And now, a special post from Amber Baldridge, a good friend of mine and fellow LC Religion Major graduate.
Hello all! After reading Nate & Katie's incredibly true post last Friday I started thinking about our Religion Major family, and mostly about how we're all spiritually stunted in some way now. The LC religion majors really are all connected in one very important way: we broke. Our professors like to say that they "break us down, but then help build us back up". I suppose it's like a spiritual, peace-loving, justice seeking version of boot camp. One of our professors uses a great analogy to describe what this process will be like. He says that we all come in carrying a suitcase and that suitcase is full of our beliefs, but in the process of being a Religion major we will begin to unpack that suitcase. We keep some things that we came in with, others we get rid of, and sometimes we bring in completely new things to put in our suitcase. It's a perfect analogy, except I think he forgets to tell us that by the end of it we'll have way too much packed in there to close the suitcase and so we'll just drag it around with all our stuff hanging out in the open, getting dragged through the dirt, and falling out of the sides.
I'm sure the experience is a little different for everyone else, but I can try to explain what I've managed to figure out about myself since graduating in 2007 (don't get your hopes up -it's not much.) I know what everyone else thinks, I just don't necessarily know what I think. More importantly, I can't figure out what God thinks. You see, when you study your faith in an academic setting you have to explore every side of every idea. I can distinctly remember being shocked in my first ethics class (Ethics of Sexuality, Marriage, and Gender) in the fall semester of my sophomore year when I learned for the first time that there were Christians who believed that homosexuality and pre-marital sex were okay. You could have knocked me over with a feather after reading articles like that. We also read articles by theologians who were opposed to those lifestyles, and pretty much every opinion in between. As students we had to look at all the options, but that isn't always good for a stable faith life.
I envy people who are so convinced that they know what heaven is like, because I have no idea. I can use terms like penal substitutionary atonement and eschatological properly in sentences. In fact, I can tell you the 3 major theological opinions on both of them, but I can't tell you my own. In one sense, "I don't know" has become an acceptable and comforting answer for me. I don't know what heaven will be like and I won't know until I get there, so why bother trying? I do know that Jesus said we were supposed to be the kingdom of heaven here on earth, and he gave some pretty specific examples on how to do that, so I try to follow those but after that I'm just flying by the seat of my pants. I understand how the response "I don't know" could get frustrating to those who love us. However, just like Nate, I hate to be wrong. So if I can actually admit that I don't know something to someone else it means I care about and trust them a whole lot.
The other problem with being a Religion major is that we know too much. We can argue every side. Sometimes even if I agree with someone, I'll argue for the spiritual enlightenment or just for mental stimulation (I have a suspicion that Nate does the same thing). I'm a spiritual elitist and a skeptic. Mainstream Christianity disappoints me most of the time because I find it to be shallow and consumer driven. I hate that there are churches who pledge allegiance to the flag in their services and I hate that most Christians think they have to be Republicans in order to honor God, and don't even get me started on Christian t-shirts. I was never like this before college, and it drives me crazy to be so critical.
I blame all of this on being a religion major, but I also thank God every day that I was a religion major. It opened my eyes to things I would have never heard or seen or learned about God otherwise. While I might not be certain of all of the details, I'm so sure of the basics that I know I'll be okay. I know that God is love, peace, justice and righteousness. I know that God is not a Democrat or a Republican or an American or a man. I know that Jesus comes to visit us in the form of "the least of these" and that if I am kind and loving to them then I have worshipped God. You see, it doesn't matter what I believe about the end-times because that doesn't change these other things about God. And what I believe doesn't actually change what God will do. These are the priceless things I learned from being a religion major. Despite all of my personal confusion, God is not confused and never will be. Now if I could just stop arguing with everyone...
Hello all! After reading Nate & Katie's incredibly true post last Friday I started thinking about our Religion Major family, and mostly about how we're all spiritually stunted in some way now. The LC religion majors really are all connected in one very important way: we broke. Our professors like to say that they "break us down, but then help build us back up". I suppose it's like a spiritual, peace-loving, justice seeking version of boot camp. One of our professors uses a great analogy to describe what this process will be like. He says that we all come in carrying a suitcase and that suitcase is full of our beliefs, but in the process of being a Religion major we will begin to unpack that suitcase. We keep some things that we came in with, others we get rid of, and sometimes we bring in completely new things to put in our suitcase. It's a perfect analogy, except I think he forgets to tell us that by the end of it we'll have way too much packed in there to close the suitcase and so we'll just drag it around with all our stuff hanging out in the open, getting dragged through the dirt, and falling out of the sides.
