Of this one thing we can be certain, that there is too much certainty in our practice of faith. Homosexuality and abortion would be just two of such issues that we are far too certain about. I am not saying that our POV (point of view) is completely invalid. But I am saying that many of the Christians around the world do not agree with our oversimplification of most issues that have such high socio-cultural factors.
For instance, I am currently leading a congregation of Internationals in Eastern Europe. I have discovered that our Western European brothers and sisters do not agree with the standard homophobia of the United States religious right, nor do they view abortion in the tightly black and white frames that the Family in the USA views this subject. Our European Christians view both of these supposedly black and white issues with far more compassion (and ambiguity) than we Americans generally do.
Their compassion does not make them right and Americans wrong, but neither is their moral arrogance (certainty that they are right) remotely on the same scale as the American one. I find it appalling when I meet those who are the most anti-abortional and they can give me no biblical basis for it. I did not say that there was no biblical basis for an anti-abortion stance, but rather that few seem to be able explain it in a cohesive scriptural manner why we should be strongly against abortion. It seems that many of us have just accepted Dobson's position or someone else's position without doing any of the hard thinking ourselves. It seems that we have been influenced by the political religious right much more than we have by what God states about it. The online discussions about these matters are disturbing. Abortion is a far more complex subject than just killing the unborn. If we really think abortion to be wrong, should we not be more for adoption, and let that compassion lead our anti-abortion position? (Imagine actually doing something positive rather than just vilifying everyone who opposes your POV!) Our European Family would say that what we are for is much more important than what we are against.
Concerning the homophobia of the US church, our European Family just states the apparent truth of Scripture, that Jesus both loves them and died for them as well as me. How can I not be as compassionate toward them as any other "sinner", of which I very well may be the worse? I think Jesus would approve of this approach. The certainty that we have about our certainly, makes much of what we believe to be fact, suspect. Religious certainty as with any other certainty needs to be grounded in actual study, not what I am told from the sermon on Sunday nor what I hear on Christian radio (whatever a christian radio is).
I have to admit, that we have blended families, divided families, lost families, live-together families and every other type of family coming to our International fellowship. Some of you might say, "now I understand why that David has gone liberal on us" and some of you might think that the context I am working in has influenced my ability to discern the black and white of God's word. I am not nor has it, but I do think the Europeans are more mature than we Americans are, in that they are wise enough to see the love and compassion of God, and they are willing to model it and express it. I think it was my grandmother who said to me, that you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.
It seems that our certainty is tied to our feelings much more than our study and learning. I have feelings too . . . and strong ones frankly. One of those strong feelings is that I am married to an awesome woman . . . but it is rooted in 20 years of learning, not feelings only. Other than this, I am certain that I cannot be too certain about most certainties.
5 comments:
I think the "homophobia" of the U.S. church stems largely from the fact that more militant homosexuals often try to claim "rights" that have no basis in the Constitution or Common Law, which they then seek to enforce against Christians. One example would be "hate-crime" laws that would make it a criminal offense to preach against homosexuality. Another would be the adoption law in Massachusettes that forced Catholic Charities to close its adoption centers to avoid placing children with gay couples. Lest we accuse Catholic Charities of being homophobic, let's consider the vast amount of evidence which shows that children are better off when they are raised in a traditional family (I don't have the research at my fingertips but I can find it if I need to).
That being said, I think we need to be extremely careful in how we frame our debate about these issues. It's one thing to oppose "gay rights" legislation that would infringe on Christians' free-speech rights; it's quite another to promote laws that would infringe on the right of homosexuals to live free of state/church coercion.
Hey Jules! Trust you had a great Advent celebration with your family. As usual, you bring to fore matters that have never even crossed my small brain. You are amazing. On the other hand I was talking about our moral arrogance here, i.e. certainty about everything, and homosexuality was just one of my illustrations to shed some light on the problem of moral arrogance that is largely rooted in abstract ignorance.
This line of thought was made apparent to me recently, when a frriend pointed out that I was speaking authoritatively about issues I knew next to nothing about . . . I was just spouting the common consensus about the subject (common consensus usually means that no one has really studied the subject, not that everyone is correct) but my friend was right, I did/do know next to nothing about that subject.
The religious parallel was immediate. Pastors, missionaries, and church members speak authoritatively on a whole host of issues that we know all but zero about. We parrot the words of someone else. Now if that word we are parroting is the Holy Scripture, reasonably handled, then we have our authority. But lately I have been discovering that Christians are AGAINST a host of matters and they cannot articulate a single rationale WHY, only that their pastor told them it was wrong. There clearly ARE reasons why certian things are wrong, but I wrote this blog to point out that it requires hard study on our part, to know what we beleive and why.
You will notice that I very carefully did not use the law, truth or justice as one of my examples, because I know a very fine person who is actually extremely well versed in all those issues. :-) Bottom line here Julie, is that I hope to encourage some folks to stop being Christian zombies. Thanks for reading and writing and sharpening all of us. D
As usual, Dr. D., you've done an excellent job in encouraging Christians to think about what they believe and why. Some examples that come to mind are blanket prohibitions against tobacco and alcohol consumption. When asked for a biblical rationale for such prohibitions, Christians will usually point to Scriptures that have nothing to do with rules concerning eating and drinking, such as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Rather conveniently, they ignore the preceding verses that set the context, which is sexual immorality.
Another activity most American evangelicals are against for no apparent biblical reason is playing the lottery or gambling. I often hear conservative groups like Family Research Counsel lament the fact that state lotteries exploit the poor, yet they say nothing about high-interest credit cards (which are only offered to people with credit problems), payday loans with interest rates of 40% and higher that prey on the poor, pyramid schemes, etc.
Whenever I have asked a fellow believer why gambling is wrong, they never cite a single verse from Scripture or give any reason whatsoever (and I do agree that one could conceivably argue against gambling from the point of view of stewardship, but I've never even heard that argument presented).
Thanks again for another thought-provoking post! :)
I am all for calling people to think for themselves - it's a critical part of discipleship. So, kudos on that point.
Where I think I disagree with your approach, Dr. D, is that the issues you point to are areas where a LOT of Christian thinking HAS been done. I've read books upon books about both the abortion question and the homosexuality question, and been involved in careful study on both issues, from the pages of scripture, from reason, from experience, and even from tradition. The point is, there comes a time when some kind of moral certainty is necessary, when we can't say any longer that, "oh, well, we could be wrong about this."
You're not arguing for less certainty about rape, let's say, or about racism, are you? Have you thought through a Biblical argument against racism? Perhaps you have, but if not, would you argue that we need less certainty about it? Or can we state with moral clarity (but without arrogance) that it is wrong to hate people because of the color of their skin or the shape of their eyes?
Point taken about about there having been some serious thinking on the two illustrations that I choose to point at . . . however, I would still suggest that the average person sitting in our Sunday Morning services has not read any of those well thought-through books. Also I am not again moral certainty in any form or fashion. My thinking is that those who haven't done the hard work of study can't be morally certain, only morally arrogant. All of these social ills and patently wrong actions that you bring up need to be addressed with deep certainty and deep humility. I have learned one thing thus far in life . . . the more I learn the less I know. Thank you Denes for keeping me humble :-) D
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