, that was enough for me, I protested immediately, refusing to allow their idealism to crush the grace of God in the lives of other people.
The world and life are complicated and easy responses built on religious idealism are ugly and violent, refusing grace and lacking understanding.
The Philippines is a Catholic country and divorce is not a legal option. There is a law for annulment, however it is limited in its scope, requires legal fees that most folks can’t afford and can take years to process. For this reason, the many protestant pastors in the Philippines offer a ‘secret ceremony’ for people who long for their personal dignity to marry but cannot afford or do not meet the limited criteria for an annulment.
There was a young uneducated woman who could not read and would not have chosen the life that she was ensnared in. She had applied for a job through a licensed agency not knowing she would be employed in a bar that sold women. Her virginity was sold, she was watched and unable to escape. For seven years she had been servicing the sexual desires of men who paid the fees at the bar where she worked. Alongside the bar was a hallway with numerous rooms on each side. One of the rooms was her's. In her room she kept a Gideon Bible that she had stolen from a local hotel she had once stayed in with a generous customer. Each night after her 'customers' were finished with her, she took out the Bible and read it and prayed for her family, she sent them money for food and to pay the school fees of the three children she had borne; a result of her occupation. She considers herself a Christian. I wonder what Jesus thinks?
