The Chains
of Traditionalism
In a moment of personal reflection I realized that
the older I get, the less I like things around me to change. I enjoy
thinking that I’m flexible and eager to try new things, but that’s just
not true.
In church I like to sit in the same place every
Sunday. I get a little nervous when I can’t find my favorite deodorant
at the grocery store. When Husband mows the lawn, I am slightly uneasy
that it’s back and forth one week, diagonal the next. After weeks of
looking at hairstyles in magazines and online, I always ask my
beautician to cut my hair just like she did last month, the time before
that, and every four to six weeks for the past five years.
The truth is, I prefer to hold tightly to my
preferences, our household traditions, and even the rituals and
traditions of the church. Perhaps that’s why I was slightly offended
when Husband came home from a meeting and insisted on reading aloud a
meditation by Chuck Swindoll.
He begins with “Are you open to change? People who
make a difference can be stretched, pulled, pushed, and changed. You
heard it from me: traditionalism is an old dragon… so never stop
fighting it.”
I felt myself bristle. Husband kept reading.
“Let’s be careful to identify the right opponent. It
isn’t tradition per se; it’s traditionalism. I’m not trying to be petty,
only accurate. The right kind of traditions give us deep roots—a solid
network of reliable truth in a day when everything seems up for grabs.
“Among such traditions are those strong statements
and principles that tie us to the mast of truth when storms of
uncertainty create frightening waves of change driven by winds of
doubt.”
Swindoll went on to list “believing in the authority
of holy scripture, knowing and loving God, bowing to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ, committing ourselves to others, and becoming people of
genuine encouragement,” as valuable absolutes. They “keep us from
feeling awash in a world of relativism and uncertainty.”
He wasn’t challenging the basic doctrines of
Christianity. Swindoll was speaking to the entrapment of traditionalism,
meaning an attitude that resists change, adaptation, or alteration.
“It’s holding fast to a custom or behavior that is
being blindly and forcefully maintained.” (Like only mowing the lawn
going back and forth, never diagonal?) “It is being suspicious of the
new, up-to-date, the different. It is finding one’s security, even
identity, in the familiar and therefore opposing whatever threatens
that.”
Then he got to the point. “And if you’ll allow me one
more, it is substituting a legalistic system for the freedom and
freshness of the Spirit—being more concerned about keeping rigid,
manmade rules than being flexible, open to creativity and innovation.”
Jesus repeatedly confronted the Jewish aristocracy
because their adherence to their own rules and traditions had become
more important than compassion and common sense. They criticized him for
healing on the Sabbath. He overturned the money changers’ tables because
selling animals had become more important than true repentance. The High
Priest condemned Jesus to death because he didn’t fit their rabbinical
model.
Swindoll concludes by saying, “Believe me, there are
plenty of people around who feel it is their calling to tell others what
to do and what to say. They are self-appointed wing-clippers who frown
on new ways and put down high flight… Whoever decides to soar must first
fight through the flatland fog that hangs heavy over the swamp of
sameness.”
Ouch.
Maybe it’s time for a new hairstyle and a lawn
creatively mowed in curly-Q’s.
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