The Original Talk Hard: Defending the Role of the Critic in Christianity. Lots I would change in that essay, but it still holds up 6 years or so later.
Recently, I received an email from someone who has been a longtime reader of this blog, giving his reasons for being a regular reader and generous supporter.
This particular reader appreciated the writing I’ve done on the subjects of mental illness, psychiatric medication and emotional health. As this person is a professional in those fields and far beyond me in understanding, I was understandably happy to read that email.
I have received many thousands of emails in the last 8 years of Internet Monk. A sizable portion express appreciation for something that deserves a moment’s consideration: that this blog is one of the few places some folks have found where certain points of view can be discussed with relative civility.
I won’t attempt a listing, but any regular readers will know that I’ve made it part of the mission of this blog to be present an alternative view of any number of issues within evangelicalism in particular. I do so with provocative writing if possible, and with active moderation of the discussion. I’ve done this without expectation of finding there would be thousands of people reading and thinking: “O I’m not the only person who feels this way.” In fact, I’ve expected considerably more hostility and objection than I’ve received.
Recently, the IM comment threads have started routinely going over 100 comments. Interpret that as you will. In all the time I’ve done this blog, I have temporarily banned around 20 people, and absolutely banned 2.
Yesterday, a commenter aired the usual complaints at me:
I don’t affirm inerrancy.
I’m critical of “my brethren.”
I give “Papists and liberals” plenty of space.
I limit conversation.
Of course, as most readers know, I fully affirm the truthfulness of the Bible in the language of the Second London Confession and the Westminster Confession. Ask any of the dozens of advocates of gay marriage and gay ordination how I’m doing on taking the Bible seriously. What I’m not doing is allowing the word “inerrancy” to become a code word for a set of positions I don’t believe the Bible teaches. I’m not turning a blind eye to the hypocrisy that the “inerrancy” stampede has foisted on my denomination. Give me a confession made before the word “inerrancy” was invented, and I’m perfectly content.
There are thousands of people who don’t buy the kind of flat, literalistic inerrancy that is being sold among conservative evangelicals today, and, sorry to disappoint the gallery, but we don’t have to. Being a Baptist doesn’t force me to buy the search for the ark, young earth creationism, Hamm/Hovind, complementarianism, homeschooling, conspiracy theories, Dobson’s view of politics, bad Christian art, arrogant leaders, bad scholarship or the SBC’s view of itself as compared to other denominations.
Yes, I am critical of some of my brethren. I’ve never lived a day in Protestantism that there wasn’t a critical conversation going on. If the memo has gone out that we’ve stop asking questions and contending for answers, I didn’t get it. My blog is one tiny voice in the midst of a massive evangelical self-promotion machine. When I first called for the outing of Osteen as a motivational speaker, what had you heard from anyone in the evangelical establishment about him? (Oh, that’s different. Of course it is.)
The animosity some have towards this writer and this space comes simply because I have staked out a different position than they’ve been led to believe is the only allowable, God-endorsed, position allowed by the Christian worldview. Their orthodoxy, and the God who sponsors it, requires that dissent be quenched as an act of faithfulness. When I express dissent and protect its expression by others, I’m certain to be told by some amateur fundamentalist Freudian there’s something psychologically wrong with me. (Friend, if you believe you are the ultimate measure of mental health, please go on a world tour so the rest of us can see what it looks like. But just between you and me, I wouldn’t quit my day job on that one.)
The commenting voices at this site give witness to another view. There are Protestants who aren’t Catholics and don’t hate Catholics. There are Catholics willing to talk with Protestants as fellow Christians. There are Orthodox and mainliners seeking to relate to evangelicalism. There are Lutherans insisting we all know nothing about law and gospel. (That’s a joke.) There are Baptists who question the “What we need is more evangelism!” mantra. There are evangelicals who have nuanced views on the issue of abortion, women’s ordination, the nature of homosexuality and the Christian view of mental illness. There are people who give “Papists” and “liberals” space to talk just like the other kids in the class. There are many of us lost in the evangelical wilderness trying to find a drink of water and some food.
