Faith After Doubt

Theologian and pastor Brian McLaren has written about doubt (Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What To Do About It, 2021)  He wrote: “At first, I doubted ideas, propositions, beliefs: that the earth was created in six literal days less than 10,000 years ago, that evolution was a satanic hoax, that the Bible was God’s inerrant textbook full of history and science facts, that God created the universe as a factory to produce human souls, some destined for heaven and some for hell.  Then, I doubted the authority figures who defended these beliefs, people I got to see “behind the curtain,” people whose motives I came to understand were often more about money, power, pride, and privilege that faith, hope, love, and service.

Finally, I began to doubt whole systems: the system of Christian empire unleashed by bishops of the fourth century who sold their souls to Emperor Constantine; the system of racist colonialism unleashed by Pope Nicholas V with the Doctrine of Discovery in the 1450s; the system of white supremist Christianity in America (and elsewhere) that justified land theft, genocide, slavery, and apartheid; the system of twentieth century Protestantism as a chaplain of extractive capitalism; the system of an all-male, supposedly celibate Catholic hierarchy that covered up heinous sexual abuse; the system of the Religious Right that strained out gnats but eventually swallowed Donald Trump in one big gulp [still swallowing].

On more than one occasion, a chill ran up my spine as I remembered all the theological arguments that kept people of my conservative religious tradition so intensely occupied, literally, for lifetimes.  “Could it be,” I wondered, “that these arguments are weapons of mass distraction, keeping us fixated on abortion and gay marriage, evolution and inerrancy, popes versus presbyteries, and guitars versus organs so that we don’t talk about other things: racism, environmental destruction, militarism, economic inequality, and how love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil?” (end)

McLaren’s views and reasons for them are too numerous to mention here.  His perspectives may rankle some Catholics, but not me.  I always benefit from other points of view especially when they are challenging and make me think about our faith thereby making it more meaningful and effective.

Deacon David Pierce