A Mindless Faith

I love books. I even like many Christian books. But I like books that make you think, not books that allow you to not think. I feel there are a lot of the latter floating around these days. In general, there seems to be a lack of thought in Christian circles.

I haven't read Love Wins yet. I don't view it as imperative - I don't really enjoy falling into the midst of pointlessly heated arguments - but i would still like to read it, because I like questions. It's a part of who I am. Hypothetical scenarios intrigue me; I sometimes take random scenarios much further than makes sense. (For instance: What if I didn't have knees?) So I appreciate any exercise of that way of thinking.

What bothers me isn't that people don't think like me - I'm fine with that. They don't need to love questions. But it's irritating to see outright resistance to any sort of statement that raises questions. And if any such questions are asked (even if in statement form), there's someone with the answer following the first. It's as if people are thrown into distress when they have to question what they assume, so they breathe a collective sigh of relief when somebody tells them "how it is." Christians would often rather have somebody else think for them.

When people look for a church, a commonly used rejection phrase is "I didn't really agree with their views." That's a legitimate concern. It is good to see eye-to-eye with your church, for the most part. However, "I didn't really agree with their views" too often becomes "I disagree with them on such-and-such a topic, and we don't have infinite like-mindedness." When this happens, searching for a church becomes looking for a crowd of mirrors. This person, that person, the pastor think what I think, say what I say, believe what I believe. I am not confronted with opposing ideological views. I bathe in the vanilla pudding that is me. I am safe.

Because of this pudding-loving nature that infects the mind of so many, true debate and discussion is corrupted. Debate becomes a sledgehammer, and discussion a mallet. People wield these blunt ideologies and opinions with no intention of examining their opponent's own weapon. Discussion should be exploration. It should be two or more people, daring to present their opinions without fear of or intent to attack. Instead, debate is raised voices and discussion is elevated heartbeats. The mind cares not about the reasons for believing; it cares only to believe unwaveringly.

Ray Bradbury saw the future. He saw a future where people don't care to think, don't care to analyze, don't care to feel in its truest sense. In some ways, society has progressed toward making him a prophet. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't want the mind to disappear, especially for Christians. We have not been called to a mindless faith.