I don’t endorse all these views or their opposites. There are a number of issues where I’m not sure what I think, but I am determined to not be railroaded into being told that I must endorse or bow down to positions that I do not hold, am not required to hold and are not my conviction. I’m just as determined to tell my audience that other views exist as held by REAL PEOPLE.
If you look out in the back yard of the last twenty years of battles in the Southern Baptist Convention, there’s a baby in the bathwater. That baby’s older name was “soul competency.” More recently, he went by the name “priesthood of the believer,” but I like the previous name much better. In the “battle for the Bible” in the SBC, the moderate/liberals took those terms and used/abused them, causing conservatives to spend most of two decades bad-mouthing “soul competency” and “priesthood of the believer” as anathema to Bible-believing Christianity. Some of that response was necessary, but some of it has been singularly unfortunate and overblown.
In truth, Baptists have historically stood with the individual in his right to have his/her own convictions in regard to what scripture or a person’s own religion teaches. We sided with that principle when it caused us to defend Muslims and atheists. We sided with that conviction as a proper summary of Luther’s contention that his conscience about the Bible was adequate defense as to why he stood against the Pope. We defended that principle as essential to the classic definition separation of church and state endorsed religion. We understood that, without embracing all the tenets of anarchic individualism, it was right to protect and hear the minority. We rejected, historically, the tyranny of a class of theological enforcers and their political ambitions. We defended confessionalism, but we did not mindlessly defend all levels of uniformity. We realized, after painful lessons in the civil rights era and beyond, that the majority and their Bibles can be completely wrong.
Today, we live in an evangelicalism that is enamored with numbers and success. And of course, those vast numbers are told they must think, write, worship, vote, educate, live, preach and teach identically to one another because they possess the truth. (Or someone at the home office does…somewhere.) This is the sadness of being ranted at about the “sin” of refusing to use the proscribed word to describe inspiration or of daring to differ with some well-funded, fat cat majority with a mailing list. I may be wrong, but this web site is exercising something Baptist Christians used to care deeply about: DISSENT.
But in today’s atmosphere of sheeple following the media and denominational shepherds, we place no value on dissent. It’s far more impressive to rant about my failure to appreciate the fact that anyone who waves a Bible around should be free from having anyone actually differ with them. It’s now good, conservative sport to tell a dissenting fellow Christian that, as I heard today, my faith is about to collapse and/or I’m going Catholic. All this- ALL- because you have steadfastly decided other views are not worthy of your RESPECTFUL appreciation.
The reason I am unafraid to side with the dissenters and those asking questions that aren’t allowed is that history is moving to our side. The manipulators of orthodoxy are in trouble. They’ve taken our confidence and put the screws to us for the sake of their own power. The celebrity-driven churches are, for the most part, going to be exposed as having no clothes. The laboratories that produce these evangelical clones are shutting down as the experiments seem to have gone horribly wrong. The deluded majority can act as if they have squashed everyone’s arguments and rendered all competing opinions foolish, but in fact, quite the opposite is happening. A lot of people are dissenting, even in an atmosphere of intimidation and spiritual abuse. Write all the books and blogs you want. Have a conference and get 3000 men to wring their hands with you. You aren’t gong to stop the collapse of the kind of authoritarian fundamentalism that wants to keep all of evangelicalism in a stranglehold. It’s over.
Occasionally, I write with the express purpose of sounding a wake up call. I’m provocative and my audience appreciates that in my writing. I am not sounding so much of a call to arms as a literal wake up alarm to the sluggish and the sleepy. We are standing on the brink of momentous changes in the evangelical world. Many Christians brought up in a fundamentalism with all of the answers have discovered things are much different than they would have anticipated. They are exploring this new world, even as the old one is still shifting beneath their feet. Part of that experience is being told you shouldn’t speak or write what you feel. The better part of the experience is ignoring that, and speaking exactly what you’re thinking, feeling and discovering. “Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say,” as Will Shakespeare put it.
In the meantime, I consider IM a public service to people who need to get out of the way before a chunk of crumbling evangelicalism falls on their head. If the house isn’t falling where you are, that’s wonderful. Make whatever you want out of the reports from my part of the house. That’s your privilege as a reader.
YES!!! And may your tribe increase, Michael!
