Absolutely love this one for so many reasons. I’ve noticed lately that when a church doctrine – as in something taught by a person in authority and even repeated by others in authority – is found to be problematic, the response is often to somehow rebrand that teaching as “culture”. Today’s culture was yesterday’s doctrine, and a lot of the time is really still today’s doctrine as well 🤦♀️
I love the reminder here that Jesus was all about your heart, grace, inclusion, and love above all else, including tradition and institutions. How I wish those were the themes we focused on.
“Today’s culture was yesterday’s doctrine” WOW! I really like how you phrased that! I also appreciate your definition of doctrine. I was talking to my husband about this topic in preparation for this newsletter and he had a totally different view of doctrine than I do. Mine aligns with yours — if it’s spoken by someone in authority as truth, and repeated by others — I consider that a doctrine of the church!
Your words brought to mind the church’s statement that wearing garments is an outward expression of an inward commitment. Each time I hear that statement 1 Sam 16:7 comes to mind “for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”
I have been thinking about this subject of how culture is highly impacted by doctrine for a couple months now! I’m really relieved to hear someone else thinking about it too! I don’t know why I didn’t see how the doctrines contributed to culture before, probably because everyone at church separates them due to trying to avoid criticism of the leadership…
So when you said: “I think it’s important to hold the Church leadership responsible for authorizing and distributing these materials that lay members trust to teach them about God.”
I thought: there it is. If we are allowed to critique doctrine because we see how harmful culture is created, then we will need to criticize the leadership and that is not allowed! It seems to me that this cultural idea that we can’t criticize leadership for their harmful teachings, then positions the members to judge each other instead of putting the blame on the system.
And I keep thinking about how the doctrine can be the disease and culture is the symptom. We can keep putting band aids on the symptoms or we can treat the disease. But I know a few people who tried to treat the disease by confronting doctrines and leaders and were excommunicated. 🤔 Such an interesting topic to discuss Kimber! Thank you for saying it out loud!
Your comment about critiquing doctrine/leadership being taboo really resonated with me ! It all clicked for me recently, too. I love that analogy of treating the symptom vs the disease. I think it’s important to look at the thing under the thing!
You are so good at putting my thoughts in to words. Well written. This encourages me to do my own comparison studies.
I’m struggling so much with changing my own thought process and judgements. For instance… I don’t think coffee is a big deal but when I see a “member” drink it my first thoughts are “that’s bad”. I just don’t know how to change all these things that have been ingrained in me since I could walk.
Renee, I absolutely empathize with that default thought! Just want to validate you that it makes sense that would be your initial reaction because of how we talk about things like that at church. It doesn’t mean you’re a judgemental person because that is your first thought. For me, it’s been a slow change. You can’t control your first thought but you can control your second. Maybe it helped that I tried coffee! And then after that I was like, “Huh! That’s what the fuss is about?!” 🤣 I don’t drink coffee regularly now that I’ve tried it (or at all honestly), but trying it helped me take its power away. And now I don’t really think about it anymore! Not saying that solution works for everyone… but that’s what helped me overcome that mental hurdle. :)
Absolutely love this one for so many reasons. I’ve noticed lately that when a church doctrine – as in something taught by a person in authority and even repeated by others in authority – is found to be problematic, the response is often to somehow rebrand that teaching as “culture”. Today’s culture was yesterday’s doctrine, and a lot of the time is really still today’s doctrine as well 🤦♀️
I love the reminder here that Jesus was all about your heart, grace, inclusion, and love above all else, including tradition and institutions. How I wish those were the themes we focused on.
“Today’s culture was yesterday’s doctrine” WOW! I really like how you phrased that! I also appreciate your definition of doctrine. I was talking to my husband about this topic in preparation for this newsletter and he had a totally different view of doctrine than I do. Mine aligns with yours — if it’s spoken by someone in authority as truth, and repeated by others — I consider that a doctrine of the church!
That’s so interesting because it seems to me that it’s certainly been taught the way you and I understand it.
Your words brought to mind the church’s statement that wearing garments is an outward expression of an inward commitment. Each time I hear that statement 1 Sam 16:7 comes to mind “for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”
Yes, I love that scripture and believe it is true 💛
“But why are we okay with chopping off each others’ heads instead of wondering how we got the swords in our hands in the first place?” Perfect. 🗡️
Ah, Emma thank you for being here!!! ❤️
Thank you, Kimber. Your writing is always a bright spot in my day. And the god at the head of the table was especially healing today ❤️
Aw, that’s so sweet of you to say. Thank you, Carri ❤️
I have been thinking about this subject of how culture is highly impacted by doctrine for a couple months now! I’m really relieved to hear someone else thinking about it too! I don’t know why I didn’t see how the doctrines contributed to culture before, probably because everyone at church separates them due to trying to avoid criticism of the leadership…
So when you said: “I think it’s important to hold the Church leadership responsible for authorizing and distributing these materials that lay members trust to teach them about God.”
I thought: there it is. If we are allowed to critique doctrine because we see how harmful culture is created, then we will need to criticize the leadership and that is not allowed! It seems to me that this cultural idea that we can’t criticize leadership for their harmful teachings, then positions the members to judge each other instead of putting the blame on the system.
And I keep thinking about how the doctrine can be the disease and culture is the symptom. We can keep putting band aids on the symptoms or we can treat the disease. But I know a few people who tried to treat the disease by confronting doctrines and leaders and were excommunicated. 🤔 Such an interesting topic to discuss Kimber! Thank you for saying it out loud!
Your comment about critiquing doctrine/leadership being taboo really resonated with me ! It all clicked for me recently, too. I love that analogy of treating the symptom vs the disease. I think it’s important to look at the thing under the thing!
This disease vs symptom analogy is GOOD.
You are so good at putting my thoughts in to words. Well written. This encourages me to do my own comparison studies.
I’m struggling so much with changing my own thought process and judgements. For instance… I don’t think coffee is a big deal but when I see a “member” drink it my first thoughts are “that’s bad”. I just don’t know how to change all these things that have been ingrained in me since I could walk.
Renee, I absolutely empathize with that default thought! Just want to validate you that it makes sense that would be your initial reaction because of how we talk about things like that at church. It doesn’t mean you’re a judgemental person because that is your first thought. For me, it’s been a slow change. You can’t control your first thought but you can control your second. Maybe it helped that I tried coffee! And then after that I was like, “Huh! That’s what the fuss is about?!” 🤣 I don’t drink coffee regularly now that I’ve tried it (or at all honestly), but trying it helped me take its power away. And now I don’t really think about it anymore! Not saying that solution works for everyone… but that’s what helped me overcome that mental hurdle. :)