{"id":30248,"date":"2015-05-15T10:43:14","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T14:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=30248"},"modified":"2015-05-15T10:43:14","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T14:43:14","slug":"the-very-condition-of-humanity-is-to-be-wrong-about-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/the-very-condition-of-humanity-is-to-be-wrong-about-god.html","title":{"rendered":"The Very Condition of Humanity is to be Wrong about God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Rachel<\/p>\n

When Rachel Held Evans shared these words on Facebook, I was immediately struck by how well they encapsulated a crucial point, and thoughts they should become a meme. Here\u2019s the context:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard for me to admit when I\u2019m wrong. It\u2019s partly my personality, partly good-old-fashioned sinful pride, partly just what it means to be human. But I\u2019ve been thinking today it\u2019s also got something to do with this lingering sense that God punishes us for being wrong. Growing up, I heard a lot of Christians say that if we get our theology wrong, if we make mistakes in how we understand the Trinity or atonement or religious pluralism, we risk getting spewed out of God\u2019s mou<\/span>th and sent straight to hell for all of eternity. (I didn\u2019t pick this up from my parents so much as the broader religious culture. My parents always spoke of God in loving, parental terms, and they approached their own faith & theology with great humility.) It\u2019s a frightful thing \u2013 thinking you have to get God right in order to get God to love you, thinking you\u2019re always one error away from damnation. It\u2019s a kind of legalism, really. And to this day, I fight like hell to prove I\u2019m right about religion and politics, partly because in the back of mind I sense there are dire consequences to being wrong. How ironic. The very condition of humanity is to be wrong about God. The moment we figure God out, God ceases to be God. Maybe it\u2019s time to embrace the mystery and let ourselves off the hook.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2013 Rachel Held Evans<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Rachel Held Evans shared these words on Facebook, I was immediately struck by how well they encapsulated a crucial point, and thoughts they should become a meme. Here\u2019s the context: It\u2019s hard for me to admit when I\u2019m wrong. It\u2019s partly my personality, partly good-old-fashioned sinful pride, partly just what it means to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[4005,4848,7250,9854,9891,12508,13922],"class_list":["post-30248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theology","tag-god","tag-human-condition","tag-meme","tag-quote","tag-rachel-held-evans","tag-theology","tag-wrong"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Very Condition of Humanity is to be Wrong about God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Rachel Held Evans shared these words on Facebook, I was immediately struck by how well they encapsulated a crucial point, and thoughts they should\" \/>\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\/2015\/05\/the-very-condition-of-humanity-is-to-be-wrong-about-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Very Condition of Humanity is to be Wrong about God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Rachel Held Evans shared these words on Facebook, I was immediately struck by how well they encapsulated a crucial point, and thoughts they should\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/the-very-condition-of-humanity-is-to-be-wrong-about-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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