The thing about dissent is that sometimes you’re just as sheepish, but you’re just following different shepherds.
I would never use dissent as a synonym for truth, right, good, etc. Dissent is dissent. That’s all.
And I also made it clear there are limits to how much dissent can be aired in any particular situation. I allow my students to dissent, but there are forms of dissent I don’t allow.
“Sheeple”…
Hahaha, that was wonderful.
“I consider IM a public service to people who need to get out of the way before a chunk of crumbling evangelicalism falls on their head.”
Thank you!
You’re like our own personal “The More You Know” public service announcement
Amen, Michael.
You seem to be challenging a particular mindset, one that is almost Borg-like.
I believe that the Lord wants a person’s faith to be his own, not someone else’s.
We need to have our own relationship with the Lord, and not try to ride the coat tails of others.
Being in community with other sheep, and following the crowd as they go over a cliff are two different things entirely
Thanks again,
>>I don’t endorse all these views or their opposites. There are a number of issues where I’m not sure what I think, but I am determined to not be railroaded into being told that I must endorse or bow down to positions that I do not hold, am not required to hold and are not my conviction. I’m just as determined to tell my audience that other views exist as held by REAL PEOPLE.<<
AMEN brother AMEN
IM,
Provocative post–as usual.
The reason believers love your blog, is you have created a space for informed dissent. When Jesus teaches in the Gospels–he always engages in give and take; and Paul is always preaching a radical, liberating Gospel, but the ‘message’ often preached in Church seems far removed from either Jesus or Paul. We hear the call of this great, loving, freedom inducing Gospel, and then we’re deposited on the rubbish heap of bad theology and bad preaching.
Would the Bereans be allowed in Church today?
IMonk, you’ve opened the door out of the post-evangelical closet for me. Reading your blog and the buffet of comments is a banquet for a starving woman. Don’t shut down the kitchen now.
Mich-
Better question might be, “Would Jesus be allowed in the church today?”
“Many Christians brought up in a fundamentalism with all of the answers have discovered things are much different than they would have anticipated.” – Amen
Not a Christian. Abandoned my faith in god a long time ago.
If there’s been more like you around at the time, I might have stayed quite a bit longer. As it stands, you’re a credit to your religion and the sort of upstanding human being I’d be proud to have as a neighbor.
As a dissenter who oftentimes dissents in a completely off-the-wall direction, I appreciate this forum, Michael, and your management of it. It is thought provoking and oftentimes convicting. Thank you for the opportunities.
Thanks for this post. The last paragraph just about says it all as far as where I am right now; in the midst of a crumbling (or about-to-crumble) evangelicalism and trying to make sure that some chunk of it doesn’t fall on my head.
Michael. That’s the best comment I can imagine. Thanks.
BTW, I’m far more impressed with honest unbelief than phony religion. I recommend it all the time.
peace brother
ms
It seems like there is a fine line between healthy and unhealthy dissent (for lack of a better terms.) I think you are on the right side of that line Michael.
At some point the need for community overrides the desire to dissent. I.E. I disagree with you (speaking generically here and not about iMonk) but I am going to keep my mouth shut because I want to be part of this Church.
Keep up the healthy dissent!
I think any effective system has a way of encouraging, allowing and profiting from dissent. Evangelicals are so threatened by it, however, that we really handle it poorly. We over emphasize the wrong kinds of unity.
Imonk,
This is one of my two favorite blogs–whether I dissent from you or not.
Michael (not iMonk) writes:
“If there’s been more like you around at the time, I might have stayed quite a bit longer.”
My co-worker, an Atheist, thinks that I am an anomaly in Christian circles, but there are lots of us around. The internet just makes it easier for us to find each other.
Michael, please continue to join us and participate in our discussions. I am sure we can learn much from each other.
Michael…I love your writing, your choice of topics, your courage to be “out there” and your allowing us to think this stuff out together on your blog. Thank you and please keep up the good work. I am impressed by the volume of things that you write!
Hey, just noticed that there’s another Mich making a comment here. How do you like them apples? I’ll be the Mich with the pedestrian vocabulary.
