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So much of the Christian world today seemingly puts more emphasis on ‘right’ (rote?) thinking than anything else. ‘Getting it right’ is, for many, still what matters most. It’s important to believe the right doctrines and say the right phrases in the right ways – maybe like the recitation of the ‘sinners prayer,’ learning certain creedal statements, or creating ‘statements of faith’ that are as precise, complete and as ‘biblical’ as possible. Meanwhile as these core teachings are crafted and a multitude of cleverly-written tracts are being published, the surrounding community is responding with massive indifference; they’re longing for relief from debt, poverty, poor daycare and healthcare options, and deficient educational opportunities for themselves and their children.
Too bad things like conducting ourselves according to the Fruit of the Spirit (passing tradition on the other side of the road instead of the person in need), all too often places a distant second to our dogma(s).
I have a friend who is a gifted counselor and family therapist – he’s a best-selling author and appears on The Today Show about every-other month. He once was scheduled to appear with a popular evangelical talk-show host on a ‘Family’ broadcast that ‘focuses’ on familial issues. Until, that is, some staffer discovered a ‘grievous’ error in his theology. The error? It seems my friend once made the statement that “I’d rather teach my children HOW to think than WHAT to think.”
That statement alone was enough to have the broadcast appearance cancelled. For that particular talk-show host and the segment of religion he represents, passing your faith to your children regardless of how it’s done or what it takes to do it holds precedence over teaching them how to think – you know, so they can develop their own faith… something they will take seriously and embrace ‘till death do they part.’ How heretical (?).
If the institutional church soon yields to alternate delivery systems of faith, it will be because our children were smart enough and persistent enough to ask ‘why’ in the face of forced acquiescence. It will be because previous generations invested too many Sundays barking orders such as ‘hurry up and get ready,’ and YES YOU HAVE TO GO TO CHURCH TODAY! rather than having a heart-to-heart sit down to engage in pertinent discussions about faith, its role in our lives and in the lives of so many less fortunate.
Seemingly, today’s youth (those who are left and still care, that is) are much more conscious about getting involved and making a difference in the world than were previous standard-bearers of the faith. They’re questioning long-held beliefs and demonstrating a willingness in the name of peace, love, and compassion to reach out to others; in the process they’ve proven willing and quite capable of barbequing more than a few sacred cows.
I hold hope for the increased role of faith in society precisely because of the large numbers of youth giving equal weight to ‘what should be accomplished’ as ‘what should be believed.’ Deep and broad conversations are taking place outside of the oversight and control of many traditional denominational persuasions as multitudes are pressing to ask the right questions rather than endless ‘preaching to the choir’ regarding the answers that should be believed and then defended.
I think more than anything, this is why denominationalism is waning while new, vibrant and ‘outside-of-the-box’ fellowships are springing up everywhere. People are opting for higher levels of authenticity – even openly meeting in pubs to discuss the narrative of Jesus rather than going to church by day and then sneaking into the pubs by night!
Thankfully the days of ‘just don’t rock the boat’ are being replaced by an increasing number of people more concerned with intellectually engaging in alternate creative solutions to the world’s problems regardless of whether it’s unconventional or how it may appear to a more conservative constituency.
And when you look at it this way, this new ‘focus on the family’ seems to be in the right place – opting for placing equal importance on teaching people ‘how’ to think as ‘what.’
8 comments to “What to think or How to think?”
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When it comes to life’s most important questions, most urgent longings, most ultimate concerns … my goal has been to provide my children with the right questions.
It is not that there are no right answers, so to speak, but those belong mostly to the empirical, logical, practical and moral reasoning of our problem-solving approach to reality, which is mostly propositional. What we value most, our relationships to others and God, is realized by a participatory approach, by a being present in love. It doesn’t ignore the propositional but it so very FAR surpasses it in significance.
The right questions will then deal with relational realities like how to abide in faith, hope, love, joy, courage, peace and trust. These are existential questions that break us open and call for a response in the way we live and move and have our being, not academic questions that we break open.
Good religion has WAY more to do with practices than with conclusions. And Tim’s message is no less true for good science and good philosophy, where methods are far more important than systems, where philosophical norms trump philosophical schools, where cosmological approaches are best done without a preconceived cosmology.
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I think it’s much easier to teach someone What to think than it is to translate the process of How to think, which I see as ultimately unteachable. It’s just more straightforward and less messy a process.
So glad to see this thought provoking post!! It’s exciting to participate as the newer generations grow from a starting point in the importance of How. Now, in an unsure time– especially now.
This question of How to think appears in at least two Unitarian Universalist principles: “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning” along with “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” I like the fact that the question is even being broached in terms of faith. UU is a church that has so much to say to so-called liberals like me as well as to so-called conventional thinkers. It’s doubly vital in my estimation that all religions, Christian and non, are respected at UU, which gives the upcoming generation the openness to explore beliefs much more freely than I had growing up. That’s so great to be a part of … to involve my whole family in according to personal interest level not just my child.
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Disillusionment and crises of faith. These are some of the results of teaching “what to think” instead of “how to think”. I know a number of mid-life Christians, who’ve served in their churches for years or decades, and are currently going through disillusionment and personal crises of faith as a result of building their lives around churchianity’s “sound bites”, catch phrases, religious formulas and non-integrated/bad theology presented in well-marketed packages with trendy logos, and delivered with the subtle message that “inquiring minds don’t need to know” or “further questions are not welcome and might be a sign of lack of faith”!
