DeconstructionU: Can I Be Right and my Family/Church/Friends/Leaders, etc. Be Wrong?

The title of this blog raises a pertinent question: if we are stepping out of our religious-based faith, we are stepping away from a community of people who think we're wrong to do so. Let me summarize this writing into 3 reasons you should trust yourself even as that self trust takes you away from people you've trusted to guide you for so long?

1. The Church/groups of people who considered themselves the "godly" ones have been wrong so many times in history

2. Each of us has amazing wisdom in us (your church might have told you that you are evil flesh, but on that idea, please refer back to point #1) and, I believe, access to amazing divine wisdom

3. History shows that a mob rarely runs down the street with torches and pitch forks in accordance with truth, thoughtfulness and rationality. 

POINT #1 - "Godly" people have been wrong so many times before

A man from a town called Tarsus, we are told in an ancient biblical story, was one of the most fervent believers of his community. Saul (who was also known as Paul, the greek version of his Hebrew name) touted his credentials as one who studied under one of the most respected religious teachers in the world (Gamaliel) in the city that was the world's center of Hebrew religious studies (Jerusalem).

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day," Saul is quoted in Acts 22 of the Christian New Testament.

Saul's conclusion from his zealous studies? He was certain God wanted him to kill Christians and cleanse the Jewish race of that religious sect. Saul sincerely believed ridding his country of these "law breakers" would hasten the appearance of a messiah to overturn the Roman government and would "make Israel great again." Saul was absolutely sincere in his beliefs and studies, yet was sincerely wrong in his conclusions. Likewise, many Christians today are very sincere in their belief that the Bible tells them to exclude and marginalize people who don't match our religious code and must vote amoral people for office in order for our religion to be in power and our country be made great again. As I said, very diligent and sincere, but sincerely wrong.

Need more evidence? Here's a short list of many times when those who sincerely considered themselves on the side of righteousness, but were sincerely wrong:

• Apostle Paul says to his church in Galatia "who vexed you?" as he saw them turn from grace and mercy back to following religious laws

• Biblical story of forming a Golden Calf to worship

• John the Baptist calling out King Herod for sin & getting beheaded

• The Roman Empire instituting Christianity by law

• The Roman Catholic Church ordering the Crusades - 4 of them

• On the way to the Crusades, Christian soldiers ransacked the Christian city of Constantinople

• In the early days of Nazi Germany the church strove to curry favor with Hitler

• Southern Baptist denomination formed with desire to keep their churches racially segregated

• There are approximately 33,000 Protestant denominations; all certain they are right ones

This list could go on and on, but this should make the point. The Church has been wrong perhaps more often than it's been right. If you're feeling something deep down that says: "the Religious Right is religiously wrong," that's a feeling that history can affirm.

POINT #2 - Wisdom is in you and divinely available to you

In the biblical story of the Parable of the Minas, we see three workers who are given an investment amount and each are judged at the end of the story. The one who risks the most, sees a big return on their risk and are rewarded with the ability to impact a greater number of people. But the one worker whose fear of the boss keeps them from understanding the principal of risking to gain reward, gets punished for burying the investment out of fear.

I believe this story challenges us to step out of the box of our faith on a regular basis. A wise saying from Romans 12:2 says: "don't be conformed to the age (era/community mindset/echo chamber) but be transformed by the ongoing renewing of your mind so that you can know what is good and right." We all can be influenced by groupthink. The Christian Bible calls this a principality. But when we refuse to conform to that principality, I believe a spirit within us rises up with wisdom and connects to the wisdom of heaven to lead us on a good path.

Christian theology calls this the Holy Spirit saying it will "guide you into all truth." Jesus called himself the 'son of man,' just as the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel was called 'son of man' as mystical wisdom was made available to him. I believe we all are "sons of men" and capable of finding this guidance internally, in connection to heaven and in relationship to one another. That's why I encourage everyone to seek a community like the Pastor Paul community that is pursuing emotional and spiritual health... together.

POINT #3 - The mob is rarely right

On Oct. 6, 1998, a gay man names Matthew Shepard was kidnapped by two men in their early 20s, was tied to a fence, beaten with a pistol so badly the cyclist who spotted him initially thought he was a scarecrow and was left for dead. Several days later, Shepard succumbed to his injuries in a hospital and died.

The murder stunned the world. Why, everyone wondered, did the two men captured and tried for this horrific event do it?

“Matt Shepard needed killing,” one of the men told creators of a play about the event. “The night I did it, I did have hatred for homosexuals.”

While we might say these were two men acting alone, they were part of a cultural milieu - a mob under a groupthink mindset that said being queer was bad and deserving of heinous punishment. They were so driven by the dogma of their cultural "rightness" they were driven to something most of us would think beyond human capacity.

"Well, that was 25 years ago," some might say. Yet, in the past year, the Wyoming State legislature has proposed dozens of anti-LGBTQ+ bills and recently, when a trans woman tried to join a University of Wyoming sorority, anti-queer slurs and intimidating comments showed up painted on rocks around the campus. This is what happens in a groupthink, mob mentality and many of us have found it hard to believe our good, loving community has become the anti-LGBTQ+ "mob," the anti-foreigner and anti-poor thought leaders of our culture. You're not wrong to want to run away from such a mindset.

A spiritual dam is about to give way

For over a decade now, I've had the sense of the religious right mentality of Christianity having an undue impact on our culture and holding back the flow of goodness and love that could change the world for the better. This "dam" takes away the ability of many to recognize history repeating itself, as in Wyoming, and to discern that a heart for people - say in situations at the southern border - can bring reasonable solutions. While the mob mentality of rightwing religiosity brings cruelty, without solutions able to be apprehended.

But those who've stepped away from their church "mob" are part of great move of new spirituality in the world. I'll be writing more about this in the coming days - but please know, not only CAN you be right and your church, family and friends be wrong, I'm convinced you ARE right. It's the Religious Right, that is religiously wrong.