Chris at Cognitive Discopants (I love that name!), wrote a revealing post on his blog yesterday about why he has difficulty trusting Christians. I am at a different place than he is on some of the issues he raises, but I think he is right on target with his concerns.
Here is some of what he wrote:
It’s been a few years since I began to see my truth filter for what it was. I’ve come out the other side like a Boy Scout after a geomagnetic reversal – my compass now points the opposite direction. In the same way that I once distrusted non-Christians, I now distrust Christians. That’s not to say that I think the average Christian is likely to lie to me. On the contrary, I find that most Christians do prize honesty and usually try to be truthful, at least on a personal level.
The problem is our willingness to lie to ourselves.
It isn’t the secular world that force-fits everything into its anti-God worldview. It’s evangelicals who have taken fields of study, such as biology, archaeology, and biblical studies, and mutilated the square pegs to make them fit into their round holes. They rigidly adhere to a belief structure (typically stemming from a prior commitment to biblical literalism and innerancy) that can countenance no doubt or uncertainty. Thus, when evidence comes along that calls their paradigm into question, they have no choice but to deny, ignore or distort the data to make it fit.
Those who are the best at denying, ignoring and distorting the evidence are heralded as apologists for the faith. And evangelicals love apologists because they do all the hard thinking for them, while invariably arriving at faith-affirming conclusions. Their books fly off the Christian bookstore shelves dispensing whatever ad hoc explanation or special pleading might be required to salvage the evangelical belief system from the perils of uncomfortable fact.
I know exactly what Chris is talking about, and respect him for being willing to take the plunge and see how deep the rabbit-hole goes. My only advice for him (and others in a similar situation) is — be careful. You’re liable to get branded a heretic, and if you have a ministry job, you will get fired.
Thanks for the link Jeremy. Fortunately I’m self-employed, so I don’t need to worry about losing a job. Only a few close friends know where I stand on these contentious issues. I was, however, asked by our pastor not to talk to anyone in the church about my acceptance of evolution (and trust me – I hadn’t been) because it was “dangerous”. Others are a little more open-minded.
I bet your pastor won’t let you teach a Sunday school class either! Ah well. We must protect the flock, after all.
I think I lnow why you linked to this and yet I can’t help but cry out against the evangelical straw man in the quotes. Sure there are many who may fit the profile but a reasonale person knows not to make them the poster boys. Personally I find evolution and natural selection to be the children of not only a non-biblical worldview but a logical and philosophical inconsistency.
Bobby,
I do not believe in evolution either, or some of the other things that Chris mentions. But I value questioning what we have been taught, and making sure that the Bible teaches what others say it does. That is what I think the post was all about, and why I linked to it.
You know, finding my way back to my Christian roots as I say, it has been hard. Especially since my husband and a woman whom he met in youth camp when they were teenagers decided to have an emotional affair behind my back and then left under the notion that he had to find himself but in reality he was leaving to be with her. Her marriage had ended and she reached out for a “friend” but it quickly became more than that. And she, nor he found anything wrong with what they did or were doing and she claims to be a Christian. I devoted one at that.
It doesn’t make me not trust Christians it makes me not trust her or him and who they are. BUT, I also know that I must pray for my enemies as I pray for my friends.
Melanie,
That is a very sad story. I am sorry that happened to you. I cannot imagine how painful that was, and still is. You are on the right track though, I think, in realizing that he does not represent all Christians.