I'm sure the experience is a little different for everyone else, but I can try to explain what I've managed to figure out about myself since graduating in 2007 (don't get your hopes up -it's not much.) I know what everyone else thinks, I just don't necessarily know what I think. More importantly, I can't figure out what God thinks. You see, when you study your faith in an academic setting you have to explore every side of every idea. I can distinctly remember being shocked in my first ethics class (Ethics of Sexuality, Marriage, and Gender) in the fall semester of my sophomore year when I learned for the first time that there were Christians who believed that homosexuality and pre-marital sex were okay. You could have knocked me over with a feather after reading articles like that. We also read articles by theologians who were opposed to those lifestyles, and pretty much every opinion in between. As students we had to look at all the options, but that isn't always good for a stable faith life.
I envy people who are so convinced that they know what heaven is like, because I have no idea. I can use terms like penal substitutionary atonement and eschatological properly in sentences. In fact, I can tell you the 3 major theological opinions on both of them, but I can't tell you my own. In one sense, "I don't know" has become an acceptable and comforting answer for me. I don't know what heaven will be like and I won't know until I get there, so why bother trying? I do know that Jesus said we were supposed to be the kingdom of heaven here on earth, and he gave some pretty specific examples on how to do that, so I try to follow those but after that I'm just flying by the seat of my pants. I understand how the response "I don't know" could get frustrating to those who love us. However, just like Nate, I hate to be wrong. So if I can actually admit that I don't know something to someone else it means I care about and trust them a whole lot.
The other problem with being a Religion major is that we know too much. We can argue every side. Sometimes even if I agree with someone, I'll argue for the spiritual enlightenment or just for mental stimulation (I have a suspicion that Nate does the same thing). I'm a spiritual elitist and a skeptic. Mainstream Christianity disappoints me most of the time because I find it to be shallow and consumer driven. I hate that there are churches who pledge allegiance to the flag in their services and I hate that most Christians think they have to be Republicans in order to honor God, and don't even get me started on Christian t-shirts. I was never like this before college, and it drives me crazy to be so critical.
I blame all of this on being a religion major, but I also thank God every day that I was a religion major. It opened my eyes to things I would have never heard or seen or learned about God otherwise. While I might not be certain of all of the details, I'm so sure of the basics that I know I'll be okay. I know that God is love, peace, justice and righteousness. I know that God is not a Democrat or a Republican or an American or a man. I know that Jesus comes to visit us in the form of "the least of these" and that if I am kind and loving to them then I have worshipped God. You see, it doesn't matter what I believe about the end-times because that doesn't change these other things about God. And what I believe doesn't actually change what God will do. These are the priceless things I learned from being a religion major. Despite all of my personal confusion, God is not confused and never will be. Now if I could just stop arguing with everyone...
4 comments:
Amen Amber!
Amber- i love you for all of that! by the way it only gets worse when you get to smeinaryand have to unpack all over again! though now i do know what the pnuematologically participatory martilogical eschaton gospel is all about!
I was once told that I will graduate seminary being more orthodox, more attuned to orthopraxy, and the list goes on. What I know this far, LaGrange College prepared me to think outside the box and actively listen. Not always having the answers allows to be open to the evolving, complex, and loving nature of God.
I came upon this quote from Rev. Dr. Amy Plantinga Pauw (Theology Professor at Louisville Seminary). "The excitement of teaching theology is at least two-fold for me. One part is conveying to students a sense of the diversity and elasticty of the Christian tradition on the perennial issues of the faith: How do we know God? Who is Jesus Christ? How is God involved int he world's suffering? What do we hope for? The other part is to encourage students to be theologians themselves, to join the church's ongoing conversation about how to be faithful to God and each other in our time and place."
Our bags may be unpacked, but there are at least five things that place us all on the Christian family tree- the Triune God, the reality and deadliness of sin, the grace of God, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and the ongoing work of the HOly Spirit. Living into and living out of these truths may be more important than being able to spout off all the theories we know about "disputable" matters.
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