A couple of weeks ago I went on a podcast Sacred Shenanigans. Of the many things we discussed we got around to the “real” “Gospels” that different branches of American Evangelicalism ascribe to. This is different than whatever stated doctrine or statement of faith these same Christians claim to hold. Rather, it is culturally and practically how fundamentalists, authoritarians, and charismatics in essence “promise” power and prosperity. I think it’s important to recognize these because it is so easy to fall into one if not more of these false promises.
As I read this, I was reminded of the Western interpretation of the story of Jacob wrestling God - I remember hearing lessons and sermons about how strong Jacob was, how his strength basically impressed God and that is why he was renamed Israel, how if we we were strong in faith we too could be a hero like Jacob. But in reality, the story says that Jacob was permanently lamed in that encounter and all he could do was keep clinging to the one with whom he wrestled - it suggests that an encounter with God might mean we are the weaker for it, as Paul later said about his own thorn in the flesh.
As someone diagnosed with a disability last year I’m becoming far too aware how little space the American church has for people who will be broken for the rest of their lives
Jay, this is very good. Thank you for putting it together.
I grew up as a pastor's kid in a nondenominational church that managed to be a strange cocktail of all three things you describe here. It took me a long time to untangle from all of the falsehoods, and (perhaps because so much of it was formative to me) I may do so for the rest of my natural life.
For this, and for the sake of other folks in a similar position, I appreciate writers like you who strive to take Jesus himself seriously while being unafraid to question and test everything else the church is tempted to add to him. We are too quick to want to undo his finished work, it seems
I vividly recall sitting in a conservative church service listening to a sermon on Mark. As I was reading the Scripture silently in my heart and hearing the words of the sermon, the Jesus I was reading about was far more compassionate than the hammered words coming from the man of God.
I think there’s a byproduct of a kind of fundamentalism that cannot be compassionate because that would be “soft” on the truth that ultimately justifies them.
As I read this, I was reminded of the Western interpretation of the story of Jacob wrestling God - I remember hearing lessons and sermons about how strong Jacob was, how his strength basically impressed God and that is why he was renamed Israel, how if we we were strong in faith we too could be a hero like Jacob. But in reality, the story says that Jacob was permanently lamed in that encounter and all he could do was keep clinging to the one with whom he wrestled - it suggests that an encounter with God might mean we are the weaker for it, as Paul later said about his own thorn in the flesh.
As someone diagnosed with a disability last year I’m becoming far too aware how little space the American church has for people who will be broken for the rest of their lives
Jay, this is very good. Thank you for putting it together.
I grew up as a pastor's kid in a nondenominational church that managed to be a strange cocktail of all three things you describe here. It took me a long time to untangle from all of the falsehoods, and (perhaps because so much of it was formative to me) I may do so for the rest of my natural life.
For this, and for the sake of other folks in a similar position, I appreciate writers like you who strive to take Jesus himself seriously while being unafraid to question and test everything else the church is tempted to add to him. We are too quick to want to undo his finished work, it seems
Thanks and thanks for reading. It’s difficult to separate what was false and what was true in with the false.
I vividly recall sitting in a conservative church service listening to a sermon on Mark. As I was reading the Scripture silently in my heart and hearing the words of the sermon, the Jesus I was reading about was far more compassionate than the hammered words coming from the man of God.
I think there’s a byproduct of a kind of fundamentalism that cannot be compassionate because that would be “soft” on the truth that ultimately justifies them.