My blogging compatriot Jason Skipper has a fantastic post today, warning against the over-reaction so common in many of us who have come out of extreme fundamentalism. I participate in a group blog with Jason on fundamentalism, and Jason’s posts are always worth the read. I’ll quote a paragraph’s worth, and then encourage you to go over and check out the whole thing.
…Don’t stay involved in controversy. Engage only when necessary. Life is filled with enough fighting without picking fights that could be avoided. Remember the old saying that one catches more flies with honey than with vinegar. Keep a Christ-centered hermeneutic and a Christo-centric approach to dealing with other men. What is important is not the exposing of error, but upholding Jesus. It is possible to become just as negative as the extremists when fighting error. That is to be avoided.
I went through this same over-reaction stage and have to be on guard against it. Let me know what you think about Jason’s word of warning.
Beyond Matthew 22:37-40, what needs to be said?
These enormous edifices of theology. Endless, passionately parsed subsets of orthodoxy, seem so secular to me.
Hearts in chains of fear. Perhaps, if I was more specifically “Christian”, it might not be a problem, but as an “outsider” it doesn’t seem the least bit like the way Jesus showed us.
Look how disruptive just reading a different translation of the Bible or listening to non-approved music has been for you. To me, you’ve only just begun the process. The long work of extracting yourself from formulaic and learned-by-rote reverence. What do you suppose will be next? Won’t you be accused of (I can’t even say it.)?