Good post. If it’s not to much trouble, can you explain the “soul competency” term? Gracias.
My only experience with dissent in a christian context: I was part of a college campus ministry as a student, and the campus pastor did some things that were kind of wrong, or at least a lot of us felt they were wrong. I was one of the student leaders and so I was instructed by the campus pastor to discourage people from ‘gossipping’ about him, since gossip is a sin. So a lot of us bottled it up inside and only ever got round to discussing some of the issues we experienced after we had graduated. i wish now that I’d been more willing to speak my mind.
As one who reads the “signs,”
, I couldn’t help but notice that in paragraph 13, if I counted correctly, the first letters of the words in lines 2-5 spell “snob.” I don’t believe that needs anymore comment so I’ll shut the heck up and dissent no longer.
Michael,
Your blog depresses me sometimes, often makes me mad, always makes me think. I’ve been ungracious to you on this blog before and you’ve probably returned the favor at one time or another. I often don’t “get it”, that’s for sure.
And, doggone it, may God bless you. You’re a great writer, a prophetic voice, and a needed part of the blogosphere.
In other words, thanks for what you do. And thanks in advance for making me think (and maybe even get mad at you) the next time you post.
I remember what Chesterton said about getting fire from both extremes meaning that you were probably right where you needed to be.
I’m sorry to hear that being polite to Papists gets you labelled as a non-believer, Michael.
I certainly don’t think you’re going to swim the Tiber, and that’s fine. Though for those of you who believe in signs and omens, I did actually have a dream a couple of weeks ago that Michael and I were at Mass in the Parish church (I woke up during the part of the dream where we were saying the Creed going “Who was that guy? I know him… wait, it was – !”)
Dunno about you, Michael, but I’m worried
“In the “battle for the Bible†in the SBC, the moderate/liberals took those terms and used/abused them, causing conservatives to spend most of two decades bad-mouthing “soul competency†and “priesthood of the believer†as anathema to Bible-believing Christianity. Some of that response was necessary, but some of it has been singularly unfortunate and overblown.”
Wow. A balanced response to a period I got sick of. Does “priesthood of the believer” mean, as the moderate/liberals insisted, that I or a seminary professor whose salary I helped pay could believe/teach ANYTHING I wanted (biblical or not) and hide behind this sacred doctrine?
On the other hand, can we both be biblicists, and completely, albeit respectfully disagree?
And to my fellow conservatives, do they ever reach a point where it’s OK to stop attacking SOMEBODY? When they decided they’d won the inerrancy war and started aiming at seeker churches, charismatics, and anybody else they could find, I said, “this is where I came in” and left the show.
Since this post is mainly a defense/explanation of why you do what you do, Michael, may I add that if ALL you did was dissent, you would be just another, well, Baptist. The fact is, some of your greatest criticisms come from those who take issue with whom you affirm. Thanks for that.
Yesterday, a commenter aired the usual complaints at me:
…
I give “Papists and liberals†plenty of space.
…
I’d tell him “The Treaty of Westphalia ended the Reformation Wars in 1648, and you STILL haven’t gotten the news?”
Being a Baptist doesn’t force me to buy the search for the ark, young earth creationism, Hamm/Hovind, complementarianism, homeschooling, conspiracy theories, Dobson’s view of politics, bad Christian art, arrogant leaders, bad scholarship or the SBC’s view of itself as compared to other denominations.
I understood all of those terms except “complementarianism”. Quick definition?
And as an amateur artist & SF writer who’s just starting to go pro, I can attest that “bad Christian art” — especially in the genres I work in — gives me the Screaming Abdabs.
iMonk, if you’re taking flack on our behalf, thank you. You keep this space civilised, kind and sane. It’s a pleasure to read your posts as well as all of the (moderated) comments. This feels like a community to me now and it’s definitely a public service.
To Mich who posted at 6:39. I wondered what “soul competency” was too. I did an internet search. At http://www.txbc.org/1997Journals/Oct1997/Oct97SoulCompetency.htm I read what the controversy is about and I read that it means: “Soul competency is the idea that every human being is free and responsible before God for his or her faith or the lack of it.” I wouldn’t have thought many people would disagree with that, but reading the essay I think I understand what the folks are arguing about. It seems that some people are afraid that people will become too “independent” in their thoughts about how they relate to God, Christianity, the Gospel and put the Bible as second to their own experience.
