Sárospataki Füzetek 13. (2009)
2009 / 2. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Paul Wells: A kisebbségi lét kihívásai. Challenges of Being a Minority
A kisebbségi lét kihívásai Europe have worried too much about status, numbers, influence and sometimes affluence, too little about essentials like regeneration. They have slipped through the doorway of temptation to adaptation, cooperation and compromise and become bastions of the bourgeoisie. In the process the vision has been lost, the light has gone out, the salt has lost its savour and perhaps its Saviour as well. What the Christian minority in Europe needs above all is a faith and life radicalism that challenges to live consistently and differently in the way that its Reformed expression has advocated in its best proponents. The Special Status of the Christian Minority - Christian identity is defined in terms of origin and the Christian community expresses this reality spiritually in newness of life. The key to the influence a true Christian minority in society does not lie in accompanying or adapting to the world’s progress or making its teaching acceptable to current trends but in the differences it shows. An Example: the Protestant Minority in France - In a sense the Protestant minority in France adapted too well to the majority and in so doing lost its soul. Compromises with humanistic secularism on the one hand and Roman Catholicism through ecumenism were a severe tax on its identity as a minority. This led in turn to numerical decline, a distressing feature of the main-line Reformed churches in France, a fact that has been underlined recently by the growth of Evangelical churches. Loss of doctrinal identity and the absence of a clear message constituted a menace to its very survival. This case study of the problems faced by Protestantism in France leads to some considerations concerning the advantages to be had by capitalising on a minority situation in a consistent way. Advantages of Being a Minority - For minorities, recognition requires visibility, visibility depends on power of attraction, which in its turn implies consistency of belief and behaviour and the potential sympathy it creates. None of these can be experienced if a group does not exist as a living entity. To be invisible is not to exist. All of these factors in some way depend upon and are illustrated by the capacity of a group to act and do something useful. Christian groups of all kinds, recognising the usefulness of their minority status would profit by reflecting on forms of action typical of active minorities (Moscovici) and developing tactics through which they might benefit from the present situation. Many such groups could know an effective renewal and a new mission as a result of seizing possibilities that are there. Conclusion: The Reformed Minority - There is a ‘minus’ in the Reformed tradition of Protestantism that is not encouraging; it would be dishonest to pretend that it is not there. Reformed theology has tended to have the best product but the worst sales technique and is too often pushed by intellectually arrogant reps. It is not even a minority as such, but a fragmented movement too often taken up with introspective issues rather than extroverted mission, the ‘plus’ in the Reformed heritage lies in the depths of its doctrinal mine - the infinite personal God who acts and speaks, the doctrine of Scripture, salvation as gratuity, personal atonement, a realistic and human view of sanctification and the integration of faith and life. Here is the reason for certainty and conviction to give away, packaged as true truth for life. These Sárospataki Füzetek 31
