The same side of two coins? Or opposite sides of the same?

Very interesting blog entries and discussions that seem to cover different aspects of current evangelical thought. These folks aren't talking about fundamentalism, obviously, but they still spoke to my own experiences.

First, The Scandal of the Evangelical Heart, by Rachel Held Evans.

I'm new to Rachel's writings, but a lot of what she has to say resonates with me deeeply. When she writes:

A lot of people, when they catch pieces of my story, assume my doubts are of the intellectual variety. They assume I’m just a smart girl stuck in the Bible Belt asking pesky questions about science, history and politics that my conservative evangelical culture, with a bent toward anti-intellectualism, simply cannot answer.

I understand. Having a scientist in the family has raised a lot of questions, especially as I've seen him dig deeply into the biology of plants and animals, as he has done since he was a little boy. I've heard him subtly reject the creation story with perhaps a little bit of arrogance. (Does anyone know of an 18-year-old who doesn't think he knows everything?) His journey as a scientist has been my journey as his mom and, though I still firmly believe that God created the heavens and the earth and all that are within them, I've come to the point where I just don't care about just how that happened. (I mean, I wasn't there. You weren't there. Even the writer of Genesis wasn't there. Just God, who has a tendency at times to speak in highly figurative language. See: Solomon, Song of.)

Rachel goes on to say that her real disconnect comes more from an emotional viewpoint than an intellectual one.

But the questions that have weighed most heavily on me these past ten years have been questions not of the mind but of the heart, questions of conscience and empathy.

This has bugged me a lot about Christian fundamentalism, especially as defined by those I used to hang out with. To be true to Christ, you have to separate from others. There's no joining hands to help the poor if those we're joining hands with do not believe as we do, down to the last jot and tittle. You don't use programs that have pictures we don't approve of, or which are offered to churches we wouldn't partner with. (See: AWANA) There's no fellowship with believers outside our little circle.  Only with those who act, think, dress, and believe exactly as we do. "The dwarves are for the dwarves!"

The other blog is by Peter Enns and riffs off of Rachel's post with a focus more on the intellect: The Deeper Scandal of the Evangelical Mind: We Not Allowed To Use It,

After an introduction about Mark Noll's books, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind, Peter suggests that Noll is too optimistic in his conclusions. He points out that:

In my experience, the real problem isn’t simply a failure on the part of Evangelicals to engage the world of thought. Evangelicals earning higher degrees and publishing their findings in the wider intellectual community isn’t what’s needed.

The real scandal of the Evangelical mind is that we are not allowed to use it.

I have heard this said of Fundamentalism by many different sources. Fundamentalist universities turn up their noses at the greater academic world, as seen by their refusals to seek accreditation, to submit papers to peer review, and to keep on faculty those whose entire academic career, from undergraduate to PhD, has been within their own walls.

Peter says that the biggest problem is:

Evangelicalism is not fundamentally an intellectual organism but an apologetic one. It did not come to be in order to inspire academic exploration but to maintain certain theological distinctives by intellectual means. These intellectual means are circumscribed by Evangelical dogma, though avoiding Fundamentalist anti-intellectualism.

Again, fundamentalism = anti-intellectualsm. This is so true! At Stuff Fundies Like, we often discuss how it's more important in fundamentalism to hear The Call ™ to preach than it is to actually receive any real training in how to do it! Depending on the particular niche of the network you belong to (make no mistake: there IS a network), nine months to a year's worth of "Pastor's School" may be considered enough to make you a Bible scholar. (Who needs to study Greek or Hebrew or church history, haymen? That good ol' KJB is good enough for us! blargle blargle)

Sigh. Enough ranting on my part. I recommend both articles as studies of how our minds and hearts both need to be fully engaged in our service for the Lord, regardless where our practice falls in Christendom.

Yup, still here

As I knew I would be. Not because I’m not a Christian or I’m not looking for Christ’s return. But because I know that Harold Camping is a charlatan. He’s done this before, this “setting a date for the end of the world” shtick. And he’s been wrong before, just as he is now. It’s just that he hasn’t been so widely publicized as he was this time. The internet picked this up and went with it, giving him a voice and a following he didn’t have before – even though he’s a broadcaster, that’s nothing to the saturation power of the internet! I feel bad for those who followed him to the extent of paying thousands of dollars for billboards, etc. and basically have nothing now, while Camping himself is probably a very rich man at the expense of those same gullible people.

What makes me the angriest about Camping’s idiocy is that he’s making Christ out to be a liar. Jesus was very specific when he told his disciples about his coming, and what premillenialist Christians call “the Rapture”.

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

“Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.

“But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at the hour when you do not think He will.”

Matthew 24:36-44 NASB

If Camping truly knew the day and hour of the rapture and the end of the world, he would have made Jesus Christ a liar. Yes, a flat out liar. And if Jesus lied, then he couldn’t be the perfect Son of God (for lying is sin), and there would be no salvation through his death, burial, and resurrection.

What narcissistic hubris on the part of Camping! To put his own convoluted numbers game ahead of Jesus’ words, and to promote heresy by obliquely denying Christ’s sinless deity!

Eavesdropping

My oldest son has a girlfriend. She's an interesting person from many different angles. One, she's a senior (and he's a junior). She's African-American (and we're not). She's albino--and loves to color her hair flaming (and I do mean flaming) red. She's spunky, gregarious, outspoken--all things my oldest son is not. She chased him, not the other way around.

She's also a Jehovah's Witness.

