There is a church not far from where I live that has an interesting ancestry. Actually, the church used to exist. It has recently been torn down and will be replaced by condominiums. Such is the way of things these days. I suppose that some in the Christian faith might lament that another church is gone and that the land will no longer house a place of worship. However, even if your interest is the flourishing of Christian mission, it might be argued that the dissolution of some churches could be a good thing for the propagation of the faith.
The church of which I am speaking was in an area of North Vancouver that was once a little sketchy, but has now become quite high end. Some apartments in the neighbourhood sell for well over a million dollars. I know some families that shared a heritage with the Christian denomination (more of a sect) of which the church was a part.
The church was part of a Protestant expression of Christian faith that became known as the Plymouth Brethren. The Plymouth Brethren formed as a breakaway group from the Anglican Church in the 1800’s. The movement emphasized lay leadership (non-clergy), particular views of the end times, and fairly rigid views about women in leadership (like the view that women should not be leaders). Like many breakaway movements, the Plymouth Brethren saw some major schisms in their history. The biggest of these was a split between what became known as the “Exclusive Brethren” and the “Open Brethren”. Some people who were part of the “Open Brethren” may not have seen the movement as very open at all, but compared to the Exclusive Brethren they were inclusive and worldly. The Exclusive Brethren did not associate with other Christians and, in fact, considered only themselves to be true believers. Families were expected and directed to keep separation from “sinful” family members. This included not even being allowed to speak or eat with “unrepentant” members of the household. Here is a fairly decent synopsis of the Exclusive Brethren from the BBC.
I am not sure whether the little church near where I live was Open Brethren or Exclusive Brethren. I seem to recall that it was Open Brethren. This, of course, is relative. The pulpit at the front of the small sanctuary was placed within, what can most aptly be described as, a small cut out along the front wall. One of the reasons for having such a confined area was to make sure that there was no stage from which music could be played and no place for a sin-inducing piano. For some in Open Brethren circles, music was dangerous, distracting, unholy and unacceptable. No doubt this injunction was more severe in the Exclusive Brethren.
I share this reflection because I have been following the news about the establishment of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. It’s not an occasion of joy when watching such news to think, “Hey! That reminds me of the church I used to go to.” You can read recent pronouncements of the Taliban about University attendance (women can attend, but only classes in which there are no men), and leadership (there will be no women in government). These are both extreme forms of what some Christian churches have argued must be upheld for God to be pleased and to prevent some kind of slide into decadent immorality. The Taliban’s argument now is the same as the leadership of the Exclusive Brethren back then, “We are doing this for your own good, because we represent leadership blessed by God and you represent people who must obey.”
There has been some coverage in the press about Taliban injunctions against music. In many cases, people have stopped playing or listening to music even if no formal restriction has been presented by the government. When I was a young teenager and my youth pastor at the time convinced me and many others in the youth group to get rid of our “secular” music I didn’t know that such a tactic was Talibanian in nature. I still regret throwing out the cassettes and vinyl though. It was really good music and spiritually more edifying than much of what the youth pastor deemed as acceptable.
I have a song in my head when I hear of religious sects (Christian, Muslim and otherwise) warning against music and adopting severely restrictive forms of faith.
It is a song by Canadian band Arcade Fire. Many Arcade Fire songs are informed and shaped by Christian faith, but not a faith of the fearful or controlling type (their song Reflektor is part of the inspiration for the name of an organization that I help to run). The song “Here Comes the Night Time” includes the following lyrics;
And the missionaries
They tell us we will be left behind
Been left behind
A thousand times, a thousand time
If you want to be righteous
If you want to be righteous, get in line
‘Cause here comes the night timeThey say heaven’s a place
Yeah, heaven’s a place and they know where it is
But you know where it is?
It’s behind the gate, they won’t let you in
And when they hear the beat, coming from the street, they lock the door
But if there’s no music up in heaven, then what’s it for?
There can be a concern among Christians that any church closure means some kind of diminishment of the faith. I don’t really see it that way. I was the pastor of a church that had Plymouth Brethren roots for 25 years. There were ways in which we could be grateful for some parts of our heritage, even as we sought to express faith in a different manner than those who had come before us. I used to see in parishioners, even in some who were glad that things had changed, a kind of idealization of the past. It was a nostalgic remembrance of a time in which community was tight, rules were clear and stances were strong. In some of the uncertainties of the present, it can be tempting to reach for a past that did not exist, to think that clear religious lines and so called “strong” leadership might help us navigate some of the challenges that we face today. This kind of thinking is what clears the ground for groups like the Taliban (and the Exclusive Brethren). Coercive, aggressive, morally juvenile leaders can take over when we allow ourselves to think that stark and clear lines are better than thoughtful, loving, moral consideration and engagement.
You have seen this in religious circles. You may have even seen it within families. Such fearful thinking may provide order for a season (as does Taliban leadership), but its future is dark and lifeless.
I used to ask some parishioners who longed for the “good old days” of clear religious lines, the days when Brethren churches were more vibrant, to consider a question. If you did the math on those old churches that used to be full and are now mostly empty, do you think that more people became Christians because of them or do you think that more people walked away from Christian faith because of them?
I think that the answer is obvious.
Or to state it more positively, in the words of Arcade Fire:
”When I hear the beat, the Spirit’s on me like a live wire.”
If you are so wise, and so spiritual... did you restore any of these people you supposedly pastored? Galatians 6:1&2 Did these Brethren folks kill anyone or have they helped hundreds of thousands? To compare them with the Taliban is so ludicrous as to be tragic. I wonder if you block people because you are hiding in your own little cave unable to defend yourself?