Subject:  Why the teachings of my church do not fit the world outside? |
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Liberal
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Date Posted: 01:09:49 05/01/04 Sat
Liberal
Jan 2004, Ottawa
In the past, I was a conservative Christian.
Within the church, I know that the Bible is correct, the miracles are true, the Universe was created in 6 days, Man was made by a puff of air from God, other religions are false, homosexuality is a sin, ... But outside the church, all the things are different: I cannot see miracles, the Universe is billions years old, fossils suggest that animals appeared in stages, many people from other religions are good humble truth-seeking people-loving guys, and they have their bibles such as the Koran too, many homosexuals are normal and kind, some homosexuals are Christians too, sexual orientation is formed in early childhood rather than chosen, ...
What the church teaches do not fit what I have discovered by myself. What the church teaches do not fit the world outside the church.
When entering the church, I must leave my brain at the entrance. I am wearing a brain for understanding the world outside the church. When I enter the church, I must undress that brain and put on another brain that is suitable for the peculiar thinking method of the church. I become a disintegrated person: I am required to cut out half of my brain for my faith, leaving half of the brain for my world outside.
What happened? What has gone wrong? Why the discrepancy?
These are the questions deep in my heart.
I have talked with brothers and sisters, discussed with senior members of the church, consulted ministers, attended talks and courses, read numerous Christian books, yet none of them offered a satisfactory solution to that problem. Complicating the issue, I found that the church discourages me to be doubtful, or to ask question, or to think.
It was the day when I spotted a book in a Christian bookstore. It was the Moody Handbook of Theology. It has done a good job of putting together a panoramic view of theology. That book opened my mind forever. I suddenly realized that what my church had been teaching me occupies only a single spot on the wide spectrum of theologies. There is a vast world of theology out there, which my church has never shown me. Only by now that I come to aware that Christian faith can be understood from more than one angle. I read on and my mind stretched. I explored through the pages and I was finally got introduced to liberal theology by Moody. Feeling like meeting an old friend, I realized that she was the one that I had been waiting for all those years. She offered me a totally fresh look of my whole belief and the world. She led me to rediscover my faith. She seemed to be the one who can finally undo the knob in my heart. She allowed me to think, to explore, to question, to challenge sometimes, and to take risks. She invited me to probe deep into the heart of my faith and explore the new possibilities of my existence and my relationship with God. She took me on an adventure through which life will never be the same again.
The adventure is so exciting that I was attracted into a theological seminary to have my quest for Truth more clearly worked out. The seminary is an evangelical one but from there I learned that liberal theology is not a cult; it is a mainline academic approach to the Christian faith. That reassurance might seem to be naive to you but, provided the unbelievable array of cults throughout the world nowadays, it is very important to me---the reassurance that I am not falling into the trap of a cult. For sure, theological education did not once and for all solve all my dilemmas. But one thing is important, I have learned how to define and talk about my problems and conflicts more clearly. In other words, now I know my problems better. That is already a very good fruit I have harvested from the seminary.
Back to liberal theology. She brings me the long-awaited marriage between my faith and the world. When visiting her home, I am not asked to leave my brain at the entrance. Neither am I required to cut out half of my brain for my faith, leaving half of the brain for my world outside. I become an integrated person once again.
How is that possible? Here the story goes. We are human beings. We as human beings have our basic needs. Our basic needs today are more or less similar to those of human beings 3000 years ago. Why mention 3000 years ago? That was the earliest time when people started to talk about the stories which later got written down in the Old Testament of the Bible. They told the stories from one generation to the next. The elderly told the stories to the children. Why telling stories? We are human beings. Human beings struggle to survive. We need to understand the natural phenomena around us to help us survive. We try to understand the whole thing. Where does light come from? Where does the sun come from? Where does the moon come from? And the land, the sea, clouds, rain, river, plants, animals in the sea, on the land, and in the sky, and, finally, human beings ourselves. People 3000 years ago tried to explain all these but they did not have adequate knowledge to do so. But they did attempt to explain---by stories, stories that pass from one generation to another by mouth. When the people who had been telling those stories felt the need to write them down, the first few books of the Bible were written. The stories inside these books are essential for the people to understand where do they come from, what should they do, and what they are not allowed to do. These are the beliefs of that people. 2000 years ago, something great happened among that people which changed the world. A man called Jesus was born into them and he was later understood to be the “Son of God.” His teachings were later evolved into a religion that formed the foundation of the Western world. Various understandings of that religion, however, do exist. Preachers of a particular understanding came to my home town and spread their understanding to me. So I was brought up in that particular understanding of the religion. But there is a catch in that particular understanding---it sees the stories which were told 3000 years ago as facts, more factual than all modern scientific works added together! That is the origin of the discrepancy between the teachings of my church and the world outside. The church is a school that teaches 3000-year-old stories while the schools of the outside world teach modern scientific findings. This is what liberal theology tells me. Now I know that I do not need to keep those 3000-year-old stories in order to be a Christian, to believe in God, to follow Jesus, to learn from the Bible, to pray, to love God, love Jesus, and love my fellow neighbors. God is alive and present everywhere, He teaches me continually through the whole world, not only through those old stories nor a single book. Let me praise God, my Lord.
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