Kissing Baptists?
A few years ago I wound up having brief mouth to mouth contact with a young woman who was: a) not my wife, and b) not having a heart attack. That this happened in the middle of church, in front of the congregation, makes it less suspect. But it also makes it more difficult to explain. I'll do my best.
I was (I'm not making this up) giving away Sunday School appreciation certificates. Most of the teachers were women, some were French, and all were living in France. So I did the culturally relevant thing. I gave them the double-sided kiss on the cheek - appropriate affection for this kind of corporate giving of thanks (at least in Paris). However one young woman moved her head in the wrong direction and through a set of kinetic miscommunications that I still don't quite understand, we wound up landing mouth to mouth. I was happily married to Cecelia, she was happily married to a tall dark and handsome Frenchman. Trust me, there was no intentionality here. It was, needless to say, an icebreaking moment.
And it was biblical, of course. The Bible commands us to "greet one another with a holy kiss." This is mentioned about a half dozen times in the New Testament. In a recent article in Christian Century (1/24/06) Martin Marty mentions that he came across a recent book on the subject and the author (Michael Philip Penn) discovered that the holy kiss was one of the most prevalent features of early Christianity. He found over 1,000 references to it in ancient writings.
This presents a kissing problem. For those who are committed to a literalistic interpretation of scripture, the question arises: why are you not following the dictates of the Bible. I've been to many a conservative church, and outside France, I've never been greeted with a kiss. However, for those of us who believe the Bible should not (and cannot) be read as an engineer's technical manual, or as a soldier's command book, we face a more difficult issue. How do we develop the appropriate level of intimacy in our faith family? How do we greet guests and long-term members as our "siblings in Christ?"
We sophisticated 21st century Christians can argue that the joining of lips is not necessary to our Christian faith. But no follower of Christ could argue that expressed love is unessential. Or that we can get by without a loving fellowship. Or that we don't feel the need for someone to love us – more than we might want to admit.
We moderate-minded Christians might drop the level of physical touch to a handshake, but the love demanded of our brothers and sisters remains no moderate matter. Let's commit our all – as if with both lips.
Smootch Smootch,
Scott
I was (I'm not making this up) giving away Sunday School appreciation certificates. Most of the teachers were women, some were French, and all were living in France. So I did the culturally relevant thing. I gave them the double-sided kiss on the cheek - appropriate affection for this kind of corporate giving of thanks (at least in Paris). However one young woman moved her head in the wrong direction and through a set of kinetic miscommunications that I still don't quite understand, we wound up landing mouth to mouth. I was happily married to Cecelia, she was happily married to a tall dark and handsome Frenchman. Trust me, there was no intentionality here. It was, needless to say, an icebreaking moment.
And it was biblical, of course. The Bible commands us to "greet one another with a holy kiss." This is mentioned about a half dozen times in the New Testament. In a recent article in Christian Century (1/24/06) Martin Marty mentions that he came across a recent book on the subject and the author (Michael Philip Penn) discovered that the holy kiss was one of the most prevalent features of early Christianity. He found over 1,000 references to it in ancient writings.
This presents a kissing problem. For those who are committed to a literalistic interpretation of scripture, the question arises: why are you not following the dictates of the Bible. I've been to many a conservative church, and outside France, I've never been greeted with a kiss. However, for those of us who believe the Bible should not (and cannot) be read as an engineer's technical manual, or as a soldier's command book, we face a more difficult issue. How do we develop the appropriate level of intimacy in our faith family? How do we greet guests and long-term members as our "siblings in Christ?"
We sophisticated 21st century Christians can argue that the joining of lips is not necessary to our Christian faith. But no follower of Christ could argue that expressed love is unessential. Or that we can get by without a loving fellowship. Or that we don't feel the need for someone to love us – more than we might want to admit.
We moderate-minded Christians might drop the level of physical touch to a handshake, but the love demanded of our brothers and sisters remains no moderate matter. Let's commit our all – as if with both lips.
Smootch Smootch,
Scott
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