Buddhism<\/a> are not a terrible thing. The church needs guidelines, direction, and sometimes even lines in the sand to say \u201cthis far you may go and no further.\u201d<\/p>\nHowever, the current\u00a0obsession\u00a0with the dogmatic litmus test is problematic for several reasons. To begin, many of the people\u00a0administering\u00a0the test often have no authority to due so. Take for example, our friend Mark Driscoll. By his own confession he ordained himself. Which means, regardless of what he may want to say otherwise, his ultimate authority, like so many of his other\u00a0autonomous\u00a0clergy friends, is himself. This frees them all to make definitive theological claims with no regard to any historical church tradition. They are free to pick and choose at their leisure what is \u201cessential\u201d \u00a0for the faith, or rather, what the dogmatic litmus test is. As a result, any self-ordained prophet can decided for his (rarely her) church what they \u201cmust believe\u201d and then label those who dissent as \u201cwolves among the sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n
What we see then are theological tenets that have never been the markers of orthodoxy, turned into the heart of Christianity. For example, for many evangelicals today the dogmatic litmus test requires a person to reject evolution, affirm Biblical inerrency, never allow a woman in a position of leadership, and\u00a0subscribe\u00a0to a particular view of the atonement (usually penal substitution). However, there is no historical creed or church council (at least when there was such a thing as \u201cone church\u201d) that affirmed these things as the demarcation lines for orthodoxy. They are simply theological gut feelings and personal Biblical interpretation.<\/p>\n
And I think that\u2019s what the church must remember. Just because we believe something in our heart or are convinced that the \u201cBible plainly says so\u201d does not mean it is true, particularly when our truth claims have never been affirmed by the church. We may think they have, but that is only because our perspective of what is or is not Christianity only goes back, at best, one or two hundred years.<\/p>\n
American\u00a0evangelicalism\u00a0is profoundly, and\u00a0tragically, influenced by the rise of Christian fundamentalism. These religious zealots have so infiltrated the church that it is hard for many of us to know what really does define the faith. These are not always the fiery tent preachers of yesteryear. Often times, they dress the part of hipster, play the latest worship music, and occupy the trendiest of spaces, but their message is the same: conform or leave; turn or burn.<\/p>\n
The result of this infiltration is, what I think is the other great reason for the church to\u00a0abandon\u00a0evangelicalism: There is no beauty or imagination in fundamentalism.<\/p>\n
Fundamentalism, to which I think\u00a0evangelicalism\u00a0is inextricably tied, is not interested in understanding the world. It simply wants to reshape the world in its own dogmatic image and burn anything that gets in its way. The goal is a monochromatic faith in which everyone blindly follows the leader and any opposition is quickly and harshly dealt with.<\/p>\n
When fundamentalism is allowed to reign, the Christian faith is reduced to a crude\u00a0caricature. In fundamentalism, there is no room for beauty and\u00a0diversity, only conformity. If other Christians don\u2019t look, act, speak, think, vote, and dress exactly like me, then they must not be true Christians. In fundamentalism, there is no space for imagination and artistic expression, only secular rejection and\u00a0mimicry. Any art that is not particularly religious in nature and conforming to a particular sense of taste is tossed aside or condemned. When art is produced, so much of it is lacking in originality, nothing more than a cheap parody of something that was successful in the \u201csecular world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The church must rediscover her capacity for diversity, beauty, and imagination.<\/p>\n
To\u00a0achieve\u00a0this, I think the church must relearn her ability to allow for diversity on non-essentials. To do this, however, we will need to gain a bit of perspective and realize that many of the things evangelicalism tends to cling so tightly to were not held by other\u00a0Christians\u00a0for most of the church\u2019s history. This is true particularly those of us in American Protestantism. We must find a way to understand that Christianity is not a white, middle-class, American faith. It is a faith which has been\u00a0incarnated\u00a0across countless generations, cultures, and languages. If anything, Christianity has very little to do with white, middle-class, America. That is not to say that our particular demographic has nothing to contribute. Rather, we should know our place in the history of the church and it is a profoundly small one.<\/p>\n
Despite the seemingly infinite diversity of expressions of Christianity over 2,000 years she has managed to not only survive, but thrive, all the while maintaining at least the\u00a0semblance\u00a0of orthodoxy. I think the church should learn from this and abandon the fear mongering of fundamentalist, dogmatic evangelicalism. Jesus has continued to be known over the centuries and the gospel has continued to be preached no matter what pressures of time or culture it has faced. Simply put, God doesn\u2019t need us to defend God. God is not afraid of questions or doubts and God is certainly not afraid of\u00a0diversity. To say that God is Triune is to affirm that fundamentally God is in a diverse relationship.<\/p>\n
If we are truly people made in the image of that God, then we must learn to embrace the beauty of that diversity. In doing so, the church can boldly face the future knowing that the diversity and complexity she will encounter will only make her stronger. And in turn it will give her the imagination she needs to proclaim the gospel in\u00a0unforeseen\u00a0ways for generations to come.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following is the fourth installment in a series of posts on why I believe the church must abandon evangelicalism.\u00a0You can find\u00a0part 1 here,\u00a0part 2 here, and part 3 here. \u00a0 I love theology. I think it\u2019s a profoundly important and\u00a0inescapable\u00a0component of the church. Theology shapes our identity. It tells who we are, or a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/abandoning-evangelicalism-part-4.jpg\" "\\"abandoning")
<\/a><\/p>\n