Confusion Over Fighting Sin

how high is your fence?Within fundamentalism, as in other areas of Christianity no doubt, there is quite a bit of confusion over fighting sin. The thinking goes like this: if we erect a big enough fence, or hedge people in with enough rules, we will prevent them from falling into sin. Sadly, this tactic most often fails, to one degree or another.

The Former Fundys Blog recently posted some thoughts in this regard. In a post entitled What’s Wrong with Fundamentalist Pastors?, the problem of pastors running headlong into adultery is brought up. I thought the main point of the post, however, applied to more than just the fall of big name pastors. Here is an excerpt from that post that may be a help to some of my readers.

Fundamentalism has claimed to have the answers to stopping sin, by their superior standards that will keep one from sinning. Don’t go to the theater, and you won’t struggle with impure thoughts or with using foul language. Women have to dress a certain way, in order to protect men from lusting after them. Men and women can’t touch unless they are married(to one another), so they won’t fall into sexual sin. If one is a faithful soulwinner who reads/studies the Bible on a regular basis, they won’t fall into sin. I have heard “remedy” after “remedy” for stopping the presence of sin in one’s life, for keeping one away from sin by placing barriers in place to protect one from sin.

But these remedies do little to protect the very pastors who put these rules in place from sinning….

Fundamentalism misses the essence of what the Christian life is about. One is not moral because they follow rules. One is not moral because they go to church every Sunday. One is not a good Christian because they follow those rules. One is not a Christian because they follow those rules. Rule-keeping does not make a good Christian. And it does not make a good person. It is pure moralism, instead of Gospel.

The answer is in teaching the Gospel, instead of rule-keeping. Too many Fundamentalists fail to teach repentance from sins as part of the salvation process, thus watering down the Gospel to something that is more palatable to sinners. They make their Christianity easy for those who love their sin, but want fire insurance. The answer is also in desiring Christ, and desiring to live for the glory of God. So much of Fundamentalism is about keeping rules, and following a list of do’s and don’ts. But that’s not what the Christian life is about. Sure there are things that a Christian can’t do, like have sex outside the confines of marriage, or get drunk or high, or lie to others. And sure there are things that Christians need to do, like read the Bible, pray, go to church. But that is not the essence of the Christian life. Following Christ is more than not doing or doing those things. I would strongly recommend that Fundamentalists look to books written by non-Fundy authors that deal with things like sin, or living for God, because Fundamentalists don’t have the answer. Books like “Overcoming Sin and Temptation” by John Owen(the Puritan), or “Desiring God” by John Piper.

In short, such men are able to sin so gravely because they don’t understand the nature of sin, the Gospel, or the essence of the Christian life…

My response to all of this is first to point out that the post is primarily addressing the IFBx wing of fundamentalism. Not all fundamentalists that I’ve known are this bad. However, in seed form, this idea concerning sanctification is prevalent throughout fundamentalism.

The problem, as I see it, amounts to a widespread confusion over the nature of sin. It doesn’t attract us externally, the desire for sin comes from within us. We need the internal change of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Too often, Christians fail to remember that the Gospel is for them — for believers. And sadly, preaching is too often about moralism rather than the gospel.

A few of my previous posts may be of interest to those looking to dig more deeply into this topic:

Westcott & Hort: Victims of KJV-Only Smear Campaign

Okay, this isn’t exactly a news flash. But Westcott and Hort, the respected scholars who published the first major critical edition of the Greek Text of the modern era (in 1881), are the innocent victims of a mind blowing smear campaign. King James Version Onlyism has charged them with all sorts of unbelievable heresies, chief of which is the belief that their text is better than the Textus Receptus, which underlies the KJV.

Westcott and Hort both stood against liberalism in their day, to one degree or another; Westcott particularly authoring excellent, conservative commentaries. Never mind these facts, KJV Onlyists scoured through post-humously published journals and letters, and scanned through the dozens of other published books by these scholars and came up with some gems. When presented in just the right manner, to just the right kind of audience, Westcott and Hort can be successfully transformed into monsters. With ellipses (…), italics and the fundamentalist favorite: the ALL CAPS, Westcott and Hort’s quotes, already removed from their contexts are doctored into such a fashion that they are ready to be included in prominent KJV defending books.

It’s sad that the above is quite true. It’s sad that this is the extreme to which people go to somehow legitimize their view. Of course, Gail Riplinger is proof that you don’t have to stop with this extreme measure. I won’t continue, because my friend Damien Garofalo just posted the next post in a series he’s doing analyzing D.A. Waite’s KJV Only seminar slides. Dr. D.A. Waite is one of the foremost defenders of the King James Bible and in his books as well as his seminars, he makes use of the guilt by association argument concerning Westcott and Hort. I encourage you to check out Damien’s post which exposes some of the fundamentalist smear for what it really is.

Waite may be using these doctored quotes second hand. But that shouldn’t excuse him since this would then reveal shoddy scholarship rather than a fondness for libel. And as a former KJV Onlyist, I can attest that many of us are sadly misinformed about these godly scholars, Westcott and Hort. Feed a person poor arguments and faulty facts long enough, and they’ll believe anything. So forgive me, Westcott and Hort. Thanks for your work in moving us closer to the fine Greek text we have today.

A final note: check out the Westcott and Hort Resource Centre for more information. Or see some of these articles by James May at kjvonly.org.

