Mid-week sound off.

Does truth matter?
I have a friend I talk with regularly. He is very active and in leadership in a suburban church locally. Like lots of churches (Even the Crystal Cathedral apparently) they struggle financially. They have a minister who runs the services there and would like to work full time if they could afford him. Apparently some longstanding members of the church decided they did not like his theology so they were going to leave. The leadership of the church had a meeting with advisory people from their denomination to talk about the situation.

I do not know the theological issues involved so I cannot judge on the specifics. I am just commenting on my friend's perspectives. He said that when this minister started preaching there he was not sure about his theology either. But, and this is what he argued at this meeting of leaders, "the young ones enjoy his preaching so who are we to argue? He is popular with them!" Now that sounds OK at a certain level, and it is pragmatic for a struggling church which could easily close its doors. I would like to point out that there are, however, a lot of "popular" things that we could not condone. The most popular thing on the Internet, I am told, is the porn! A pub in town on special days sells cheap liquor to students, so you have lines of teenage students from early morning waiting to get in and getting drunk by midday. That is popular, but should it happen? What I am saying is that while I am not a stickler for dotting theological "i"s and "t"s, some very questionable theology that we should not allow in our churches can be popular with people. Bringing people in the door should not be the measure of OK'ness. There is for instance, a "prosperity gospel" doing the rounds that really is a Christianised religious formulation of the greed and selfishness that already harms our world. I looked up the Internet about "Christian sustainability" and there were some scary theologies I found. "You don't have to care about this world, ecology, other species etc, God's got it all in hand, live it up 'abundantly' and after all we're just passing through!" That is evil and dangerous theology, but I guess popular in that it affirms selfish lifestyles. I also encounter people whose lives have been limited and damaged by the warped and life-limiting views presented by popular "quick-fix-authoritarian-feel-safe" type Christianity. These may be popular, but they are not in line with Jesus' way, and after all that is what "the Church" is meant to be.

I guess I am saying that ultimately "truth" matters. What I would say is that the "spirit" of what is being presented ultimately matters. Again I would line up the life and ways of Jesus as the measuring stick of that "spirit". (The Old Testament and some of Paul's letters can be made to say anything we want!) That's something my weird mind has been dwelling on since my conversation with my friend.