The Scarlet Letter on NPR through Updike’s Eyes
NPR has reminded us of the deep influence of Hawthorne’s story on American sociology in the article, “Hester Prynne: Sinner, Victim, Object, Winner.” For any of us who are members of the Church we must go beyond sociology to ask the question, “Would Hester be welcome in our community of faith? Have we learned from Hawthorne’s scathing presentation of hypocrisy?” Several months ago a single woman confided in me, “The Church is not a safe place for me and for many others who are broken and complicated.”
It’s one thing to preach the Gospel from the pulpit and it quite a more developed thing to have that Gospel inform every informal word spoken between members of the Church and offered to anyone who would interact with us. Hawthorne was bitter toward the Church but his story has been retold by a Christian who keeps these questions alive for any of us who care to live like Christ, who ate with tax collectors and sinners. John Updike, has retold the story and alluded to it powerfully in his trilogy. As John McTavish writes at Theology Today, “The novelist John Updike is a Christian, but not a Christian novelist in the sense that his work forces an explicitly Christian message onto the reader. On the contrary, precisely because Updike is a Christian he believes the novelist should portray the human condition with unsparing honesty, expressing his “basic duty to God” in writing “the most truthful and fullest books” he can. One therefore looks in vain for clear, morally uplifting, spiritually stirring messages in Updike’s fiction. At the same time, a powerful theological dimension can be seen running through his work: subtle but profound, invisible yet constantly present, giving Updike’s uninhibited report of the human condition a specifically Christian perspective.” As you have now read at the NPR site, Updike is among those who believes that Hawthorne’s day was similar to our day, one in which feminism appeals to the concerns of women and society at large. Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne could walk on the streets of 21st century Portland, Oregon but for her scarlet letter. The question is not, “Are women and their plights different today?” but instead “Is the Church in 21st century Portland, Oregon any more like Christ than the New England Puritan Church?”
The Puritans came to New England to establish “the city set on a hill whose light can not be hidden,” Jesus’ description (in Mattew 5), of the Church good for the world. ” Is our Church good for the world?” Leslie Newbigin wrote, “We must always be wrestling with both sides of this reality: that the Church is for the world against the world. The Church is against the world for the world.” The Church is commanded by Christ and his apostles to care for the poor and the oppressed, the orphan and the widow. Jesus told the religious leaders of his day that one certain prostitute, who anointed him knew more about worship than they did. He said to another, “Neither do I condemn you.” To another he appeared, the risen Lord! And you might say, “But she was an EX-prostitute!” Tell me, on which side of the gate does the Church serve? Do we live on the worldly side of the gate or do we live on the heavenly side of the gate? Does the Church begin on the far side of the line of repentance? Does the front door of the Church have turnstyles that admit a person who holds a holy token or do they admit those who say, “I need space to consider Christ”?
Hester Prynne’s “A” became a symbol of her bearing the brunt of public scorn and the hypocrisy of the Church. Would it not have been better for her to wear a cross, the symbol of Christ’s public scorn and his suffering the hypocrisy of the religious community of his day? Hawthorne was not ignorant of such associations. Neither is Updike. We are the ones who have some soul-searching questions to answer.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Nathan,
Thanks for this article. It speaks directly to issues our Elders our wrestling with at Walnut Hill PCA. We are asking how we can love the world around us in practical & tangilbe ways. I had never thought of a contrat with Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter.
-Dennis
Church experience, along with human experience, has not substantially changed from era to era. What happened in New England Puritanism happens in our day. The Church in every age must make space for the Gospel.
nathan.
Yes. The church can be an unsafe place for broken, complicated women.
Indeed, Berta. In the past I have been guilty of pressing women too far and so in recent years I have been careful to assign women to women for counseling, even women who are members of the congregation I serve. On three occasions in the past, with three different women, I have “pulled out the pillows propping up” women in difficult relationships and seasons of their lives. In my mind, the pillows had to go, but in hind sight, these women could not cope without them. I have also been harsh in tone, forcing my counsel, rather than advising, realizing that I can not force anyone to do what I think they must do to survive and to thrive in Christ. This has made safe space evaporate for these women who are dearly loved of Christ. I have also taken much too personally these women’s remarks about my life and performance as a minister. In all three past instances, the best I could have done for these women is to advise each to see a professional counselor who is not a member of the clergy. One of the problems with pastoral counseling, is that the person who needs counseling cannot separate in his/her mind, the pastor as counselor and the pastor as preacher, and so, the person is unable to hear the gospel from the lips of his/her pastor.
Another coming of terms for me has been to admit to myself and to my fellow elders that I am not an effectively skilled counselor. I am able to identify the problem at the root of a person, form an action plan and then demand that the action plan be immediately executed. An effective counselor knows which steps a person must take to get from A to B and then knows how to help the person get along from A to B. I can identify A and B and then I demand that a person take an immediate leap frog jump from A to B.
