{"id":4217,"date":"2008-05-12T00:30:48","date_gmt":"2008-05-12T05:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/12\/our-reasonable-faith-4\/"},"modified":"2010-09-11T09:03:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-11T14:03:00","slug":"our-reasonable-faith-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/12\/our-reasonable-faith-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Reasonable Faith 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This post is by RJS \u2013 looking at Keller\u2019s book, not as a pastor, an evangelist, or a theologian, but as a lay Christian who has been immersed in secular academia for 27 years as graduate student, postdoctoral scholar, and professor.<\/em>
\nChristianity is a Straightjacket \u2014 belief in absolute truth is an enemy of freedom\u2014it endangers our civic freedom because it divides rather than unites\u2014it stifles creativity and growth\u2014 \u201cChristianity looks like an enemy of social cohesion, cultural adaptability, and even authentic personhood.\u201d(p. 37) So run the complaints of many in our educated skeptical age. Tim Keller, in Ch. 3 of The Reason for God<\/a>\"\"suggests that \u201cthis objection is based on mistakes about the nature of truth, community, Christianity, and of liberty itself.\u201d
\n
\nKeller makes several good points in this chapter \u2013 truth (some idea of truth) is unavoidable; community cannot be completely inclusive \u2014and no community is; Christianity is not culturally rigid\u2014already most Christians live in Asia, Africa, or Latin America; and freedom isn\u2019t simple.
\nLet\u2019s consider but two of these \u2013 and related ones at that.
\nEvery community holds its members to standards of belief and behavior \u2014our freedom, our liberal democracy, depends on a shared and required set of beliefs and practices: most importantly the sanctity of personal choice and autonomy, a belief not shared in much of the world. A community should not be judged because it has standards for its members, rather a community should be judged on tests such as:<\/p>\n

Which community has beliefs that lead its members to treat persons in other communities with love and respect \u2013 to serve them and meet their needs? Which community\u2019s beliefs lead it to demonize and attack those who violate their boundaries rather than treating them with kindness, humility, and winsomeness? We should criticize Christians when they are condemning and ungracious to unbelievers. But we should not criticize churches when they maintain standards for membership in accord with their beliefs. Every community must do the same. (p. 40)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow \u2014 this is a telling indictment of much of our church isn\u2019t it?
\nChristianity is not a cultural straightjacket \u2013 rather, founded on a set of core beliefs, Christianity is and always has been adaptive of diverse cultures. Cultural diversity is built into the Christian faith from the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles of Paul and on to today. We worship one God, one risen Lord, but retain our cultural differences \u2013 every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. Greeks need not become Jews, Africans need not become Americans, Republicans need not become Democrats.
\nSo\u2026 This leads me to ponder:
\nWhat are the key beliefs and practices \u2013 the foundation required for membership in the community?
\nAnd
\nShould a Christian community maintain standards on nonessentials? If so \u2013 how?
\nThis last is a tough one \u2013 as I am convinced that our stance on nonessentials hurts the church and hurts our witness to the unchurched. It is hard to be an effective light to the world when the light observed from the outside is the glow of a fire that burns individuals within the church.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is by RJS \u2013 looking at Keller\u2019s book, not as a pastor, an evangelist, or a theologian, but as a lay Christian who has been immersed in secular academia for 27 years as graduate student, postdoctoral scholar, and professor. Christianity is a Straightjacket \u2014 belief in absolute truth is an enemy of freedom\u2014it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nOur Reasonable Faith 4<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This post is by RJS - looking at Keller's book, not as a pastor, an evangelist, or a theologian, but as a lay Christian who has been immersed in secular\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/12\/our-reasonable-faith-4\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Reasonable Faith 4\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is by RJS - 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