What’s your initial reaction to suggestion that evangelicals love doctrine over people? It’s a common claim in come circles, perhaps most common among those who feel rejected.
The other day on Twitter, a believer with a successful academic career (judging from a distance) retweeted this claim, noting its truthfulness, and another believer with a successful publishing career pushed back, saying anyone who has taught Sunday School should know how little doctrine most evangelicals understand.
This second point rings true to me and seems to be supported by surveys like Ligonier’s State of Theology, conducted again this year. If members of evangelical churches love doctrine so much, why are so many unsure of certain basic facts every Christian should know? But why is the charge of being unloving to their neighbors assumed by so many, even within the church?
Perhaps evangelicals are one of the many groups of people who claim to hold to doctrinal standards but in reality hold only to a comfort zone. I mean they love people about as much as everyone else does, but they talk up the doctrine side of things. They claim loyalty to a creed or church, but the truth is they only know what the creed sort of looks like, because what they really hold to is the comfort of the group and place. They like the habits they do all together, the people who hang out here, the tone the pastor sets in each service. They call that comfort zone the Christian faith.
If that’s true, their comfort zone won’t stay Christian long.
Of course, only some evangelicals do this; the fear is that most do it. Cultural observers frequently ask why the church isn’t known for loving our neighbors above anything else. It isn’t only due to the reporters who only report on a public figure’s faith when he or she is using it to beat down others.
It is my belief, since my youth, that telling people falsehoods in order to comfort them is an act of condescension, not love. It’s a way of saying, “I don’t respect this person enough to trust them with the truth.” One doesn’t have to beat people over the head all day with one’s beliefs, but we shouldn’t let them be in doubt.
I just saw your comment. Yes, what you say is true. It’s all about how we confess and teach the truth. I think some people are fairly resistant to absorbing doctrine and some churches are simply lousy at teaching their people.
As a pastor, I love doctrine because I love people. I’ve seen false teaching destroy the faith of too many people. They come to believe something about God that is not true, then when it proves false, they think God is false. In my younger years I left two different ministries after determining they were based on false teaching. Later, before entering the ministry I spent four years in seminary studying doctrine in order to avoid, as much as possible, becoming the one who led others astray through my own ignorance.
That’s a good word, sir. Thanks.