I do not fault any of these three women or anyone else I have hurt as I have sinfully and imperfectly served as a pastor. Instead I have written them or met with them at their invitation to confess my sins, regret and ask their forgiveness. I pray for them often and remind myself that Jesus alone is our Shepherd, elder, pastor, counselor, and Redeemer. Where I have failed these women, making the church unsafe for them, Christ has remained faithful for he cannot deny himself.
There’s a lot of words there. The ones you use to describe yourself: sinful, imperfect, fail — how is it any different than the ones with which you described the women: broken and complicated?” If you send them off to a professional counselor in the Beaverton/Portland area, would you go yourself and learn whether real healing is available?
Thank you, for thinking of me and my needs. I don’t know if you are assuming that I have not sought help for my problems, and so, you are kindly suggesting that I avail myself of professional counseling, or if you are assuming that I have placed myself in a different and more blessed category than “broken and complicated women,” and thus need professional counseling. These assumptions would not move anyone to understand my present condition or situation, let alone my present ongoing plan for my well-being. I do not think of myself in a different category of those I have tried to serve as a pastor. Nevertheless, I hold an office through which I am to serve others, and my point in above comments is that I have sinfully failed in that office.
Over the past 20 years of pastoral ministry, I have sinfully failed in a number of areas. Of interest to me has been a certain, common response from some of the individuals who have sought my pastoral counsel and help. The common response that I refer to is often expressed, “Well, you are not perfect, Pastor and so you should go get some help.” What these individuals say is absolutely true about me. I am imperfect and I do need help. What is absolutely wrong about this response is that it has nothing to do with the purpose of our meeting to help along the person who has sought me out as Pastor. A person enters into a meeting with me and says, “I have a problem……” Then I say, “This is what you need to do…..” The person responds, “Well, Pastor, you are not perfect and so perhaps you should take your own advice.” What a deflection of the solution! The counseling session is not about counselor and counselee on the same plane, confessing their faults to each other and helping each other get to a solution. The point of a counseling session is for a counselor to help the counselee. It is not an opportunity to talk about or solve the counselor’s problems. Every once in a while a person says to me, “I am going to take your advice,” then actually leaves the counseling meeting to do it. I have kindly told many people, “Millions of people have the same problem that you have. If you would like to be a part of a rare and small group, a handful of people, then take my advice and be free of your problem. Most people hear advice and then don’t implement it, choosing another route or usually remaining in their present behavior. Once again, I must say that my strength is identifying the problem and describing the solution. My glaring weakness in counseling (making me a poor counselor) is identifying reasonable and achievable steps for a counselee to take between A and B.
My sole question is whether “professional counselors” are able to heal the broken and complicated — or the otherwise needy. If you believe this and direct people to follow this course, don’t you think it would only be right to thoroughly investigate and prove that it in fact is effective? Perhaps my idea is as idiotic or inappropriate as you make it out to be. But, as humbly as I can,I just ask.
Your idea is not idiotic or inappropriate in my opinion. From personal experience and through the experiences of those whom I have referred to professional counselors, I would answer your simple question, “I have investigated and hold sufficient proof of real healing and progress resulting from the work of professional counselors. Of course, it is not merely up to me to take my personal experience and make such sweeping statements and decisions and so, I have entered into discussions and deliberations with a good number of fellow ministers and licensed counselors who also confirm that my personal experience is not isolated.” Having offered such an answer I must say that a Pastor must be careful in referring a member under his care to a counselor, psychologist, and/or psychiatrist. Not every licensed individual is a good match for any given person who needs help. The Pastor does not refer to be free of responsibility, saving time and trouble. The referral process is often a time consuming one requiring much prayer, interviewing between Pastor and counselor. I am not uncommon in my office in my development of a short list of licensed counselors and therapists, whom I trust and respect, who would work better than others with people I serve in our portion of the church. For many members of my church, whose employers provide benefits that would cover counseling, they are confined to meeting with licensed counselors who are “on the employer’s insurance company’s list.” If a person avails himself/herself of these benefits, then I have little to no input on the counselor selected. In these situations, I can meet with the member and supply a few criteria for initial interview towards the selection of the best counselor available under that system. Beyond what I have described above, I do not see much more that a Pastor is responsible to do for a member. As Pastors, we are to faithfully preach the gospel, lead worship, promote fellowship and pray ardently for the flock. We may counsel, but an ironic twist is inserted at this point by people who insist that the Pastor ought to be the primary or only counselor of his church’s members: This insistence is born out of a rejection of modern counseling and Psychology. But the notion and method of a Pastor meeting one on one with a member to engage in counseling methodology, even though it be the application of biblical principles, is nonetheless, the very modern idea of counseling and Psychology rejected. In our system of government in the church that I serve (Presbyterian), there is more room and precedent for Ruling Elders to advise and to counsel and for Deacons to do the same. Men counseling men and women counseling women is also advisable and so members interacting with members can be as fruitful as an officer counseling a member.