Four Screening Tools to Apply to your search for Faith
I came across this in a book that I was reading called “Finding Faith” by Brian McLaren, and I thought it was good. Some people might have issues with his criteria as they don’t really touch on the concepts of theology or doctrinal truth. Those issues not being of particular importance to me right now, I thought that this would make an interesting discussion, to contrast when I was in the UPC, versus where I am now.
Four Screening Tools to Apply to your search for Faith:
1. Does the Belief make Sense? Does it possess internal intellectual integrity and coherence? Does it fit reality as I know it? As a system of belief does it hold water? Can I believe it, not just as comforting and pleasant or helpful, but more, as probable, as convincing, as believable?
UPC: Most of the stuff I was taught in the UPC DIDN’t make sense, though they often twisted it until it appeared at first glance to be perfectly logical. Most of us remember a time when it suddenly all began to unravel, eventually, you come to a place where you look back at the things you used to believe, and can’t understand why in the world you ever thought it made sense.
Now: The only core belief that I can claim with any certainty at the present time, is that: God Is. To me, that makes sense. I believe our world is too complex to be adequately explained by science or evolution, I believe that there has to be some sort of intelligent design. As an extension of that, it seems logical that the designer would have some interest in his creation.
2. Is the belief workable and livable? If everyone on earth held this belief, would the results be good? Does the belief lead to health and life and hope, or would it lead to self-destruction and despair?
UPC: I think I can safely say that this gets a big fat No! I tried as hard as I could, and no matter how hard I WANTED it too, it just didn’t work. If everyone on the earth were UPC, the world would be one big holiness contest, with everyone judging everyone else by their adherence to unbiblical rules. In addition women would be oppressed, and a few powerful leaders would run the world (Dictatorial theocracy!) Everyone would be tormented constantly with fear of hell, and fear of not living up to the expectations. I think Depresssion would run rampant.
Now: Is the belief that there is a God livable and workable? Definately. If everyone believed that there was a God, I think as a whole there would be less evil in the world, and people would care more about the plight of their fellow man. I also think that belief in God is a comfort to people in times of suffering.
3. Do I want to associate with the people who profess this belief? Does the quality of their community life tend to authenticate or undermine their message? Does their belief produce good fruit in their lives as individuals and as a community? Here I don’t expect perfection, but I do expect honesty, forgiveness, love, unselfishness, acceptance and vitality.
UPC: It’s not so much that I don’t want to associate with them, as I don’t as a whole, trust them. As a community they tend to breed self-righteousness, judgementalism, and phariseeism. Though they were the “holiest” people that I knew, they were also the most unaccepting, backbiting, exclusive, know-it-all, hypocritcal people that I knew.
Now: I still struggle with wanting to associate with people of any flavor of Christianity. The ones that I tend to spend most of my time with, are others like me. I do like to spend time with those who admit their own ignorance and short-comings, are open and honest, and are sincere seekers.
4. If I affiliated with this group, would I feel comfortable bringing an interested friend to visit? I expect healthy faith to be contagious, so I expect that I will have friends who want to visit whatever faith community I am apart of - if it is indeed nurturing a healthy faith in me. Would they, whereever they’re coming from, be as welcome as I am there? Would I be ashamed to bring them there, knowing the experience there would be for them incomprehensible, unwelcoming, offensive or irrelevant?
UPC: This was always something I struggled with when I was UPC. Bringing people to church. I wanted them to be saved, but I didn’t want them to think that I was some kind of freak. I guess even then I knew that some things seemed crazy from the outside looking in.
Now: This doesn’t really apply as I am not currently attending a church anywhere. But it is definately be an important criteria when and if I ever decided to attend church again.
