“Discernment”
Evangelically Departed and the larger organization of which it is a part share the perspective that the renewal required for the life of the Christian church is theological renewal, not simply decorative renewal or programmatic renewal. If you have been part of the evangelical church you may have seen, through the years, change in strategy, change in programme, change in what a church gathering might look like, but not much change in what is believed or how belief is held or taught. Sometimes this lack of change is proudly held as a virtue, as if believing the exact same thing in the exact same way is some kind of victory or value of faith.
Do you believe just what you believed in the same way that you believed it 10 years ago?
Do you think that we should believe just as many Christians believed 50 years ago or 500 years ago?
What would that look like?
The openness and even desire for change is not a threat to faith. It is a threat to control and coercion. A principle, outlined by Karl Barth, that we often cite in our work, is that theology, if it is true, will be modest. It does not need to be hollered as it will prove itself to be true.
There is a lovely word that was quite common in evangelical circles when I was growing up. The word is discernment. We were taught that we were to be discerning in matters of spirituality and, even more so, in matters of morality. Discernment, of course, implies some sort of choice. Curiously, at the same time discernment was being touted, there was frequent attempt, in areas of morality, culture, and entertainment, to remove the need for or possibility of discernment. Moral absolutism is, by definition, not discerning at all. In many religious settings, evangelical churches included, the church leaders or pastor decided, on behalf of others, what was right and what was wrong. They might even decide that you yourself were wrong or unacceptable or immoral by some standard that they had imposed. This standard would often be backed up by closed (not discerning) phrases such as “the Bible says” or “what God wants.” When someone imposes such standards on you, their mention of discernment is disingenuous. They are after something other than discernment if the only possible conclusion is their viewpoint. It is used, not as a means of freedom to discover the truth, but as a means of control when the authority figure is not present. This is coercion masquerading as discernment.
Would you prefer a world where discernment was actually required, a world in which you were open to think through most things for yourself, or would you prefer a world in which you did not have to make many moral decisions, but instead had to simply follow a prescribed code?
What is less healthy, a culture that is highly open and permissive in terms of sexuality or a culture that is controlling and repressive?
Developing a discerning mind and a lifestyle of healthy habits will, in all probability, lead to positive outcomes for you and for those around you. Such development, however, depends on the presence of freedom, not the paralysis of infinite choice, but some kind of real freedom.
For decades, centuries, millennia, we have, as humans, been issuing warnings about how the contemporary culture of choice and technology will be our death knell. Often, the church has most loudly declared such warnings. An article in The Guardian UK this week surveyed the historical record of such warnings in England after the invention of television. It was seen, by some, as “effectively a tool of Satan” that would “corrupt the nation’s youth.” The need, according to these warnings, was not discernment, but control and restriction. The church gladly stepped in to be the arbiters of morality and protectors of society. Sometimes I think that I have noticed a kind of co-opting. The church can lament that people are just not interested in God anymore when much of the work of the church has little to do with God and faith and more to do with becoming self-appointed authorities on what is acceptable and what is unacceptable.
There are likely times in which you would welcome more imposed restriction in your life. I sometimes think that I am unable to not check my phone every five minutes, even when I am trying to focus on something else. Have you noted the saturation of media and entertainment in the world? Do you think that you should be the one to make the decision for someone else as to when and what media should be available? Who would you like to make such decisions on your behalf?
Discernment remains a lovely word.
Actual discernment means we leave space for outcome in our lives and in the lives of others. People do not have to come to the same conclusions as us. Do we trust the truth enough that we can welcome the discernment of friends, adult children, parishioners and others? Or would we rather impose our perspective?
We may discern that our beliefs of 10 or 30 years ago were guided more by power and culture than by love and faith. My faith is not entirely the same as it was years ago. Some would see this as a failure or a compromise. I see it as the natural consequence of living belief and discernment.
Blessings to you as you discern over matters in your life and for those you love. It is not always easy to welcome the space for discernment, but it does allow for grace and for growth.
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Excellent piece here! I will return to read again and comment a bit more.