I didn’t really get burned at the stake for being a heretic. But I did get “fired” for my theological beliefs.
Kind of.
The story would be amusing, if it weren’t so sad. And if it still didn’t hurt so much.
My Personal Experience
I was working as an editor and conference coordinator at a Christian non-profit organization. After three years there, I wrote a post on this blog about some doctrines and theological ideas I was reading about and investigating.
The simple fact that I was studying these ideas made the founder of the organization nervous. Though my job performance was faultless, and not a single one of the doctrines I was studying had anything to do with the doctrinal statement of the organization, the founder thought that if donors heard that I was studying these doctrines, support for the organization would decrease. So, he, with the backing of the board, terminated my employment.
One of the board members even said that I should be “thrown under the bus” in order to protect the ministry. Yes, he literally said that. It felt like I was stabbed in the back or burned at the stake.
It took me nearly three months to find a new job, and after submitting over 100 resumes to various businesses, I finally landed a job as a carpet cleaner, where I worked 16 hour days at $100 per day. I racked up a lot of debt, my marriage suffered, my health suffered (I ended up needing two surgeries as a result of that job), until finally, ten months after losing my job, I found another one that provided more of a long-term solution for my family’s needs.
I don’t share this to garner pity or support, but only to show that while we may not kill others over theological issues today, we still can destroy the lives of others when we seek to end their jobs or careers because they took a theological path that makes us uncomfortable. Since that time, I have talked with dozens of pastors and former church leaders who have experienced similar treatment from churches and church leaders in which they used to serve. Katherine Gunn left such a story in a comment just yesterday. How many people called for Rob Bell’s resignation when he published his his book on hell
We no longer kill, but we still seek to hurt, damage, and destroy—all in the name of “correct theology.”
Get Rid of Your Doctrinal Statements
In the next several posts, we are going to see that one way churches can become more loving and less power-hungry and controlling is by discarding their doctrinal statements.
That’s right. You should get rid of it. Tear it off the wall. Pull it out of the “Membership Manual.” Stop making people sign on the dotted line. Doctrinal statements, while helpful in many ways, have hindered the spread of the Gospel and harmed the advance of the Kingdom almost more than anything else in the history of Christianity. So maybe, instead of burning others at the stake, or burning their books, we should burn our own doctrinal statements instead.
That is one of the reasons I don’t support that ministry anymore. Many Christians who follow the “Greater-Good” morality find it easy to justify doing harm to others for the sake of some good they perceive as greater than the harm they inflict.
That is a great way of putting it: The greater good, end-justifies-the means morality. There is not much of grace in this way of living.
Ha! I joke about this very thing. When I am asked about my experience ten years ago, I often say the same thing stating something like “I am glad that this happened today and instead of 200 years ago…they would have burnt me at the stake and made my wife and sons wards of the church!”
Perhaps the most revealing thing was that a close missionary friend who broke bread at my table many, many times and someone who my family helped to support to get his church plant going, abandoned me when my church condemned me to hell for questioning the KJV.
That did hurt, but he had to keep his distance…after all he couldn’t lose support for his mission work could he?
Peace,
Mike,
Yep. You would have actually gotten burned at the stake. And who knows? Depending on the mood of the church, maybe your family too.
That is sad about the missionary friend, but as you say, he couldn’t get dragged down with you. I am sure many other quoted 2 John 10-11 to him (and similar verses) about breaking fellowship with you until you return to the truth, or else he shares in your “wickedness.” As you say, to protect his missions work and family, he probably had to keep his distance.
I have gone through a similar journey in my faith and thinking, but fortunately with lesser impacts on how people have treated me.
One thing that has kept me going is the thought that the Pharisees in Jesus’ day represented the status quo, and Jesus re-interpreted lots of things, so there must be a place for the new as well as the old.
On top of that, it is happening all over – there is a trickle that is slowly turning into a stream of people walking similar paths. We don’t all think the same things, and we aren’t always right, but we have in common a deep wish to follow Jesus better than the church often teaches or even allows, and a willingness to try something new to do it.
Keep the faith and keep walking! : )
Yes, this trickle is becoming an ever-widening flood! And many church leaders are getting scared, so watch as they try to increase their control and power over the people that remain to keep them from leaving also, which will just increase the exodus.
I have just finished watching a historical TV program about Westminster Abbey in England, which included showing some old and opulent vestments. I remarked to my wife: “What’s that got to do with Jesus?”
I’m afraid the church today is in the same danger. Since when was isolating oneself from “sinners” the way of Jesus? Or using power and control? Do they forget Jesus’ words (Luke 22:25-26): ““The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.”
Sometimes I think Jesus has left the building.
We have transferred the opulent vestments into opulent buildings. Yes, I think Jesus left that structure a long time ago.
Hi Jeremy,
It really grieves me to read your story. Since they day I heard it (back when it happened) I felt very hurt and sad because of what you endured.
