Very sorry to hear of Rachel Held Evans’ passing. My heart goes out to her family, her kids, her husband, and all of her many fans. 37 is so young and it’s just such a sad loss, such a great tragedy. May the Lord fill them all with His peace and His comfort.
First of all, let me say it’s okay to be mad at death, to hate it. Jesus was. He wept. He also so loved the world, He laid down His very life for us. Death and separation was not a part of the plan, not part of our design. It’s “unnatural.” It’s not what we were made for.
Russell Moore actually coined that phrase about “tribal silos” and it set me off to ponder those words, the nature of the walls that separate us, the inherent tribalism within our faith that is often so quick to draw lines in the sand, to create deep divisions. I sometimes call this faith of mine, the trashed Bride of Christ. She sure can be a real train wreck sometimes…
“Tribal silos” is a good term, it speaks to castle walls and grain that cannot escape. However, I am reminded of Proverbs 25:28, “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.” Or perhaps Ephesians 4:14, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”
Having blogged about faith for many years now, I know how quick people are to attack, to accuse, and to scream about the horrors of “heretics” and “false teachings.” Christian people. Over and over I’ve read the fear behind such rantings and thought, it should not be. It should not be because first of all, Christians should be kind to one another, displaying the fruit of the spirit, and so safe and secure in what we believe and know, that there is no fear. “Perfect love casts out fear.”
Rachel Held Evans and I agreed on almost nothing, nothing but the one thing that really matters, that God is good. I don’t take that one thing for granted anymore, because I’ve encountered many who cannot even seem to get that part right. We agreed that God was good and I also enjoyed her sense of humor and her brave honesty. She was wrong about many things but she was honest, bravely, boldly, powerfully honest about what she thought and felt, and willing to endure mockery and ridicule to stand in that truth.
Did you know you can be wrong about everything but still be full of honesty? Conversely you can be right about everything but still be so very, very, wrong. I think the bible affirms this truth when it says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
Heretics R us. Today I feel a kind of kinship with heretics of all flavors, with those willing to break away from cultural Christianity, to let go of their need for people favor, to speak honestly about their doubts and fears. It’s not just kinship, I actually value them, all the Christian “dissidents.” They serve an important role, they trigger much needed discussion, and they help us to clarify our own beliefs.
If you want to get literal about it, what was Jesus Christ but the King of all Kings, a heretic against the religious powers of the day? Didn’t He challenge our thinking, our belief systems, our religion, even throw over a few tables in our temples and call people white washed tombs? He did.
I’m so grateful He did. Keep the church weird.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Thank you for this post…”Conversely you can be right about everything but still be so very, very, wrong. I think the bible affirms this truth when it says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” This is the part many “evangelicals ” don’t get…the hateful tones will never draw but love will.
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Nice to see you writing IB
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Thanks, Wally. 🙂
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I feel like a lot of posts regarding her remembrance in the recent are also forcing us to choose sides as if we should start the beatification process ASAP. The one side, generally the supporters, even insisting we do away with the promotor fidei. We don’t have to start a beatification process. We can just be non-partisaned about remembering her passing as you have been here. Such a shame that a death of a person has to also be tribalised into inflating her character with distortions either for or against.
I will state that her presence in this world and her constant spouting of views I considered to be deeply wrong and erroneous helped to strengthen my faith because it is only when a muscle is challenged and stretched that it is allowed to be reformed back but stronger than before. She convinced me that the historic position against women’s ordination is true and accurate. She convinced me that allowing abortion on demand while being personally inclined against it was the same as allowing murder on demand while being personally inclined against it. She convinced me that we should always be rooted in principles that start with our roots firmly planted in divinity because when we try and remove the divine foundations, we become steeped in hypocrisy and attached to political power.
I don’t know of any other liberal progressive that it was really worth to engage with. The men just kind of kick around and say “we surrender!” to all the wokeness and most women are so steeped in wokeness that they cannot formulate a coherent sentence. At least she could. There will never be a woke feminist playing victim card with so many book deals as Rachel had ever again. Some will say she strengthened their faiths for different reasons and that is fine too.
We should say farewell to a person. If we want to start a canonisation process already, that can be done but then we must be able to accept full examination of her life in order to determine whether she is worthy of emulation. So we can celebrate what she meant to us as individuals on a non-partisan basis or we can declare her already in Hell or already in Heaven and either worthy of condemnation or worthy of emulation and battle over it. I do not know where she stands, any one can be remembered and we pray for all the departed. So we’ll avoid that partisan discussion and save it for another time.
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I really like your comment, newengland. Lots of good stuff there.
I’m not interested in beatification or canonisation, but I do understand what you mean. It is all over twitter. I think we tend to do that when people die anyway, we make them into heroes or saints, and especially so when they were so polarizing.
