One of the often repeated statements of the non-profit with which I work is “Most people are better than their theology.” We heard the statement in the work of our friend, Orthodox theologian, David Goa.
It refers to a couple of ideas. Firstly, that there is a lot of bad theology around and secondly, that such theology makes people seem worse than they might be without it.
I think of this as I consider a couple of recent news stories. If you grew up in or around evangelicalism, you may have heard of John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church near Los Angeles. MacArthur is a well known evangelical leader who has made a career out of telling anyone who will listen, and lots of people who would rather not, about how his interpretation of the Bible is the correct interpretation and about how other people’s interpretations are wrong, and even dangerous. You might imagine that MacArthur’s views on gender, the role of men and women in the church, and social issues are particular and conservative. The recent news story about Grace Community Church and its practices around counselling details how such views came to have immediate impact on counselling philosophy and practice. Basically, many women were counselled to stay in or go back to abusive marriages, as an act of devotion to God. Does this surprise you? Do you know of other churches offering the same terrible counsel?
There are multiple problems having to do with counselling and practice, but, at its root, such a heinous pattern is a theological problem. Ways of understanding God and gender and power came from a particular theological framework that was highly damaging.
The second article has to do with Jinger Duggar Vuolo, one of the 17 (or 18 or 19) children from the reality tv show centred around the Duggar family. Duggar Vuolo has distanced herself from the authoritarian, misogynistic, and extremely hierarchical understanding of faith in which she was raised. She has gained a huge online following in presenting what she calls a “disentangled” way of believing that leaves behind the Bill Gothard "Umbrella of Power,” which was so much a part of her family background. In reading the article, you might have a sense of tension between Duggar Vuolo’s new found freedom, and the sense that she is still caught up in a particular way of understanding, a particular theological view that is dehumanizing and driven by power, fear, and hierarchy. The article points out that Daggar Vuolo has left her past behind, in some ways, and part of this is attending a new church. The church she now attends is Grace Community Church, pastored by John MacArthur.
For me, this is an example of getting away from systems that cause damage and psychosis, and moving to a different place that is less harsh, but, perhaps, still an example of bad theology.
When you read articles like this, it can be helpful to consider how much damage bad theology has caused. There are the actual families, the women who were told to stay in abusive marriages. There are countless other families and individuals who do not make it into such articles, but can relate similar experiences.
One of the upsetting things to me is that people like John MacArthur (and before him Bill Gothard) so willingly appoint themselves as arbiters of morality, spirituality, and religion. For every MacArthur or Gothard there are thousands of churches that operate with similar theology.
When someone tells you that the one acceptable way of thinking and acting and interpreting is their way then you should stop listening to them. Faith is better than that. Of course I apply this to myself as well.
We can be grateful that more and more we are living in a time when we can call this manipulation for what it is and we can refuse to cower under the bellowing of the angriest people who make careers and kingdoms from hollering at us about how right they are. It might even be time to realize that these men are the furthest thing from “big and impressive.” They require constant building up of their rightness and will insist upon it from anyone who comes near.
In the end, this demonstrates weakness not strength, and fear not faith.
Thanks for bringing this into the Light --- so many people are hampered by this sort of situation with their theology.