Douggie critiques the Great Evangelical Monolith
The way some people feel about the Sydney anglicans is the way I feel about the evangelical traditon full stop. I say that as one having been conceived and born into it, with all the blessings, cursings and baggage that it brings.
My experience of the great evangelical monolith (not individuals) is that certain arrogance that the Sydney Anglicans are being charged with. That is. having the "right" theology, and lots of head knowledge but lacking depth of compassion and understanding of others, where knowledge and theology is used to corerce or manipulate others into a situation of being able to control the individual in some shape or form.
Usually we think that control of others is obvious and even quite blatant but I suggest that that sort of control is easy to identify and deal with. The other sort of control is more insidious because it cloaks itself in terms and attitudes that are around discipleship, mentoring, :"coming alongside a brother "(don't ya love that one?).
Discension under the weight of "evanglicalism" is not tolerated in any practical sense in my experience of the animal. The beast appears to be more interested in getting people to live "moral lives" rather than engage deeply with a fearful God on a personal basis. The 70 x 7 rule regarding forgiveness in reality boils down to about 3! then you're out, especially so if you have an addiction or "unwanted sexual attraction" because it means that you're not really serious about your faith. I mean, that would be obvious wouldn't it!!!!????? Wouldn't it? It must be,.... because,.... of all the head knowledge, correct theology, chapter, verse, all the sound teaching translated from the greek.
Well yes, thats it, its all greek to me!
I guess I have some sort of disfunctional r'ship with this being called God. I got it from this big ugly terryfying giant called evangelicalism that said that God was about joy and grace but my experience has been that he's more about fear and judgement. Fear that one day God will say about me "see Douggie over ther he's the kind of person I was talking about when I said not all who call me Lord Lord will enter .....etc etc..." Why do I think this way, you ask, when I've got lots of deep friendships with evangelicals, hell, one of my best mates is an anglican minister. I'm not talking about individuals here but a monlithic type structure, idea which has little compassion and crushes people and drives wedges between them.
My experience of the great evangelical monolith (not individuals) is that certain arrogance that the Sydney Anglicans are being charged with. That is. having the "right" theology, and lots of head knowledge but lacking depth of compassion and understanding of others, where knowledge and theology is used to corerce or manipulate others into a situation of being able to control the individual in some shape or form.
Usually we think that control of others is obvious and even quite blatant but I suggest that that sort of control is easy to identify and deal with. The other sort of control is more insidious because it cloaks itself in terms and attitudes that are around discipleship, mentoring, :"coming alongside a brother "(don't ya love that one?).
Discension under the weight of "evanglicalism" is not tolerated in any practical sense in my experience of the animal. The beast appears to be more interested in getting people to live "moral lives" rather than engage deeply with a fearful God on a personal basis. The 70 x 7 rule regarding forgiveness in reality boils down to about 3! then you're out, especially so if you have an addiction or "unwanted sexual attraction" because it means that you're not really serious about your faith. I mean, that would be obvious wouldn't it!!!!????? Wouldn't it? It must be,.... because,.... of all the head knowledge, correct theology, chapter, verse, all the sound teaching translated from the greek.
Well yes, thats it, its all greek to me!
I guess I have some sort of disfunctional r'ship with this being called God. I got it from this big ugly terryfying giant called evangelicalism that said that God was about joy and grace but my experience has been that he's more about fear and judgement. Fear that one day God will say about me "see Douggie over ther he's the kind of person I was talking about when I said not all who call me Lord Lord will enter .....etc etc..." Why do I think this way, you ask, when I've got lots of deep friendships with evangelicals, hell, one of my best mates is an anglican minister. I'm not talking about individuals here but a monlithic type structure, idea which has little compassion and crushes people and drives wedges between them.
posted by Father Dave at 3:01 PM
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