Every religious group has it’s blessings and curses. I love my tribe. I will die part of my tribe. After 56 years of living in my tribe I am keenly aware of our thinking, attitudes and identity.
This morning, I was on a conference call with a friend who is quite familiar with with Churches of Christ (a’cappella). She is a born and raised Lutheran; more specifically, a conservative Lutheran in the Wisconsin Synod. Pat is a delightfully intelligent, thoughtful and biblically astute person who loves God, people and the Bible. Recently, she co-authored a small handbook on Dwelling in the Word with Patrick Keifert.
In our conversation she mentioned her joy in working with church leaders in Churches of Christ. She said, “Your people have such reverence for Scripture and receiving insights from Scripture.” Wow! This is something those of us raised in the Churches of Christ take for granted. Good to hear. Then she said, Churches of Christ have a “perfectionistic streak.” She said it with love and care qualifying the statement that she can identify because of her Type A personality. I understood exactly what she was talking about. In other words, “We have to get it right to be right.” It does foster an uptight, cautious and anxious environment in many ways. Fellowship that is determined by “my interpretation” of Scripture is always fragile and peppered with sectarianism. Perfectionistic people have difficulty with grace, first for themselves, and then for others.
It is one thing to pursue truth (in love of course and quite another to believe we have arrived at all truth. I have said it before and believe it more than ever, “NO ONE READS THE BIBLE IN NEUTRAL.” In other words, everyone read the BIble with presuppositions in culturally conditioned ways (Particular religious heritage, ethnicity, gender, life experiences, etc.). It’s all the stuff below the line that informs and forms us.
I am grateful to be part of a heritage that has reverence for Scripture and appeals to the Bible for religious authority. Taking the Bible seriously is both hard work and great joy. The Bible will take us places we don’t want to go and into mysteries we will never know. The Bible when taken on its own terms will not fit into three point constructs for having a happy life and will most assuredly show us things we don’t want to live and consistently challenge our presuppositions about God, life and church.
I confess that I have a perfectionistic streak. Thank God Jesus saves perfectionists.