I know better....

Yesterday I attended a minister’s gathering and was rude to my host. Once most of us had gathered around a table, he opened the proceedings with a devotional thought. He started by lamenting America’s social, political and spiritual atmosphere. He felt that failure to acknowledge that God created marriage to be between a man and a woman, based foundationally on the failure to acknowledge that God created the world in seven days not millions or billions of years as evidenced by Genesis 1-15, was leading to the nation’s moral decline.

“How do you know?” I asked. Spurred on by his surprised “How do I know?” I asked, “How do you know that God created the world in seven literal days instead of millions, or billions of years?”

I know I should have bit my tongue. Since the context was “devotional” not intellectual, it was tantamount to biting the hand that was about to feed me – especially since after the meeting he was feeding the gathered ministers. I created an uncomfortable and awkward period in the proceedings and knew what I had done even as I pressed on. Quite frankly, my back was up so I engaged in debate for a few minutes until others weighed in with calming effect. The train of the devotion derailed, we moved on to other business.

Today an email went out to everyone from the ministerial gathering president:

Hey Gang, I'm going to ask that, in the future, when the host of our meetings presents a devotion, that we respect that devotion.  I'm not saying that you have to agree with what is said, but it isn't an appropriate setting to turn it into a theological debate, nor is it polite considering that we are their guests. At the same time, when planning the devotion, please don't use it as a way to deliberately push an agenda.  Not saying that it needs to be politically correct, but please consider your intentions.

My impression is that the Gospel is an invitation to join the counter-cultural body of Christ. When Church leaders elevate faithful ignorance over informed belief we are not promoting an invitation to an exciting counter-culture where knowledge and intelligence are welcome, but are promoting a sub-culture in which thoughtfulness is unwelcome. Bad theology, informed by illogical hermeneutics, should not go unchallenged if we want to see the Church advance – especially among church leaders.

I find it distasteful to sit through a devotion that is supposed to be edifying to my spirit when it elevates bad information, hermeneutics and theology, and presents it as Gospel. That said, the spirit of the email is correct and I am sorry for my actions. That was neither the time, nor the place for such a debate. Would that Christ really dwelt in me.