Blind Faith

"The answer is 'yes' to whatever God says.

His plan is alright with me wherever he leads.

Any time, any place, I'm gonna obey.

He knows that I know that he knows best,

That's why the answer is 'yes.'"

That was the chorus from a song in a children's church musical. While my church growing up performed this musical long after I had grown out of the children's ministry, I was still attending the church when it was put on; so I watched the kids performed this song.

As I look back on it, I realize that this song is brainwashing kids into just blindly accepting what God says. That is a hallmark of an extremely weak faith.

The song teaches kids that it is not acceptable to wrestle with God over issues. It teaches kids not to think for themselves. Frankly, some of the greatest growth in one's faith happens while arguing and resisting God, rather than just tacitly agreeing with whatever.

This song also makes kids very vulnerable to dangerous church authority figures. Many church leaders begin their talks with a prayer asking God to "speak through" them. Everything that they say thereafter is supposedly a message channeled from God, or at least given by his influence. But what happens when the speaker's message isn't spoken or inspired by God? Then the kids will unquestioningly accept whatever information they are spoon-fed from the speaker, even if it is horribly wrong or damaging.

The problem with the type of faith described in the song is that it discourages critical thought. It discourages asking questions. Essentially, it discourages real relationship. We need to teach kids to make their faiths their own; to teach them to make informed decisions about their lives; to teach them that it is okay to disagree with and question authority; to teach them to think and reason. Kids should not be satisfied with doing (or not doing) something just because "God says so," or "The Bible says so"--and much less because "The Pastor said so."

And this is what I do instead of studying for finals--Ha!

Dear Police,

Dear Police Departments around the country,
If you would like not to have to deal with riots and protests, then please stop fucking up justice.


Dear United States Justice Department,
If you want peace in this country, and if you want an end to these riots and protests, then please stop fucking up justice.


Sincerely,
Citizens who are tired of cases where the profilers and murderers of Oscar Grant III, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and others (and probably more to come) keep getting acquitted.

A Stream of Consciousness about Evangelical Christianity

Often, I wonder if I've lost my faith due to things that I now do (or do not) believe. I do not fit into the box of the Protestant, evangelical Christianity.

Evangelical Christianity is exclusively self-affirming. If you do not believe in its core values and ideologies, then they claim (not overtly) that you are not saved. I am reminded of the link to an article I posted on Facebook, entitled "What Leaving my Religion Did for Me." Most of the critiques I received about that article were that the writer did not have a personal relationship with Jesus, and so what he was freed from was many of the cultural facets of evangelical Christianity. But the thing is, evangelical Christianity has more conditions for salvation than just believing that Jesus is Savior. You must adhere to and think the right things as well--a particular set of values. They back it up by saying "faith without deeds is dead" (James 2:14, 26), and they expect their followers to perform deeds such as converting Catholics and marginalizing LGBT+ folks. Evangelicals claim to know what a personal relationship with Jesus is and what it is not; and in their mind, a relationship with Jesus is mutually exclusive with LGBT+ affirmation, evolution, any dogmatic approach other than "Sola Scriptura," etc. They claim that you cannot possibly have a relationship with Jesus unless you believe what they believe.

But that's only one perspective.

Romans 10:9 gives the conditions for salvation according to Paul: "that if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Of course, these conditions are not trivial--the vocal confession and internal belief necessitates a transformation of how one conducts their life. But it is naive to think that this transformation can only happen into one particular conservative ideology. Perhaps that's what the concept of "one body, many members" (Romans 12:4-5) means. Not just diversity of talents and abilities, but also diversity of ideologies. If we all had the same ideology, then perhaps we would be too much alike to form a complete body.

The Baptist cannot say to the Catholic, "I don't need you!" And the Pentecostal cannot say to the Episcopal, "I don't need you!" (1 Corinthians 12:21) (kind of a shocking manipulation of Scripture, isn't it?)

We must also keep in mind that these conditions for salvation are according to Paul. Paul is revered in evangelical culture, but he was a flawed, incomplete human with finite understanding. All we can objectively know is that Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me"(John 14:6). But he doesn't say how we get to him in the first place. Perhaps Paul's way is just one of many possible paths to salvation, a relationship with Jesus (whatever that relationship may look like). Perhaps all these paths converge to Jesus, who then points to the Father. There may be multiple different ways of finding Jesus. And that speaks to the individuality and uniqueness of each person's relationship with Jesus.

Multiple ways to salvation. Boy, does that make evangelicals' blood boil. They arrogantly assume that their way is the way. But it might do us all well to step off of our high horses and consider other possibilities outside of our own belief system.