When was the last time someone questioned you about your faith? Whereas once the question would have been ‘are you a Christian,’ the phraseology is now more often along the lines of ‘would you call yourself a Christian.’

The first is an objective statement of being, an absolute. The second a subjective assessment – you might not call me that, but that’s what I call myself. Perhaps the move from objective to subjective ontology is part of a wider cultural shift…

The question of disclosing my faith been a problematic one for me, not through any shame about my beliefs, more through issues about the culture that has grown up around it, and the way that it is popularly perceived. To declare myself ‘Christian’ is to enter an ecosystem of misunderstanding and judgements about what I believe. It is, too often, to be labelled homophobic, unscientific, intellectually closed.

Ironically, rather than answer the question, or offer to denominate ourselves, we should do as Jesus did and turn the question round. Who do you say that I am? was Jesus’ piercing question to Peter, and perhaps this offers something important. Jesus did not self-identify, and may be we should follow this lead.

Perhaps Christians should be non-self-identifying. If you want to call me ‘Christian’ then go ahead. But perhaps it’s best if I don’t identify myself as that. Aim to be known for my actions, not hiding behind my labels. What I think this does is turn the tables on our ethics. Our actions are not based on ‘I call myself a Christian, so I should do x,’ but more on ‘she does x, that’s a Christ-like thing to do.’

Firstly, the series of posts I did on ‘A Plea for Christian Piracy’ can be found here. Start at Pirates [1] and work on…

Secondly, some a round up of some of the other posts (from Pete Rollins, Richard Sudworth etc.) that that generated can be found here… Plus a little thought on the crucifix and the skull and crossed bones here.

Finally, here’s a longer article I wrote – a version of which appeared in Third Way magazine – In Defence of Pirates, which I hope will be helpful. All of this is thinking I’ve done which is condensed into the section on piracy in ‘Other’, which I hope people will go read and respond to too… I’m convinced that the pirate/heretic/cultural transfer and TAZ idea is one that is rich for our times:

This, then, is the lesson that pirates hold for us as people of faith. Was not the incarnation the penetration of our culture, a rupture that we experienced as heresy, a challenge to our economics and ethics that we resisted and fought back? Was not Jesus arrested and tortured and strung up for all to see like those 17th Century lovers of liberty, chained to gillets by the Thames? Did he not also demand that ‘no Man has the Power of the Liberty of another; and while those who profess a more enlightened Knowledge of the Deity […] prov’d that their Religion was no more than a Grimace’?

Financially, spiritually, culturally, theologically… the time for some good piracy is upon us. Avast, ye lubbers…

For those (few, I know) who may have followed here but not elsewhere, there has been quite a lot of reaction to the posts on piracy, mostly ignited by Richard Sudworth’s repost to my posts. I thought it’d be useful to do some aggregation:

Richard’s original repost

Pete Rollins’ counter to Richard

Richard’s counter to Pete

Pete’s return

Jonny Baker’s middle-way reflection

Maggi Dawn’s thoughts [ 1 ] [ 2 ]

Mark Berry’s thoughts

Simon Cross’ thoughts

Mike Radcliffe’s thoughts

Bill Kinnon’s thoughts on Jonny and Richard’s thoughts

Tractor Girl’s thoughts

Backburner’s thoughts on piracy and the economics of information

Ben Edson’s thoughts

What’s interesting of course is plotting the different degrees of separation from the original posts of the different comments. Not a value-judgement, simply an observation about our modern reading habits: we so rarely bother to read the full texts of that which we are commenting on.

Not sure I’ll be waging in any further into the debate, as 7 posts is quite enough on the subject for a while at least! Given the level of response though, suffice to say the seams that Pete and I and others are mining are either really right, or really wrong. I’ll let you decide.

What pirates do, as a rule, is emerge from the underbelly of a ‘stuck’ orthodoxy and, by way of actions that are initially perceived as heretical, reinvigorate that practice. The heresy of Napster becomes the orthodoxy of Spotify. The pirate DJs of Radio Caroline join Aunty at the BBC and create Radio 1.

And this is what Jesus did. He saw a religion blocked – a temple which had access restricted by merchants and priests. And he set about plundering the booty in the temple, and setting it free for all to enjoy. This was the heresy of Jesus Christ. And this is the orthodoxy that we should be preaching.

But, so many years later, the empire has taken the reins of faith again, and the authorities have pooled their wealth in guarded palaces. Where are the pirates now? Who will opt for this short but merry life, and raise a skull and crossed-bones against the greedy princes and enslaving merchants who reap huge rewards for unjust and unfair practice? Who will dare sail for freedom, out of the shadows of the church, and taste the exotic on the high seas?

So here’s my plea: our faith is always under threat from blockage, from those who would control access to forgiveness, to grace, to truth. We need good Christian pirates to plunder and raid these places, to demand that these goods are released for all.

And this, for all its failings, is what may be seen as the last effect of the emerging church: a series of heretical, piratical actions that sought, through the short but merry life of various groups, to show that this faith of ours is ‘more than a grimace.’ We have seen this blocked orthodoxy, and through our heresies want to see it revitalised, if we don’t hang for it first.

These leaves just two questions to answer:

1) what should we make of modern day piracy such as that we see in Somalia and in the European Parliament with the Swedish Pirate Party.

2) why is it that children are so fascinated with pirates?

And with a look at Peter Pan, I hope we can answer that in the final post. Hope you’ve enjoyed the series so far.