{"id":18570,"date":"2013-10-25T07:49:46","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T11:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=18570"},"modified":"2013-10-25T07:49:46","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T11:49:46","slug":"the-most-honest-places-in-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/the-most-honest-places-in-town.html","title":{"rendered":"The Most Honest Places in Town"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cChurches should be the most honest place in town, not the happiest place in town.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Walter Bruggeman<\/p>\n

Pete Enns shared the above quote in a post<\/a> that highlights the psalms of lament. The Bible, taken as a whole, doesn\u2019t suggest that human beings ought to simply believe, or keep their doubts and complaints to themselves, or never question. Job is praised for questioning and his friends condemned for giving pat orthodox answers. The Psalms are full of complaints and questions. Churches should be places that provide support for honesty, and not places where we cover up<\/a> hurts or maintain a facade<\/a> of either having all the answers, or always feeling like we\u2019re on top of things. I\u2019m grateful that the church I attend, Crooked Creek Baptist Church<\/a>, is a place that seeks to make such honesty not just a theoretical emphasis, but a lived reality.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo by Jim Grey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cChurches should be the most honest place in town, not the happiest place in town.\u201d \u2014 Walter Bruggeman Pete Enns shared the above quote in a post that highlights the psalms of lament. The Bible, taken as a whole, doesn\u2019t suggest that human beings ought to simply believe, or keep their doubts and complaints to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":18575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[1880,1888,4749,6336,8994,9700,13525],"class_list":["post-18570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psalms","tag-church","tag-churches","tag-honesty","tag-lament","tag-peter-enns","tag-psalms","tag-walter-brueggemann"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Most Honest Places in Town<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cChurches should be the most honest place in town, not the happiest place in town.\u201d -- Walter Bruggeman Pete Enns shared the above quote in a post that\" \/>\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\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/the-most-honest-places-in-town.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Most Honest Places in Town\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cChurches should be the most honest place in town, not the happiest place in town.\u201d -- Walter Bruggeman Pete Enns shared the above quote in a post that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/the-most-honest-places-in-town.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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