Pendulum Swings

During my recent "vacation," I had the occasion to read two books which illustrate the extremes which promote dissonance within the Body of Christ in our contemporary culture. David Miller's Piloting the Straits attempts to address "change" occurring within the churches of Christ and how conscientious Christians, in his estimation, must fight those changes. Though published in 1996, the issues Miller confronts are still highly conflictual today. The other book was unChristian by David Kinnaman. Kinnaman, from the Barna group, Christendom's answer to the Gallup organization, looks at market research data to examine why younger generations are leaving Christianity and not coming back. This book, published in 2007, causes the reader to come to grips with some hard realities regarding how Christians are perceived by outsiders.

One of the major pieces of feedback cited in Kinnaman's book is the perception that Christians "devour their own." That perception is borne out by the data shown in his book, but also is evident in Miller's approach to change in the church. The essence of Miller's argument is to contend that deviation from church of Christ "orthodoxy" is heresy and that such agents of change are motivated by ungodly desires and should be combated and resisted. In the course of making his arguments, Miller claims a highly logical ground. Indeed, Miller's work is full of references, scriptural citations, direct quotations, and syllogistic reasoning. Unfortunately, the great majority of Miller's arguments are fallacious as they begin with two false assumptions that provide the foundation of his resistance to change:

1. Miller assumes that "necessary inference" is on par with scriptural commands and direct examples. This is patently false. Inferences, by their very nature, are human interpretations, and thus subject to debate and disagreement. That Miller would elevate his own inferences to be on the same level with direct commands and examples from Jesus is the height of arrogance.

2. Miller assumes that those who share his opinions are motivated by pure and holy means, while those who differ with him are motivated by selfish and ungodly desires. In fact, Miller devotes an entire section of his book to detailing these evil desires. That Miller professes to be able to judge the hearts of people is again highly arrogant on his part. And once again, these false assumptions are the basis for his syllogisms in the rest of his book.

Especially disturbing is Miller's insistence that promoting change is tantamount to promoting division. This false equivalence enables Miller to proclaim that his faction is preserving the unity of the true church, while the agents of change are bringing division. Hence, there is no need to examine the nature of the proposed changes. We must merely reject change out of hand as being divisive.

This attitude, unfortunately, is all too prevalent within the Church. It has brought fractures to the Body and greatly hampers our ability to serve the world that so desperately needs our unified efforts.

In succeeding posts, I'll examine the other side of the pendulum swing and how it also brings division as well as attempt to look at some of the particular issues still combating the church.