Why Churches Drift on Theology

I’m a conservative theologian. Not every position I hold would be considered conservative, but my approach to theology and practice is very conservative.

I believe every believer should develop a biblical worldview. I believe the Bible is an external plumb line we should use to determine what is right and good in the world. Here’s an episode of a podcast I used to do which explains this: Foundations Podcast Episode 2

And, I firmly believe that any local church’s theology and practice should be biblically based. It should not violate scripture.

It’s weird to have to write that out. But, over the last few years, as our culture drifts further into a post-Christian condition, I’m hearing comments from believers and church’s alike which sound like these:

“We like to focus more on what Jesus said in our teaching.”

“Paul included too much of his personal views in his letters.”

“There are a lot of really sweet and good people included in this [group that engages in behavior some verses call sin]”

“Why would there be so many positive expressions of [some behavior] if it was really a sin?”

“One of the best Christians I know is a [member of a group that is doing something considered a sin by some]”

“[Members engaged in behavior considered sin by some] have overcome such bigotry and oppression in the church and still love God. Someone who is wrong would have left long ago.”

I feel it, the sentiment expressed here. How much easier would the Christian life be if we could just use circumstances to define theological practice?

The problem is that cultural beliefs ebb and flow. Twenty years ago some churches were convinced homosexual behavior was sin. Today, some of those same churches are convinced they were wrong. What position will they hold 20 years from now? 

Want another example? 100 years ago some churches believed in segregation and slavery. Today, those same churches believe they were wrong.

Now hold on. I’m am NOT saying 100 years ago those churches were right. I’m saying historically, churches have allowed cultural circumstances to influence theology. And that is wrong. This is not a new problem. (Read 1 Corinthians for more examples.)

So, why do churches drift theologically on cultural issues? 

I started to give some contemporary examples. but if you have not run into a Christian or a church where this happening, you will. Here is what you will find- A pastor or teacher who has stopped thinking of the Bible as an anchor. At some point, they stopped looking to scripture as the basis for doctrine and practice. 

When culture begins to put pressure on a particular theological point, without a biblical anchor the teacher will begin to move. And the teaching will begin to reflect this new position. And they may even give some reasons for the change, some of which may sound plausible at first glance. They may even quote scripture.

What they won’t do is provide an in depth, exegetical analysis of relevant scriptures which influenced their new position. Because they have not done any. Instead, you get appeals to emotion, appeals to authority, ad hominem attacks, and proof-texted passages that may or may not be out of context. Bad reasoning all around.

The gnostics infested the Corinthian church, bringing pressure to bear. And that church began to adopt those ideas, until Paul set them straight. Rich slave owners in the South put pressure on Baptist churches and refused to change, and they split from churches with a correct theology about slavery. Modern churches feel the pressure to bend on issues of sexual identity and practice. 

Our world is fallen. Culture will always drift away from the truth. The currents will push and pull on churches and believers. The only defense is to be anchored in truth by scripture.

Believers and churches must commit themselves to study the Bible. They must learn how to properly interpret scripture. They must develop a biblical worldview. And then must examine issues through that lens. 

That’s how to stop drift in churches.

When pastors and leaders give no biblical basis for theology. Or give bad interpretation of a few passages while ignoring verses that seemingly contradict the position as they shift toward a position that is more in line with our culture- church members will follow that example. (James 3:1 comes to mind)

You want to keep your church from drifting? Do the work of exegesis. When you find yourself at what seems to be opposite points from scripture, study the scripture and find the truth. If you are in error, then change yourself. Determine your theology and practice as it is based on the Bible. 

Churches may change their theology and practice. Churches have in the past. But make sure that change is based on study of scripture. Not cultural pressure.

Creating Our Own Reality on the Internet

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Matthew 10:16 ESV

I saw the headline in this picture posted on Facebook. Since it wasn’t your normal clickbait title, I followed the link. In that article, which was on a super-uber-ultra-conservative-just-short-of-KJV-Only-kind-of-vibe website, I was shocked by the comments of the pastor of Hillsong NYC and one of the people in the picture, who seemed to be on staff as part of the worship team, at least as far as this article portrayed them.

I was deeply troubled. I met some of the Hillsong people from Australia when I lived in Orlando. I know a guy who attends Hillsong NYC. I wondered just how connected the NYC church was to the rest? It just didn’t sit right. Not just because the website was pretty opinionated. But it didn’t fit with my own experience with Hillsong’s people or ministry.

So, I contacted my friend who goes there. He gave me the low down. Yes that couple attended. One of them may have been in some sort of quasi-leadership in the choir as a volunteer, but once the church leadership found out about the two men they approached them privately, and after that conversation the couple left the church.  Apparently the couple went on the show Survivor, and when the audition tapes were released by CBS, church leadership became aware of the situation and went to the couple.

