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Christian Living

Beware of Spiritual Incest

When at a business convention, I once spouted off a grand sounding idea, but it was really a bad suggestion that warranted immediate rejection.

Yet I proclaimed it with passion and the air of authority (I had just finished speaking on the subject, and this new added thought added to the discussion).

I presented my spontaneous brainchild with logic. The person I said this to, nodded his comprehension.

Intellectual Incest

However, before the convention was over, several people approached me to discuss this same thing. I doubt we all had the same notion at the same time.

I’m quite sure it was my one bad idea, merely recirculated within a tight group, with no one questioning its wisdom.

I later labeled this phenomenon as intellectual incest: reproducing a bad idea within a close group of like-minded thinkers, who blindly accept it as true.

Spiritual Incest

The same can occur in a close group of like-minded spiritual thinkers. I’ll call this spiritual incest. I see it happen often. One person shares an insight or experience with their inner circle.

Everyone accepts it as reliable, without scrutinizing its validity or testing its wisdom. When this happens, people are misled and unhealthy conclusions result.

I recently blogged about theological silos: the natural tendency of people to surround themselves with others who hold to the same spiritual perspectives.

An unhealthy progression of this is spiritual incest. It’s easy to spot by listening to the words and phrases used.

A localized dialect of Christianese emerges.

Theological Incest

A bit harder to notice is when this creeps into our theology. It occurs easily enough when a respected leader makes a passionate statement, sounding wise and maybe even backed up with a sound bite from the Bible.

This moves into heresy, but most don’t realize it. The close-knit faith community reproduces this one bad idea, blindly accepting it as fact, but it’s really spiritual incest.

We need to beware of spiritual incest.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Categories
Christian Living

Should a Christian Community be Homogeneous or Heterogeneous?

It’s fun to be in the company of likeminded individuals. It’s comfortable to hang out with people similar to us. But are fun and comfortable, necessarily good things? Do they promote personal growth and advance understanding?

Being with people like us?—uniform or at least similar in perspective—is a homogeneous experience. The opposite of homogeneous is heterogeneous. A heterogeneous community is diverse, comprised of dissimilar people.

They might look, talk, dress, or act differently. Perhaps they hail from distinct neighborhoods, cultures, or even countries. They could be rich or poor or somewhere in between.

They might embrace diverging priorities, worldviews, political alliances, or (gasp) even hold to an alternate theology.

How comfortable are we spending time with people who view God differently than we do? Will we bask in a diversity of perspectives or cringe over perceived heresy?

One of the things I learned from visiting 52 churches in a year is the grand variations in Jesus’ family.

Our vastness and distinctions are beautiful. I’m delighted to have had the experience— and I miss it now that it’s over.

I’ve heard that if two people agree on everything, than one of them isn’t needed. We must apply this to church. How can our faith grow if everyone agrees on everything?

Most churches today are homogeneous, but I think we should be heterogeneous. We need to embrace, pursue, and celebrate diversity in our faith communities.

I learn the most from those whose ideas and understanding differ from mine—or even contradict them. It’s not always a fun or comfortable place to be, but I think that’s where Jesus wants us—and where he would be.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

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Categories
Christian Living

4 Questions about New Age Ideas

I recently listened to some people talk about spiritual matters. Their language perplexed me. While some of their expressions fit within my biblical worldview, other utterings did not.

I resist labeling people, but labels can aid in understanding, even though they’re more likely to produce misunderstanding.

I wondered if they operated within a New Age perspective, the melding of various Eastern and Western religious practices.

While I respect their search for spiritual enlightenment, their path is not one I embrace. My dilemma, however, was how to react to the things they were saying.

What Is Positive Energy?

One person asked everyone to “send positive energy” to someone who was struggling.

Should I interpret that as an opportunity to pray to Jesus for that person’s healing or dismiss it as heresy?

What Does Meditation Mean?

Then someone suggested meditating to find answers while bowed before an altar and with incense burning.

Could I understand that as quieting my heart before God and listening for the Holy Spirit’s direction? Or should I dismiss it?

Who Is the Divine?

A third person talked about praying to the divine.

Do I apply that as praying to the God of the Bible or reject it as making an impersonal petition to an abstract deity?

Should I Engage or Retreat?

These three questions, however, beg a bigger one—one for which I have no answer:

When confronted with divergent spiritual perspectives, can I practice my faith within the constructs of that religious structure or should I remove myself from this new age the situation?

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

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Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: Quit Going to Church

By Bob Hostetler (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

A book bearing the instruction to “quit going to church” might strike some church-going folk as a text to avoid, one surely full of disrespectful thoughts or even heresy.

This is not so with Bob Hostetler’s book. Bob pens his work, not as one who has dismissed church attendance but as one who desires more from it.

When he says “quit going to church,” this isn’t a bait-and-switch tactic or a marketing ploy to stir up book-selling controversy but a sincere recommendation.

God doesn’t want people whose relationship with him consists merely of going to church; he desires people intent on following Jesus.

However, this book isn’t only about Sunday service. Church attendance is just the beginning, an introduction, if you will. By the time he concludes, Bob reveals a dozen religious practices we need to stop doing.

His list is at first shocking, if not for the reality that he’s right. We do many religious activities out of habit, good intention, or simply because someone taught us to – and in the process we miss what God really desires from us.

I’d list these twelve behaviors, but sharing what to stop doing without offering an explanation is like a doctor proclaiming an illness and withholding the prescription.

You need to read the book to learn the diagnosis—and discover the cure. Don’t delay.

[Quit Going to Church, by Bob Hostetler. Published by Leafwood Publishers, 2012, ASIN: B0081SNX8O, Kindle edition]

Read more book reviews by Peter DeHaan.Save

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.