And Above All... Be Nice!

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal. 5:1) so there is no list of rules for believers to live by, but if there were it would be a short one with only one directive, and it is this:  Love your neighbor.  Paul said that the entire Law was summed up in this single command.(Gal. 5:14)  Or as I would paraphrase it...

Be nice. (St. Robert 1:1)

It's a really simple concept that we try to teach our kids before they head off to kindergarten.  Treat others the way you would like to be treated (Matt 6:33).

Yet, many of us, as we get older and more mature in the faith, become less nice.

That's partly because there are doctrinal and religious operatives that come into play that have a mitigating effect on our kindness.

Kindness Killers:

1. "Accountability"  It's a buzzword in the religious world right now, and it turns nice people into confrontive "truth speakers" who are taught that their destructive openness with their mentorees and wayward friends is legitimate and necessary as part of the discipleship process.

The unfortunate truth about accountability is that confrontation rarely ends well, at least for the confronted.  The confronter may move on after a confrontation feeling righteous and satisfied in his ability to speak the truth in love.  The confronted withdraws with a sense of injury and defeat.  The hurt may linger for a long time and effect their sense of self-worth and spiritual well-being going forward - maybe for a lifetime.

The discipleship concept of Accountability is a destructive idea that needs to die a quick death.  Let's not offer our advice unless it is strongly requested, and then, only in the gentlest manner.  "A bruised reed will he not break." (Isaiah 42:3)  

Be Nice.

2. Submission to Authority in the Church  This doctrine is a widespread and deep-seated practice that has caused untold destruction to millions of believers across the world.  Good and godly leaders turn into inadvertent tyrants and evil manipulators as they legitimize their actions through contrived scriptural methods.  I have said a lot about the evil of this orthodoxy in other posts, so I'll let it go at that for now (See "Harmful Hierarchy" or "Submission to Authority" in the left sidebar for more on this).

Be Nice.

3. "Hating the Sin" (but loving the sinner, of course).  This idea is used to rationalize mean behavior as a form of "loving the sinner".  The rationalization goes something like this: "I know that my job is to love people, but how is it loving if I don't tell my gay friend that he is destined for an endless eternity in hell?"

The problem here is that truth-tellers are doing the work of the Holy Spirit when they point out sin in their friends.  The one job of the believer is love.  Not conviction and not judgement.  Not even truth.  Just love.  It is the Lord's job to bring conviction if he wants to.  We should leave that work up to him.  "Hate sin" in your prayer closet and nowhere else.

Be Nice.

4. Church Discipline.  This is another endemic belief that causes a lot of destruction among believers.  Thankfully, it is not implemented very often, but when it is, it is often applied for unnecessary and illegitimate reasons.

 I know of a man who was excommunicated from his church because he was financially irresponsible, an unfortunate byproduct of his bipolar disorder; when he was manic he would spend money irrationally.

 Excommunicated.  Seriously.

 Another dear missionary friend of ours in the Mennonite Church told us that he was called home from Thailand to answer to the church council why he wasn't teaching a dogmatic compliance with the ordinances on head coverings for women, and the wearing of jewelry.  Really, the church spent thousands of dollars to fly him home for this.  Unbelievable.

Church discipline is a denominational weapon too often used to strategically remove non-conformists ("purging sin") from the local theological domain.

Be Nice.

5. Politics.  There has been a marked increase in political activism in the church and by believers since Jerry Falwell founded the "Moral Majority" in 1979 following a speaking tour of America during which he reversed the long-standing Baptist practice of the separation of church and state.  Consequently, the increased political rancor that has infected Congress has likewise infected the church as a sense of nationalism grows. 

Sensationalist talk show hosts have shouted angry partisan rhetoric and conspiracy theories in our ears starting virtual fires everywhere. 

Otherwise loving and thoughtful believers have taken to posting inflammatory messages on Facebook and love and respect have become a thing of the past.

The church podium has become a militaristic bully-pulpit in the worst way.

Where's the love?

Let's bring back a humble respect for another's point of view.  Let's quiet our own political and religious rallying cries and re-instate an atmosphere of goodwill.

