Blogotional

There is no doubt in my mind that one of the greatest problems in Christianity is when we place our religion in front of our faith. That is to say, when we worship the church instead of God. It is all around us. That phenomena is in some sense the genesis for my embryonic book project.

But there is a real danger in holding that observation too tightly - we begin to worship the absence of religion, and forget God as well. Never has that been more apparent to me than when I followed the links here to this post, "Straight, Not Narrow: The Warning Signs of Toxic Religion" which takes he material from this forum. I must admit to be almost completely bumfuzzled when I agree with the spirit of something so much and yet find it headed in such a wrong-headed direction.

They present 8 "warning signs" - I'm just going to pick a few for comment.

A religious spirit places emphasis on doing outward things to show others that God accepts him. We deceive ourselves into believing that we can win God?s approval through a religious dress code, certain spiritual disciplines, particular music styles or even doctrinal positions.

This one isn't too bad, I agree that God's acceptance is of God and not performance based, but consider the boldface emphasis for a minute. The way this is phrased gives the appearance that Christianity is purely about internal things, "feelings and emotions." To the contrary, Christianity will be excessively outwardly expressed, but as a result of internal transformation - if we stop with the internal, we are still do not have all the gospel.

A religious spirit develops traditions and formulas to accomplish spiritual goals. We trust in our liturgies, denominational policies or man-made programs to obtain results that only God alone can give.

Here we find the baby thrown out with the bathwater. Formulas are indeed problematic, but traditions are of extreme value. Wisdom can only be accumulated with age and time, tradition is merely a way to preserve such hard-earned wisdom. It is the height of hubris to think we can know better today than the accumulated wisdom of the ages, whatever we can know today is built on that accumulation, which has come to us as tradition.

A religious spirit rejects progressive revelation and refuses to embrace change. This is why many churches become irrelevant to society. They become so focused on what God did 50 years ago that they become stuck in a time warp - and cannot move forward when the Holy Spirit begins to speak in new ways. When religious groups refuse to shift with God?s new directives, they become "old wineskins" and God must find more flexible vessels that are willing to implement His changes.

There is one heck of a difference between "change" and "progressive revelation." Change can talk about anything from music styles to the color of robes the pastor wears, or does not wear. But revelation - that's the word and will of God. God does not alter His character on a dime - whimsically deciding what was bad yesterday is good today. God is indeed a God of process, but process implies direction, foundation, and an unwavering goal. The idea of "progressive revelation" carries with it the possibility of a moving target and a capricious God - a God more akin to Greek mythology than Abraham, Moses, and Christ.

What is so sad in this, is that my spirit wants to consider those that put this forth as brethren. We share the sense of brokenheartedness at God's church standing so in the way of God Himself. But based on what I have read here, I see them in a place it has taken me a while to work my way out of - the answer lies not in the rejection of the tools God has given us - down that path we simply substitute the new tools and finds ourselves in the same sin. No, the answer lies in the reformation and restoration of the tools time and the Holy Spirit have given us.

Cross-posted at How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church

Related Tags: tradition, faith, religion, value, revelation, change