Several years ago, I invited a local surgeon who was an Orthodox Jew to come and speak to my undergraduates about the specifics of his faith. One of the points he emphasized was the importance of family and of marrying within the faith. Even more, their marriages, while not fully arranged, were heavily guided with input and wisdom from the elders. There was no dating, only arranged meetings between couples that took place in very public places.
When we opened the class for discussion, the first question was this one: “But what if you wanted to marry someone who wasn't an Orthodox Jew?” The response was direct and to the point: “Now, why would anyone want to do that?”
It was, as they say, a teachable moment.
The sticking point, of course, is not about the choices we make. It is about what we perceive to be matters of choice. My student had been formed by a tradition that had taught her to believe that something called “romantic love” ought to guide the choice of a marriage partner; but she'd also been taught that everything from ordering a hamburger to having a baby is a matter of individual choice. Our class guest had been formed by a different tradition.
And this is true for each and all. The question, then, isn't whether or not formation is taking place. The question is what interests are being served by and through this formation.
In light of my student's understanding, it is ironic that someone like the “social radical” Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, believed indoctrination was a good thing. “Together with the Works of Mercy, feeding, clothing, and sheltering our brothers,” she wrote, “we must indoctrinate.… If we do not keep indoctrinating, we lose the vision.… If we lose faith, if we stop the work of indoctrination, we are in a way denying Christ again.”
The misguided assumption surrounding indoctrination is that it stifles true freedom. Yet what is more stifling, from a Christian perspective, than reducing our lives to a series of consumer choices? Day's emphasis helps us see that faithful indoctrination enables us to see; it provides us with a vision, an eschatological vision of Christ present with and in the church, enabling us to see Christ outside the church.
The question therefore is not whether or not to indoctrinate, but rather what kind of indoctrination is going on. Is it good or bad indoctrination? Are we being formed in a way that makes Christ's body more visible to and for the sake of the world?
But who decides the correct response to this question? What if I believe letting others choose is the highest good, and therefore is the way to produce the visible body of Christ? To ask such a question, however, is to confuse Christianity with a personal lifestyle rather than a cruciform way of life.
Such a life seeks to embody God's kingdom not simply as private choice but as a reconciled and reconciling people that participate in God's own work in the world.
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— Beth Newman is professor of theology and ethics at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. [email protected]