And let's remove political campaigning from the church; people will vote their values without any reminder from the pulpit.

Be Nice.

6. Submisson of Women   Though liberal churches accomplished this a long time ago, there are many places in the religious world that have not yet eradicated the oppressive teaching that makes the church an unsafe environment for women.  Perhaps appropriate in an ancient Middle Eastern culture when the New Testament was written, this idea is out of place in our modern Western world.  It is a monster that can give license to misogynistic men who dominate their wives - and their constituents - with a so-called scriptural mandate. (Any big-name bullies from Seattle come to mind?)  I've mentioned this in other posts so won't say more here (Look for "Submission of Women").

Be Nice.

7. Preaching  Public discourse - homiletics - became an art form that was developed by the ancient Greeks.  The spreading of religion (and politics) has forever been riding on the back of this valiant steed.  It is an attractive mount to people who love to hear the sounds of their own voices, including all kinds, most of them honest and motivated by a desire to change the world.

The problem is that there is no good method of screening out the others:

 - those who are insecure and cannot be questioned due to their position of leadership

 - those who have a proverbial axe to grind

 - those with psychological or emotional issues (that manifest in their sermons)

 - those with abusive tendencies (they love to preach submission)

 - those who are uneducated or gullible and who believe outlandish conspiracy theories.
 - those with a mean streak (they love to preach hellfire and condemnation)
 - those with controlling tendencies (they have a directive for every detail of their constituents' lives.)

 - and so on.

 Any of the above are hard to challenge; If you question them, you are "rebelling against God".

 Just about anybody can start a church or ministry in the USA.  And that makes preaching a dangerous proposition for the listener.

Be Nice 

8.  The Business of the Church   Man-made denominations and independent churches are businesses.  They are built with organizational structures and business models that determine their day-to-day operations.  And so they must manage their staffs.  Unlike the New Testament church, they hire and fire workers.  And this is where countless thousands of Christian employees are destroyed every year.  The careers of mega-ministers are built on the backs of their paid staff and their volunteers.  It shouldn't be, but the business of the church is a dog-eat-dog world.  A grievous amount of unkindness is perpetrated every day - whether intentionally or inadvertently - through this ungodly system.

Beliefs determine behavior

I think it comes down to this, folks:  If your beliefs or orthodoxies (methods), whether political or religious, are causing you to be unkind, then there is something wrong with your beliefs and practices and it may be time to re-examine them.  This may be hard to do when you are still sitting under the teaching of a convincing preacher in a conservative environment.  

(Yes, there is an underlying message here:  Unfortunately, the conservative religious environment is one of the most likely places to erase your kindness, explaining it away through "timeless scriptural principles".)

It is possible, although a challenge, to think for yourself and study the Bible on your own and draw your own conclusions even when you are surrounded by voices that claim to be speaking for God.  I did it.  Millions have done it.  You can do it.  (But it's easier if you first remove yourself from that environment.)

Here's the thing:  There are thousands upon thousands of Christian denominations in the world.  They all have their own doctrines that differ from the church down the street.  They all believe that theirs is the correct interpretation of scripture.

But they can't all be right.  In fact, they are all wrong at some points.

Knowing this, give yourself the freedom to question your local religious "authorities".  If there are teachings that somehow propagate an atmosphere of unkindness, consider removing yourself from them - or at least removing them from yourself.

Kindness is the thing.

Be Nice.

Disclaimer:  Jesus was nice to sinners and the ungodly.  But he wasn't nice to self-righteous religious bullies.  And you don't have to be either.  What tone of voice do you suppose He used when he called the Pharisees "sons of their father, the devil"?  I don't think he was sweet about it.

So, be like Christ:  Stand up to bullies.  But to everyone else...

Be Nice.

The Tipping Point - Leaving the Church

There's good and bad in everything, and it is no different with the church.  As long as the good outweighs the bad, people will stay and survive... and even thrive.  But if a tipping point is reached where the bad outweighs the good, their reasons for staying will be outnumbered by their reasons for leaving and they will stage their own personal exodus.  It is often calculated and pre-meditated, since there is usually painful fall-out that comes with it.  The inevitable loss of lifelong friends is one of the most painful consequences.

