Part 2: The question is coming from inside the house
My life as an academic started after I broke ties with my childhood church. I have a distinct memory of sitting in a deacon’s meeting at that church and listening to a discussion about whether or not the church should continue to give a small amount of money to a church member and college student who was studying Theology at the college level. The student had chosen to go to a “liberal” university and was going to a church where there was a (go ahead and clutch your pearls) woman minister on staff! The church had been providing a few hundred dollars each academic year to cover the cost of “books” but we needed to see if everyone was still ok with supporting this cause because they didn’t want to support a “liberal” education.
In that discussion and in several other discussions I was present for in that church, I heard the warning that we needed to be careful about people becoming “too educated”. There were direct warnings given to college students to be wary of liberal college professors who might question their beliefs. If you sit in one of their classes, you might lose your faith! I remember being cautioned about one of the universities I was interested in attending for art because the school had a reputation of being “too liberal” on religious topics.
When you’re in your first half of life and you’re neck-deep in doctrine, warnings like this seem helpful. I didn’t even waste the money to apply to the liberal school and I thought I was making a moral decision at the time. When you’re in the second half of life, it’s so much easier to see that kind of warning as cult behavior. Young people are taught to be fearful of education. They are encouraged to learn within the institution, not outside of it. We were supposed to learn the Bible from our pastors, not actual Bible scholars. Isn’t that odd? It definitely begs the question of why the church organization would be fearful of data.
When you’re not filling cognitive dissonance with doctrine, your questions might even lead to more questions. Why did I believe I had to interpret the Bible or a specific verse a certain way? I believed that because I had a succession of pastors in my early life that all basically taught the same thing - one way of interpreting the Bible. But where did they learn that specific interpretation?
As an academic, I am bound by the requirements of my university to conduct academic research on a regular basis. This means that a certain percentage of my overall workload must be academic research in my area of expertise. I work at a public institution so I am free to research most topics. However, those who choose to teach at private religious universities must sign a statement of belief and agree to not conduct research in areas that fall outside the belief system or creed of their university. One result of such a limitation is that Biblical scholars and others immersed in the world of religious studies at these private institutions may only conduct research that plays well with the belief system of their university. This limits what they can study, write and publish about in their research. Once you understand this, it comes as little surprise to find that a particular seminary continues to produce echoing voices in ongoing research. The echo chamber creates a cycle that remains intact and future generations of pastors and ministers will continue to be educated with the same echoes from the past.
These echoes are repeated in the sermons and in the educational materials purchased by churches within the same belief system. The echoes continue as students listen and learn from the echoes and until they eventually become pastors and ministers who are products of the echo chamber, who then pass the echoes along to their congregations, filling any cognitive dissonances with the same familiar echoes. If your Southern Baptist pastor was educated at Southeastern Seminary or Southwestern Seminary, guess what? Your Sunday sermons are echoes of that system just like mine were.
Good Christians in my church were encouraged to study the Bible. Heck, we had Sunday School on Sunday mornings, Discipleship Training on Sunday nights, Bible Study on Wednesday nights and that Sunday morning worship service was the icing on a very big cake of weekly Biblical studies. However, all of that “education” came from inside the church. There, it could be monitored and controlled. No one dared to use those two words, but let’s call it what it was/is. Remember, when I started to go off script, I was shown the door. The exit door, apparently not the one Jesus was knocking on during Vacation Bible School.
In my years of growing up in the church, I saw many potential problem people dealt with quietly. A teacher or church leader would quietly schedule a meeting with a person who was asking too many questions or teaching something the church didn’t like. I get it, it’s their club and they get to choose who they play with. They even had the writings of Paul to back them up when they needed to kick someone out. If you are still a friend to the system, you may have bristled at my use of the words “monitored” and “controlled” in the previous paragraph. As a person who was on the inside of many meetings and “talks”, I can assure you those words are accurate. Echo chambers don’t work unless all the voices are the same.
Each church creates its own subculture and then works really hard to keep everyone in it. I grew up in the era of churches becoming megachurches. If you wanted to keep everyone around, you needed to offer more than just services on Sunday. You needed a gym so the youth can play basketball and maybe they’ll come to the church when they get bored. You need to have all sorts of classes about finance, budgets, successful marriages, how to raise Godly children and somehow figure out how to use the Bible to teach all that. You just HAVE to have a coffee shop. Of course the proceeds will go to the church. Many churches also starting having “merch”. You can buy your t-shirts and canvas tote bags with the cool new logo on it in the lobby on your way out. Don’t forget to pick up the pastor’s latest self-published book while you’re there. Don't worry, he will be sure to mention his book several times during worship services so you don't forget!
That’s starting to sound cynical, but sadly, it’s also a true depiction of things I’ve experienced many, many times. All of these things are done to provide all you need within the church. Many churches offered after-school and daycare, some offered K-12 schools and all offered to provide you all the education you could take, as long as it came from within the echo chamber.
Here's a true confession: I chose to pay a crap-ton of money to put both my kids through a private Christian school from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Why would I do that if I seem to have some sort of beef with churches offering K-12 education? There’s a really long answer to that if you’re interested, but the short answer is pretty simple. I was a certified K-12 teacher and I’ve had a LOT of interaction with the public school system. The particular school my kids attended provided a better quality education in a more love-centered environment. It’s ok if you think my views are hypocritical. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” – Emerson.
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