As I contemplate my religious, theological, and intellectual journeys I have found
myself in different places in different stages of life. c When I was in high school
and early college, I was very conservative in my thinking. c While in college I
was taught of the harmful pettiness of some of the leaders in the fundamentalist
camps (whether referred to as the New Christian Right (Ammerran, 1991). c I
became disgusted by “sky-box takeover” (McBeth, 1982) and as the way that
the former president of my seminary (Dr. Russell Dilday) found out that he had
been fired. c He was called in to a meeting to be told he was fired, during which
the lock to his office had been changed. c I quickly clarified my own terminology.
I was conservative, but not fundamentalist. c But I was also being influenced by
my best friend was becoming increasingly liberal in his thoughts and theology. c
I was disturbed by the actions of those more conservative than me, but he was
hurt and angry. c I refused to “fall in line” in my theology, so I termed myself as
a “thinking conservative … maybe a moderate”. c Clinical Pastoral Education also
challenged my conservativism, but I was able to easily work through some of
those battles due to the biblical ignorance of our site director. c Eventually, life
pulled me into a diversified ministry in Army Chaplaincy. c I found that I could be
pulled in all directions, or I could establish my ground and stand on it. c My
biblical and language studies would not allow me to go with the strictly literal
interpretation of passages that was clearly written as an allegorical word picture.
Nor would my studies allow me to condone the choices of many of those
around me. There were a couple of sins that I struggled with, and yet was
disturbed by how little I struggled with them. c I prayed that God would give me
conviction, and thus motivation to stop doing them. c God gave me my wife.
Her theology was still forming, but her convictions were solid. c The older I get,
the more conservative I get. c I also hold that the Bible is filled with allegory,
word pictures, and sarcasm that must be interpreted in the translation.
My mind has always functioned logically. c I have not struggled with the
integration of science into my theology, so long as science supported my
theology. c One of the biggest areas of contention was with the creation story. c
Whereas I believe and hold to a six-day creation, I also believe that God is
great enough, powerful enough, expansive enough to have created however He
chose. c I do see the issue that without Adam, Eve, and the serpent there must
be another explanation for the entrance of evil in the world (Entwistle, 2015). c I
recognize that this issue as well as the crossing of the Red Sea, the feeding of
5000, and multiple other fantastic stories seem just that to many people …
fantastic stories. c I assert again that God is bigger, greater, more powerful,
holier than I can fathom. c I am completely okay with that.
Resources
Ammerran, N. (1991). Southern Baptists and the New Christian Right. Review of
Religious Research, 32(3), 213-236. doi:10.2307/3511207
Entwistle, D. N. (2015). Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity:
An introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations, and models of
integration. Cascade Books.
McBeth, L. (1982). Fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist Convention in recent
years. Review & Expositor, 79(1), 85–103