Staying

There are a lot of good reasons why people will stay in the institution.  For many, it is a family tradition that is comfortable and familiar and their is no good reason to quit.  For others, their social and emotional needs are met by the company of good friends and like-minded birds of a feather.  Others find common ground in doctrines and dogmas that make sense to them ideologically.  They may like the political platform of the church.  Many will attend to get close to God and enjoy the kindred spirit of corporate worship.  And the list goes on.

In my opinion, when people feel happy and safe in the church environment, they should continue as long as they can...  for a lifetime if possible.

Leaving

There are also a lot of good reasons for leaving the church, and many of them have to do with the reverse of everything good.  If they don't fell safe there, if their emotional and social needs are not being met there and there is no sense of community, if they don't have friends there, if they take issue with the doctrines and dogmas there, if they can't feel close to God there, and so on, they have good reason to leave.

Why would anyone want to keep attending a club where they are not welcome?  Why would they continue to contribute to an organization whose values are not consistent with theirs?  What if they are made to feel like a misfit or an outcast, should they keep going for the sake of the institution?  What about abusive situations where they are being condemned or guilted into submission by domineering leaders or doctrines?  

I would not recommend that anybody continue in a setting where they do not feel safe, where their spirit is continually broken by destructive teaching and demeaning doctrines which give overbearing leaders a license to lord it over their people.

On the other hand, some may quit out of simple burnout.  Do you realize that if you attend the church three times a week plus board meetings, potlucks, and camp meetings, you will have been there 10,000 times by the time you are 50?  For some, that's more than enough!  Everything just starts to sound like the same old same old.

My Tipping Point

I attended and was embedded in the church for the first 60 years of my life, and was blind-sided when my own tipping point arrived.  I did not expect it and would never have predicted it.  I was a lifelong volunteer and leader in the organization.  My dad, my brother, and my son-in-law and several of my friends were pastors.  I was happy and thriving, even though I was at odds with some of the conservative platforms of the denomination and the local body.

The straw that broke the camel's back for me was an ideological one:  I woke up to the fact that my church and I were no longer moving in the same direction, and I had to decide whether I would continue to contribute to and perpetuate a religious organization whose values were different than mine.  I maybe had a few years left of life and didn't want to waste it kicking a dead horse, as it were.  I would have to tolerate a lot of cognitive dissonance.   (Also, there were critics who were openly pointing out my non-compliance and urging me to shut up or get out of the way.  Birds of a different feather are often ultimately kicked from the nest.)

I chose my own spiritual and emotional well-being over the that of the institution.  I quit.    Here's to health and freedom!

But it's not as simple as that.  There were major contributing factors that led up to my exodus.  I have written about them extensively in other posts, but I'll briefly touch on a few of them here:

Pacifism.  From the age of 18 I was a pacifist in keeping with Jesus' teachings to love your enemies.  I kept quiet about it for most of my life, but -  even though my denomination had roots in Anabaptist and Mennonite pacifism  -  the church has become increasingly political and militaristic in the last twenty years and my dissidence has grown correspondingly.   I view the separation of church and state as a good thing (not to mention constitutional).  The rise of nationalism in the church is anti-Christ.

Women's rights.  It seemed to me that if the church could dismiss the Biblical grounds for slavery as no longer culturally relevant, it could just as well ignore Paul's teachings on the submission of women by removing all limitations on women as leaders in the church.  I lobbied for it unsuccessfully.  In my (former) denomination, it will be a long time coming.  It will happen, but not in my lifetime.

Tithing.  There is no New Testament mandate for the collection of a 10% tithe to be given to the church.  Yet, it is perpetuated as an expected discipline, even a compulsion of the believer.  That is un-sanctified hogwash.  Unholy crap.  (My apologies to the swine.)