Long Pants, Basketball, and Modesty in the News

Recently, ESPN.com highlighted a small Christian school that required their boys to wear pants, when playing basketball [HT: Seth McBee]. For a couple years when I was in high school, I encountered the same thing. Check out Seth’s post, or the original ESPN article for the entire interview, as I’m sure many of my readers will have had some firsthand experience with this kind of standard. Let me give an excerpt from the interview, and then my own reflection that I shared at Seth’s blog.

reporter: Please forgive my ignorance on this point, but is there a specific verse of the Bible that addresses this?

school principal: There is, but I’d have to look it up — I don’t have it handy, but it’s definitely in Scripture. And I don’t know if you know this, but our girls’ basketball team dresses in skirts. [And the school’s cheerleading squad wears long skirts.]

reporter: From a layman’s standpoint, it seems like maybe you’d want the girls to wear pants as well, so they wouldn’t show any skin. But I’m guessing you don’t want the girls wearing pants or dressing the same as the boys, right?

school principal: Yeah, because the Bible says there should be a separate distinction between a man and a woman in terms of their apparel, so that’s what it’s all about.

Okay, some are laughing right now. Some can’t imagine this. But the sense of loyalty to the standards of a strict fundamentalist school is quite strong. Consider my own reflections (shared at Seth’s blog).

That brings back memories for me! I was one of those long-pants-ers.

Our school ran about 50-70 or so and we had a very low budget, so we bought uniforms but didn’t order the shorts. The plan was to order them a few years later, or so we were told. So we played in warm-up pants.

But because of this we were able to play one or two other schools that would not play against any team that did not wear pants. We did have a cheer-leading squad and their skirts went down to the knee or below.

We were independent fundamental Baptists, not charismatics.

Looking back on it, we sure looked stupid. And they were uncomfortable.

The college I went to did not allow men to wear shorts except for in the gym, pretty much. Women had to wear skirts/dresses all the time (even in the dorms). And no, there is no verse in scripture about the shorts thing.

There was even a time I wouldn’t wear shorts in the dorm because I just wasn’t sure whether it was sinful or not to wear them.

Boy, God has brought me a long way! And opened my eyes to His grace along the way.

[Just] thought I’d just share my perspective on this interesting story!

Anyone else have any memories about anything similar to this?

Against Spiritual Abuse

Spiritual abuse is a sad reality. Churches, pastors, and others can perpetuate it. I’m sure among cults it is common, but unfortunately in many independent Baptist circles, it is too.

I don’t want to say that everyone who claims to have been spiritually hurt this way, really was. Nor do I impugn evil motives on the leaders and churches where this has occurred. All I know is that the results can be painful.

Some of my readers have moved out of a spiritually abusive church. Some aren’t sure if they would classify their past experience as spiritual abuse or not. I’m not sure if I can regarding my story or not, either.

I’m not really trying to define the term here, I just want to talk about the damage that can be done (perhaps unknowingly) by certain forms of fundamentalist Christianity. This post comes out of my recent perusal of some comments at a facebook I joined that is “against abusive churches”. Since it is a closed group, some of the people there felt free to share how they were harmed by their past church experiences. Here is some of what they said:

There was a time when I rebelled against everything the Bible taught because I had a hard time separating stupid “Christians” from the Christ of the Bible.

I dealt with this, too. To the point of questioning the very existence of God.

I haven’t been to church in 2 1/2 years since i left. I guess i am afraid every church will be the same way. I have been having a really hard time putting the past behind me, so I am really glad this group was started, so I can begin to get over everything that has happened.

We have gone to church for years not really liking it nor wanting to go. It is really difficult to get past all this especially when there’s no admission of wrong doing. Good news though! God does know its wrong and he does want to heal your heart….I would encourage you to start looking for a healthy church. There are many out there.

I was out of church for a year or so, too, back before I got married. I had a real hard time figuring out who God was, once I sort of split from my parents’ and church’s rules. Since then I’ve been in a few different churches. I found some I knew I didn’t agree with, and found one that felt like a good fit. It takes time, because you do have a feeling that a church is either going to be too strict or too wishy-washy…very hard to define what is exactly right for you, but I would encourage you to look.

As I read these comments I am saddened in one sense for those involved. On the other hand I am angry at the religious system that could have caused this. I hope fundamentalists take notice. If you stand for what you think is right without a certain element of Christian love, you can produce this. I fear the number of people who have actually dropped out of church and will never return is quite high. How many are innoculated against the true gospel of God’s grace, by graceless carnal manipulation.

This reminds me that I need to continue to post on this kind of topic. For now, let me encourage you to check out churchabuse.com and spiritualabuse.com. These sites seem to have some useful information. And I’m sure I can’t agree with everything on them, but they might be able to help someone recover from spiritual abuse.

I also welcome any of my reader’s thoughts on this point here. Some of us share a similar background, perhaps you can share how youwere able to work through these kinds of issues in your own life.

Free from the Box

For a while now I’ve been meaning to highlight a new blog. Free from the Box is a great blog offering help to those in extreme fundamentalism. The authors seek to create a place for those still on the inside to explore issues and find help. They take pains to make sure we know they are not against independent Fundamental Baptists by any stretch. They stand against some extremist errors which characterize some but not all IFB churches.

Besides their blog, which is one of the best such blogs I know of, they also have an online forum. They will not tolerate unChristian and rude behavior as one often finds in other fundamentalist forums (I’m thinking FFF). So their forums offer hope for a civil and friendly environment where we can duke it out in a good fundamentalist way 😉

I’d encourage you to read some of what they have to say, especially if reforming fundamentalism is one of your goals or interests. This link won’t mean much to many of my readers, but for some of you, it will be a blessing. And you can be a blessing by leaving a friendly note at their site, or by joining the forums.