Bound Up

The Lord said to Moses, “Bring the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron the priest to assist him. They are to perform duties for him and for the whole community at the tent of meeting by doing the work of the tabernacle.

When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel.

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.  

When I was approached to be a contributor to this blog I was apprehensive. I am in two graduate programs, have a part time job, am married, and I have a three month old dog who has yet to distinguish between inside and outside. Although I appreciated the offer I was initially going to turn it down. What eventually led me to take up the offer was the respect and admiration I have for the other contributors. As I asked questions I came to a realization that I liked the concept, the ideas, and the people. Something that I did not like was the name. Ohhh, the name “Unbound Christian” aggressively upset me. Instead of appealing to the other contributors about changing the name (which they would have gladly done) I thought I might be able to put an ironic spin on it. I am thankful for this opportunity that I have been given by the other contributors and indebted to you, the reader, that I might write something others are willing to read.

            I doubt the other contributors are going to use the word “unbound” in a similar manner as I. They most likely will point out that the meaning is derived from not being held to any sort of editorial distinctions. Such a freeing experience allows individuals who are interested in the sorts of things that we bloggers are to reflect freely, and maybe as Luther quipped, “Sin Boldly.” Now let me tell you what I do not like about it by drawing from the scripture verses utilized in the header.

            The Lord said to Moses, “Bring the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron the priest to assist him. They are to perform duties for him and for the whole community at the tent of meeting by doing the work of the tabernacle.

            This appears at the beginning of the Book of Numbers in the Pentateuch. Israel is trying to establish governance and God is delegating tasks to the specific tribes through God’s Prophet Moses. The Levites are delegated to be priests; they tend to the matters of the Tabernacle. The Levites are the ones chosen by God to carry out the particular religious matters in the community. In contemporary society we might call the Levites: Priest, Pastor, Reverend, or Preacher. They had a special designation and an enormous responsibility which is symbolized by them tenting at the center of the community. That is to say, the ones who carry out the religious responsibilities in a community are at its center.

            When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel.

            This verse comes from chapter 19 in the Book of Judges. The verse comes from what is perhaps the most shockingly violent story in the Bible (although there are many candidates). For the sake of brevity I cannot rehash the entire narrative here, so please go read it. Essentially what happens is that a concubine belonging to a Levite man is gang raped and upon returning to the Levite the Concubine is slashed into 12 pieces and flung across Israel (I said it was shocking). Any good historical Biblical critic will tell you that this story is obviously allegorical, which doesn’t mean that it couldn’t have actually happened (a debate for another time). The point being that a man who is a descendant from the tribe who was supposed to be at the center of religious life, a teacher of the law, a spiritual leader acts in such an atrocious manner. Remember he was a Levite and sent the concubines remains to all twelve tribes.

            In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit

These words are the last words of the book of Judges, a book about failed leadership, political disarray, and outright social dysfunction. So, what happened? What are we supposed to have learned? How in the hell does the tribe of religious leaders turn into a people that would give up their concubine to be raped and then mutilate and discard them? A question more relevant to contemporary culture is perhaps, how did those who were supposed to be the spiritual and religious leaders degenerate into disarray, confusion, and dysfunction? The punch line perhaps provides the answer. Israel has no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

A first inclination upon picking up the subtleties of my argument might by cynicism. Before accusing me of trying to bring everyone back into the Catholic Church first answer the question, “What is doctrine?” Christology, eschatology, ecclesiology, homiletics, hermeneutics, Trinitarianism, etc…What do Christians believe about these things today? Writ large, the answer is nothing. Christian doctrine today is so broad that it either says nothing, or is so narrow that denominations need to be so sectarian as to have a paragraph explaining who exactly they are. To be an unbound Christian is to be a Christian in America today. Not truly understanding what you or your fellow parishioners believe, not reciting creeds, and not being beholden to an ecumenical body larger than “these people that I put on the church board.”

The symptoms of a Christianity without a king or an Israel without a king are the same. Everybody just simply does as they see fit. The individuals most responsible for this are the religious leaders, the Levites. Those who are too nervous to lose church members and too afraid to do the challenging that is necessary end up accepting a shallow theology not beholden to anything except their particular sympathies. It is my hope that by writing, studying, praying, conversing, and challenging through this project that I can be an agent that helps to “bound-up” this shattered Christian language. 

- Matt Loggan