Deeply De-Christian Doctrines (meme)

Joe started an interesting meme: Evangelist Changing: 5 Deeply De-Christian Doctrines Meme which I discovered through Eddie’s blog  Deeply De-Christianised Doctrines « Kouya Chronicle

Peter Kirk has tagged me with a meme that states: list 5 doctrines that are taught within the Christian church that you believe to be deeply de-Christian.

Among those who have already participated are:
Gentle Wisdom» Blog Archive » Deeply De-Christian Doctrines

St. Aidan to Abbey Manor: ‘5 Deeply De-Christian Doctrines’

clayboy » The Deeply De-Christian Doctrine meme

De-fending the de-Christian | lingamish

Lingamish suggests that “If you’re a reader of this blog consider yourself tagged.” So, I consider myself  tagged and will contribute some thoughts on this topic. However, I am not necessarily listing real doctrines but ways of thinking that I believe to exist in many Christian circles but are not necessarily biblical.

1) Some cultures are more Christian than others: this is along similar lines as Eddie’s “Christians in one country or region are better than others” but not quite the same. The colonial attitude is unfortunately still alive – it assumes that Western cultures and Christianity are nearly identical. Therefore in case of doubt, the local culture must be wrong and unbiblical. For some it is hard to imagine that they got it right, even before becoming believers, and we might have gotten it wrong.

2) Bible Idolatry: the book called “God’s Word” is sometimes considered God’s only Word and often becomes more important than the author himself and my relationship with him. We forget that the Bible is only a means to an end – a deeper relationship with our creator.

3) Perfectionism: we are supposed to become more or less perfect soon after our conversion. If it does not work, I need to at least pretend; put on the Sunday smile before going to church. This is one of my more recent insights – we are called to become more and more Christ-like and this is NOT identical with being perfect but a matter of maturity. It’s hard to shake off a perfectionist upbringing and learning to understand that rules are not more important than relationships – “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

4) Having the right information solves all problems: as long as I have the right information (=get enough training, do enough Bible study), I can use my will and make the right decisions. Conversion and faith are a matter of the will. Legalism and judgmentalism are the logical result when you think that that ideas and choices are key to being a Christian and making us into the right kind of person. This means when you know God’s Word, you are able to decide in every situation what’s God’s will for yourself and others. No need to ask God. Or so many people seem to think. Unfortunately, there are lots of people who have all the right information and still make the wrong choices.

4a) Right theology is more important than character transformation: even though the theological part is only one point of many and the last in the list for the qualification of elders, it is often treated as the most important one when choosing a pastor or elder, to the detriment of other points that the Bible seems to consider more important.

5) Our mind is more important for spiritual living than the body: this mind-body dichotomy is rooted in a medieval psychology that is long outdated and no longer tenable in view of more recent psychology and brain science, but Western theology still subscribes to this view. Will and spirit were seen as spiritual and important, while the body and emotions were seen as fallen and therefore unable to please God. Today we know that will and spirit are very much linked to our body.

The last three points I owe largely to teachings by Dr. Jim Wilder, especially his recent webinar series on “Why Western Christianity Failed.”

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Quote for the week * Zitat der Woche

Be patient with everyone,
but above all with yourself.
I mean, do not be disheartened by your imperfections,
But always rise up with fresh courage.
How are we to be patient in dealing with our neighbors’ faults
if we are impatient in dealing with our own?
He who is fretted with his own failings will not correct them.
All profitable correction comes from a calm, peaceful mind.
- St. Francis de Sales

***

Sei geduldig mit allen,

aber vor allem mit dir selbst.

Ich meine, sei nicht entmutigt durch deine Unvollkommenheiten,

sondern stelle dich ihnen mit neuem Mut.

Wie können wir geduldig sein im Umgang mit den Fehlern unserer Nachbarn,

wenn wir ungeduldig sind im Umgang mit unseren eigenen?

Wer sich über sein eigenes Versagen aufregt, wird es nicht korregieren können.

Alle hilfreiche Korrektur kommt aus einem ruhigen, friedlichen Geist.

- St. Francis de Sales

You are there

In yesterday’s Bible study group, we discussed another chapter of Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God“. It was on God’s omnipresence. Among other things, we read Psalm 139:7-10 and were then encouraged to rewrite the verses with those places where we need to be reminded of God’s presence. Here is my personalized version:

When I am wasting time with red tape,
you are there.

When I feel powerless in the face of corruption,
you are there.

When I am overwhelmed with things to do,
you are there.

When I am exhausted from the noise around me,
you are there.

When I am unable to meet others’ expectations and accomplish my own goals,
you are there.

When I feel lost and uncertain about the next steps,
you are there.

Even there you are IMMANUEL – God with me,
surrounding me with your love,
and delighting over me.

Rewriting these verses was very helpful for me and a wonderful reminder of God’s presence.

Wednesday without words

Burnout

Yesterday’s webinar from Deeper Walk International was about Burnout. Chris Coursey shared his story, how he became a believer, got into ministry and got married, and what factors had contributed to his burnout. Among other things, he had all the theological knowledge but not enough relational experience of God. He also lacked the necessary maturity level for ministry and certain brain skills to deal with stress.

Next week he will share more in detail about these brain skills, which are taught at THRIVE and can help prevent burnout.

If you are interested in listening to yesterday’s webinar, go to Deeper Walk International Resources Center – Webinars and scroll down to
Webinars by Chris & Jen Coursey

Why I burned out in ministry: Chris and Jen Coursey $3.00
The webinars are availabel for $3.00 each. Once you have paid, you will receive a link to download or listen online to it.

