Thursday, August 25, 2005

You Might Be a Paleoevangelical If . . . (#6)

. . . you ponder whether it is worse for religious leaders to say dumb things about the Bible or dumb things about assassinating foreign leaders.

I suspect that there is less reward and greater risk to the name of Christ when we abandon the text and spout our personal opinions.

On a related note, should shepherds be known for their original or creative thinking? Or should we be recognized for our ability to regurgitate God's truth? (Hmmm . . . Graphic ideas for book titles are running through my head all of a sudden.) I wonder if it is wise for people whose gifts are honed to teaching God's truth to venture into the realm of independent thinking and pontification. The fact that we may able to gain an audience and a bit of credibility does not imply the capacity to speak prudently when we depart from the authoritative text.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good thoughts about original/creative thinking among shepherds. Novelty is not a virtue in the Church.

I've been talking about similar things with my high school yearbook staff recently: our yearbook theme (the biblical emphasis) will not be anything new, but we will hopefully communicate some old truth in the high school vernacular.

I don't think I am disagreeing with you to also add that some pastors err in the opposite direction, falling into a more or less rote recitation of Biblical fact that misses the grand themes and redemptive narrative of Scripture. I fear some of our preachers are too left-brained. Our preaching needs analysis AND synthesis (but hopefully not antithesis).

CSB said...

"I suspect that there is less reward and greater risk to the name of Christ when we abandon the text and spout our personal opinions."

I agree that Pat Robertson's comments were pretty outrageous. But I think your comment above is not the solution. Personal opinions are fundamental to who we are as humans. We can't hold back the spout, it just comes.

The problem is not that we are spouting personal opinions, the problem is that our personal opinions need to be formed by Christ and led by his word.

Our opinions are a reflection of us. And we are should be the ever improving reflection of Christ.

Pat's assasination push show's that his forieng policy opinions are not subject to scripture. Can you imagine Paul calling for the assasination of anyone?