My parents and some of my other family members don't like that very much. They keep warning me not to let things go too far. Her own parents are strict with her, and believe dating is meant for marriage. They're concerned about the future possibilities, and conflicts in faith should the two marry. My husband and I have a different take on dating: it's a time to meet and get to know someone and see if they are compatible as a marriage partner. But it doesn't necessarily lead to marriage in every case. We also know that, if their marriage is going to happen, nothing we can do will stop it. (Never mind the fact that, at their ages, it's far, far, far too early to be talking about them marrying anyway!)

Her folks are personable, and I like them. We've had dinner together, and they want us to do other things with them, too. I like her and speak with her on the phone while trying to pry him out of a book or drag him in from gardening.

Today, she asked if my son could go with her to "the Memorial". It's on the evening of Palm Sunday, and - as she put it - it's a memorial or celebration of Jesus Christ's death. I deferred to my husband on this one; his thought is that our son is old enough to decide matters of faith for himself. So, he's going.

Now, the two of them talk on the phone every night, sometimes longer and later than I like. But tonight, I've been eavesdropping as my son tries to explain to his girlfriend the meaning of things like the resurrection, and communion, and a lot of our own beliefs and practices. He has his KJV out, and is reading passages of scripture to her, sharing with her what we believe and why we believe it.

We haven't been to church in several years, and our absence has been during a very impressionable time for all my kids. All of them have professed Christ. All of them have been baptized. They've gone to Sunday school, children's church, AWANA, and Christian school. And now, my son is... defending isn't quite the right word... but explaining in a non-threatening way (I hope) the beauties of the Gospel.

I don't know where any of this will go; not his relationship, not his faith, not his future. I can only pray that God will lead him, and keep him pointed towards Christ.

What are the "Fundamentals"?

Some of you reading this (if anyone is) might wonder exactly what a Fundamentalist is, or what they - and by extention, I - believe. This list is from Wikipedia's article on the subject:

• The inerrancy of the Bible
• The literal nature of the Biblical accounts, especially regarding Christ's miracles, and the Creation account in Genesis
• The Virgin Birth of Christ
• The bodily resurrection of Christ
• The substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross

Now, these are the basics of what I believe, though I'm waffling a little on point #1, and definitely have different opinions on the Creation account. I believe that God Created the universe, our solar system, the earth and all that's in it. I just don't know the method. I wasn't there. No one was, not even Adam. So nobody can say for absolute, positive sure that God spoke everything into existance. Not that He couldn't have done it, but I'm not sure He did.

As far as Christ's miracles and points 3 through 5, yeah, I believe them quite solidly.

The trouble is that American Fundamentalism has added a lot more to these five items over the years, and some of these have been raised to the level of the five listed above. And the one thing they've added to which makes them so insidious is the "doctrine" of separation. If you don't believe exactly the way they do, with all the right emphases on all the right beliefs, then they will separate from you, basically condemning you to hell as an apostate. They'll always have their reasons, which they'll frame as "biblical" using a few cherry-picked Bible verses to back them up.

What are some of these things that Fundamentalists divide over? Let's see:

• The version of the Bible you read from
• Your clothing - especially pants on women
• Your hair length - as in short hair on women and long hair on men
• Alcohol consumption
• Movies, music styles, and other types of entertainment
• Childrearing practices
• Education - many favor Christian schools or homeschooling
• Patriotism
• Patriocentrism - the father is the center of the home and is to be submitted to and obeyed

These are just a few of the preferences that end up being raised to doctrinal levels. There are many more; this is just the tip of the iceberg. I've been surrounded by this separation business to varying degrees for years, and it's been hard to walk away from that mindset. Very, very hard. What has helped me is reading the struggles of others who have walked where I'm walking now. My most favorite site is Stuff Fundies Like, which takes a satirical approach to all this rigarmarole.

So, there you have it. I believe in:

• The inerrancy of the Bible in its original texts
• The literal nature of most Biblical accounts, especially those regarding Christ's miracles
• The Virgin Birth of Christ
• The bodily resurrection of Christ
• The substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross

The things that I believe beyond that are secondary. Here are some of them:

• God created the heavens and the earth. How, I don't know.
• Bible stories and accounts should not only take into consideration the genre of the text (poetry, history, allegory) but also the historical era and circumstances under which they were written.
• The ability of each believer to come before God without a mediator beyond Christ Himself, by virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit. (Also known as "Priesthood of the believer")

There's a lot more, most of it pertaining to my day-to-day life. Some of it might be controversial. Some of it, I'm still forming opinions about. If you have any questions about what else I believe in, go ahead and ask. I might be able to answer; I might not. I am, however, not interested in getting into debates on any subject, especially the controversial ones.

Turns out this might have another use altogether.

I'm a recovering Christian Fundamentalist from the "Bob Jones University" (BJU) school of thought. But as I've drifted away from my BJU-orbital church, I've started examining my beliefs to figure out just what it is that I believe about Jesus Christ, his Church, his Word, and how these things affect me, my family, and my personal walk with Him.

I know I'm saved. That has never been in doubt. For many years, however, I feel like I've been told what I should believe, and I've absorbed a lot of teaching (doctrine), that I'm not sure I understand or believe in any more. I've been doing a lot of reading and participating in discussions, all to learn what other people think the Bible says. It's also clear that I should be reading my Bible more to discover its truths for myself, and I'm going to try and do that.

This blog will at least be a jumping off point for some of the other Christian blogs I visit that are on Blogger. As I try and figure out what I believe, I might discuss some of those findings here. Who knows? Someone else might be blessed.