That’s a little different than “Hillsong NYC Church has an “Engaged” Openly Homosexual Couple Leading the Choir” isn’t it?

I did a little digging and found that they were pulling quotes out of different articles from all over the place, from as far back as October 2014. And many of these posts were on conservative news or opinion sites.

I later found an article from the Christian Post from back in October of 2014 where Brian Houston, the pastor of Hillsong, had issued a statement correcting some quotes that were in a New York Times article from the same time period. The NYT quotes were the ones used in this new August of 2015 post. In the statement the pastor released he says (among other things); “”Nowhere in my answer did I diminish biblical truth or suggest that I or Hillsong Church supported gay marriage… I challenge people to read what I actually said, rather than what was reported that I said. I believe the writings of Paul are clear on this subject.”

Then I ventured into the comment section because I wanted to let them know what I had found out. Obviously this is an opinion site, not a news site, but the story they had cobbled together for their opinion was factually wrong. The site was making some strong allegations, but had not contacted the church for any statement. Several people in the comments were talking about the inaccuracies of this article.

When I posted my information, the author of the post replied by reposting one of the same quotes from his article. This quote was from January, and said some weird stuff. Things that needed to be addressed by the church. And according to my friend who attends there, it had been addressed. Context and timing matter. They refused to accept that their version of reality was wrong. I intentionally did not include a link to the article because of that fact. You can search the title and find it if you really want to see it. There is at least one more article on the same subject that appears to have gotten all of the content from the original-incorrect post.

So, here’s a very conservative website, quoting from other conservative websites and cherry picking quotes from other publications to create their own version of reality. They are creating a story from information that is more than 6 months old. Any information that differs with this story is either not mentioned, or denied by the authors when mentioned in the comments. I noticed that there was quite a bit of traffic on the post, and there were no less than 11 advertisements running down the side of this little webpage. And from the comments, a lot of people were eating it up. I guess an article on a church that actual does biblical discipline wouldn’t generate the page views they needed for ad revenue?

This is not healthy. No matter what kind of views you have on any ideas, generating content in this kind of echo chamber is bad news. And it’s very common online.

Recently there were a rash of false news stories that Christians shared without bothering to find out if they were true. Remember that one from “NBC(dot)CO” instead of .com? This sort of thing has been going on for a long time. I used to get 2-3 emails a year saying that a famous atheist (who had been dead for years) was suing to get all religious TV off the air. That was actually a lawsuit from decades ago that was filed by someone else. and thrown out of court. But someone had put the hoax together and well-meaning, but flat wrong, Christians kept falling for it.

Please, please, when you read something online, look at the source. Do some research. Do not just accept anything that comes along. It’s way too easy to see a controversial post that feeds into your own views, and fears, and just adopt it, believe, it, share it, and propagate it without doing any critical thinking on your own.

Think about it before you share it.

Update: New statement by Hillsong Senior Pastor Brian Houston about the article mentioned above.

[I updated this post with new information regarding articles in the New York Times and on Christian post, and additional articles on this subject.]

Dear Christians, The Culture War is Over, We Lost.

{I don’t normally post on political topics, or even on solely spiritual ones. Mostly I write about filmmaking from a biblical worldview, or church tech, etc… but I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while. Regular posts will resume after this brief interruption.}

Dear Christians,

In a short time the Supreme Court will rule on marriage in America. But no matter what that ruling is, it won’t change this fact:

The culture war is over. We lost.

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We lost because it took 20 years for us to realize we were at war. This war of ideals started in the 1960s, but the Religious Right got going in the 80s. By then we were already on the defensive. We were most concerned about maintaining the power to enforce our rules. But legal authority alone does not engender revival.

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We lost because we decided to let school and church teach our kids the most important lessons. We shirked our responsibility as parents. We are supposed to “train up a child” and teach them what it means to live a righteous and holy life. Instead we left that education up to Sunday School teachers who saw kids for 1 hour a week. How can we be surprised when a college student leaves home and then drops out of religious practice? We didn’t teach them what was important. Someone else did. How can we be surprised when our children’s views differ from our own? We didn’t teach them.

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We lost because our own faith is little more than weekend window dressing. We go to church, and then go home and live like everyone else in the world. We don’t live as Christ did. Non Christians look at us and see little beyond a seemingly irrational, deeply-held belief that we are right and they are wrong. But if we are different and correct, why don’t we live differently? Why don’t we love differently?

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We lost because we were fighting the wrong war. By all means, vote and speak up about morality, injustice, and erosion of freedom. But those things are not the reason we live on this earth. God didn’t ask us to protect our way of life, he asked us to be ambassadors of the reconciliation. I fought in this political war. I wrote about it, I voted my values, and railed against changes. It’s easy to get riled up about things that erode your status quo, it’s hard to live a life that proves your claims are real and better. The war against sin is less about other people’s actions, and more about our own.