About a decade ago, Os Guinness, in his book “Fit Bodies Fat Minds…Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to do About It” called evangelical anti-intellectualism a” scandal and a sin”! Seems like a fair assessment!
Jesus taught that the “greatest commandment” included loving God with “all our minds”…something that is often short-circuited by our religious environments. There are many who want to connect with their Creator, but have never felt they had a safe place to question, explore the potential of their own inner spiritual insights or dialogue about their ideas, observations or experiences. I know this is true because I’ve talked with them on planes, at airport gate waiting areas, on city park benches, at beaches, etc. I’ve spoken with neighbors and business acquaintances who, due to past experiences, would not consider taking their questions or insights to the nearest local church.
One of the most important, loving, and life-giving contributions we can make is to provide a safe environment, encouragement, and steady support for inquiring minds to question, explore and enter authentic dialogue about the meaning of (as you, Tim, have beautifully described it) “the Greatest Story Ever Told”.
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You know I just picked up my daughter from fellowship of Christian athletes…something she truly enjoys and loves going too. On the way home she was excited because she was asked to dress up a bulletin board for the group…she is a freshman in High School.
She is already varsity in her sport of choice and asked all the time by teachers and others to take leadership roles…she really is an incredible young lady.
So, on the way home we began talking about her day and what was going on in her life. She was all pumped up because she told me for the last couple of weeks she had felt distance from God and was trying to reconnect with her Lord…and today was a good day.
I asked what had changed.
And she told me that her friend spent about an hour with a guy who had claimed that he was gay since the beginning of the school year. Now before you everyone voices their theological bent of homosexuality…let me explain. Her father had left them when he discovered he was gay this was in her seventh grade. So she is very sensitive to the fact of homosexuality.
Anyway…she gave this student a bible and led him to the Lord today…and my daughter saw the whole thing. So I asked her how did this make her feel. She said I loved it…but realized something. I am not that great at leading people to Christ. What I’m good at is pointing them to God and after they receive Christ helping them live a Christian life.
That was very cool to me…because what this is a group of 13-14 year old young ladies practicing and living out their faith and seeing fruit from the life they live and lead.
I am sure within the eyes of the institution of religion they did some things that were wrong. I am sure that the theology is not correct and even the way they represent the God we say we worship was a bit off.
But I wonder if God was smiling today…and I wonder how much blessing they will receive for their efforts no matter how off they were in the keepers of our faith.
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As a parent of three grown boys, I was guilty of the very things you mention here. I did not encourage them to “think”, to question, and formulate their own beliefs. I am five years into a journey out of fundamentalist, conservative S.B. thinking and believing. Two of the three are on their own journeys of discovery. The third is deeply mired in fundamentalist thinking, which I am responsible for bringing to him. However, he is 41 years old and must find and walk his own journey. I sincerely hope it doesn’t take him as long as it took me to “see the light”.
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When I started focusing on my *own* family, it became clear that my children needed to be set free from Christianity, in order to find and follow Christ. He’d gotten lost in the shuffle of dogmatism, and rules had replaced relationship a long time ago.
I started, and then demonstrated, how to question everything, so that what wasn’t truth could fall away, revealing what had always been (experientially) true. Much like how Michelangelo chipped away what David was not, so that David could emerge. The projections of man gave way to the perception of God … which continues to deepen and rise. What I want, more than anything, is for my kids to learn for themselves, how to hear the Voice of God within them … we’re all learning to let go of what humans say about God, and to let God speak for Himself … Inquire Within.
Yeah, a funny thing happened as I let go of the manmade “Christian Life” … I discovered the Abundant Life … and Jesus only spoke of the latter … in my experience the former occludes the latter, and it had to go.
I don’t miss it a bit, either …!
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My family comes from a very strict conservative background, where, as you have said, I was taught what to think instead of how to think. Which worked until I went into high school, where I began to question different aspects of what I had been taught, and when I did, I was told to “pray that God would find me again”. I was confused because I did not believe that God had left me.
When I was in college I began to pursue a degree that taught me how to think critically, and I again began to question without fear of what I might find. I was told that I was falling away from the grace of God and that people should pray for my soul. People think that if you question what you believe then you cannot truly be saved, but the answers will stand up to questions if they are true answers and not just norms or customs.
I would love to find a place where people go to a pub and have open dialogue with each other about their faith. Where I live it seems to be a very conservative mindset and if I question them or their beliefs I am looked at as a liberal, which is not necessarily what I consider myself, but that is what I am labeled because I dissagree.
You are so right.
Encouraging the young child to continue asking the tough why questions and as they begin to grow up how to find the answers to even more difficult questions on their own is liberating for them and scary for parents who are not willing to continue to entertain the tough questions.
Sometimes the simplistic honest innocence of a young child is thought provoking. Just yesterday I was listening to an interview with a religious thinker. During the interview, the interviewer shared a story about his 6 year old. His class had spent the day on a project and when he came home he asked, “Since there is enough food in the world to feed everyone, why are so many people hungry?”
For a parent, “Just because” is a cop out. Much better would be “I don’t know, what do you think?” “Just because” shuts down conversation and stifles growth. Not meeting the needs of a child’s mind isn’t healthy for the child and the family. The same can be said with church systems. When the leaders refuse to entertain what are good questions the result is an unhealthy broken family.
If we truly believed and practiced “There’s no such thing as a dumb question”, we would go a long way towards teaching people how to think rather than what to think.