I too have had my share of difficulties. It hasn’t been as hard on me since it wasn’t a job that I lost but it was still difficult. Suffice it to say that the presence or absence of a doctrinal statement is no safeguard against theological harrassment. In fact, the absence of such a statement made it more difficult for me since ad hoc statements can be created quite easily in the minds of church members/leaders.
But you’re quite right. It’s better not to have a statement of faith. It does give people some freedom.
I think I’ve learned from my past experience that it’s better not to blog or to share my ideas publically. It’s good to ask lots of questions and to talk with close friends but theological legalists (ironic since that term has been used by aforementioned organisation for its own ends) inevitably exist who will make life difficult for people who don’t fall into line. Avoid such people and don’t share too much with them.
God bless you Jeremy 🙂
Andrew
Yeah, I probably should have kept my blogging mouth shut. But in many ways, it has turned out well. I sometimes think I idolized that ministry. I still respect them and what they are doing, but I no longer idolize it.
Hey, thanks for sharing my comment. As a follow-up, the man who accused me of rebellion also stated that I was not a Christian and that I should “repent and turn to God.” Sigh. That genie is out of the bottle…I know too much to go back to that mentality. But it is still frustrating to be accused and slandered for disagreeing. Especially by someone who’s never met me….
The blogosphere has allowed the number of theological bullies to exponentially increase. It’s sad really, because some of these writers get lots of attention, and it makes the rest of us look harsh, mean, and judgmental. We have to do a lot of back peddling just to keep our distance and maintain our friendships.
Yep. Walking away from these encounters sooner than I used to. 🙂
Just one more example that reveals that many (most?) “Christian” organizations and churches are really driven by money. Were the government to make it illegal (on penalty of death) to give money or goods to these groups, what percentage of them would still be around in one year?
This translates to “do and say whatever you think you have to do and say to keep the money coming in”. That sound so much like Jesus, yes?
Those board members had absolutely no backbone, did they?
I don’t know. I don’t want to be too hard on them. I still respect the organization and think highly of the board members. And I did write a provocative post.
I just think that if it had been handled differently, it could have launched the organization into more arenas, and spread the word, and gained donors, instead of lost them.
I am a supporter of that organization, but I never knew that they threw you under the bus. That was definitely a big mistake. At the same time, look at how far you have come since then. You probably grew a lot more than you would have if you had stuck around in that “comfortable” setting. God had other plans for you.
Kirk,
You are absolutely right. I have grown and changed a lot. I still think highly of the organization and what they are doing.
I think there are three problems with using the Apostles Creed.
(1) It isn’t getting back to basics – it was written several centuries after Jesus. The real basics would be those creeds in the New Testament – like 1 Cor 15:3-7, Phil 2:6-11, or even “Jesus is Lord”.
(2) It leaves out the entire life of Jesus between his birth and his death – so how can it fairly represent christianity? Jesus came to establish God’s kingdom, demonstrate its power and call people to think again and join him in changing the world, and I suspect the lack of these in the creed is partly responsible for the truncation of the gospel in today’s church.
(3) It is all theory and nothing about response, living lives of sacrificial service for the kingdom, all of which form part of the early church’s message (see Phil 2 again), but often sadly missing today.
Technically, those NT creeds that you mentioned were written decades after Jesus, so those still miss the “basics.”
The creeds are not supposed to encompass all of Christianity. They are a jumping off point. The creed represents basic belief, not action (and not even entire belief). The Apostle’s Creed presents us with the Trinity (that is not all it presents, but just an example), which gives us the basic idea that the Gospel is about community, which then needs to be expanded through the teaching in the church to explain social justice, kingdom living, responsibility towards earth-care, etc. The creed does not cover all of this explicitly, but it leads to these teachings.
Does the lack of explicitness in the Apostle’s Creed leave open the possibility that a pastor or church could ignore the pressing issues of social justice, kingdom living, and earth-care, among many others? Certainly. It is not a faulty creed, however, but a faulty pastor/church that has ignored the life and teachings of Christ.
Both of you are making great points! This is why I love theology!
I agree that the Apostle’s Creed leaves out a lot, but I also agree that the answer is not necessarily more precision. Ever-increasing attempts at precision is what led to all the divisions within the church today.
I have to disagree with you. I think doctrinal statements are important! I do think, however, that many churches have gone too far. Each Sunday, we read the Apostle’s Creed. I feel that it is an incredibly important doctrinal statement! I also think that it is all that is needed, and a 30-page pamphlet of a Church’s doctrine is ridiculous. Instead of burning all doctrinal statements, let’s just get back to the basics!
Matthew,
Actually, this post is one in a much longer series on doctrinal statements, where I essentially end up arguing the same thing as what you are saying. I think the Apostle’s Creed is a great place to start.
just curious, did they give you a chance to recant, or did they sit down and talk with you about these ‘leanings’? Or did they just give you the axe?