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We lost because we were fighting a political war when we should have been fighting a spiritual one. Do we believe our enemy is not flesh and blood? Do we really believe there is a spiritual aspect to this conflict of ideals and morals? It’s easier to rally the vote and cry about discrimination than it is to get on your knees and pray and trust that God hears and is in control. Want to change the world? Coercion through legal means doesn’t change anything but outside behavior, and that’s temporary at best. Change the world- truly change the world by changing hearts.

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We lost because we were more concerned with making sure everyone behaves correctly than we were with making sure everyone has a personal, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. We were more concerned with proving America was founded on Christian principles than leading Americans to Christ. We were more concerned with telling people what was sinful than we were in helping people find the one person who could take that sin on himself.

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We lost the culture war.

 

Let the spiritual revolution begin!

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2 millennia ago a small group of believers was not in a position of political or legal authority. In fact, many were killed for their beliefs. They focused on one thing, making disciples. They didn’t shy away from speaking the truth, they called people to repentance. They lived lives that marked them as different.

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Let the spiritual revolution begin!

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Their lives were not easy, and they were often persecuted. But they were faithful. They made disciples. And that small group of believers grew to over 2 Billion today. Somewhere along the way we, in Western culture, lost the sense of urgency, lost the love for people and desire to see them in a reconciled relationship with God. We became satisfied. We became preoccupied with maintaining the status quo. I fear the only thing that will shake us from our steadfast satisfaction is the shattering of society as we know it.

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The culture war is over, and we lost. Let the spiritual revolution begin!

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Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think below. Normally I post about media from a biblical worldview, like these short films/shows.

iPad App Promises New Experience on Election Night

ABC’s News iPad app is different than most news apps. The spinning globe of news takes some getting used to. But you can find ABC News content, and read up on the latest reports from ABC.

The most recent update added some new features specifically related to the Fall election. Prior to the results you can pick who you think will win. After you make your predictions, watch the live results in the app. Promises to be an interesting way to spend election night.

Obama’s Snitch Line and the End of Public Discourse

Once in a while I need to say something about politics. Bear with me, I’ll be back to other topics later.

I ran across a link to this story, where a person who commented on a news story was reported to the government for quoting his state’s motto in criticism of the president’s views on healthcare. Because the motto has the word “die” in it, the Secret Service actually called him to check out the comment as a threat.

This story mentions the now infamous “snitch line” for reporting “fishy” information about the health care reform… excuse me, health insurance reform. There is so much misinformation and political spin out there that it may be impossible to know what is actually true about the bill until it passes (or is defeated). I suspect that the Obama administration would like it if articles like this one would be “flagged” so they can refute the claims there.

In short, I don’t like the degree to which the government is messing with healthcare. I think we need some reform, but nothing to the extent we are hearing about. And don’t get me started about a single-payer system.

But what I find much more troubling is that the standard response is not public discourse and debate, but an ever lengthening stream of talking points to beat down opponents. To ask Americans to watch out for “fishy” statements from those that disagree with them? To go so far as to set up an easy way to report those statements? Oh, I know, it must just be an attempt to get the “truth” out there.

By publicizing it, and now beginning to act on these tips, the government is intimidating those who would disagree. What average person wants the trouble of dealing with being reported for speaking their mind on a political issue? We are apathetic enough as a country, this will discourage many from speaking out. Sure, the officials you ask would deny that was their intention, but it is intimidating.

Now we see the federal government (with the help of their liberal supporters) in a propaganda program to stifle public discourse, and discredit those who speak out as being part of some sinister right-wing mob. Right. The polls (so closely followed in the election, but now ignored) show a major shift in public opinion on this matter. But, Democrats can’t imagine that regular people would speak out in public town hall meetings, and ask hard questions. Surely they must be part of some vast plot to publicly defeat the healthcare measure. So they are beginning to be very selective about who they let into these meetings. These public town halls are becoming a bigger farce than ever. If conservatives voice their opinion, they are “not representative” and are some sort of organized plot to derails a bill they don’t want. So we exclude people that we know have a differing opinion… and the town halls fail in their purpose. Our elected leaders are secluded from opposing views, and the people don’t get to hear why the leaders support the bill. Just because Democrats are conspiracy theorists.

While the Republican leadership may want to control the masses, conservatives are still pretty fed up with them, too. No, these people are just exercising their rights under the constitution. They are making their voices heard. If the left really thinks that radio talks shows have this much power, no wonder they are pulling out all the stops. These are not pawns of some right-wing mob, they are regular people with an opinion. Just because it’s one you don’t like, you shouldn’t ask other Americans to snitch on them, or defame them and accuse them of being part of something sinister.

Were the shoe on the other foot, liberals would be screaming their throats raw about this. Freedom of speech is a right even if you are wrong. Intentional or not, it is inexcusable for the government to intimidate citizens under threat of being reported for what they say about a political position. If this kind of thing keeps up, how long until all public discourse is gone?