September 22, 2010
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Split Ticket, A Review
Amy Gopp, Christian Piatt, Brandon Gilvin, Editors Split Ticket, Independent Faith in a Time of Partisan Politics, Chalice Press, 2010, 184 pp.
Split Ticket presents itself as a collection of short essays on political and social issues from a balanced point of view, an “Independent Faith in a Time of Partisan Politics.” Considering the timeliness of the issues addressed in this book, I had high expectations for Split Ticket, and I was interested to see how the current political issues would be presented. After reading the book, I now know that Split Ticket is not a book I will I keep in my own library nor will I donate it to any library. From the title and artwork, to the blurbs on the back cover, the book indicates that the old political and religious categories were going to be dismissed. Instead of the old categories, ideas would be presented fairly and thoughtfully, in a healing way, uniting not dividing. What I found instead was a road map for adopting ideas and practices from the extreme left viewpoint. Every liberal position in politics and theology are adopted in this book, and conservative positions were ignored or mocked. Indeed “fundamentalist” and “literalist” are used by the authors, and allowed by the editors, as terms of derision.
For instance, contributors Brian Dixon, “pastor of the only affirming Baptist church in San Francisco” (page 181), and Mary Sue Brookshire, United Church of Christ minister, wrote in the second chapter that they grew up in Southern Baptist (SBC) churches, and the writers implied by silence that their SBC churches, and the SBC at large, endorsed Dixon’s homosexuality. Dixon stated that his seminary accepted and approved of his homosexuality, without naming the seminary, thus implying that it was a SBC seminary. This attempts to co-opt the actual positions that individual churches, and the SBC at large, have taken on the issue of gay pastors. This also ignores SBC ecclesiology. The SBC does not set policy for individual churches; the individual SBC churches are autonomous and democratically govern themselves, as opposed to the ecclesiology of other denominations.
Amy Gopp, executive director of Week of Compassion, wrote in the third chapter, “It doesn’t matter what is true. What matters is the meaning we make, the meaning we come to construct. I don’t care if Jesus was raised from the dead. I don’t care!” (pg. 29). This denies the first and most basic tenant of Christianity (1 Cor 15:3-4). In the next paragraph she wrote, “Literalism or fundamentalism cannot take away the meaning we make of the biblical text, the stories that breathe life into our suffocating existence.” (pg. 29). Gopp thereby threw away objective and propositional truth, and applied a reader hermeneutic for Scripture. Actually, that attitude explains a lot about Split Ticket, where truth is what the individual constructs for himself or herself, instead of truth having integral meaning. In this construct, Scripture only means what the contributor wants it to mean, the meaning they have pre-decided. With that hermeneutic, there is no such thing as “sin;” and “right” and “wrong” are decided individually, without meaning. Truth is thereby reduced to the feelings of the individual and the circumstances of the political moment. But this is not the only problem with this book.
In the fourth chapter, contributor David Ball, self-identified himself as “a Christian anarchist” (page 41). Ball used Jeremiah 31:28 to justify anarchist positions and actions, but in clear contradiction of the plain teachings of Paul that God is the God of order: “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner,” (1 Corinthians 14:40 NAU). His objections were political, not theological: objections to Western democracy couched in quasi-theological language. Ball also misrepresented recent history, saying that the Quebec 2001 demonstrations against the NAFTA treaty were peaceful on the side of the demonstrators and violent on the side of the governments represented in the negotiations. This is demonstrably wrong; the violence at all of the G8, G12, and G20 meetings, including the one at the Quebec meeting, began with anarchists destroying property and causing millions of dollars of property damage, resulting in violence on both sides and the arrest of many. This violence was unjustifiable for a Christian, anarchist or not.
I say this because in the face of violent state sponsored and conducted persecution, Peter and Paul and the other New Testament writers enjoined Christians to be subject to the state. Indeed, in Mark 12:17 we read “And Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.’ And they were amazed at Him.” This refutes anarchism!
In the fifth chapter, contributor Kharma R. Ramos, D.Min., pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Northern Virginia, took up a wide range of LGBT issues from a politically correct viewpoint, ignoring the revealed will of God concerning those behaviors. Ramos failed to address the Scriptural positions on LGBT behaviors, and assumed their rightness without discussion. In contrast, Jesus was compassionate toward the sinners he encountered, as in the Gospel of John: “And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more,’” (John 8:11). Endorsement of Ramos’ LGBT answers rob them of real solutions though repentance and forgiveness.
The book continued in this vein for fourteen more chapters, too much to address in a book review. Split Ticket was not split on any ticket, but uniformly on the far left in presenting every issue and question. Split Ticket advocated each of the individual causes of liberalism that unify the left branch of American politics, even though some of their issues are self-contradictory. The split in this short volume was entirely against societal norms, and for agendas that are destructive of families and 5,000 years of society and faith, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian.
Split Ticket denied the existence of discoverable objective truth, denied the existence of Truth, instead advocating for subjective truth that changes as societal norms change. For the politically progressive, Split Ticket should be encouraging: it gives a religious cloak to far left positions. For the politically and religiously conservative person, this book is a rehash of everything conservatism has stood against. Although Jesus was concerned about social, economic, and religious justice, they are not the Gospel, but the righteous outcome for those who follow the Bible as received.
The book is visually packaged for high school and college students with callouts, pre-printed marginalia, study questions, and an edgy graphic design. The re-occurring leit motif sets the tone for the work. The editors used the question “WTF?” in every chapter, knowing how controversial and objectionably shocking that phrase is in common culture, reassigning it’s meaning to “Where’s the Faith?” Shock for shock value alone seems to have motivated the use of “WTF,” and the book’s false objectivity is dressed for a population that is formulating their worldviews in a very impressionable time of life.
This was, to my knowledge, the first time I read a book from Chalice Press; I was not favorably impressed. Chalice Press has their work cut out for them if they expect this reviewer to purchase their books or render favorable reviews in the future.
Timothy Mills
Pastor, Whitton Baptist Church
Tyronza, AR 72386
Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000 Alum
Sep 22, 2010
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