Just a little bit of self promotion:
I've started a crochet/knitting blog: The Yarn Artificer.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
edgy faith
Being a twenty-something, I'm attracted to a more vibrant faith - one that wants to live past the four walls of a church, to not be confined by a to-do list of morality. But more and more, Christians who are looking for more active (and interactive) faith, are throwing morality and even theology, out the window. I just finished an article at wrecked.org. The site proclaims its focus is "social action for spiritual misfits". The idea of social action is something I can get behind. However, the article, Breaking the Lightbulbs: How to Silence Theology, made me stop and go "Really? Are you serious?" The blogger pretty well decries theology as just pointless words that do more harm than good. We need to "unname" God and glory in our unknowing.
I have to say, on the writer's side, I have seen some people use theology as a beating stick. I went to a Christian college and I well remember the Arminianist v. Calvinist fights in the cafeteria that almost came to blows. And the Christian studies students that strutted around with their Bibles tucked under their arms, always eager to ramble on about their own personal theology in class and who turned up their noses at the content that the professors tried to teach. Yes, some people can be jerks when it comes to theology.
But what good is social change when there is no truth? I can feed the poor, clothe the sick but if I don't teach them Christ, they'll be fed and clothed but still lost in their sin. To take the truth, the theology, out of Christian service is to diminish serving Christ to a simple welfare program. And the last time I checked, the United States already had a nice, secular welfare program in place. If that's all that's needed, then the church isn't needed.
I have to say, on the writer's side, I have seen some people use theology as a beating stick. I went to a Christian college and I well remember the Arminianist v. Calvinist fights in the cafeteria that almost came to blows. And the Christian studies students that strutted around with their Bibles tucked under their arms, always eager to ramble on about their own personal theology in class and who turned up their noses at the content that the professors tried to teach. Yes, some people can be jerks when it comes to theology.
But what good is social change when there is no truth? I can feed the poor, clothe the sick but if I don't teach them Christ, they'll be fed and clothed but still lost in their sin. To take the truth, the theology, out of Christian service is to diminish serving Christ to a simple welfare program. And the last time I checked, the United States already had a nice, secular welfare program in place. If that's all that's needed, then the church isn't needed.
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