Love Upside Down in a Quirky Kingdom

The latest offering for general readership by Steven Ogden, Love Upside Down, is remarkable for the ease with which it can be read.  Authors, when dealing with topics they have been passionate about for many years, can easily lose sight of the steps necessary to bring readers to the place they have occupied for a long time.  Indeed, such a criticism might have been made of his earlier offering I Met God in Bermuda in which Ogden wrestled with some of the big ideas of Paul Tillich and Karl Rhaner.  Ogden has not failed to bring his readers all the way.

Ogden establishes first that since LOVE is at the heart of this Quirky Kingdom that Jesus established, a fundamental shift is needed in the way we see things.  This is an invitation into a radical way of seeing God's Kingdom on earth in which the eyes are opened to see the frequent failings of church on earth to live up to its claim to be that Kingdom.

Fundamental to this thesis is that in the Church we generally grapple with responding appropriately to difference.  Churches tend towards homogeneity and that when confronted with those from the edges of society the church can be less than welcoming.

At the heart of Ogden's discussion is the current struggle in the Anglican Communion to respond adequately to Gays and Lesbians in their quest for full and open membership of the church as well as their qualification for ministry in the church.  In some sense Ogden uses this very current example to illustrate his thesis, yet I can't help feeling that the example is in some ways the whole motivation for the book.  This is not a criticism, rather an alert to the reader that there are many other fronts on which the Quirky Kingdom calls us to grapple with difference.

His sixth chapter Downside Up unpacks the heart of his thesis.  Step by step he calls into question the usual ramparts that some stand behind in order to exclude.  So often we seek to maintain a Principle at the expense of the People most adversely affected by the Principle.  Underlying the appeal to Principle is the assumption that it is self-evident, and that if you don't get it, it's your fault.  Ogden asserts that too often Principles are grounded in a bundle of our own deeply held feelings which can rarely be discussed with clarity or wisdom.

In the example of the homosexuality issue, the untested Principles at stake seem to be homosexuality is wrong, homosexuality is unnatural and procreation is the definitive measure of human sexuality and identity.  Step by step, Ogden demonstrates that these Principles do not hold the weight that those appealing to them seem to think.  He goes on to call his readers into an understanding of the Quirky Kingdom that Jesus calls us into as a place of subversive love, that undoes all that we think we know about love by calling us, as Jesus did, to love the other - the one who is different, the one who is vulnerable, the one who is forced by society (and too often the church) to the edges.

He calls us to celebrate this difference in what he styles a Queer Banquet.  He challenges us to understand that the PROBLEM is not homosexuality, but the Church and that if we address that problem with the clear teaching of Jesus then we will usher into the church this same Quirky Kingdom that Jesus talks about in which the ground of our being, our humanity, is what unites us all, and that nothing else - no other basis of distinction - can be used as the basis for exclusion, for none of us deserve our place at the Banquet Table.

This call for a radical and inclusive approach to church life is timely.  There is nothing in the Gospel that Jesus taught that invites us to hate others or each other - indeed quite the opposite is called for - and this is what creates the upside down world of Love that Ogden is reminding us of.

Thanks Steven.