Wednesday December 31, 2008
Independent thinking
A common debating tactic involves dividing things into two kinds. It\’s a useful tactic, despite humorist Robert Benchley\’s satiric comment, “There are two kinds of people in the world — those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don\’t.”
For example, I could argue that there are two kinds of religious education – those that encourage people to think for themselves, and those that don\’t. Of course there are more, but it\’s a useful distinction for making a point.
Most catechisms fit the latter pattern. They expect students to memorize predetermined answers. Whether those answers are wise or foolish doesn\’t matter – they\’re what you\’re supposed to know.
Similarly, some Sunday school programs concentrate on ensuring that children learn the biblical stories correctly.
The other kind of education tries to teach students to think for themselves. To do more than regurgitate pre-digested answers.
Moving on
Most churches and schools I\’ve known have concentrated on the second kind of education. They rejoice when students ask probing questions, do their own research, and challenge conventional assumptions.
But only up to a point.
A friend of mine described a book study group that he belongs to. Its members are all intelligent and thoughtful, all seriously committed to living ethically and responsibly in today\’s complex world.
“But,” my friend lamented, “I\’m the only one who still goes to church. The others used to, but they no longer get anything from it. They would say that they\’ve moved on.”
We sympathized with him.
Later, I started thinking – why do we celebrate when people graduate from kindergarten to grade school, from high school to university, from university to a profession, but not when they graduate from one level of religious faith to another?
Sure, we celebrate if Sunday school pupils become adult members of a church. But if they then find their church association confining and move on, we treat it as a tragedy.
The zealot trap To receive this column regularly via e-mail, send a request to jimt@quixotic.ca. E-mail subscribers also get excerpts from correspondence about these columns. Please forward a copy of this column to anyone who might be interested in subscribing.
If you want to order my books, you can call 1-800-663-2775 in Canada, 1-800-328-0200 in the U.S., or order them on-line at the Wood Lake Books website.
For a lighter look at ethics, faith, and life, I recommend Ralph Milton\’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it at the Wood Lake Books home page in Ralph Milton\’s Site, or by sending a note directly to ralphmilton@woodlake.com.
It\’s also worth pursuing Charlene Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
Sociologist Reg Bibby of the University of Lethbridge has documented that most churches grow by poaching dissatisfied refugees from other churches. People seeking certainty move from United or Anglican churches to Baptist or Pentecostal. Conversely, people who can no longer stomach their churches\’ rigid attitudes to abortion, women\’s rights, homosexuality, euthanasia, birth control or capital punishment move to more liberal denominations.
In my own congregation, most of the leading lay people have roots in other denominations. We welcome them. We celebrate that they have learned to think for themselves.
Shouldn\’t we also celebrate when some conclude that their current church connections may hold them back, rather than push them forward?
Or do we really believe our particular brand is the ultimate expression of what church should be?
Robert H. Jackson, university professor and Editor of the British Journal of Religious Education, reworked Benchley\’s aphorism. “Zealots,” he suggested, have a “fanatical conviction that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds — that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.”
Sometimes even the liberals among us fall into the zealotry trap.
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Copyright © 2008 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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