Trust and Obey: Toxic Christianity
You’re Not Deconstructing, You’re Growing, Part 4
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey
Today, we will explore the dark side of stage 3 faith (synthetic-conventional stage).
In Healthy Church Christianity (stage 3), people grow. They discover that something they once believed was incomplete and they take in new information, adapt their thinking, and turn and go in a new direction. If their old views caused harm, they make apologies.
This is repentance. This was the message of Jesus, and the Law and the Prophets before him. It is to live a life of mercy, humility, and justice. It is rooted in love.
The problem is, this will often lead people into stage 4. As Christians mature, they become less dependent on the church so some churches and leaders deliberately inhibit growth to keep followers stuck in stage 3, so they remain dependent.
Followers are expected to trust and obey the pastor, the teachings of the Church, and/or passages of the Bible without question. Conformity is the objective.
Toxic Christianity is about control. It is devoid of repentance and rooted in fear.
Toxic Christianity strips repentance down to the last part: turn and go in a new direction and makes it about obedience. Salvation by faith becomes salvation through obedience.
Some will embrace this style as it frees them from complexity, and offers order and certainty. Those who conform are not called to further repentance and develop a self-righteousness. The church becomes an echo chamber where ideas are reinforced rather than challenged.
These churches and systems become authoritarian in nature; obedience and conformity are demanded through fear - fear of hell, fear of shame, fear of banishment. Dissenters are seen as troublemakers and divisive and debate is discouraged.
It can be tempting to label strong or decisive leadership as toxic. Healthy leadership can be strong, but is still collaborative, changes course when mistakes are made, and makes apologies.
Toxic leaders shut down dissent and manipulate others as they force conformity to their views. When confronted, they will deny, attack, and reverse the victim and offender (DARVO). They will not acknowledge harm, admit wrongdoing, or apologize. They will not repent.
When church leadership is toxic, members learn to fall in line and they stop asking questions about everything from theology to church finances.
Leaders in these spaces are rarely held accountable for their actions and all forms of abuse go unchecked. We have seen it in all denominations.
It was the expression of religion that Jesus and Paul condemned and called people to leave.
It was the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages that gave us the Crusades, the Doctrine of Discovery and colonization, and chattel slavery. It was this model of toxic Christianity that the Southern Baptist Convention was founded on in 1845 to preserve slavery.
Toxic Christianity supported the nationalistic ideas of Germany in the 1930s and is at the heart of White Christian Nationalism today.
Toxic Christianity has always been present. It is one version of historic and traditional Christianity.
My personal (and professional) mission in life is to free people from Toxic Christianity.
The cure for toxic Christianity is stage 4, the individuative-reflective stage. It is what we sometimes call deconstructing faith.
Next week: Part Five: I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
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