Amazing Grace.  Though the evangelical community is founded on free grace and every speaker gives it a cursory nod, ironically, much more attention is given to the need to work for one's salvation.   Mine is a more generous orthodoxy that makes much of redemption and little of sin.  If you want to know, I think Jesus could be said to be "soft on sin".  He was called the "friend of sinners" after all.

That Damned Hierarchy!  There are many other points at which I have been a dissenter for a long time, but the granddaddy of all false doctrines that pervade almost all denominations is the teaching of the hierarchy, an idea which Jesus expressly banned in his teachings to his disciples. (Matt. 20:25-26)

It was the church leadership's unwavering adherence to the doctrine of submission-to-authority in the church that ultimately blew up my local congregation and precipitated an exodus of 2/3's of the constituency about six years ago.

Though every organization has its structure, the church has spiritualized its logistical framework with a contrived doctrine that ends up giving license to domineering leaders and abusers and compels the good people who believe it to do bad things.

I see the doctrine of the "God-ordained" hierarchy in the church as one of the most dangerous and destructive ideologies that have poisoned the church for the last 1700 years since Constantine implemented it in 313 A.D.  It has destroyed a lot of people.

Now here's the thing:  We need to differentiate between the institutional church and the Body of Christ, the True Church, which is all believers everywhere.  In the Body of Christ, all the parts of the body are answerable directly to the Head which is Christ. (Eph.4:15)  There is no multi-level echelon or chain-of-command.  We submit to Christ and to one another out of love (respect) for one another.  All have equal standing; no one has rank.  (Think you have automatic spiritual authority because you were appointed to a position in the church?  Think again!)

I'm Done

It's probably quite evident from this, that I no longer fit in the evangelical church.  My ideologies have become too honest, too Christlike, too purist to accommodate the way things are in the man-made institution called the church.

When my local parish blew up as a result of a destructive decision made by church leadership, I helped launch an appeal to the next level up the chain of command.  Though it was a legitimate step that was provided for in the by-laws, I was confronted in a lengthy and venomous reprimand and labeled as rebellious.  My "spiritual leaders" worked to smear my reputation behind the scenes.  They made sure we all knew that "no individual is as important as the institution."  (More institutional BS)

At the time, I marveled at protestant leaders telling other protestants that they shouldn't protest.  Huh?  Protestantism was born out of protest against church doctrine and hierarchy.  If protestants who protest are "rebelling against God" they are in the good company of reformers like Martin Luther and other church fathers.  Questioning is essential to sound doctrine.

Still, I could have forgiven all that carnality (maybe somebody was feeling a bit threatened?) and stayed on to feed the machine.  No tipping point there. (Read more about that church blow-up here.)

But ultimately is was ideology that was my tipping point.  I could have searched for a more liberal church, one with a more generous orthodoxy, but I have emotionally run out of gas.  I'm tired of the whole thing.  I have joined the "Dones", a growing multitude of exiles who, for one good reason or another, have come to their own tipping points and are just...

Done.

Reviewing the Exile Part 2: Exposing the Pyramid Scheme

When I left the institutional church I was overtaken by an unexpected feeling of freedom and well-being.  Puzzled at first, I finally decided that it could have risen from the fact that I was no longer under the authority of some self-appointed hierarchy of religious pretenders.  I recognized their fake world of ordinations, appointments, and degrees for what it was, a fabricated framework of in-authentic pontifications contrived from a few unholy and exegetic extrapolations.  It was an un-sanctified pyramid scheme built from the top down on anti-humility and anti-servanthood, by anti-Christ-like power lords, a sort of decree issued from ivory towers by self-inflated scholars, bishops, chancellors and presidents.

Why do we not get the picture? Jesus clearly banned religious hierarchy the night that he washed the disciples' feet.   "You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people.  But among you it will be different.  Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant.... "(Matt 20:25-26)

This is ridiculous!

When one exits the system, he removes himself from the pseudo-authority that parades itself with some sort of self-proclaimed "God-ordained" but imaginary anointing.

