Two years ago, I wrote a long post about my personal evolution, delving into topics like stages of faith, spiral dynamics, and healing from spiritual trauma. Since I wrote that post, much of my mental energy has been directed toward understanding the world without the blinders of dogmatism or ideology-- in other words, "Stage 5: Conjunctive" of Fowler's stages of faith. As a refresher,
It is rare for people to reach this stage before mid-life. People here begin to realize the limits of logic and start to accept the paradoxes in life. They begin to see life as a mystery and often return to sacred stories and symbols, but this time without being stuck in a theological box. Individuals resolve conflicts from previous stages by a complex understanding of a multidimensional, interdependent truth that cannot be fully explained by any particular statement.
Now that I've come to grasp most of the core concepts undergirding progressivism and contemplative Christianity, my challenge lies in learning how to share this hard-earned perspective in a loving, humble, but winsome way-- especially with fundamentalists of all stripes. People will always need to feel heard and respected, so truly listening is one of the keys. But assuming that is accomplished, revealing the harmfulness of dogmatism in an emotionally impactful way seems to be the key. This can be fairly straightforward if one is attempting to show a racist or homophobe how their hate hurts another person-- especially if you can expose them to a homosexual or someone of a hated race in a humanizing way. But it gets more complicated when challenging more theoretical beliefs, such as the idea that intellectual assent (and just to be safe, recitation of a formulaic prayer) to a particular group of ideas is the only way to avoid an eternity of conscious torment. This modernist literal interpretation of a few Biblical passages has come to be a defining ideology for millions of fundamentalist Christians, and a challenge to this so-called "gospel" is a challenge to the very core of many people's identity. Which is why it is such an emotionally charged topic.
I think the trick is to make it emotionally charged in a different way. What if we found a way to tell a story that would melt the hearts of the most cold-blooded fundamentalists? Amazingly, I'm starting to realize I have just that. My own story of transformation-- my "testimony"-- is more powerful than any arguments I could marshal against dogmatism, because it is a humanized, first-hand account. I just need to learn how to tell it better!
Just as challenging as religious fundamentalists are political ideologues. Here again, I can draw on my personal experience as a libertarian ideologue (and, years before that, a conservative ideologue) to not simply attack loony lefties or conservative crackpots, but highlight the danger of dogmatism wherever one finds oneself on the spectrum of political beliefs. Time after time, I've seen conservative and/or libertarian ideology drive policy and behavior that can only be described as heinous-- and I've seen it on the left, too. A commitment to truth and love wherever it is found is the one sure recipe for progress, not blind faith in party or person or ideology.
I'll never have it all figured out, but after a fractious 20's, the last few years have proven to be a time of "conjunctive" healing and growth. Pete Rollins uses a phrase that sums up where I am and where I hope I'm still headed: "converted from the need to convert." Though out of convention I accept labels like "progressive" and "Christian," I try to be careful to not let those or any other labels restrict my growth in love, truth, and creativity. Because at the end of the day, that's about all we know God is and wants us to grow in.
Now that I've come to grasp most of the core concepts undergirding progressivism and contemplative Christianity, my challenge lies in learning how to share this hard-earned perspective in a loving, humble, but winsome way-- especially with fundamentalists of all stripes. People will always need to feel heard and respected, so truly listening is one of the keys. But assuming that is accomplished, revealing the harmfulness of dogmatism in an emotionally impactful way seems to be the key. This can be fairly straightforward if one is attempting to show a racist or homophobe how their hate hurts another person-- especially if you can expose them to a homosexual or someone of a hated race in a humanizing way. But it gets more complicated when challenging more theoretical beliefs, such as the idea that intellectual assent (and just to be safe, recitation of a formulaic prayer) to a particular group of ideas is the only way to avoid an eternity of conscious torment. This modernist literal interpretation of a few Biblical passages has come to be a defining ideology for millions of fundamentalist Christians, and a challenge to this so-called "gospel" is a challenge to the very core of many people's identity. Which is why it is such an emotionally charged topic.
I think the trick is to make it emotionally charged in a different way. What if we found a way to tell a story that would melt the hearts of the most cold-blooded fundamentalists? Amazingly, I'm starting to realize I have just that. My own story of transformation-- my "testimony"-- is more powerful than any arguments I could marshal against dogmatism, because it is a humanized, first-hand account. I just need to learn how to tell it better!
Just as challenging as religious fundamentalists are political ideologues. Here again, I can draw on my personal experience as a libertarian ideologue (and, years before that, a conservative ideologue) to not simply attack loony lefties or conservative crackpots, but highlight the danger of dogmatism wherever one finds oneself on the spectrum of political beliefs. Time after time, I've seen conservative and/or libertarian ideology drive policy and behavior that can only be described as heinous-- and I've seen it on the left, too. A commitment to truth and love wherever it is found is the one sure recipe for progress, not blind faith in party or person or ideology.
I'll never have it all figured out, but after a fractious 20's, the last few years have proven to be a time of "conjunctive" healing and growth. Pete Rollins uses a phrase that sums up where I am and where I hope I'm still headed: "converted from the need to convert." Though out of convention I accept labels like "progressive" and "Christian," I try to be careful to not let those or any other labels restrict my growth in love, truth, and creativity. Because at the end of the day, that's about all we know God is and wants us to grow in.
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