In Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis (I liked that book a lot) he talked about the idea that some Christians are more concerned with doctrine and theology than actually following God. He called this a religion of Brickianity …
“Each of the core doctrines for him is like an individual brick that stacks on top of the others. If you pull one out, the whole wall starts to crumble. It appears quite strong and rigid, but if you begin to rethink or discuss even one brick, the whole thing is in danger."
That chapter really resonated with me. And I smugly thought about all the people I knew who had a brick-wall kind of faith. But what I didn’t realize until just recently — was that I have my share of bricks stacked up.
There was always stuff about Christianity that drove me nutty … or that I found troubling. I’m an expert at pretty much steering clear of most of the Old Testament. Okay, I readily admit, that really is quite a pathetic solution. But have you read the Old Testament? All that genocide and blatant misogyny can really trip a girl’s faith up.
Even in the New Testament, I could never make sense of the exclusivity (only through Jesus can we be saved) and the whole hell thing (eternal damnation seems a bit over the top, doesn’t it?).
And mostly, I could never make heads or tails of the idea that the Bible is God’s Holy and Inspired Word. I never understood how we concluded that it was indeed God-breathed (as opposed to being the product of two communities that it came out of). How do we know that? Other than a couple random verses that seem to suggest that all scripture is from God (ones that I can only assume were not talking about itself, since at that point they were letters and not actually scripture)?
Either way, it really seems as though you would need a better source for proving the divinity of a book other than the book itself. The Qur'an and the Book of Mormon both claim to be Holy, revealed texts. And most Christians I know don't take those books simply at their word. What is the difference? I mean, I might claim in a book that I am a world-class ultimate fighting champion, and call the book truth, it certainly doesn’t make it true.
And anyway, shouldn't a book that was birthed from the very mind of God be at least a little clearer on life issues? Or at least not allow slavery for goodness sakes? What am I missing here?
I was ( I still am) utterly confounded by it all. But I confess that I never took the time to think it all through. At some point recently, I started to. I started to think it all through. And then … my bricks started falling.
Here’s the thing. I always just assumed I didn’t really have to think everything through. I mean, for crying out loud, there are about a kajillion people in the world that are smarter than I am about the Bible and theology. And while they all seem to have different versions of what is true (and are each convinced that their truth is the real truth), I just assumed that someone already thought it all through much better than I ever could have. And figured I would agree with someone when I got around to taking a look at their theories. That when I got off my butt and looked for the answers, they would be there. And they would suffice. I know. It’s appalling and terribly lazy. But there it is.
The problem is, when I started looking into things, instead of everything becoming clear, it all just got muddy. Crazy muddy. I went into this venture with the best of intentions …. looking for the glue to cement my Christianity together. And instead it was falling to pieces. I went looking for answers and found only more questions. It's all quite disconcerting.