The nice part about your “dissent” is that it’s a call to live the gospel, not to change it. Christians are programed that “dissent” is synonymous with going against long held Christian doctrine. True dissent is about reclaiming the truth.
I love this blog because its provides much needed “non-liberal†and “non-fundamentalist†dissent. You’re not trying to change Jesus, God, the Bible, or Christian History. You’re not trying to reject science, geology or believe only those things that support your faith. You tell it like it is, from your perspective, as a Christian and a rational human being.
Thanks.
I definitely don’t agree with everything that’s said here, but that’s OK. THAT’S OK — for me and everybody else.
Micheal
Not a Christian. Abandoned my faith in god a long time ago
Michael, your comment sounds like it comes from someone who’s known a lot of pain. If that’s the case, I am so very sorry. Please know how much I wish you well.
thank you. i’ve read your blog for years now and its so refreshing!
Amen to all. Especially to what Ray A. and Sharon said.
Thank you, iMonk, for all the work you do to make this a great place to come and think.
Michael,
Please write the book inside of you.
Earlier this week you told of givnig up TV.
There’s your time.
The wider world of Christians must hear these things.
Robert Lofland
iMonk – Seventeen years ago my family and I walked away from a place that looked like a real church, but was in fact a gnostic cult where the core leadership was engaging in the most profound and hideous kinds of spiritual sexual abuse. We have been part of a wonderful church for the last twelve years and have received tremendous healing and liberating teaching. Visiting this site, however, has been like engaging in a doctoral course in “How to Think Critically and Still Be a Christian.”
You, those who write as guests here (love, love, love the gangstas!), and many who comment, have made me laugh, cry, swear, pound my head, shriek for joy and slam the top down on my laptop. I have vowed on a couple of occasions to never read another thing written here…..and yet here I am…..still laughing, crying, cussing – and just in general…….LEARNING.
Thank you sir, from the bottom of my heart.
Michael,
I have appreciated this blog ever since the day I came across it – you always have a way of stating things that I could never come up with without sounding like a total nut case….. some think I am regarless but, that’s for another time.
One of the things I do so appreciate is the fact that one can ask the hard questions without being raked over the coals and told “bad boy… don’t do that again…” In my current situation (churchwise) being the one with the dissenting view is not necessarliy the easy road at all and this being especially true being a musician and seeing the whole of the SBCs worship and music heritage thown out on the trash heap. It’s been one of the hardest things to see and yet there is the helpless feeling that it is beyond turning it back now. There are, of course, other issues besides worship and music and you’ve covered that one very well too – this just happens to be the area that I’ve been most involved with in recent years. I have fast learned that I dare not question anything that’s going on at my church – especially in the area of worship and music. I stated a straight out position on this back in January during a discussion where others were stating theirs only thing is mine was the opposite – the only opposite and I felt the “shoulder” to the point that one lady hasn’t spoken three words to me since.
At any rate, something that I want to add is this regarding the guy who stated that you would be the kind of person that he would like to have as a neighbor which I think was a compliment meaning that you are real not plastic – not phony and that made me think of something…. I just wonder how many of our fundamendalist “brethern” are going to be suprised when the end comes? Listen, I my wife and I have two guys that live next to us in our sub-division and they are gay and you couldn’t find better people or better neighbors or friends -there’s not anything that they wouldn’t do for us if we needed it yet, I can’t even think of inviting them to my SBC church for anything for obvious reasons. Honestly, they are more christian than most of the “so called” christians that I know including myself (wake up to me!). I honestly belive that when the end comes for some of the “brethern” that they are the ones that are going to be looking across the great gulf begging for a drop of water from the fingertip of the people that they have beaten senseless with their big bibles over these issues and others insted of living Christ before them and treating them as Christ would – sometimes I think those folk are closer to God than many church folk and many of those folks will find God while the others who think they have him will find out they didnt’t. I don’t think the gay lifestyle is preferable but you have to get past that if you ever hope to reach people in these situaitons and others and quite honestly there are times that going next door and fellowshiping with the guys and their friends and family would be preferable to attending some the “church” things that are going on – no plasic and no masks next door and sometimes that’s just refreshing.
