No more inquisition...sadly

This past week I was out of town on business. This time it was a team of us and one night over dinner the conversation turned to church and religion. Our team leader, knowing I worked in the church for years, asked me a question about the Bible. He was wondering about where the people came from in Nod, the land east of Eden, that Cain went to live with after he killed Abel. I sensed from his tone that he didn't expect much of an answer. Over the course of our conversation that evening another tragedy of the way church is done became clear. The death of inquiry.

In our need to control the dialog about God the church has actually killed it. For way too long now the church has engaged in monologue. It will tell you what is right and true and, should you question it, you will be dealt with severely. You may not agree, but the message has gotten out loud and clear to the masses. Church is not a place where free discourse is welcomed. In the denomination I'm recovering from, for example, anyone who wants to have an open, frank discussion about the possibility of a woman serving as an ordained pastor is burned at the stake. Not literally...not yet, anyway...but figuratively. There are those who treat such conversation as reason enough to "defrock" any clergyman who dares discuss it.

It's no wonder people have stopped reading the Bible. Any sincere questions about what they read, when brought to a church leader, are often met with quick answers and comments that discourage further investigation. This is not right. God is big enough to handle our questions. He can even take our misunderstandings. We've filled our churches with people who have learned, from childhood, that questioning church doctrine, dogma and theology is tantamount to flagrant apostasy. Instead of inviting rigorous and searching inquiry, the church has developed pat answers. We've taught these answers in seminary and sent people out from these seminaries by the thousands to tell all the sheep what the answers are. That means most church leaders don't really think for themselves either because they've already been fed the answers.

A friend of mine, who is a true thinker and digs deeply into the Bible to find truth, often riles up groups of pastors when he talks to them because he takes approaches to scripture that fly in the face of their carefully crafted answers. They want to cast him out of the church for his heretical views. His retort? Study the scripture and share your opinion of what you find there. That often shuts them down because, after all, who wants to go to that much work? All Christ followers should be doing that much work! Dig into scripture. Wrestle with what you read there. Ask hard questions and demand meaningful conversation that doesn't always end in resolution. It is way past time for the inquisition to begin!