Navigating the “Purple Church”

Christian Communities Need Robust Theologies of Conflict

Independent scholar Aimee Moiso says, “Christian orientations to conflict are … in need of deeper reflection and understanding in order to be faithful” (as quoted by Leah Schade in Preaching in the Purple Zone). One of the bold observations that ethicist Ellen Ott Marshall makes is that “to be Christian is to be in conflict.”

Conflict is not always thought of as compatible with church culture, but avoiding conflict will not advance dialogue. Instead, it hinders our ability to develop the tools to engage in healthy debate and deepen our understanding of the nature and meaning of following Jesus’ faithfulness in our current context. We need to learn to talk about God in situations that are not easily ameliorated and, more specifically, in ways that challenge the triumphal conquest narrative that dominates the Christian theological tradition.

This series of blogs considers values and norms for ethical religious leadership amid political polarization. As you read, I invite you to reflect on ideas you can offer related to your own context.

Intentional Listening and Acknowledging Feeling

Being prophetic does not always require being adversarial, but it must rely upon careful listening and a deep understanding of the context in which we are living. Homiletics professor Leonora Tubbs Tisdale asserts that we need a prophetic witness that “matches the times in which we live: a postmodern, nuclear terrorist, politically polarized, grossly self-indulgent age, in which all the world’s citizens reside in global community” (Tisdale, Prophetic Preaching: A Pastoral Approach, 2).

Research on the impact of social media on mental health reminds us that we walk around with instant access to the world’s suffering and global conflicts on our phones. There are no “typical Sundays” anymore, says Kimberly Wagner, a professor of preaching. Religious leaders “don’t stand above, outside, or beyond the trauma, but in the midst of it” (Wagner, Fractured Ground: Preaching in the Wake of Mass Trauma, 38). The knowledge held in our bodies “is different from our cognitive brains. This knowledge is typically experienced as a felt sense of constriction or expansion, pain or ease, energy, or numbness. Often, this knowledge is stored in our bodies as wordless stories about what is safe and what is dangerous …” (Fractured Ground, 17).

When have you witnessed prophetic leadership and preaching that relied upon careful listening and a deep understanding of the context? Are there ways you respond to the trauma that people hold in their bodies?