Colour Supplement

Articles by writers around the world

Sunday 4 November 2007

 

Dear RLP

By Gordon Atkinson - Real Live Preacher

 

Dear RLP,

Regarding your story about yourself, you said "people who cannot be completely convinced of God's existence think faith is impossible for them." What of those who go beyond this? Those who are pretty much completely convinced there is no God or gods at all, and yet still want to believe?

I'm sure you must deal with feeling like you're living a lie at times - what about the ethical issues of promoting something you don't have reason to believe is true, of teaching by example that it's ok to believe and follow something because you want it to be true and like the results? How do you reconcile this?

James

*************

Dear James,

I understand what you are saying, and I've struggled with the question of faith and belief for many years. I am by nature a skeptic. I don't know why; I've always been like that. I want to understand things and I don't like easy answers. And yet I am not only a part of the Church, but the pastor of a congregation. That is rather counter-intuitive, I know.

At issue is the question of how you will think about Christianity. Is it primarily a set of doctrines that one must believe? And how exactly is "believe" defined? Or is Christianity more a way of life, a set of disciplines that a person can practice regardless of his or her mental states at any given moment? For most American Christians, Christianity is mainly (in some cases only) a set of doctrines. You must believe a collection of statements, whole-heartedly and without doubts. If you can't, you're just S.O.L.

In practical life it breaks down like this for the American church: If you can't believe our doctrines, you're out. There is no place for you. Go away until you CAN believe them. If you do believe our doctrines but don't bother living a life of obedience and discipleship, well, you're in but we're going to frown at you and grumble, hoping you'll one day clean up your act.

I don't know about you, but I don't like the sound or feel of what I just described.

I think the New Testament teaches both approaches. The Gospels and James seem to call us mainly to obedience. Jesus didn't spend much time setting out a lot of theological doctrines. He said some things about God, certainly, but he spoke almost exclusively about living a life of obedience. "If you love me you will keep my commandments." Things like that. You could get the idea that Christians are those trying to live like Christ. The letters of the New Testament also call us to obedience, but make more careful theological statements. For example, the book of Romans is very doctrinal in nature.

For me the bottom line is this: I give myself to a set of central doctrines as a member of the Christian community. In a sense, my giving myself to them is a kind of willing submission. Jesus died on the cross for me. I don't really know how that works, but somehow evil is so terrible and hard to set right that it took such a thing to do the trick and drive the point home. I don't spend much time anymore worrying about exactly how that happened and how it plays out. I'm willing to submit myself to our central story as a humble member of the community.

BUT - I think that the Church ought to be open to people who say, "I don't really believe but I sense something important is going on. I would like to hang out with you for awhile -pray, sing, read the Bible, whatever - and see what happens, see where it leads me. I tell you truth, these are some of my most favourite people in the world. I so appreciate people who are intellectually careful and honest. And I would rather be in community with an agnostic person who, in her uncertainty, was willing to walk the Christian path with me, than with some person who accepts doctrines without question and never bothers to think about how she lives her life.

As for whether or not teaching and striving to believe things that are hard to believe is ethical and honest, it all depends on how honest you are about it. If you struggle with doubts and hide them for fear of your religious community, what good is that to anyone? And what kind of awful community would that be? On the other hand, if you are honest about both your doubts and your faith, then there is no reason you can't join with the community as an honest seeker.

peace,

rlp

Gordon Atkinson is pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas and has his own outstanding website www.reallivepreacher.com.  We are most grateful to Gordon for his permission to reproduce his essays here.

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