What Are We Resisting?

A couple of months ago, I told a friend the title of my book series, Faithful Resistance, and she asked a simple question, “What are we resisting?”

I don’t remember what I said at the moment, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Also, I probably should have an answer ready. What are we resisting?

Tyranny!

Oppression!

Christian Nationalism!

Hate!

Propaganda!

Lies!

Manipulation!

Manipulation. That’s it! No, deception. 

Resisting deception isn’t very glamorous. It doesn’t lend itself well to protest signs. It’s an intellectual endeavor. Maybe that sounds boring. Maybe that’s why Christian Education programs in churches shifted away from theology and toward entertainment over the last several decades.

We taught people what the Bible says and how to use it to defend doctrine, but we failed to teach people how to engage with Scripture and be transformed by it. Maybe that’s why so many Christians believe now that they can ignore the teachings of Jesus.

Faithful Resistance requires critical thinking, something that seems to be lacking everywhere, but especially in the Church. Too often, what people hear in Church is: “just believe what we tell you.”

Those who ask questions or think too hard get marginalized as if their questions are contagious. Questions can lead to doubts and we’ve been told that doubts are the equivalent of disbelief. 

But, doubt is the beginning of faith. Faith is only possible when we step into the unknown and the unknowable, when we embrace the mystery.

Those who deceive offer certainty and spout Bible verses as a means of convincing us that it’s okay to do all kinds of evil - that it’s okay to marginalize people, it’s okay to exploit the poor, it’s okay to let people die of curable disease, it’s okay to turn away strangers - and the Bible becomes the tool of the Devil.

In order to resist this deception, we don’t need cherry picked Bible verses, we need theology. We need education. 

We need Sunday school classes that don’t simply offer up the right answers but that teach people how to wrestle with God - that wrestling with God is the point. 

Healthy Christian Education, or discipleship, empowers us to ask the hard questions and that can disempower those who have deceived us into biblically based self-righteousness. The deceivers are threatened by our questions, not because they’re worried for our souls, but because our questions reduce the power they hold over us.

I may never come up with a short answer to the question, “What are we resisting?” That’s okay, short answers are deceptive. I suppose that’s why I expect it to be a 21 part book series when it's all done.

We get glimpses of the Truth in the pursuit.