I Didn't Agree With Everything Tish Said
Thoughts On My Convo With Tish Harrison Warren (Episode 142)
My conversation with Tish was amazing. Her thoughts about grief and praying through grief were so inspiring and her book is a must have on everyone’s shelf.
A.
Must.
Have.
Seriously, go buy it. AND. I’m so serious about how good this book is that if you don’t have the money to buy it, email me (reply to this email) and I will buy it for you. It’s a game changer.
That said, towards the end we were talking about deconstructing and doubting and questioning and she said something along the lines of when we trust our doubts or elevate the experiences of our lives that cause us to doubt God or the Bible or whatever … when we do that it’s like saying that our experiences know better than 1000+ years of church history and that isn’t something she’s prepared to do.
I hear that.
I get it.
100%.
BUT.
I am prepared to do it. I didn’t want to push back on her because that’s not what my podcast is about. Some people will challenge their guests, I don’t. I like to use my space as a platform for people to share their ideas so that our listeners can hear from a variety of perspectives and come to their own conclusions. And so I let her share her thoughts without interruption or pushback from me, but I will say here that I think that sometimes my experiences do know better than church history, church fathers, etc.
An example.
Augustine is pretty much responsible for the doctrine of original sin, which says that when a child is born it inherits the sin that has been carried down from Adam and since it’s covered in the slime of sin from the moment of conception, God can’t stomach the child unless that child one days grow up to put his/her faith in Jesus so that his/her sin is exchanged for His righteousness and perfection.
I think Augustine was wrong and I think that my experience trumps Augustine’s theology because I highly doubt that Augustine ever sat in a NICU moments after his daughter was born as his finger was wrapped in the small hand of a lightly breathing infant that he and his wife created. I have had that experience and as I look at the doctrine of original sin through that lens, I reject it 100% and insist that it cannot possibly be right. I think it’s absurd.
I mean …
How can my child.
My lightly breathing child.
In an oxygen tank.
Just minutes old.
… Be covered in sin so much so that she is detestable to God and in need of a Savior to save her from her sins in order to get her into God’s good graces and one day into heaven?
If that’s who God is, I take back all the times I put my faith in God - I want out. Send me to hell. Send me to the hottest chamber in hell. I don’t care. If that’s God and if that’s who God is then I’d rather not spend a minute in his presence much less eternity.
I share this with you because it’s OK to think differently than people you admire and look up to. I love Tish. I’ve only talked to her once, but I’ve read her books, have followed her work, and have learned a tremendous amount from her.
We agree on most things.
Heck, I agreed with her all the way up to the last few minutes of the podcast.
And then I disagreed.
AND.
That’s OK - I didn’t feel the need to interrupt, shut her down, or throw my differing idea out there. I listened, I learned, I processed, and I disagree.
Feel free to be yourself, friends. No one is better at being you than you.
✌️
Glenn
Not Subscribed Yet? 🤔
Get Something Nice 👚👕
Drop by the HERETIC SHOP and check out our What If Project MERCH.
Check Out The Blog ✍️
Get caught up on our BLOG SERIES for Lent called “God Never Said … : An Offensive Blog Series For Lent”.
Here’s an excerpt from the latest entry …
“For the last year or so I've had a growing obsession with the Gnostic Gospels and various other ancient texts that were used or referred to in various Early Christianities only to be deemed heretical by powerful church fathers and sentenced to be destroyed so as to be wiped from the face of the earth forever.
The Gospel of Thomas.
The Gospel of Mary.
The Gospel of Truth.
You and I were never supposed to get our hands on these texts. Way back when long before you and I were ever thought of, there was a maddening conspiracy put into place to eliminate these texts, demonize everyone who held them dearly, and severely punish anyone who did not comply.
NOW.
I'm by no means an expert and don't really even have a vocabulary to adequately explain the details of these things, but bear with me as I try to lay some (somewhat accurate?) groundwork for what I want to share.
Eh.
Let's just go to one of the experts, Bart Ehrman. In his book "Lost Christianities" he says this ...
"Ancient Christians knew of far more Gospels than the four that eventually came to be included in the New Testament. The Christians who read, preserved, and cherished these other Gospels understood them to be sacred texts. The Christians who rejected them argued that they were heretical (promoting false teachings) and in many instances, forged. The Christians who won the early conflicts and established their views as dominant by the 4th century not only gave us the creeds that have been handed down from antiquity, they also decided which books would belong to the Scriptures. Once their battles had been won, they succeeded in labeling themselves 'orthodox' and marginalized their opponents as 'heretics".
The point is that in the decades following the death of Jesus Christianity didn't take root as much as ChristianITIES took root. What I mean by that is that there were ...
A VARIETY of people.
Who thought about Jesus in a VARIETY of different ways.
Who understood God in a VARIETY of different ways.
Who held close to their hearts a VARIETY of stories about Jesus.
Who cherished a VARIETY of Scriptures that aren't in our Bibles.
... The problem, though, is that these early Christianities with their various beliefs and various thinkings and various Scriptures were destroyed by the Christians in power who declared their own versions to be orthodox and all others heretical.”