The blog entry below is copied from a blog that was referred to the mentors of the Theology class I facilitate.
One thing I always tell those in my group is to question. Question why a minister says what he or she says, question whether a belief is relevant to today's society, question dogma mired in the 16th century world that is irrelevant to their Christian walk today, etc. So many people walk through the doors of a church and check their brain in the vestibule.
Armstrongism created a world that lives in black and white issues. The answer to everything has to come from writings of HWA or the ministry. There is no room for doubt, to question, or to have anger.
When you look at the early church Fathers and Mothers these were men and women who questioned, argued with and were sometimes angry with God. Yet through it all they developed a deeper spiritual life. There was room for growth and a desire to grow upward.
Armstrongism desires to shrink backwards. It seems it cannot exist without reverting back to 1986 and earlier. If Herb did not say it, then it is irrelevant to daily life.
It's time for UCG members and COG members as a whole to get off their butt's and start questioning your ethically and morally bankrupt Elder's/ministers, question your doctrines, and more importantly, question why you continue to allow yourself to be sucked into the cesspool that Armstrongism is sinking into. There is freedom out there. There is Grace. It's there waiting, unconditionally.
Everyone Is A Theologian
There is a statement that I hear way too often, and it is one that makes me sad and angry:
I am not a theologian.Most often, I hear it when I am teaching a class of some sort, and have shared a thought that seems contrary to what someone has spent most of their life believing. Sometimes it is said when I have shared some information that someone has never heard before. Most often, however, it comes when I am engaged in a conversation with someone during which we are sharing what we believe, and my conversation partner ends up “stuck” as they try to describe their understanding of something.
“Well, I haven’t really thought about it as much as you have,” they say. “I have a pretty simple faith. I’m not really a theologian.”
I hate that, and I try to never put someone who is earnestly trying to talk about God in that kind of place. I would like to ask you to never say anything like that, ever again in your life. I want you to remember something very important: We are all theologians. While it is true that some of us are more formally trained in theology (to greater and lesser degrees), this group of people are not the only ones who can claim to be “theologians.” That title belongs to everyone, and we need to begin reclaiming it.
To be a theologian simply means that you “talk about God.” That’s what the word theology means: (from the Greek) theos = god; logos = words or speech. To be a theologian means that you try to put your ideas about God into words. More specifically, because of what our scriptures say, we can say that the task of theology is our attempt to describe what we understand about God, what we understand about creation, and what we understand about the relationship between that two. You can, honestly, have any kind of theology that you want. There is no one, right way to think about something (despite what many so-called theologians might say).
Theologies are not created equal, however. Some do a better job of describing God (at least according to other people), and they are instructive to the rest of us whose theological understanding might be lack in comparison. There are many of these “better” theologies and they all have a few things in common.
They are consistent with the Bible. Any good Christian theology has its origin in the Bible. The logic is sort of circular, but Christians believe that God was revealed to humanity in the person of Jesus Christ and that the Bible is the best witness we have to who Jesus was and what he did. You’re theology does not have to be considered a “Biblical Theology,” but the themes of a Christian theology does have to be consistent with the themes of the scripture.
They are Good News. When it comes to theology, the opposite of Good News is not Bad News. It’s Irrelevant News – news that is nice, but doesn’t mean anything important.
Imagine that you have just pulled into your driveway after being fired. You’re struggling with how to tell your spouse, and I run up to you and tell you that you daughter is at a friend’s house playing. That would be interesting news to hear, but, in the context of the moment, irrelevant.
Now imagine that you’ve just pulled into your driveway and your house is on fire. You’re very scared and worried about your family, and I run up to you and tell you that your daughter is at a friend’s house playing. In that moment, knowing where your daughter is constitutes good news.
Too often our theologies are full of interesting things that are true, but they are irrelevant to people’s’ lives. They don’t address the situations in which people are living. They don’t offer answers to questions people are asking.
They are humble. One of my favorite stories from the history of my religious tradition
A good theology will be one which says the best thing it knows how to say at the time, and, yet, leaves room for growth in our understanding of God. There are things about God which I believe are eternally true, but I also believe that I don’t know what those are and that my ability to grasp what God is up to (hopefully) grows as I live my life.
If I have the same theology today as I did yesterday, then I need to take a hard look at some things.They produce good ethics. One reality which I find very amusing is when I have people tearing me down for having what they deem as “incorrect theology.” To them, anything I might say is an affront to the glory of God and I must be stopped at all costs. I’m actually fine with them up to this point. They are welcome to their opinion. It’s the way they do it that I find wrong.
Jesus, himself, said that he came to do some things (give sight to the blind, set captives free, etc.). Theology produces action, and if it is a faithful theology it produces good actions. To my point above: if our theology allows us to treat one another badly, then we need another theology.
They are bold. No one ever came to understand the saving power of Christ because of an unassuming theological viewpoint. Good theology shouts the Good News from the mountaintops.
We should never be afraid of messing up as we try to describe the great things God has done. How is it wrong to try to tell the world all the marvelous things you’ve experienced? Sure, we always try to be more clear and consistent tomorrow than we were yesterday. But that should never stop us from speaking. We’re not going to do God any harm be giving it our best as we proclaim Christ’s Grace and Peace.Theology is actually something we all do, and something we all need to do. No one of us has a monopoly on thoughts and ideas about God. Please share yours with each other so that, together, we might better share it with the world.
So…What do you believe about God, creation, and the relationship between the two?
The Metanoia Project