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I actually read recently that during Mother Theresa’s canonisation process, Christopher Hitchens was brought into testify. Obviously not the traditional nor even what the promotor fidei ought to be. It ought to be a man with best interests for the Church who will only allow someone’s beatification if they are truly worthy of emulation.
I’ve read posts comparing Evans’s life to that of Jesus fighting against the Pharisees. If one is going to do that, then the entire life must be examined. Ironically, in the Church, the only people whose lives are supposed to be examined posthumously are those being considered for sanctity. Saints are to be held to much higher standards for a reason. The stronger the saints we have, the stronger the Church. Quality, not quantity.
We can remember the life that Rachel lived without having to devalue her contributions or declare her beatification but secular humanist philosophy will always insist on having its way. It’s been that way since God confused their languages at the Tower of Babel (Babble) 🙂
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You know I’d never heard of Rachel Held Evans before her death and I must say the various articles I’ve read about her since have been all over the map. I like what you wrote best. You were able to portray Held Evan’s essence, express disagreement in a lovely way and tie it all in to some important truths about today’s church. Well done! I think she would be quite pleased with this.
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I’m still processing. I was shocked at her death, shocked to learn that so many are angry about it (which would seem to say they were angry at God who holds life and death in His hands), shocked that the mainstream media covered it so much and ignored the Focus on the Family Live from New York pro-life event. I think, somehow RHE resonated with the secular, stood for things they believed, too. But a pro-life live-streamed celebration of life? Not something the media cared to focus on.
It was sobering, too. The last words on her blog, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” I doubt if she thought those would be her farewell.
What was she known for, glorifying Christ? Drawing attention to His work, His plan, His purpose, His person? If only . . .
Becky
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The discussion of death reminds me of a story often attributed to Maugham. The short version is: the servant of a wealthy man in Baghdad went to the market, and saw death leer at him. He rushed home in a fright, and begged his master to lend him his fastest horse, so he could flee to Samarra. After the servant rode away, his master got angry with death for threatening his servant. He found death at the market and demanded to know why death leered at his servant. Death answered, “I wasn’t leering, it was a look of surprise to see him here in Baghdad, because we have an appointment tomorrow in Samarra.” Are we ready?
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Baffling that certain very vocal Christians are yelling for all their worth that she is burning in Hell, and from what I have gleaned about devout evangelicals is that there are a lot more who may not . have voiced these views but who definitely believe it.
Simply gross behaviour.
The hypocrisy is, sadly, oh so typical.
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Sadly Ark, I’m going to agree with you.
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But these people truly believe they are acting upon the words of the bible/Jesus.
How does one demonstrate that their view is incorrect, when, after all, they consider they are warning others in case they also end up burning in hell for eternity.
While we both agree their actions are despicable, how can we know they are wrong?
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Well, those are all really good questions and I’ll have to write you an entire blog post to address them all.
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Glad I prompted a few cogs and wheels to turn.
I genuinely look forward to reading whatever you come up with.
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Just out of curiosity, I listened to that video and looked into what the lady had said. Her big problem was that what the Bible says is not compatible with what passes for modern Progressiveism. For some reason she did not want to give up on Progressiveism. Still, it seems she believed in Jesus.
What will God do with her soul? Well, if the Lord has as much mercy on her as I hope He will have on me, I hope I will see her in Heaven. Since we all need His grace and mercy, it is foolish to wish others ill just for disagreeing with us.
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Amen, Tom! I think you and I are in complete agreement. May the Lord show her the same mercy and kindness He has shown us.
I also agree that there are many things about modern progressiveism that are not compatible with the bible. We Christians are notorious for that however, and engaging in many other things that are incompatible too, like gossip or the way we may mistreat one another.
Kind of ironic, but RHE wanted equality, fairness for all, social justice, but I really believe Jesus taught us about grace through inequality, injustice. He suffered and died for us, but we get to be the righteousness of Christ. He paid the price for something He didn’t do, and we reap the benefit through no work of our own.
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That “e” in Progressiveism was not necessary, but I thank you for humoring me with my spelling error.
To some degree we are all idolaters. Christian Progressives idolize government, their celebrities, and their all-powerful, all-promising leaders. What do Christian Conservatives idolize? Do we worship God only? I suppose that is the subject for a post, perhaps a good one.
We tend to forget the significance of Romans 8:28, that even when it looks like God has lost control we must trust Him and obey Him.
An inability to fully trust God is what I expect drove RHE to Progressivism. I guess that is what drives many of us to idols. We forget to be still — to let Him quiet our shrieks of terror — and know Him.
Because God speaks softly, only those He chooses hear Him, and only those whose faith has grown strong can hear Him when they most need Him. That is why I suppose the rest of us have to learn to persevere.
RHE sought healing. I pray both for her sake and for our sake she received healing.
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I really appreciate the point you made about our inability to trust God and how it can drive us to idols. We often do forget to be still and to let His peace fill us.
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