To the outsider, we are all priests - to one another and to the Lord; all the parts of the Body are answerable directly to the Head which is Christ. (Eph 4:15)  No believer has authority over another.  We are all stones being built up into a spiritual house. (I Pet 2:5)

The foundation of real spiritual authority forever continues to be humble servanthood like that of Christ, and it is bestowed first upon God's favorite humans, the poor, the weak, and the least of these.  It is demonstrated by random acts of love and kindness and mercy every day, and it starts as a grassroots thing, originating in the ditches of everyday humanity and growing upward from there.  Hear me: real spiritual authority never starts at the top and works its way down by means of some corporate chain-of-command.  That would be exactly what Jesus said should not happen. (Matt 20:25-26)  Again, the church has turned Jesus on his head, becoming everything that he decried in the pharisees who paraded around in fancy attire so others could bow to them.

I am loving the living in a world of outsiders, unpowerful folks who do not tell others what to do or how to live.  None of us is infallible, none perfect, none lording it over others.  It's the world that Jesus was hoping for.  It's redemptive, it's pure, it's counter-religious.  Jesus would love it here; it's the kingdom of God on earth that he prayed for. (Matt 6:10)

It is authentic, and it is right, and I love it here.

--------

Now a reminder to pastors and leaders who are still in the institution:

 Your spiritual authority is not bestowed upon you by some council or bishop who presides from the next level above you, and it never flows from your submission to the powers-that-be in your denomination or church.  It springs from the bottom up as you submit yourself to the Lord and serve the people in humility, never lording it over another human being from a position of man-made power.  Your church authorities are appointed or elected by other human beings and their power is not God-ordained at all.  Don't confuse spiritual authority with institutional authority.  It is a mistake to assume that you are suddenly and automatically endowed with spiritual authority when you are appointed to a position in the church.  That is just unholy crap!
Mind you, an organization needs to be organized, and a top-down, pyramidal system is fine for that.  It works well in the world of the corporation, the military, the schools, and even in religious institutions, but it is not sacred, holy, or ordained by God.  To spiritualized it, building a submission-to-authority doctrine out of it by proof-texting scripture is heresy and is anti-Christ.  Let me say it again:
  The doctrine of a scriptural, God-ordained, top-down, pyramid-shaped hierarchy in the church is heresy and should be de-bunked. 

The clergy-laity split is one more divisive boundary that needs to be erased (see my previous post: Erasing the Boundaries).

The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. (Matt 19:30)  Keep that in mind for a great career in service to the masses.  And have fun!

(This is part 2 of my 5-year review of my life since being exiled from the church in 2009.  To read part 1, scroll down to the next post or click here.)

Deconstructive Bigshots

  It has happened again.  Last week a close pastor friend of mine lost his job to the traditional power brokers on his church board.  He was dismissed because he didn't serve their personal agendas for the church.  So he is done with organized church and will serve the Lord and the local community in more organic Christ-like ways.  This is a pretty ballsy move on his part and a scary one; the abrupt career change prevents most disaffected pastors from doing the same, although there will certainly be many others who will soon follow.
  As I've said before, it seems to me that the demise of organized evangelicalism in America is accelerating; I mean, this makes three Missionary Church pastors in the thumb of Michigan who have recently been ousted by their local boards - with the assent of their district leaders - and who have opted to move outside the fortress but stay in town and serve in more personal, incarnate ways.
  This has provoked a new thought that has just dawned on me as I have been observing the movement close-up, and that is this:  Not only is the empire being deconstructed from the bottom up, it is also inadvertently being dismantled from the top down.  The very methods that protected and perpetuated the empire in the past have become the tools by which it is being undermined.  I'm talking about the hierarchy.
  It used to be that constituents would respect the mandates of congregational and denominational leaders, feeling that they were sinning if they questioned authority.  Similarly, pastors submitted to their superiors, thinking this was the will of God.  Not so anymore.  One of the common characteristics of postmoderns is their innate distrust and disregard for authority.  Leaders who notice this trend will lament this "rebellious spirit"  and preach long and loud against it, but they seem unwilling or incapable of adapting to the new reality in the church.  To their own demise.
  Not only is the church losing ground from the bottom up (more than 90% of high school seniors leave the church within one year of graduation) but the Missionary Church is being dismantled from the top down, by men in ivory towers who allow their most dedicated pastors to crash and burn at the hands of a few power mongers in local fiefdoms.  So the exodus out of the institutional church is being fed by the very leaders who are trying to stop it.  Their penchant for power is biting their own butts.
  The scenarios that have unfolded in my neighborhood recently have been characterized by these self-destructive elements:

