Challenge, Critique and Sowing Discord So I was recently accused of ‘sowing discord.’ That’s an interesting thing. As if this was a bad thing. Let me explain. Some people get their panties in a wad the moment someone disturbs their comfortable little theology. Up to that moment, they lived at peace (or so they thought). Actually they were just living in the ‘same old same old’ or the ‘status quo.’ Along comes someone and suggests something, an alternative translation or perhaps explores a critique of some hidden presupposition and Voila! Michael is being contentious. Then come the Bible verses about sowing discord and how God hates discord (and there are only two Prov. 6:14 and 6:19; Fact: the word ‘discord’ is quite rare in the Bible.). Right! If God hates discord so much why send Jesus? Jesus was the Greatest Sower of Discord the world has ever seen. Some folks go on and on about unity, about how we should not critique one another, about how if we critique each other we are not showing the world the unity of the faith. They have confused critiquing ideas with critiquing people. Critiquing people, pointing out their faults, naming their sins publically, that is wrong. That can only lead to death. Critiquing ideas is completely different; it is not even in the same category. It is only when people are married to their ideas or worldviews that they take umbrage when someone comes along and points out the holes, flaws and bad arguments. So they take refuge by saying “you are being contentious” or “you are sowing discord” or “you are not acting in love” or the like. I have sometimes had people say to me “But you are a preacher of peace. How can you ‘attack’ another person’s ideas? That is not very peaceful is it?” This is where it just gets silly. Let me say this with all caps: WE ARE NOT OUR IDEAS. WE ARE NOT OUR IDEAS. You are not your theology. Your theology or what you believe about God may inform how you live but you are more than what you think or believe. If you are so tied to your ideas that for someone to come along and offer a valid critique means you lose your self-worth or self-esteem, well friend, you have misplaced your trust. If it makes you mad or you lose your temper when someone critiques your theology, it just proves your faith is not in Jesus but in your theology. If that is the case, it deserves to be critiqued. Only little minds cannot handle constructive criticism. So, e.g., let’s say I raise the question of etymological fallacy. Let’s say I critique a popular (in certain small circles) particular translation. Let’s say that I am able to show that it is not really a translation at all, but simply the “translator’s” theology read back into the biblical text in order to be read out again. Let’s say I can do all of this in a careful and rational manner. Is it right for someone to come along and accuse me of sowing discord? Seems to me it is not. Only little minds confuse their thoughts with God’s thoughts. Let’s say that I write in a sane and rational manner about worldviews. Let’s hypothetically say I am able to demonstrate rationally how worldviews develop and change. Let’s say I observe someone holding to an antiquated worldview, like say, the earth is flat and I challenge that view. Are they justified in getting angry at me and taking pot shots? Absolutely not. Little minds cannot handle constructive dialogue. WE ARE NOT OUR IDEAS. This past January in the series on Hermeneutics (which is now available in What the Facebook?), I observed that both reason and language derive from the victimage mechanism. Neither reason nor language is pure and, this side of the eschaton, it never will be. Those who think that God downloads information or correct interpretation of texts are self-deceived. God is not in the business of confirming your theology; God is about the business of upsetting it. We have confused ourselves with our ideas and that is why we are so easily offended when others challenge our ideas. We are invested in “being right” and proving to others that “we are right and they are wrong.” Many make their living doing just that. That, my friends, is not the work of the Holy Spirit. That is simply the insecure ego claiming the Holy Spirit in order to make oneself feel better and is a ruse to make oneself look better than the other in the eyes of others. Think about it. If someone challenges your ideas and you get mad, who has the real problem? OUR THEOLOGY IS NOT GOD! IT DIDN’T DROP FROM HEAVEN! IT IS GROUNDED IN VIOLENCE DONE TO VICTIMS. This is why over and over again I have sought to say that real Christian theology must begin at the cross; the very place we would prefer it not begin for the cross is the evacuation of all our ‘G-d’ concepts. The next time someone critiques your theology and you get mad, go to the cross and remember what people did when Jesus came sowing discord into the theologies of his day. If you feel more like the persecutors, justified in your anger and resentment, than you do like the One who came not to bring peace but a sword, then perhaps it is time to get a divorce from your IDEAS. What God has driven asunder the human ought not to wed.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:33:43 +0000
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