16/10/2024
Archbishop Janis Vanags on the usefulness of conservatives and liberals in the church:
To put it in a popular or inaccurate term, there are both conservatives and liberals in our church. Conservatives value order, rules, clarity, and stability in all areas of life. Liberals value creativity, freedom of thought, and are more willing to break rules and boundaries. Liberals are better at blazing new trails, while conservatives are better at managing and maintaining them. None of us have made a conscious decision, ‘I will be a conservative’ or ‘I will be a liberal.’ Psychologists teach that it depends largely on temperament, which in turn is strongly influenced by biology and heredity. The relationship between liberals and conservatives often becomes a fight, and many people may think that this is the way it should be by nature. Conservatives have been demonised as grim medieval inquisitors who steal from the Church and drive all the bright people out of it, and liberals have been portrayed as Scripture deniers and false teachers who corrupt the Church and lead people to perdition. Worst of all, this is done without talking to each other, often without knowing each other, right out in the open, addressing a public that can't and won't look inward but remembers that something is wrong in the Lutheran Church. And they are right - it is wrong. Such a relationship is neither fraternal nor Christian.
The conservatives and liberals among us need to realise that we need each other, complementing and balancing each other. A church completely dominated by conservatives is in danger of becoming stale, boring, and irrelevant in today's society. A church completely dominated by liberals is in danger of losing the substance of its faith and its ability to lead people to saving faith. Neither of these things serve the good of our Lord's mission. The possibility of becoming a tedious and fruitless repetition of poorly contextualised basic truths is not attractive. Equally unattractive is the possibility of becoming an intriguing dreamer and performer of one's own noises of consciousness. These are opposite extremes, of course, but mutual support can help us avoid them. We must be willing to give and receive each other's support. Those who have the gift of exploring new areas and perceiving what speaks better to modern man should bring their gift to the common good. Also those who have the gift to systematise the faith, to keep in mind dogmatics and confessional writings, and those who are particularly well versed in the heritage of the Church Fathers, liturgy or praise. So that by balancing and teaching each other, we can hold to a common middle ground where the fullness of all gifts is found.