Yes, the ministry president sat down with me, but I was never allowed to speak to the board. But there was nothing to recant. I was only studying these things, and did not actually believe any of them. I was told that by studying them, I might actually end up believing them. Ironically, even if I did end up believing them, there was nothing in the doctrinal statement one way or the other on any of the issues I was studying.
Gee… I wonder where we Christians got such a reputation for ‘checking our minds at the door’? : )
Sorry you had to go through that Jeremy.
Are you going to the wedding?
When I was the only person in a church meeting of a hundred plus, who voted against spending thousands on a building (mainly because of dodgy fiscal justification and concerns over leadership empire building), I obviously became villein of the peace! Was’nt long before I was side lined and decided to leave. My point, is that as ‘church’, we invest a huge amount of trust and power in the hands of our (ex)leaders, who tend to justify their ‘annointed’ position by invoking God with a cut and paste scriptural legal treatise underpinning their position! I left that particular ‘ministry’ over two years ago journeying into the organic unknown and have never looked back. Funny, but God is operating out here, in the unknown, with the untrained and the untutored in some remarkable and fantastic ways. Many leaders are terrified of church ‘devolution’, seeing it as a threat to Christendom and an attack of the enemy. When I was told my position could be demonic, I realised my decision was the right one! I’m sorry to hear of your experience, but I suspect God had other plans for your life! Fab blog posts and insight for us the great unchurched! Ian
Thanks AVJeaye,
They told you that your ideas were demonic because you didn’t think they should build a new building? Wow. I do think you are right about the fear in many church leaders hearts as they observe what is going on in the church landscape.
No trial seem pleasant at the time, and in some cases it takes years for the event to be placed in a better perspective.
In my life I was granted the opportunity to experience a “christian” cult, and the interaction with some very authoritarian “ministry”. This went on for about 17 years. When the “church” split, and eventually I walked away from the experience I was bitter.
In and through the grace of Jesus I have come to understand this event , and even treasure the experience. From this I now have a deep appreciation for the Ministry of Jesus Christ, (as in Him personally). I have been gifted with the ability to see that He was working with me all along, and that I would not be able to be where I am today without this experience, so now I can look back upon this time, and be thankful.
There is something wonderful for a Pharisee to see Jesus, and to be granted the grace to be transformed.
Great topic Jeremy, as you said the trickle is eventually going to turn into a flood, no man, or group of men will be able to withstand the Truth, and He will set us free.
Jim,
It is so true that no trial seems pleasant at the time. I am glad I went through what I did, as it opened my eyes to so many things and liberated me from several forms of idolatry.
Jesus will indeed set us free!
I am a missionary serving in a Muslim country who is self supported by many individuals and several churches. Last year I finished reading “Love Wins” by Rob Bell and shared a few things that I agreed with on my Facebook page. Several weeks later I get an email from the Missions Pastor of one of our sending/supporting churches saying that he wants to Skype with me about a few things. During the Skype call he called me out on these theological comments I had made earlier on Facebook about “Love Wins”. I actually defended some of these comments and I sensed he was challenged. But, I also backtracked on a couple of other comments I had made after having changed my view a bit since then. Although, to his credit the Missions Pastor was very generous and kind about it, I did receive a warning to be careful where I tread theologically speaking. This is because he answers to an elder board and we must be closely aligned with them doctrinally and theologically speaking. To some extent I can certainly understand this. But, if one dares to venture out and explore other theological views one must become guarded, like Harry Potter putting on the cloak of invisibility. I have since learned a lesson… I will remain in my theological closet while continuing to challenge and explore various views. But, I will also watch what I say or post on Facebook because Big Elder Board just might be watching.
BTW, please don’t cut and paste this into Facebook. 😉
Greg,
You better be careful! You are reading Rob Bell AND Harry Potter! 😉
Yes, when our support comes from other Christians, we can never be too careful about what we read, say, or write!
Burn your doctrinal statements? Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The solution, particularly in an increasingly Godless, postmodern, secular, ignorant and irrational Western “culture, is certainly NOT to throw more gas on the fire by joining the pagans in their ignorance and rebellion and nihilism. One of the posts upthread hit the nail on the head, I believe: the real problem with most “Christian” organizations, at least in the West, is that they are really about money in the end. That’s because most of them are 501 (c) 3 non-profit corporations. No, I am not saying it’s a bad thing, in and of itself, for them to be tax exempt (though that won’t last long anyway). Rather, I am saying that when they operate more like secular government or corporate or academic bureaucracies and less like the biblical Church, it’s only a matter of time before normal discourse is labeled as heresy. Have to keep the donors happy and the money flowing, you see. Such hypocrisy and dysfunction and greed is certainly a huge problem, but again: saying we should throw out scholarship and doctrine in response to that hypocrisy and dysfunction is 180 degrees wrong.