there is a real and very deep tension between humility and the prophetic vocation. And most prophetic Christians I have known - present company and preacher included - are really not very good at humility. You see we are always making judgments of others - church leaders, political leaders, majority cultures - but are not often good at applying the judgment to ourselves. Even when the prophetic judgments we are making are necessary, they seldom lead us to humility. After all, we are the ones who know how other people are supposed to change. We are the ones with the answers. We are the ones who are doing it right.
One of the questions that should be a regular part of my an others' examen is when we have judged others and whether we could stand up to scrutiny ourselves under the same standards, or whether we could be misunderstood in similar terms.
It does seem to be the temptation that goes with the territory of 'prophetic' stances and shows well why nurturing an interior and reflective life is important for activists. Particularly as the symptoms of burnout or that lead towards burnout tend to militate against sober self-appraisal. And externalising discontent is a follow on strategy for handling tensions in many people. Of course, there are those who internalise it viciously and become paralysed because of the horror of hypocrisy. The humility of recognising common human frailties and complexities and of recognising other areas of life where we ourselves are struggling with such things makes us more, not less, helpful to others. Learning to get more right the balance between compassion and challenge can only be a good thing.
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Filed in: Christian spirituality humility activist radical
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