Back in the middle of the last century, when the triumphant general, Dwight Eisenhower, had become president and the Republican Party was winning elections on the theme “Peace, Progress, and Prosperity,” the then probably most famous religious figure in America was one Norman Vincent Peale. He wrote what was to become a spiritual best seller in that era, The Power of Positive Thinking. Except for some mainline churches today, which are dealing with other things, like how to follow Jesus when you live in the Twin Cities, I venture to say that Pealism is still widely appealing in Amerika. Which leads me to recall how, back in the day when I was on the speaking circuit, I used to hear things like this from some members of my audiences: “Why do you have to be so negative?”
My first impulse, which I almost always tried to suppress, would be to quote the aphorism of the great Presbyterian pastor of that era, George Buttrick: “Paul is appealing. Peale is appalling.”
Typically, I would respond with a question. What was the Gospel that Jesus preached? Eventually I would persuade my audience to discover or rediscover Mark 1:15: “Repent and believe.”
“Repent?” – I would then ask. “That’s sound pretty negative to me.” Then I would sometimes ease into a riff celebrating nay-sayers in the history of the Church. A riff that I want to recall at this moment, since I believe that it’s urgent for us in these times to proclaim such nays.
In the second century, Irenaeus said No to sophisticated know-it-alls, called Gnostics, because they claimed that God’s good creation, and the human body in particular, are evil. Augustine did the same in the 5th century, as did Francis in his own way in the 13th century. Luther, in the 16th century, said No to those who argued that you have to be worthy, even just a little bit, in order to be blessed by the Grace of God. In our era, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. said No to those, among them many Christians, who believed that you should always say Yes to Caesar.
Then there’s the Resistance today! People like you. Glad to see you here. Glad to hear you saying No to Caesar. Glad to know that you, too, believe in the Power of Negative Thinking. Call us Nay-Sayers For Jesus.
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