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This post brought to you by something other than politics
I’ll admit, there have been several times today when I was quite tempted to renege on the statement that I would not comment on politics until post election (Blake- I will be on the liveblog- no worries there), however, I will keep my word and talk about something else that’s been on my mind of late.
As I mentioned before, I read “Fidelity of Betrayal” and “How (Not) to Speak of God,” both of which I could not recommend more to everyone willing to take a deep approach to their religion. However, the books have put me in a deconstructionist mood, which brought to the surface a few things that had been brewing for some time.
I think an appropriate subtitle to this post would be “Throwing a match on everything that I’ve been taught to see what can survive.”
thoughts on challenges
There’s been some conversation in my life over the past few weeks that has disturbed me quite a bit.
There seems to be a prevailing belief that whilst someone is a “new Christian” we shouldn’t challenge her or him, seemingly at all. It appears like we’re in love with setting up the good old bait and switch, making new “converts” believe that this life is so easy, only to latter in life open them up to challenges (or in some many cases, we never do so).
I’m not saying that we should force people to move beyond where they are, but we should at least give them the opportunity. I’m all for meeting people where they are, but I think we should be constantly challenged, and not freaking sheltered. When someone protects me from an experience that I may learn from, it hinders me more than helps me.
I’ve heard a couple examples of this recently. In the first there was some disappointment in a small group that had a “new Christian” (please forgive me for all the quotes, I’m not a fan of certain language, but it’s usage is seemingly necessary), but the group was reading through a book that could cause “doubt.” I’m not talking about “Misquoting Jesus,” which could change a person’s life, I’m talking about another book which can be seen as challenging certain aspects of “orthodoxy.”
The other example is of a whole ecclesiastical organization that refuses to corporately push for a goal, which their leadership claims to embrace. The reason? (In fairness, a lower echelon leader of the organization gave this reason to me) Many of the members are “young in their faith.” Seems like a copout to me.
Like I’ve mentioned before, I believe in a God who is meets us where we are at and invites us to take the next step forward. I think when we are discouraging challenges we are essentially slapping God in the face. We’re not to coddle our brothers and sisters; we’re to help challenge them.
Growing up I would hear sermons on “The storms of life” and through them you would grow, even today I can hear the occasional storms of life message (but I guess that’s getting a little less common now that we’ve moved towards the happy life junk) in regards to financial crisis’s, death, sickness etc, and we’re all expected to learn and grow through such experiences. Yet, it seems, we are to be protected from actual faith challenging excursions until a date yet to be determined.
Why the dichotomy between the two? Are we worried about people running away from the faith that we cling to so strongly? Are we scared of the doubters infecting our flock?
I think it’s the doubt that we’re afraid of. If we find doubters around us, we may be forced to face our own doubts. While some of us have grown to embrace the doubt as growing experience, others seek certainty. It, I think, is truly the epitome of the modern/postmodern dichotomy.
When Jewish students were asked a question from their teachers the proper answer would be another question. This form of constant questioning is, to me, the purer form of knowledge. If we don’t learn to question then we never really learn to grow. If I take everything I am given for granted than have I really learned anything? It’s actually through the process of questioning that I find I gain more certainty. It’s through challenges of my beliefs I find which ones I actually believe in. Not just believe in thought, but in action, in faith, and in life.
So lets stop hiding from challenges, and face them head on. They’re not easy, they’re not always fun, but we were never promised ease and enjoyment.