The Dark Clouds of Conservatism

I have come to a new way of seeing my life.

I was brought up in a very conservative church. It taught me what I needed to know about salvation by faith, and about subsequently living a life worthy of that calling. Also, it gave me many tools: hermeneutics, exegesis, a broad knowledge of the Bible, etc. But it was very strict – not to me – I had a great childhood and having been brought up that way it just seemed normal. It was only as an adult that I started to look around, and found that other churches, with the same devotion to scripture, came to radically different conclusions.

My first move was to accept the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit as being for today, not just the apostolic era prior to the completion of the Bible.

My second move was to understand that women can indeed have a role to play, speaking and leading in the church. And they don’t have to wear a hat in church.

After that He moved me to an Anglican church. I found that some fairly sensible people believe in infant baptism, and the Lord has not yet struck them down!

Next I realised that not everything taught by the Roman Catholic church is inherently wrong. The Lord has his chosen ones within that organisation.

And I learned the value of church history, and how it can help us to understand the Scriptures. It shows us where the church has got it wrong in the past, and helps us to see that often our own interpretations, which I was brought up to believe were a return to the original scriptures, are actually just a perpetuation of errors introduced relatively recently.

I have also moved on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

I feel that I have moved out of the darkness and into the light; out of a narrow, self-perpetuating, insular perspective of the Christian life, and into a much broader, more inclusive, more tolerant, less arrogant way of looking at it.

I suppose this is illustrated by my avatar – the fern leaf reaching out from the dark shadow and into the light.

I hope that I continue to expose myself to the light of God, and that he will protect me from the twin errors of going too far and throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I thank my parents for the start they gave me, and find it sad that I can’t tell them how I have moved on from it.