Dissenting In Love

In the next few blogs,  I will be discussing some of the issues that led to me leaving my previous church. Before I discuss these things, I want to make sure that my heart and spirit are not misunderstood. While I strongly disagree with the beliefs and values being taught there (and the lack of teaching as well), there is no bitterness or hostility that I hold toward anyone there.

I think it’s important to remember that when we disagree on such things that we are able to do so without trying to hurt individuals personally, or try to attack them. This is hard to do when you have strong beliefs one way or the other. Yet, it is necessary. The Bible says that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood–so why should we make the other person our enemy? Even if the other person chooses to label us as enemies, he/she has no power over our own thinking. We can still love them and pray for them.

Since I left my church over “theological issues,” it is obvious that I have strong feelings over these issues. Strong enough that I felt it was better to part ways with people that I love and miss. I understand how it would be easy for those I’ve left to take this action personally. I hope that one day, they will know that I never desired to leave such good friends, but that this decision was something I felt I needed to do, even at the risk of losing credibility in some people’s eyes.

Before I left the church, I had a decision to make: Voice my strongly-held concerns at large in the church, or leave quietly. In the situation I faced, I do not see anything wrong with either option, although my preference would have been to voice my concerns, because I feel the issues are that important. However, I was afraid that this action would have been taken as a personal threat by those in leadership, and I didn’t want my positions to be tarnished by some who would feel I was trying to be mean (dissent is too often taken this way, even when the dissent is legitimate). I chose option 2, because I wanted to be able to leave on good terms with everyone, and for them to see that even though I strongly disagreed with them, I wasn’t trying to destroy the church or anything.

It didn’t work. Today, I find myself wondering why I should remain silent on these issues, since they are so important to me. My entire reason for keeping silent has failed.

I’ve decided that because of this, there’s no good reason left to keep silent. The issues I’ve experienced I believe are more prevalent today than we would like to think. I know my eyes have been opened as a result of what I’ve experienced. These are issues that are dear to my heart, and I believe they are so for very good reasons. However, before I delve into them, I wanted to write this blog post so that everyone would know the heart that they are coming from.  Once again, no person is my enemy as far as I’m concerned. I would rather battle against “principalities and powers” who rage war against those who would long to know the truth of Jesus Christ and be delivered safely into God’s arms.

Some Christians would love to fight the world, because they see the world as a threat to their faith. I don’t think so. I think the greater threat is within the Church (the greatest is within myself). The world never has and never will follow the truth. But once the church is no longer following the truth, and is unwilling to submit our opinions to the truth contained in Scripture, I think it’s our duty to speak out–even if it falls on deaf ears. We can’t control other people’s choices and decisions, but we should give everyone the opportunity to hear the truth anyways. I refuse to believe people are predestined–and I believe that the truth is stronger than the lie!