• Big money makes you a big shot.  Not only is it the elected position in the organization that gives you power, it is often the people with money who have the most clout.  The local church founders are often the most respected by the district leaders.  After all, if you offend the money holders and they leave or quit giving, it will eventually affect the bottom line - district income and your own salary (the Michigan superintendent makes around $80K per year with benefits, just about twice the national average income).
• Secrecy and confidentiality help maintain power.  Exiled pastors will be sworn to secrecy to protect the hierarchy, while the constituents are told that leaders are keeping confidences in order to "protect the reputation" of the out-going pastor.  They cast a shadow of mystery and innuendo over the pastor, creating suspicion in the people and thus preventing people from questioning their decisions. (Displaced pastors in The Missionary Church in Michigan are routinely asked to sign oaths of silence.  The individual takes a hit for the sake of the institution.)
• Decision-making power is removed from the laity.  The Missionary Church has a congregational form of government, which means that the members get to vote on important decisions.  Well, that's the way it's supposed to be, but in the three cases that I've just cited, the pastors were dismissed without a vote of the people.  The congregational form of church government seems to be inherently incompatible with the teaching of hierarchy and submission to authority.  They are like Siamese twins joined at the hip but in a perpetual fist fight.

  The irony of all this is that the structures which are intended to help maintain and perpetuate the institution are inadvertently swinging a wrecking ball which is relentlessly  tearing it down in a post-modern culture which categorically disregards established authority.
  In my own former church, when the district superintendent swooped in to rescue the assembly from an impending split over a pastor who was being ousted without a vote of the members, his solution was to preach an impassioned sermon on unity and submission to authority.  He obviously was out of touch with the times and the realities of life in the trenches.  The church did split, and the pastor moved outside the institution and is now a leader in a network of house churches.
  And this is one of the reasons that more than 1,500 pastors leave the pastorate every month in America.  The hierarchy of the religious institution is an unwieldy demolition ball that keeps swinging back and smashing its own legs.  Without its feet to stand on, it well inevitably topple.  In fact, just this morning I heard a former Missionary Church constituent predict that the denomination will crumble within the next decade.
  To every pastor in the Missionary Church in Michigan I would say, "Watch your back," and if you're not inclined to submit to the power brokers in your church or in the district, I suggest you be working on a plan for an alternate means of employment so that you too may enjoy the satisfaction and fulfillment of really serving Christ and your neighbors - outside the walls, the way Jesus intended in the first place.

Meanness Theory

  I have a theory about why good Christians so often exhibit mean behavior.  This belief rises out of my own experience, so if you've never been treated rudely by fellow believers, this may seem foreign to you, although if you stay around church long enough you're likely to gain a similar understanding through your own experiences.
  Three years ago I was unceremoniously dismissed from the congregation where I had been a lifelong volunteer in the departments of youth, missions, evangelism, worship and administration.  My fellow administrators and leaders had finally run out of patience with my dissenting views and let me know that I no longer fit.  Diversity is given high value in most institutions, from universities to business and industry, but not in the church.  The church values uniformity.  It's called unity, but really it means that members belong if they think, behave, dress, and vote the same.  That's uniformity.
  But what really surprised and startled me at the time, was the meanness with which my colleagues shared their criticisms of my counterparts and me, and their willingness to trash lifelong friendships in order to maintain their positions.  I've had three years to mull this over, and based on what I know of those good folks and their behaviors, I've concluded there are several factors that can contribute to one's meanness quotient.  Here are some of them:

