Everywhere I turn in Christianity I see fear. Fear that people are taking things too far. Fear that this or that message is leading people into sin. Fear of new (to us) ideas. Fear of reading the Bible in a way that contradicts our presuppositions. Fear of science. Fear. Fear. Fear. Honestly, there is such a heavy fog of fear hanging over so much of Christendom right now its suffocating. It used to be that, at least amongst Grace people, there was a sense of excitement, freedom and progressivism, but now it seems that the same fear ruling fundamentalism has wormed its way into our ranks. I understand the heart of a pastor (having been one for 11 years, myself) and the desire to protect people from dangerous lifestyles, but most of the time, and by that I mean like 99.9% of the time, this desire is mingled with a whole lot of control. While leadership, guidance and discipleship is important, Ive had enough of the stifling of curiosity and inquisitiveness that Im seeing so much of today. Listen, when a person is getting free from the absolute garbage theology theyve had ladled into them for years, its natural that they experience a period of really spreading their wings and testing out their freedom. It is fear, control, and a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit that inspires us to shackle people in this period of time. We can quote situational verses from the epistles to try and prove that the apostles engaged in a similar type of stifling, but we know full well were taking these verses out of context to condone our behavior. The fact is that, as humans inhabiting the 21st century, we have the benefit of decades and decades of psychological research available to us, and all of it tells us that allowing a healing heart the freedom to be...free, even if it makes us extremely uncomfortable, is a part of that persons healing. Of course, in the process of that healing, someone may develop an unhealthy attitude, sometimes even rebellion, and will be tempted to rid their lives of everything reminding them of their past. This can include beliefs, and even people, and its in these moments where loving, caring, wisdom and guidance is needed. What is not needed is angry rants against going too far and the iron fist of religious control. You have no idea, until youve worked with people abused by religion, how much the scent of control will send the wounded running for the hills. So, please everyone, lets be gracious toward one another. Lets drop the fear and paranoia. Yes, there are people who have maybe gone off the rails a little here or there, but thats the case in every sector of society. If we begin indulging our fears, this grace movement is going to become nothing more than a brand of fundamentalism that worships a version of Paul. Im already seeing it occur with the inclusionist witch hunt thats going on amongst leaders in the grace movement. Enough. Fear is never your friend and it can never grant you or anyone else freedom. It leads only to slavery.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 16:52:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015