anti-evangelical

I've decided recently that I am emphatically not an Evangelical anymore, and am in favor of no one being so. . . .

I took a class my senior year called 'leadership strategies'. It was basically a business class hosted by the theology department, which proved to be an interesting combination and accounts for why I would claim it as the second best class I have ever taken. In this class we spent a large part of the semester discussing the fine line between influence and manipulation, since as a leader you have to attempt to influence others. The problem is that most influencing that leaders do extends a little too far and descends into manipulation. I've been chewing on the class for 2 years now and have realized that this is a thoroughly theological issue.

Free Will is the most ostracized doctrine of Evangelical faith. We give it honorable mention and then lock it in the basement of discussion for fear that if it should get out, it will mess everything up. I think this abuse of Free Will is also one of the greatest blasphemies against God that Evangelicals make in the name of being 'holy'. Imagine if we truly allowed everyone the freedom to choose what they would: with no guilt trips pending, no sanctions or social ostracizing, no threat of their choice building a wall between us . . . no self-righteousness forcing them into a "less holy" category for what they have chosen, no dehumanizing jargon like "lost", "unsaved", or "unbeliever". If free will were respected in this way, Evangelicalism would crumble within days. Christian television would have nothing to put on the air. Entire printing businesses would close for not having pamphlets and tracts to print. We might even find this strange thing called 'respect' floating around our society in a little greater abundance!

Leaders are called to influence. Influence resides on the side of the line where Free Will is revered. Influence seeks to present factors and angles that the other might not see at first.

Manipulation is on the side of the line where Free Will is denied. Manipulation seeks to place factors and angles in front of a person and then allow them to look at nothing but those things. It attempts to limit their sight, thought, and allow only tried and true experiences which will coerce the other into one option: whatever the "leader" wants. It is at the heart of a all consumerist marketing, and has become the pillar of Evangelicalism.

Now, I am all for sharing faith. I think if we could regain a true respect for Free Will, then dialogue would become one of the greatest tools for the Kingdom we could see. Imagine different churches and faiths having enough respect for each other to find the common ground and, if only temporarily, come together for the purpose of serving God. . . Instead we divide, and push each other away for fear of being contaminated, or worse yet realizing that God has escaped the doctrinal net we have been weaving around him for who knows how many years. What if a Muslim is doing a better job of serving the poor? Do I reject what he is doing since he is doing it by Muhammad's word instead of Christ's? But, I'm sure Evangelical churches would poor much more effort into theologically training its members to convert the Muslim, than toward joining him to benefit those in poverty. We've missed the point.

It's a defense mechanism. We set up the few criteria that we typically meet, and elevate them as the golden standards of obedience to God; even if we reject the rest of his commands. In my church we get baptized. We follow the 200 year old errant traditions of the movement we came from. We turn Paul into a new Torah and elevate the book of Acts to dogma. And since we generally meet these criteria, we judge everyone else by them. To everyone else the sound ludicrous. To us they are the seal of our salvation, and all others are called to stand before them to be judged. Meanwhile Baptists judge us by the criteria they live up to. Methodists do the same. Catholics measure all of protestantism by their criteria. Muslims measure us by their strict monotheism. Buddhists judge all others by their amaterialism. And secular people judge all by their practicality in day to day life. And, in this process all are alike in that they manage to remain in the 'right' and everyone else is failing to measure up.

Most people are like this, but passively. It's how we safely maintain our lives. When Mormons knock on my door, I already have the criteria in mind that I know they don't measure up to. I spit it in their face (if I'm feeling rude) and shut down whatever they have to say to me. Secular people do it to me. I try to start a spiritual conversation; they say it sounds like a bunch of spiritualized nonsense, and we both go about our day sure that we were in the right. Evangelicals though are this way, but aggressive. They convince themselves thoroughly of how right they are about everything: from creationism to millenialism. They proceed to find every means possible to obnoxiously present this pseudo-righteousness to everyone. We force people into conversations they don't want to have, and then back them into a corner, thinking that this is the way to convert them.

It makes Free Will a joke.

And that is serious! God created. And, he created us free. He spent 2000 (two-thousand!!) years working with a stubborn ethnic group. How's that for a church-growth standard: two thousand years and the results were the shaky faith of one of the smallest nations in the world. The response he desired from Israel was one made of their own will in the glorious freedom he had provided them. The Christian plea is that Jesus was the sacrifice of God, who paid everything that we might be left with a choice of total free will!! We are saved from all forces that prevented us from choosing God, but the choice still remains. The call of Christ is emphatically opposed to all manipulation. Preachers using verbal manipulation to achieve maximum numeric response to an alter call or a summons to baptism is not discipleship. The former is garbage in comparison to the latter. If God himself if willing to die in the form of Jesus on a cross to provide us with true freedom to choose, what does that say for those who would short-circuit that very freedom in the name of Jesus!!??