Church: fall in love

Greg Boyd wrote on his blog this week....

...you have to wonder why millions of people have been tortured and murdered by Christians throughout history for espousing “heretical” views about baptism, communion, the church and a very long list of other doctrines, while not one person (so far as I know) has been officially disciplined — let alone accused of “heresy” — for failing to adequately love (as when they tortured and murdered others in Jesus name, for example). We can have all the right doctrine in the world, but if we fail to love as Christ loved us, we are all “heretics.”

This comes from a post entitled, The 'Heresy' of Failing to Love. (Which incidentally, I originally read as: The 'Heresy' of Falling in Love. Will really have to stop skimming.)

It's an interesting post asking a question as to why we put doctrines and creeds and theology above love, (as in the recent fallout over Rob Bell) when Jesus specifically prayed that we (all of us Jesus-believers) would all love one another.

I did a paper in NZ Church History last year. I knew there'd always been disagreements in the church, including the NZ Church. I'd never realised just how extensive this was, and how sometimes horrendous it was. None of the denominations was free of guilt in this regard.

“By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13:35) has to be one of the most unanswered prayers in history...

Greg Boyd the possible backslider...

Greg Boyd doesn't blog often, and sometimes what he blogs about is more about his family than his spiritual life (yeah, yeah, I know, the family is part of the spiritual and vice versa).

However in his most recent post he talks about how easy it is for him to be a backslider. I know this isn't a word used in all Christian circles. For those to whom it's unfamiliar, it usually denotes someone who's slipping away from the faith, day by day, and will eventually - most likely - lose their faith altogether.

Boyd isn't quite in that category, but this is how he opens his post:

I suspect I’m more carnal than most, but I’m stunned at how easy it is for me to “backslide.” I’m not talking about falling into some heinous sin. I just find I gravitate strongly toward an atheistic consciousness. I’ll go for a couple of days easily remaining aware of God’s presence, moment-by-moment, but then I’ll go through a long period of slumber during which my God-awareness is spotty at best. This is how its been with me, more or less, for more than 20 years!

There are only a couple more paragraphs to the post - Boyd is succinct at the best of times.

More than a bit more about Boyd.