Placing and removing block

What is a stumbling block? There are many kinds. Hatred and evil in the name of Christ, demanding adherence to a very particular set of beliefs, etc.

But what about questioning a belief? Is that a stumbling block? It could be. Maybe the person we are questioning is not ready for the idea. Or maybe we are the ones who are wrong and our questioning introduces a doubt that will grow and fester. But questioning a belief could be what removes a stumbling block. It could be what sweeps away a misconception. It could be what shines a light into the darkness.

How to proceed? Is a hard conversation placing a stumbling block or chipping away at one? There is no hard and fast rule. But I think we have guidelines which will help us err less often.

Our words must come from a place of humility and love. Humility helps us to keep in mind that we may be the ones who are wrong. Neither we nor the person we are talking to actually knows who is right when it comes to the ultimate mystery. Love ensures that we have these conversations out of a sincere belief to find the truth, not out of a desire to prove ourselves right.

But love and humility are not enough. Someone can come into a conversation with love and humility and still put a stumbling block in front of their fellow traveler. We must also listen. Sometimes the words we say will fail to help because the other person does not understand those words the same way we do. To truly avoid hindering others, we must pay attention and watch. When we say something, are they drawing back? Reacting with exasperation, boredom, or anger? Then, despite our best intentions, we are failing to communicate. If they express interest, then there is hope. But without listening, we cannot tell the difference.

What other guidelines can help us keep from placing stumbling blocks in front of others?

Related posts:

• Stumbling blocks
• Institutionalized stumbling blocks

Love in the early church

Jonathan at Galatians 2:10 has a great post about the importance of love to the early church. He introduces his quotes about love by saying,

I knew that the command to love our enemies was clearly stated in the gospels and New Testament epistles. But I didn't realize how important it was to the early church. Recently, when I began reading the earliest documents of the Christian church, I came to see that loving our enemies was pivotal. Not only was it taught in church documents, sermons, and letters, but the visible fruit of Christian love for their enemies was a major point that Christians made when defending their faith to non-Christians.

The early church fathers who he goes on to quote were members of a minority religion. They were sometimes considered atheists because they did not believe in the gods that most people believed in. They were persecuted, often to death.

Yet they preached a message of love. They risked their lives because they believed that message of love so deeply. When Bishop Polycarp says,

Pray also for emperors and magistrates and rulers, and for those who persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruit may be manifest in all, so that you may be perfected in him.

He is saying this in a context where the persecution and hatred is much more real than any experienced in the affluent, Christian majority united states.

These early church leaders understood that it was not right beliefs that set Christians apart. When they were writing, the so-called right beliefs we take for granted were still being formed. The early church fathers realized that living a life of love that can only be explained by the uplifting power of God in our lives was the distinguishing mark of a Christian. Love for their enemies, love for their persecutors, love for those that would take away everything they held precious, that is what proved the power of God.

It is no wonder that Christianity is so easily dismissed today. When Christians in the US are so quick to call minor inconvenience persecution, when a religious agenda is used for hate, they make a mockery of a true Christian life. No Christian is perfect in their love, I fail more often than I acknowledge even to myself, but we can do better than this.

To love is harder than to hate. Are we up for the challenge?

Thruway Christians

John Shore has started a new community: Thruway Christians. The founding document of the group describes Thruway Christians as:

Christians who find conservative/right-wing Christianity too oppressive and exclusionary, and progressive/liberal Christianity too theologically tenuous.

Read the rest of the founding document. It's worth it. And then read the second point again:

Christ and Christianity are meant to be understood, appreciated, and experienced as galvanizing inspirations for living a life of love, compassion, fairness, peace, and humility. Period.

Christianity is about living a life of love and compassion. It is not about forcing our beliefs upon others. It is not about being right. It is not about having the right answers to theological questions. Christianity is about love and compassion.

I am a Thruway Christian, and I hope that we can provide a space for those who are unheard to express themselves, a place who do not fit into the tidy narrative that the world wants us to accept.

Institutionalized stumbling blocks

It is not only individuals that provide stumbling blocks. It is also churches. Many churches have a list of things that the church believes. They present this in a way that strongly implies that if you do not share these beliefs, you do not belong in the church. John Shore presents an example of this,

The pastor of our first (large, mainstream) church declared it “heretical” that my wife and I declined to sign a statement declaring that no gay person should work or volunteer at that church

These churches are stumbling blocks. Romans 14 and 15 should teach us that things like this don't matter. Checking for right belief like this is nothing more than a stumbling block. It's nothing more than a way to avoid the challenging of being one church body even in the midst of disagreement.

Stumbling blocks

I am struck today by Romans 14 and 15. These chapters teach us how to treat others. Our goal is to avoid being stumbling blocks to others. We should avoid judging others for fear of weakening them, and we should avoid doing things that will distress and weaken others.

This does not result in wishy washy subjectivism. Paul gives us guidelines for determining our own behavior: we should be fully convinced in our own mind that what we are doing is for the Lord, and we should avoid behaviors that will push others away from their faith. 

I use the word "behaviors" intentionally. Paul makes it clear that God does not care about right belief. God cares that we have faith and live righteous lives. Those are the factors that make us God's children. Paul frees us with the knowledge that the specifics of our beliefs are completely irrelevant.

Today, many members of the church put stumbling blocks in front of those whose faith is weak. Not just on issues which have traditionally divided churches (such as predestination, baptism, communion, just to name almost none of the issues which have caused division). In the US, a Christian is expected to hold political beliefs that, more or less, align with Republicans. For those of us who care more about justice for the weak and poor and reject a literal, science denying view of the Bible, for those of us who see stewardship of the earth to be a more important biblical issue than reducing taxes, this marriage of religion and politics is a stumbling block.

If we take the lesson of Romans 14 and 15 seriously, we should stop worrying so much what people believe and start giving our lives over to God. Beliefs matter, they control our behavior, but they only matter in so far as they control our behavior. So stop caring what other people believe, stop trying to tell people what the righteous life is, and start caring about how you can remove the stumbling blocks that keep them from being fully convinced that what they are doing is for the Lord.