TAKING FROM: ADVENTURES IN MISSING THE POINT. BRIAN MCLAREN
Despite our sincerity and best motives, preachers like me mess people up. It’s unintentional, believe me; we’re just trying to protect people. But we damage people nonetheless. We want to protect folks from alcoholism and drunkenness, so we tell them to not drink any alcoholic beverages. To protect them from alcohol, we recommend they avoid establishments that serve it. To be on the safe side, we tell them to avoid people who drink alcohol…and to avoid excessive laughter as you’d hear from tipsy people…and, in fact, to avoid parties in general except boring ones.
We want to protect folks from extramarital sex, so we create so much tension around the subject that we make people uncomfortable not only with the opposite sex, but with their own sexuality, too. Okay, we preachers admit, maybe we’ll create a little sexual anxiety, maybe some of our hearers will become a tad nerdy, weird, uptight-but at least they won’t get into overt sexual trouble. We hope.
We want to protect people from following the crowd and succumbing to peer pressure, so we imply-or outright assert-that good Christians don’t go to R rated movies (or any movies at all), don’t listen to rap music (or any popular music at all). We discourage them from making non-Christian friends. We approve of them spending all their time in church services, church meetings, church activities-safe rabbit holes, a protective Christian ghetto.
We want to protect them from losing their faith, so we warn them against reading philosophy, from participating in culture and the arts, from dealing with tough questions and controversial issues. We exhort them to avoid the sciences (they might accept evolution!) avoid the social sciences (they might sympathize with liberals, criminals, and homosexuals!), avoid the arts (they might have to look at the nudes!). We recite pat answers and platitudes, even when it makes us feel dishonest, shallow, trite, tortured. We feel justified, though, convincing ourselves that even a bad faith is better than a lost faith.
In short, wanting to protect our congregations from becoming the world, we preachers tell them, “don’t be in it.” There’s only one problem: in trying to save people from the world, we miss the point. We actually ruin people (and ourselves) as disciples, and probably damage them as human beings, too. What’s amazing is how patient our parishioners are with us, in light of the damage we do to them. It’s amazing how patient the Lord is with us too, in light of the damage we do to His people and his cause.
Despite our sincerity and best motives, preachers like me mess people up. It’s unintentional, believe me; we’re just trying to protect people. But we damage people nonetheless. We want to protect folks from alcoholism and drunkenness, so we tell them to not drink any alcoholic beverages. To protect them from alcohol, we recommend they avoid establishments that serve it. To be on the safe side, we tell them to avoid people who drink alcohol…and to avoid excessive laughter as you’d hear from tipsy people…and, in fact, to avoid parties in general except boring ones.
We want to protect folks from extramarital sex, so we create so much tension around the subject that we make people uncomfortable not only with the opposite sex, but with their own sexuality, too. Okay, we preachers admit, maybe we’ll create a little sexual anxiety, maybe some of our hearers will become a tad nerdy, weird, uptight-but at least they won’t get into overt sexual trouble. We hope.
We want to protect people from following the crowd and succumbing to peer pressure, so we imply-or outright assert-that good Christians don’t go to R rated movies (or any movies at all), don’t listen to rap music (or any popular music at all). We discourage them from making non-Christian friends. We approve of them spending all their time in church services, church meetings, church activities-safe rabbit holes, a protective Christian ghetto.
We want to protect them from losing their faith, so we warn them against reading philosophy, from participating in culture and the arts, from dealing with tough questions and controversial issues. We exhort them to avoid the sciences (they might accept evolution!) avoid the social sciences (they might sympathize with liberals, criminals, and homosexuals!), avoid the arts (they might have to look at the nudes!). We recite pat answers and platitudes, even when it makes us feel dishonest, shallow, trite, tortured. We feel justified, though, convincing ourselves that even a bad faith is better than a lost faith.
In short, wanting to protect our congregations from becoming the world, we preachers tell them, “don’t be in it.” There’s only one problem: in trying to save people from the world, we miss the point. We actually ruin people (and ourselves) as disciples, and probably damage them as human beings, too. What’s amazing is how patient our parishioners are with us, in light of the damage we do to them. It’s amazing how patient the Lord is with us too, in light of the damage we do to His people and his cause.
