It was Henri Nouwen who first commented with sadness that many of the bitter and ideologically driven people he knew, he had met inside of church circles and places of ministry. Within church circles, it sometimes seems, almost everyone is angry about something. Moreover, within church circles, it is all too easy to rationalize that in the name of prophecy, as a righteous passion for truth and morals.
The algebra works this way: Because I am sincerely concerned about an important moral, ecclesial, or justice issue, I can excuse a certain amount of anger, elitism, and negative judgment, because I can rationalize that my cause, dogmatic or moral, is so important that it justifies my mean spirit, that is, I have a right to be cold and harsh because this is such an important truth.
And so we justify a mean spirit by giving it a prophetic cloak, believing that we are warriors for God, truth, and morals when, in fact, we are struggling equally with our own wounds, insecurities, and fears. We seldom look at what this kind of judgment is saying about us, about our own health of soul and our own following of Jesus.
Don’t get me wrong: Truth is not relative, moral issues are important, and right truth and proper morals, like all kingdoms, are under perpetual siege and need to be defended. Not all moral judgments are created equal, and neither are all churches. But the truth of that doesn’t override everything else and give us an excuse to rationalize a mean spirit.
T.S. Eliot once said: “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.” Our anger and harsh judgments toward those who don’t share our truth and morals may well have us standing outside the Father’s house, like the older brother of the prodigal son, bitter both at God’s mercy and at those who are seemingly receiving it without merit. [Excerpt from Ron Rolheiser’s “Getting mean-spirited when we defend our morals,” May 2024]
