One-Issue Religion

Only rarely have I finished teaching a Bible or theology course without at least one class member challenging the soundness of either my mind, my faith, my character, or all three. And this is how it should be. From at least as early as the writing of Ephesians, the Christian community has been dealing with all sorts of "cunning rogues and their deceitful schemes"(4:14), from whom people both need and deserve to be protected. First John says that we must "test the spirits, to see whether they are from God; for there are many false prophets about in the world."( 4:1)

I think I have passed muster on a fair number of the challenges that fellow Christians love to conjure up for us academic types. There is one kind of challenge, though, that gets me almost every time. It comes in the form of a test of faith with only one question. The one question must be answered with either a yes or a no; it has only one correct answer, and the test is graded either pass or fail. "Pass-Fail" also means "In or Out." Get the answer right and you're in the company of true believers; get it wrong and you're gone.

Just so you'll know, there are more than a few one-question tests that I used to fumble pretty badly, to the amusement and sometimes to the derision of their administrators: Sir, do you believe in the virgin birth? That abortion is a sin? That Jesus is God? That the Bible is infallible? That homosexuals have a place in the church? That non-Christians can be saved? The fumbling comes from my wanting to add a "But" and an "And" to all my yes or no answers. The only permissible answers to test questions like these, though, are no-ifs-ands-or-buts ones.

There are two things about "tests" like these that every believer should find especially distasteful. One is the presumptuousness of those doing the asking that they have the right to make a final determination about the genuineness of another's faith. The other is their presumption that only one question will do the job anyway. Answer just this one question correctly and you're in; miss it and you're out. All of a sudden, political correctness is raised to a transcendental level: where we come out on one and only one issue determines our worthiness for the Kingdom.

Some time ago, I decided to quit subjecting myself to tests like these, no matter how sincerely my hearers laid them on me. I am still open to having my mental functioning, faith, and character checked on a regular basis, and I am still as interested in the results as I am those of my latest blood tests. But like complete blood counts, reliable tests of faith measure a whole lot of things and not just one, and what they uncover is often subject to more than one interpretation and predictive of more than one outcome. Answers to questions about what we should and should not believe as Christians are more trustworthy when they are prefaced by "on the one hand…and/but on the other…"

Most people I know who are knowledgeable about how our system of government is supposed to work lament the deformation of our current political rhetoric into tunnel-vision pleadings for single causes --- prescription drugs for seniors, abortion rights, affirmative action, redistricting, campaign spending reform, tax cuts, defensive wars, universal health coverage, tariffs, or whatever. Putting our best thinking into dealing comprehensively with all of these concerns together is not very marketable these days. We would rather keep a watchful eye out for what each politician has to say about our own favorite issue and then choose up sides with the one who does what we want on only that issue. And we are supposed to have something to contribute to a future democracy in Iraq?

Unfortunately, one-issue mentality is rampant in the church, too. Demand allegiance to the doctrinal fundamentals, or else. Sit looser on requirements for belief, or else. Bless and ordain gays and lesbians, or we'll walk. Do either and we'll run. Make room for other religions, or go away. Take Christ as your personal savior, or go to hell. As louder and louder salvos fire back and forth across wider and wider divides, the cries of people desperate for food, clothing, shelter, safety, community, and meaning still sound in the distance, but unheard. I'm not sure that God's world has the time any longer for one-issue wars within either our country or our churches.