•   Strong belief in and adherence to the doctrine of Hierarchy.  Organization is essential to any institution, and the larger the institution, the more complex the organizational structure.  Denominations and congregations are institutions, and must have structure.  The problem comes when those structures are spiritualized and  some believers are given authority over other believers, a phenomenon which was not permitted by Jesus (Luke 22:26).  There's an endemic belief among church leaders that once they have been appointed or elected to a position within the church, they are suddenly and automatically endowed with God-ordained spiritual authority.  Wrong. Spiritual authority is only automatic when we function in the spirit of Christ, and friends, the practice of some believers lording it over others is anti-Christ.
•   Strong belief in the importance of the Institution over the Individual.  In the middle of a conflict three years ago I heard district leaders publicly state that "no one person is as important as the church as a whole."  I couldn't believe my ears.  The statement was absolutely backwards.  The individuals are all members of the Body of Christ - the Church Universal - which was created by God at the Cross and commissioned at Pentecost.  Each part of Christ's Body is more valuable and essential than a man-made organization, congregation or denomination.  Leaders have become willing to trash people in order to save institutions.  This is wrong.  Jesus didn't die on the cross to save organizations, he came to save individuals.
•   Strong belief in the Submission of Women.  Untold millions of earth's population have been harmed by this destructive doctrine that has been extracted from very specific and unique texts and then universally applied.  Huge meanness factor here.
•   Judgmental spirit.  Though Jesus was known as a friend of sinners, most of us are not.  We live and move in sanctified circles with fellow believers and never engage with our sinful neighbors.  In our activist efforts to "take back America" for the Lord, we alienate gays, pacifists, atheists, and those who've had abortions.  Yet Jesus did the exact opposite, befriending the sexually immoral and criticizing the self-righteous.  Hmm, it looks as though we are not on Jesus' side after all.

  Our beliefs dictate our behaviors, don't they?  So if our behaviors are wrong, our beliefs must be wrong too.  If our doctrinal positions are causing us to be mean to people, perhaps we should be re-thinking our beliefs.
  A quick comparison of today's religious culture with the religious culture of Jesus' time will reveal that they are very much the same.  Two thousand years ago Jesus decried the self-righteous, hypocritical, judgmental ways of the Pharisees.  I believe he would hold a similar view of a similar religious culture today.  I call upon so-called spiritual leaders of today to make your "attitude the same as that of Christ Jesus, who took on the very nature of a servant."(Phil.2:5-6) There is no rank in the Body of Christ.  So be nice, serve your brothers and sisters and your sinning neighbors all the same.
 
  Have you ever been a victim of Christian meanness?  Do you think it was a product of doctrinal beliefs or did it have some other cause?

Harmful Hierarchy Part 2

Okay, I know where the confusion comes from about this submission to authority doctrine.  Most believers-- and in fact most teachers and pastors-- are thinking of the organization of the institutional church, and the organism of the universal Church, as the same thing, and then trying to apply spiritual truth to a man-made entity.  So let's clarify:
I'm going to define the church (with a small "c") as the man-made denominations, local congregations and structures that have been instituted in order to organize the (capital "C") Church, which is the Body of Believers, the Bride of Christ, that is all believers everywhere.  There are believers both inside and outside this institution, so this organism, the Body of Christ, or the Church, also exists both inside and outside the institution-- the church.
Now, organizations need organization, so some kind of hierarchical structure must be maintained or you'll end with... well, disorganization.  Whether it's a business, an institution, the military, or whatever, there must be hierarchy, and the larger the organization, the more complex the hierarchy.  Denominations and parishes and local congregations are organizations, so they must have an organizational structure-- a man-made hierarchy.  I'm talking about the small "c" church, the institution here.
But the capital "C" Church, the Body of Christ, was not created with a pyramidal hierarchy, it was meant to be an Organism unlike anything else.  It cannot be compared to the military and it should not be run like a business.  There is only one level of hierarchy that exists between the parts of the Body and the Head, which is Christ.  Every part of the Body is answerable directly to the Head.  There are no levels or ranks among the believers, as all are on the same plane and are obliged to respect or submit to one another while submitting to Christ.
All right, I'm not sure that I have cleared up any confusion, but I'll move ahead.  The problem of harmful hierarchies in the church comes when we take a human action such as Paul's appointing of elders in the New Testament churches-- his attempt to organize the local assembles-- and we spiritualize that and build an entire doctrine upon it, calling it a God-ordained clear Biblical principle that should be applied to the church today and without question.
Because this has happened, millions of believers, in their various denominations, are living under an ungodly religious oppression that was never intended by God and is, in fact, anti-Christ, as it perpetuates religious hierarchical empires that stand against the servanthood that Christ taught and exemplified.  The fact is that all believers-- including all leaders in the church-- should "have the same attitude as that of Christ, who...made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant." (Phil. 2: 5-7).  Now where's the hierarchy in that?


