The Schenck Inoculation
One
dinner when I was doing my graduate studies in
The response was scolding, "No"--in that drawn out, pretentious
sounding high English accent. "I'm an atheist--the thinking kind."
Well! He sure put me in my place :>)
Now I came to be pretty good friends with Will over the next three years, so I
want you to know that I like Will. Intellectually, I don't have any problem
with his position. On the other hand, I recognize this answer--it's the typical
answer of an ignorant atheist. This is the type of person who has no idea just
how deep some Christians think.
Now mind you, I'm not thinking of myself when I refer to deep thinking
Christians. I'm talking about the people who astound me when I hear them or try
to follow their thoughts. Read some Alvin Plantinga
when he's at his deepest, or Richard Swinburne. I
don't always agree with these guys, but it sure takes me several rereads even
to understand what they're saying. I remember hearing Thomas Oden give his testimony once--I didn't have a clue what he
was talking about. It was so far above my puny seminarian mind (mixed of course
with a good dose of unnecessary pretension on his part, I might add--if I
understand his personality rightly).
In the moment that Will made this comment I felt pretty sure that he really
didn't know many "thinking" Christians. I'll be up front with you--I
went through immense crises of faith in seminary and doctoral days. I basically
came to the conclusion that the incarnation and the resurrection are the rock
bottom core items of Christian faith. Everything else is icing on the cake.
I long ago concluded that if I ever abandoned either of these, then I would no
longer be a "literal" Christian (of course I'm presuming the literal
existence of God as well in all this, as well as other things like God's
involvement in the universe, etc...). If I concluded these weren't true, I
might call myself a Christian but I would have become a
"metaphorical" Christian. Maybe you could call yourself a
"Christian sentimentalist" or a "Christ-fearer" after you've left this building.
But make no mistake about it. The church owns the building, and the church
believes in these things. If you decide you don't believe these things any more
on intellectual grounds, that's fair enough. I deeply respect that. But you
don't own the building, and you can't take it with you. Resign from your office
as bishop or district superintendent.
John Dominic Crossan left the priesthood--I respect
that (although I think he more left to get married). On the other hand, Sprague
and Spong somehow think it's their task to make the
church believe like them. I respect their intellectual positions (well, maybe
Sprague's. Spong's a pseudo-intellectual who doesn't
know what he's talking about). But they've forfeited their positions of
authority in the Methodist and Episcopal churches. They can feel free to start
their own metaphorical Christian church. I'll respect them for that.
By the way, I'm not talking about doubts here either. I could live with Crossan, Sprague, and Spong if
they had genuine intellectual doubts but continued to live under the auspice of
their offices.
Like I said, the incarnation and resurrection are the cake for me--everything
else is icing. And there is a lot of icing to be sure. These aren't the only
important things we believe, but they're the heart of what we believe.
I generally hesitate to share the full brunt of my own faith struggles because
I know how much we like icing in our communities. I'd love you to believe much
more than just the cake. But when you've found something that makes you think
your faith world is collapsing around you, remember me.
There are some serious questions you'll come across if you pursue things long
enough. Have you ever noticed that Mark says Jesus will appear to the disciples
in Galilee, Paul says Jesus appeared first to Peter, John tells us first of him
appearing to Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem, Luke only tells of appearances in
Jerusalem. It's genuinely hard to fit the resurrection stories together if
you've tried to do it on a historical basis. It can be done, if this is
important to your faith.
But ultimately, my faith stands whether they can be fit together or not.
"Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will
come again." This I believe. And while I believe in the "icing"
of the truthfulness of Scripture--it's icing. My faith in the resurrection
would stand even if you could show me a thousand errors in the Bible. "On
Christ, the solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other
ground is sinking sand."
"God doesn't speak to me like He did to Moses." Sorry, who are you?
You're not Moses, that's for sure. The truth doesn't care about anyone or
anything. It just is. Get over it.
I'm not trying to take away any of the icing. I hope most of you will just
think I'm odd or (worse) "liberal." But if one day you find yourself
on the throes of a faith crisis, remember me. I concluded in my doctoral days
that the reason my faith struggled so much was because no one ever clued me in
on where the real stakes were. I grew up with an all or nothing kind of
approach--"either every word of the Bible is true or none of it is
true." I'm quite willing to believe in the truthfulness of the Bible, but its not where Christian faith ultimately collapses or
stands. "On Christ, the solid rock, I stand."
So you're having questions about God? I'm genuinely sorry, and I'd love to
talk. You're not having questions? Great! But I'd love you to keep me in mind
if you ever do. I want you to know that there are plenty others who've had
questions and have continued to believe. I want you to realize that there is no
doubt you will ever have that someone else who believes hasn't had before you.
It was unfortunately not until I was in my twenties that something dawned on
me. It suddenly occurred to me that my parents had already lived those same
twenty years--about forty years earlier. Here so often I had thought I was
teaching them something. Because it was the first time I was thinking something,
I thought it must be the first time for them too. This is the arrogance of
youth and of ignorance. There's not a thought any of us will ever have that a
million others haven't had countless times in some similar form, even if our
modern circumstances put new clothing on it.
It's the arrogant atheist that I find irritating. This is the person who acts
like they've suddenly had some earthshaking thought no Christian has ever had
before.
Ho hum. Been there, done that. Grow up. You having doubts about God? I respect that. And I respect
the person who on intellectual grounds does not believe in God.
But don't pretend for one moment that you're any smarter than the countless
Christian thinkers out there who had those same thoughts about forty years ago.
No wait, try a thousand years ago for most of those doubts.