A Mind At Play

When I was a wee bairn, I watched Sesame Street almost daily. Cookie Monster was my favorite character. I identified with the little blue muncher, probably because we shared an unhealthy obsession with Chips Ahoy. One of my other favorite features on the show was the “One of These Things is Not Like the Others” segment. Remember the catchy song?

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

They’d show four things, and one of the things would be different: three letters and a number, three circles and a square, you get the idea. Your job was to pick out the thing that didn’t belong with the others.

A few days ago, I was reading this story about a Southern Baptist church in Georgia that is probably going to be removed from fellowship because the Church appointed the pastor’s wife as a co-pastor. The story reminded me of a “One of These Things is Not Like the Others” moment I had a few years ago.

The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention was preparing to fire some missionaries because they refused to sign a statement affirming the Baptist Faith and Message. I was discussing the situation via e-mail with a former IMB trustee, and I asked her what were the non-negotiable doctrines that a person must believe in order to qualify as a missionary. Her response:

1. The Deity of Christ
2. The Resurrection of Christ
3. The Work of the Holy Spirit
4. Not allowing women as pastors

Now when you just read that list, you likely had one of two reactions: you either said, “Yep, that’s about right,” or, like me, you had a baroo moment. Think the little dog looking into the gramophone and tilting his head in the old RCA “His Master’s Voice” logo. I think my brain actually locked up for a second when I read the last item in the list.

There is certainly room for different opinions on the proper role of women in the church. Both the Complementarians and Egalitarians have good arguments. Where you come down on the issue depends on who you think has the best arguments. (FWIW, I think the Egalitarians make the stronger case, and the associate pastor at the church I attend is a woman). But putting “not allowing women as pastors” in that list of non-negotiable doctrines is a perfect example of “one of these things isn’t like the other.” It’s also symptomatic of the “Gospel plus something” expansion of “essential doctrine” happening all over the evangelical church in America. This “Gospel plus” approach is, I believe, the main reason why the SBC (among many evangelical groups) is declining in membership. People don’t need “Gospel plus some other rules we made up”; they just need Gospel, period. As long as churches continue to exclude people from membership and service over non-essential issues, those churches will continue to decline. Unfortunately, they may also drive some people away from Christianity permanently in the process. Being always right carries a high price.

Recommended Reading

The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why it Matters
I Believe: Exploring the Apostle’s Creed
Two Views on Women in Ministry
Ten Things I Learned Wrong From a Conservative Church

The scene: a concert. A member of the headlining group is talking to the audience:

“We’ve been hearing a lot about change recently. We’ve been hearing about things we need to change. Well you can give me Jesus and give me the Bible, and you can keep your change!”

The audience goes wild with something between a triumphal cheer and a primal growl. It’s a heady cocktail of jubilation mixed with anger. Whatever it is, I feel like someone has injected liquid nitrogen in my spine. It’s like a scene right out of Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer, or maybe too reminiscent of this quote from Hoffer’s Reflections on the Human Condition:

Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

What I see in that audience is what disturbs me most about American Evangelicalism: It defines itself not by what it is for, but by what it is against. It defines itself not by love, but by anger and hate directed at those with whom it disagrees. It is the form of so called Christianity in which grew up, in which I have, much to my shame, participated. It is a style of Christianity that I can no longer identify with.

It is a style of Christianity diametrically opposed to Jesus’s commandment:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” (John 13.34-35 ESVS)

It is a style of Christianity diametrically opposed to the standards of conduct given by Paul:

“Remind the believers to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.” (Titus 3.1-2 NLT-SE)

I can understand the anger and resentment I sensed in that audience; I’ve experienced it myself. I used to nurture that anger because I believed, wrongly, that doing so was what God expected of me, that in doing so I was being righteous. The Bible says otherwise. I can and will out of love tolerate this behavior in other Christians, but I cannot condone it. I can only hope they will one day see error of defining themselves by what they’re angry about rather than by the Gospel.