Frank Viola speaks for me when he says, "Command-style relationships, hierarchy, passive spectatorship, oneupmanship, religious programs, etc. were created by fallen humans.  And they run contrary to the DNA of the triune God as well as the DNA of the church.  Sadly, however, after the death of the apostles, these practices were adopted, baptized, and brought into the Christian family.  Today, they have become the central features of the institutional church."    ---Frank Viola, Reimagining Church, Cook Press, 2008, p. 37


Viola also says, "The Bible never teaches that believers are given authority over other believers.... The notion that Christians have authority over other Christians is an example of forced exegisis.  As such, it's Biblically indefensible."  --Reimagining Church, p.214, 215


By the way, there is much less confusion about the submission to authority doctrine among believers who are worshipping outside the institutional church in house groups, coffee shops or Boiler rooms*.  Many of those movements are patterned more closely after the New Testament church which had virtually no hierarchy for the first three centuries.  The church in China is an example of one of the largest contemporary house church movements in the world-- where congregations and denominations are outlawed.


* See Punk Monk, New Monasticism and the Art of Breathing, by Andy Freeman & Pete Greig, for more on Boiler Rooms.

Harmful Hierarchy Part 1

I find ironic (even hypocritical) the doctrine of submission to authority as it is widely taught in Protestantism.  The word Protestant means one who protests, and it comes out of a nearly 500-year-old tradition (the Protestant Reformation started in 1517 A.D.) that sprang from the questioning of church orthodoxy by Martin Luther and other reformers.  So, how is it that any Protestant can prohibit another Protestant from being true to the Protestant tradition when he wants to question authority?

Further, many of the existing Protestant denominations rose out of their own protests against earlier groups.  I was raised in the Missionary Church, which was started by a non-conformist named Daniel Brenneman who staged an exodus from the Mennonites.  Yet the Missionary Church is staunch in its doctrine of submission to authority.  Hmm.  Forgetting our roots, aren't we?

I know that this teaching comes from several references citing the naming of elders in the early church and encouraging the respect of those elders.  I believe in respect for elders-- and everybody else in the Body.  Yet the strict and overbearing adherence to this  doctrine regularly generates a forced subjection and oppression that is destructive to multitudes of believers every year as leaders lord it over their people-- in direct defiance of Christ's teaching to the contrary (Matt.20:25-28).*
The submission teaching is an example of a contrived exegesis, and those who promote it are effectively robbing Jesus to pay Paul.  That is, they violate the primary teachings of Christ (servant leadership) while elevating the secondary teachings of Paul (submission to authority).
Further, it's catholic dogma, so Protestants who espouse it are virtual traitors to their own Protestant roots.

The fact is that church leaders often get stuff wrong, and when it happens, there should be questioners who, like Martin Luther, and like Paul who confronted Peter with his hypocrisy (Gal. 2:11-14), will speak up in respectful and appropriate protest.

Shane Claiborne speaks for me when he says, "Dissent is a gift to the church."

Shane Claiborne, author The Irresistible Revolution, thesimpleway.org


See Part 2 of this post for more of who speaks for me on this topic.


*To see a representation of the multitudes of Christians who are hurt every year by harmful hierarchies, visit: www.batteredsheep.com