"Five percent of people think; ten percent of people think they think; and the other 85% would rather die than think."
~Thomas Edison
In 2011, a pastor released a book which challenged the dominant presuppositions evangelical theology held surrounding hell. It immediately sparked vitriol and controversy, because if Christians know how to do anything well, its eat our own. I was just coming into my own as a Christian who enjoyed reading and theology. I had enjoyed other work by this pastor, so before any of the aggression hit, I bought this book and read it. It challenged me. It forced me to go back to scripture, and seriously consider the constructs I always held. When I first heard the backlash, I was defensive for the book. At the time, I didn’t agree with everything the book was throwing out there, but I found it reasonable, thoughtful, and it raised some important questions.
Then, other writers and preachers I admired came out against the book. Entire books were written, and sermon series were given, in response to it. At best the critiques were “This is dangerous and wrong.” At its worst, you would have thought this author was the incarnation of Satan himself. In just a matter of months, I too grew convinced this book was heretical trash. Now, you may know what book I am referring to, and if you do, you understand there might be good reason to disagree with some of the content in it. But, if you read the book without the meta narrative surrounding it, you’ll see it is not the scary, anti-Christ propaganda myself and the evangelical machine made it out to be. After re-reading it recently, I found that my initial response, even as a nineteen-year-old, was the more appropriate response than the anger-fueled aggression I later expressed.
This moment in recent church history shows us a dangerous flaw in the way the American church conducts herself. Now, before I continue, let me say this: I love the church. I am a pastor in the church. I believe church, practiced well, is the last great hope for humanity. I have given my life to the church because I love what she is, and what she can be. Having said that, I have to say this: There are many ways in which churches are killing their pastors. Whether it is overworking them, making celebrities out of them, or rejecting them over microscopic issues, many American churches have done a pitiful job at loving their pastors well. The moment with this book in 2011 is telling of another way the church hurts her pastors.
The author seemed to be trying to teach people how to think, but delivered his message to an audience who insisted on being told what to think. This is indicative of how most evangelical churches treat their pastors. When you rely on your pastor to teach you what to thinkon any given issue, you not only hurt yourself, but you hurt your pastor. The biblical mandate for pastors does not include them being the Thought Police, because it is a cross too big for anyone to bear. The vitriol this book sparked exposed a dangerous trend in main-stream evangelical Christianity: We are not receptive to new input. We may show up to church on a Sunday morning hoping to learn about a story in the Bible, but we don’t want to hear anything that doesn’t already confirm a bias we hold. We want echo chambers. We want to be reminded of the things we responded to in the past, we don’t want to be prodded to go further.
The Bible does not lend itself very well towards teaching people what to think. On any given topic, you can find multiple perspectives. Does God desire sacrifice or mercy? Does God permit war, or does he want us to love our enemies? Does God want slaves to be submissive to their masters, or does he want to liberate them? Does God condone polygamy or should a husband be of one wife? Speaking of marriage, should people marry and procreate, or is singleness the life God truly desires for humanity? Depending on where you read, you can defend any of these positions with scripture.
We can make the Bible say whatever we want it to say. This is why good Biblical preaching isn’t telling people what to think, it’s telling people how to think. Good Biblical preaching is teaching people the right questions to ask when reading the Bible. Good Biblical preaching teaches people not to fear the tensions in scripture, it isn’t teaching people how to explain them away. Good biblical preaching teaches people how to dive head-first into the chaotic, poetic, truthful, beautiful, sometimes metaphorical world of the Bible.
When we force our pastors into the undesirable role of Thought Police, or when pastors force themselves into the role, they inevitably mishandle scripture, and ignore the beautiful ambiguities and tensions laced through-out the Good Book. When it comes to the Bible, teaching folks whatto think rather than howto think brings with it a pressure that can have detrimental consequences. What happens when the pastor doesn’t know what to think? If you have a pastor with any shred of intellectual integrity, I promise you they come across topics that absolutely baffle them. The pastor then has to choose between letting their congregation down or lying about their stance, and they lose themselves in the process.
There is a vision of a church big enough for the beautiful diversity of thought that flourishes when people are committed to engaging with tensions. There is a problem with closed-mindedness in the church, and the problem hurts everyone. But, there is a solution… it is you and it is me… It is a willingness to dive into the unknown, and wrestle together, and give everyone, including our pastors, permission to say “I don’t know” and “I disagree.”
