Authority opposes critical thinking. Independent thinking. Thinking outside the box.
The box they create for us.
We see it happening all around us in every arena of human life.
It’s not just a religious issue.
Indeed, I’ve experienced this authoritarian attempt to limit and control what I thought about everywhere.
When I was a young pastor in the Presbyterian Church in Canada, I would often slip away to a nearby university to read forbidden books and papers. I was reading about Buddhism, Krishnamurti, Zen, meditation, mysticism, quantum physics, and all kinds of other fascinating writing on un-Christian themes and topics. One time, as I was tucked away, hiding in a quiet corner of the library in the abstracts section, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see another local minister looking down on me, in more ways than one. He said, “There’s no need for you to be reading that crap! There’s enough Christian material for you to read!”
I felt ashamed and never went back there. Instead, I would drive to a bookstore three hours away and buy books I could read in the privacy of my home.
But it works both ways, too. In the mainline tradition, I was forbidden to read anything too far left. But, in the mainline tradition, I was also forbidden from reading anything too far right or wacky, like books on charismata and other various versions of Christianity.
Case in point: I remember another time I was reading about the Vineyard movement and what was happening there. I was interested in it because I had a background in Pentecostalism, and this new movement was emerging. Lisa and I had become deathly bored with the Presbyterian Church and were searching for something more alive. So I was reading about it. I was caught reading about this while in another university library by another local minister and was chastised for showing any interest in such foolishness.
Then, when I was actually a Vineyard pastor years later (how I got there is a whole other fascinating story), I had heard about Wicca and witchcraft, and wondered what that was all about. So one day, I bought a book about it and began reading it. What fascinated me most about this book was how similar it sounded to the religious experiences of people in the Vineyard. The parallels were undeniable! So, one Sunday, because I am hopelessly naïve enough to think other people would be interested in such similarities, I preached a sermon about it. Well, the news got out, which put me on the watch-list for heresy.
You see, it’s not just about reading certain topics or learning about them. It’s the fact that you are curious and not blindly accepting the status quo. You’re reading outside the box of what those in authority say you can read.
Why?
Because it could lead to a critique, followed by questioning, and ultimately the dismantling of authority structures.
That’s the problem!
Authority wants the security of its longevity, and therefore must maintain the purity of its ideology, and it can only do that by dictating what we believe and forbidding anything that questions it.
I make it a practice, as you can see, to read outside the box.
Because… one thing I’ve learned:
There is no box!
