Alpha Lambs

People who claim to be “pro-science” often betray their own commitment to sound logic and reason by treating opinions and impressions as proven fact. There is rarely “proof” for the non-existence of something, only conjecture.

Hatred of religion and of religious leaders tends to affect one’s ability to examine history, events, and even eye-witness testimonies without bias. I believe many deniers of a Creator-Being hold something like the following: “I do not like many aspects of existence and I am especially disgusted by the idea of a powerful being standing by idly as people and animals suffer. I find this incompatible with my understanding of goodness and love. Therefore such a Being cannot exist.”

Implied, of course, is that even if such a Being did exist, they are not good or worthy of interacting with. The Being is found wanting in the Thinker’s estimation and morals.

Thus, investigations continue regarding single-celled organisms, down to electrons themselves, “just to see what happens” but this curiosity is no longer applied toward possible meta-Beings that have already been judged as unlikely or repulsive. We are willing to study spiders that kill their own, but not Macroscopic Beings that seem to have influenced people and history. I have trouble viewing such chopping off of inquiry as reasonable. That approach seems jaded, albeit understandable due to the way powerful people have used religion in prior centuries. 

Fortunately we only infrequently base the worthiness of a pursuit by the stupidity of others who have usurped them. If we end up with really dumb but powerful and manipulative astronomers, I will not surrender my beliefs about stars and planets to them. Nor should we throw out efforts to more fully understand any aspect of Reality with a big R.

I believe true science is playful, fascinating, open to surprises. It is open to correcting prior understandings, increasing precision. Science is slowed when current learning is treated as precious and requiring special protections, lest someone bump the table. 

I am deeply concerned about how far Christian churches have gotten from their mission of being “fishers of men.” I believe many have succeeded in creating “fissures” of those of us who stick around, with our heads exploding as we try to reconcile contradictions, and leadership falling into the very behaviors Jesus pointed out as toxic (i.e., hypocritical, unfeeling, loading up burdens, focused more on academics and form rather than actual interactions, and choked by financial concerns, administration, and property).

The risk of turning people away from God is ever-present in human behavior. For this reason, I believe Churches should re-evaluate involvement what risks overlapping mistreatment of individuals with the call to build a life on something that will persist after mortal death. 

Many Christians will disagree with my conclusions, but I hope they will entertain and discuss the concerns I have. When I read Scriptures I do not see a mandate to start schools and colleges, and I believe those endeavors may be always compromised by human error, scandal, and obligations to Caesar. Let Caesar take on the negatives of being a gatekeeper and disciplinarian. Living out our childhood with God as our Father should be a liberation from, and not mixed up with the negative aspects of growing up (e.g., confronting hard work, power struggles, and other potentially unpleasant realities that have turned so many graduates of Catholic education into marginal or unbelievers). 

Jesus encouraged us to consider the health of a tree by examining its fruit. The experiment with Catholics officially working in primary, secondary, and higher education needs to be considered as a failure in terms of evangelizing and maintaining a flock. Growing up in 1980s New York, I believe there were more sexually active kids in the Catholic schools than the public. This was never the “teaching” but nevertheless a reality. Something has been very very wrong for quite some time. Perhaps since the Edict of Milan in 313 AD made the Church a state-sponsored endeavor. 

As C.S. Lewis wrote, when you’ve made a mistake in math you do not just keep plowing forward. It’s time to stop the nonsense. Christians should not be a “voting block.” Perhaps we can follow the example of Vegans, who can be annoying at times, but I believe respect that people make their own choices. 

Followers do tend to mess things up. The game “Telephone” captures the problem very well. Luckily Jesus corrected James and John in their initial reaction to rejection (“Should we call down fire on those guys? Nope”). Also when some Apostles got nervous about someone “not of our company” casting out demons. Jesus was consistent with his own message of sowing and gathering and minimal oversight, and appreciating others rowing in the same direction.

I am neither a heretic nor a revolutionary. Fidelity to God comes before structures, just as the Sabbath was made for man and not the other way around. When Paul called out the hypocrisy of Peter, he was doing his duty. I am not out to cause harm. Rather, I am tired of my Father’s house being worse than a marketplace, a huge scandal to seekers of Truth, to worshippers in Spirit and Truth. History has shown many many power struggles, much manipulation, much use of coercion. Christ’s example was allowing himself to be slaughtered. That is the Christian way. Everything else seems to be rationalization. 

Bureaucracies and organizations are necessary, and I believe God uses them regardless of their flaws. One problem they will always face, and need purification against, is the tendency to become overly self-focused; the organization’s life can come to be prioritized and protected above that of the individuals it alleges to serve. Non-profits are now frequently called to greater transparency, to account for how much money is reaching the intended people versus the staffers. Marxists and other political systems have demonstrated the flaws in sacrificing the individual for the mission or the so-called greater good. So have bishops who shelter priests with little faith, unresolved sexual issues, and egregious behaviors. Churches should be leading in transparency, self-examination, and repentance. Fathers must apologize to their sons to regain their respect and stay relevant. 

Lastly, any church that starts to resemble the Department of Motor Vehicles should consider bringing in consultants, fresh outside eyes. As an example, the typical administration of Catholic sacraments in the USA looks like the DMV to me. There is a lot of checking off boxes and use of generic formulas. These may have served a purpose in the past, perhaps, to unite things across the globe. McDonalds does something similar to ensure a very uniform experience regardless of geography. Yet the Church is something more than McDonalds. 

The self-controlled among you are a very violated group these days, in terms of judgment, dismissal, condemnation, assumptions without evidence, and more. The wrongs of some are attributed to the many, unless proven otherwise. No, not even then! And the bullying of the so-called scientific proceeds largely unchecked and of poor logic and great misinformation.  

I am in the process of forming small, private peer groups for clergy around the world. My goal is to group 4-6 people to discuss things they are facing, and to openly discuss personal doubts and challenges, to achieve resolution and renewed vigor. I believe this can be done several ways. One is to have people from very distant places in a Zoom-based group so that the problems of familiarity, locality, and gossip never arise. Another is to foster small in-person groups and simply run that risk. Either format requires vigilance to keep the waters healthy.

I have personally benefitted from in-person groups where people share deep problems under a structure of anonymity. I would like to extend that experience to others, and to add my knowledge of psychology to help (Q&A).

I would also like to be a resource to help ministers understand what people are dealing with so that preaching can be extremely relevant to the vast needs of people. Everything Jesus chose to say or do is relevant to the problems people face. And if He focused on themes of forgiveness and patient endurance, at the individual level, then using a church to promote systemic social justice instead of personal agency continues to be quite misguided and maintains the current flow by which people continue to hurt each other, across generations. 

Please reach out if you would consider being part of a small council of peers.