Now folks if this isn’t dissent I don’t know what is because if many of the folk at my church, including my pastor, knew this and many other things about my positions on many things I can promise you I would be put out in the middle of Strawberry Plains Pike in front of the church to be run over and put out of their misery.
There is no room for dissent anymore in most of current evangelicism in general and SBC in particular.
Michael, I don’t know if anything I wrote above makes sense as I tend to “chase rabbits” everywhere on the way back to the topic. My apologies – moderate/edit as needed.
The Guy from Knoxville
“Being a Baptist doesn’t force me to buy… bad Christian art…”
Bwah ha!
I know tackiness is not a sure sign of demonic activity, but I believe it anyway. I would also add “bad Christian pop music” to that list.
It’s a not-so-funny irony that the denomination which championed individual rights in matters of religion has morphed into an entity bent on squashing the mere hint of it.
Increasingly I feel more and more like an anomaly. My father still calls himself a Fundamentalist Southern Baptist, and he raised me to believe that God created the world over billions of years using evolutionary processes. I spent decades happily unaware that I couldn’t believe in theistic evolution and Gospel at the same time. I made the mistake of looking further into the matter and stumbled across an opened can of inerrant worms, and it’s been downhill ever since.
iMonk, I wish I shared your confidence that history is on the side of the dissenters.
We are standing on the brink of momentous changes in the evangelical world.
Old wineskins won’t hold new wine. Hey, I should write that down.
I’m sitting at my desk, at work, reading through these comments. Tears (of joy) are welling up in my eyes, I daren’t look up in case my colleagues see.
Guy from Knoxville: I don’t think the gay lifestyle is preferable but you have to get past that if you ever hope to reach people in these situaitons and others and quite honestly there are times that going next door and fellowshiping with the guys and their friends and family would be preferable to attending some the “church†things that are going on – no plasic and no masks next door and sometimes that’s just refreshing.
What you shared about the gay neighbors….and the gentleness and compassion for them in your tone…is DISSENT OF THE JESUS KIND. WAY TO GO! All sin robs its participants of things God desires for us. But for all sin left unrepentant, ‘sin when finished is death.’ Love your neighbor as yourself is great doctrine because Love never fails. You..and the neighbors…are positioned there for a reason. Make good use of opportunity. As for the church issues…I suggest just letting them go. It comes under’bearing the weaker brethren, turning the other cheek, and prefering others before oneself.’
You have been a breath of fresh air (pardon the cliche) to this Evangelical Anglo-Catholic. You’ll continue to be the air freshener that is sorely needed in Evangelicalism today. And don’t you ever let your supply of air freshener run out Michael! The room is stuffy enough as is without it getting stuffier.
+ Pax from the land Down Under (Australia).
Imonk, I feel you are being used as a tool of the Holy Spirit. Something is happening, not non-denominationalism, but inter-denominationalism where the family of God is learning to accept each other, with the cultural differences allowed and respected. Your forum is invaluable. Thank you and God bless you.
Thanks very much, JoanieD.
As a long time reader and one who has crawled out from under “a chunk of crumbling evangelicalism”, thank you.
This post is exactly why I’ve become a regular reader and IM podcast listener over the past several months! Thanks you for stating it so boldly and clearly, Michael!
Expounding: As a newer northern Southern Baptist, i was taught by former denominational affiliation that SBC was liberal. Then I read the adventures of the child monk. That does not sound liberal..
I am more familiar with Catholic Mass, having, attended many times, than with the full fledged Evangelical church. This blog has opened my eyes to what some people in my church have come from, and what others in my church rejected in their path to Christ. What an invaluable ministry tool.
But Michael, if you teach soul competency then you will no longer be able to control people. Oh…
There’s an ancient Hindu parable about a fly dancing on the antler of an elk boasting of how much impact he is having on the grand beasts attention, when the elk is actually completely unaware of his presence.
I sometimes think that what we consider to be of great import to the purposes of God parallels this tale.