If you want to participate in next week’s webinar, go to Deeper Walk International Webinars and scroll down to register where it says:

How THRIVE Skills Prevent Burnout: Chris and Jen Coursey
3:00 pm Eastern time on November 9

Or you can also click on the link above to go straight to the registration page. Your will receive an e-mail with a personalized login link. The participation in webinars is free.

Quote for the week

Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creatures.

What you are in his sight is what you are – nothing more.

St. Francis of Assisi

Wednesday without words

Quote for the week

Men invent means and methods of coming at God’s love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God’s presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him?

- Brother Lawrence

found at jason | re | campbell: Quote: Brother Lawrence, “Maxims”

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Wednesday without words

Scenery, machinery or people?

In Anthropology we learned about the “scenery, machinery, people” approach of most Westerners: we often divide people in these three groups and treat them accordingly.

- The “scenery people” are for example those that we photograph during our vacations. We see them as decoration or objects on display, not as real people. We do not care whether the photo we are taking respects their dignity or not.

- The “machinery people” are those that we expect to function in a certain way, but again we do not see them as real people. For example, the gas station attendant or the cashier. On a good day, we might see them as people and connect in some personal way, but most of the time we treat them as “machinery” not as people.

- The “real people” are the small group we have a relationship with and care about. We see them as people with individual personalities, emotions, opinions, gifts and needs. On bad days we might expect even people in this group to just function and not require any “maintenance”: such as the burlesque husband coming home from work in the evening who expects his wife to have a meal ready, as well as the newspaper and the slippers, and be left in peace to watch TV by his children because he is tired. In this case he does not see his wife and children as people and does not treat them as such. They are not allowed to have needs.

Whom we expect to just be “scenery” or function as “machinery” is often culturally defined. And this is where culture shock often comes as a natural result.

- The market person in Africa does not function like a cashier in the West, who just rings up the goods we picked and lets us leave without any personal interaction. No matter how small the purchase, you cannot buy anything on an African market without going through a certain amount of greetings, both on arrival and leave taking. Depending on the country you are in and on the type of good you are buying, you will also need to bargain.

○ I remember a story I once heard of a Westerner who did not have the time on one day to do the required bargaining. He told his friend on the market, “Please for once let’s not do it, just ask any price and I will pay it.” His African friend was deeply offended, not – as we might expect – happy about the opportunity to ask for more than usually. For him it was a disregard for his dignity as a human. He had been treated as machinery.

- In many African countries there is a strong awareness of hierarchy but despite of it every employee still expects to be greeted by others in the same organization. Not greeting them robs them of their dignity as humans and reduces them to “machinery.”

○ The context of greetings is one example where I discovered how contradictory courtesy can be. When I come into the office and see two people talking with each other, it feels very impolite to me as European to interrupt the conversation in order to greet them. But this intuition is wrong in the African context. According to African courtesy it would be impolite to not interrupt and walk by them without greeting them. Or as a friend put it – “treat them as if they were trees” – which again expresses the idea of treating others as humans not as things.

- Requesting permission to take the photo of somebody might seem odd for Westerners but is a good rule of thumb in Africa. People do not like being “scenery” but want to be respected as humans. It might mean that you cannot take a picture if a person does not consent to it.

○ Probably there are also different traditional ideas that come into play of what happens to a person’s soul when somebody takes a photo of them. I have rarely heard them stated but only read about these ideas. Even though many things have changed, these ideas might still linger in the back of people’s minds.

○ Another complication is the idea that you might make a lot of money with the photo you are taking. Even if this is not the case for most of us, people have heard about this and want a share in your gain. Some will not give you permission to take a photo without a payment. Since I don’t have enough money to pay everybody whom I photograph, I usually chose not to take that photo. One market lady however managed to convince me nevertheless: “You are happy about the photo, so why don’t you want to give me some happiness, too?”

- Doing everything on your own and alone is unnatural for many people in Africa. Going alone to the market, carrying all your shopping alone, eating alone, staying alone in your room/house, etc. Sharing burdens and joys is an important part of most if not all Africa cultures.

○ Westerners might consider offers to carry their shopping a nuisance. However in African cultures younger people are obliged to honor older people by carrying whatever they have. In return the older person will give a blessing to the younger person. This can be a spoken blessing, in some cases accompanied with spitting (saliva being considered a means of transferring power), or a small coin or other kind of tangible gift. Along the same lines, a market seller feels obliged to send a young person with his customer to help carry the shopping to the car, who then will be expected to give some small token of gratitude to the young helper.

○ The African give and take is not guided by rules of how much to give but by what people have. Many financial requests will be quantified by “whatever you can give.” This puts Westerners in a bind, because we are not used to think in these terms and often have so much more than what we find appropriate to give in such a situation. In addition, local people often have wrong ideas of how much we really have, to the point of seriously believing that our financial supplies are unlimited because we can print our own money.

In all these examples, there are people who want to be seen as people and treated as people which is in contradiction to many of our Western habits and laws of efficiency. The Western habit of just saying “Hi!” and walking by clashes with the African understanding of politeness. Africans would probably never consider a time spend with other people a “waste of time.” My guess is that there is no single situation in African cultures that allows people to treat others “as if they were trees” – trees that you can pass without greeting, that you can expect to function and give you shade or whose photo you can take without permission. People are always people and want to be treated as such, not as “scenery” or “machinery.”

P.S. I know that speaking about “African cultures” or “African” in general is a sweeping generalization that does not do justice to the variety of cultures in Africa. However, I have the impression that the points mentioned above apply to many of them, maybe to all, and possible also to many if not most non-Western cultures.