False Teachers

As my wife and I continue the enriching journey of spiritual rediscovery, we are finding that our beliefs are frequently changing and growing. Oftentimes these changes are exciting and comforting as they enlighten our understanding of the human condition and the hope we can have in spite of our world’s bleak fate. Other times these changes are scary and uncomfortable as they shift us away from some beliefs that we once thought of as highly important. 

It is these ladder changes that lead to a recent conversation with my wife. She expressed a fear of hers. She feared that we might lead people away from the truth by unwittingly teaching falsehoods. I could relate having wrestled with this fear various times in the past. Though interestingly, I no longer felt that same fear, and I knew why. 

There are two things I know for certain about my understanding of God. First, seeing that what is limited cannot fully comprehend what is unlimited, my understanding is incomplete. Second, seeing that God is goodness and my sin keeps me from knowing good from bad in every situation, my understanding is flawed. Furthermore, unless anyone should be without limit or be morally perfect, I assume that these two things are true about everyone’s understanding of God. 

The thing about an incomplete understanding is that you cannot know in what capacity your understanding is incomplete; same goes for a flawed understanding. Therefore, you can never be certain of the extent of the limits and flaws corrupting any lesson taught by a human. Furthermore, you cannot account for the effect of a student’s own limits and flaws on interpreting the message. In other words, there is no teaching about God without corruption through limited and flawed understanding. 

What then separates a false teacher from a righteous one? On these premises you could make a valid argument that there is no difference and then fully embrace agnosticism. Personally, I find little to no hope in doing that. What hope is there in a belief in God who is closed to relationship with His creation, not permitting an extent of Himself to be known and not correcting the misunderstandings of those who will accept correction? 

As many atheists like to ask, “What is the difference between a disengaged God and no God at all?” In asking this it is assumed that there is no good answer. I don’t have one, so I’m not about to argue with the point. 

There is, on the other hand, a hope to be found in an engaged God, and it is in such a God that I value hope for. What then separates a false teacher from righteous ones? Here are the traits I believe qualify a false teacher:

• Someone who teaches what they believe to be false as though they believed it to be true.

• Deceivers

• Someone who is willfully ignorant, refusing to question the validity of their beliefs; they do not recognize the limits and faults of their understanding and do not seek correction.

• Idolaters of limited and faulty understanding.

How this relates to me personally. I have been trusted as a Sunday school teacher in the Wesleyan church yet I have come to hold beliefs contrary to the beliefs of the Wesleyan church. For those who may be concerned by this, be assured, I recognize that Sunday school in this case is meant to be a time to teach/learn about the Wesleyan beliefs, not a time to teach my personal beliefs. 

I have no issue teaching the Wesleyan beliefs so long as I have the freedom to make known when I disagree, of course without going into details about my personal beliefs in class. Should I teach on a Wesleyan belief that I don’t necessarily believe, I will teach saying, “Though I personally disagree with the Wesleyan church on this point, traditionally in the Wesleyan church it is believed that…” meanwhile reserving my own opinion for time not dedicated to the study of the Wesleyan beliefs.

If anyone would like to suggest a different approach to how I should handle my teaching situation I would be happy to discuss it. Thank you all for your contributions. 

Systemic Racism

The term “systemic racism” has caused a lot of controversy as of late, and honestly I was not sure what to do with it for a while. However, after much research and conversations with my incredible wife, this is the understanding I have come to hold. I want to share it as a point of discussion. Perhaps it is flawed or can be improved. So please feel free to contribute to the conversation. 

There are two kinds of systemic racism in my opinion. 

There are systems produced by racists to target people of color. For example, red lining, a system built to intentionally target black people to prevent them from being able to get home loans and government subsidies. I think that most people can agree that this is a racist system.

However there is another type of systemic racism. One that Is less understood and thus is causing the conflict. The best way my wife and I can describe it is using an analogy she came up with. Namely, just as a system which produces hamburgers is a hamburger system, so too is a system which produces racism a racist system. 

The United States has done a good job removing the fist kind of systemic racism; red lining among other things is now illegal. However the effects of those systems have made black people disproportionately susceptible to impoverished situations, which brings them up against other systems that are rigged against poor people; systems which hurt movement between income brackets. 

These systems may not have been built to target black people, however, combined with the aftermath of past systemic racism, they have helped to make the face of poverty a black face. 

Someone near and dear to me once said that they are more wary of black people, not because they are racist, but because it is just factual that black people are more proportionately impoverished and thus more likely to do something desperate. 

Though this person does not consider themselves to be racist, because they don’t believe black people are inferior racially, just more financially unfortunate, they still exhibit racist tendencies. Others will look at the disproportionate amount of people of color in poverty and draw implicit or explicit racist conclusions of superiority. 

These tendencies manifest in implicit bias’, people with ethnic sounding names not getting job call backs, people of color not being trusted, people of color being assumed to be unsafe, (feel free to add to the list in the comments) and so on. 

Therefore, because past systemic racism has made people of color disproportionately affected by other systems of inequity, making the face of poverty a black face, thereby producing racism in the population at large. These systems are systemically racist and we need to acknowledge our bias’, and work together to dismantle them, eliminating the racism that has infected our world.

So let's discuss solutions to these issues in the comments.