Hmm, I don't think it is a bad thing to be unsure. I'm reminded of the Serenity Prayer.

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

Job accepted something he couldn't change; that he would never have the answer to certain questions in his life time. But to just sit there and dwell in uncertainty, to ask questions with no effort to find the answers, that's not making an effort to change what you can; the ability to learn certain things about God.

So it's okay to be unsure if you seek after true truth, because if you do that, then you will gain wisdom in knowing what you can learn and what you will have to wait for heaven to find out, and I think it makes it easier to trust God that he will do what is good based on what you already know about him.

And somewhat off topic, but yes, the paragraph you quoted rankled me a bit, but not because I'm some kind of literalist young-earth creationist fundamentalist. It's because I'm a classical Christian and I feel like too often we get lumped in with the fundamentalists left over from the Second Great Awakening because it's a convenient way to disregard those with whom you disagree with politically and theologically yet actually make some good reasonable arguments for believing the way we do. In short, I hate the word “fundamentalist” because it's too vague and divisive and it's generally not a good idea to throw a “bomb” of a word like that around. In slightly-longer-but-still-short, another reason I got rankled at that paragraph is because it's fallacious. It heavily implies that people who don't believe the way the author does must therefore be fundamentalist in the way he describes fundamentalists. I don't know anyone who believes that way for those simplistic reasons, and I know some pretty fundy people. I grew up with them.

Yes, people of that stripe exist (perhaps mainly southern baptists? someone enlighten me, here), but IMHO it's more of a straw man than anything because it doesn't describe the majority of people that that word is applied towards, namely critics of progressive Christianity and critics of emerging village types like the Sojourners.

So call me skeptical that you once were that kind of Christian. Those types are not found in my everyday experience, but perhaps they are more prevalent over there in South Carolina than here in Kansas.

However, it's posts like these that make me want to know much more about you. Not to find criticisms, but to find out why you believe the things you do. You'd make a great interview. I'd especially be curious in how much of your leanings toward the Sojourners are in reaction to the kind of Christian you seem to think you once were, and how that transition happened over time. Now you're giving me ideas. Heh.

There are certainly pointless/bad questions and to sit around asking those is unhealthy to say the least.

Regarding the paragraph, like I said it's not entirely fair but I wouldn't say it's a strawman. Plenty of religious folk embrace the literal. I think there is comfort in that, in knowing (or at least thinking you know) all of the answers to the pertinent questions. Here lately I've been getting to know a number of people who have come out of the Independent Baptist Church. This is exactly the kind of church I'm talking about.

Now while I wasn't “fundamentalist” in that sense or to that degree, I did have a very black and white, literal faith. I embraced a very literal interpretation of the Bible and was focused on finding out what my authority figures embraced rather than thinking or questioning.

I'd be glad to do an interview with you any time. I think my leanings towards the Sojourners (not that that's a bad thing) stems from finding what I believe to be kindred spirits. I'm beginning to see that the family is much larger and more diverse than I once did.

Well, there is 'literal' and there is literal. Some people take the text as literally as the words on the page without putting much thought into the context of it (i.e. some young-earthers, though not the ones who have thought through their position). Others take it as they have reason to believe the authors intended it to be taken. Both are literal (although the latter is classically so) and it's been my experience that there's quite a lot of equivocation and crosstalk when the term is brought up.

I do think there are definite answers with a lot of what that guy brought up, but that doesn't mean I blindly accept these answers or that I get some kind of physical thrill out of it or that I don't have good reason to believe those things. That's why I think it's a straw man.

I've also experienced some of of this diversity. I mean, there are certain non-negotiables that are inherent to the definition of the term 'follower of Jesus' or Christian, the two most important being believing that Jesus is who he said he is, the only savior of mankind and that he died and physically rose again. But plenty of diversity of thought and belief exists beyond these among our Christian brothers and sisters.

I don't have a podcast, but maybe if you come to ConCarolinas next year (and me as well) then we can have a chat.

So true, being uncertain isn’t a bad thing.. in a sense it reflects a bit of humility. I love the color gray (if it is indeed a color) and tend anymore to shy away from the blacks and whites of fundamentalism.. or atheism for that matter.

“While I abhor many ways that the Christian Fundamentalist movement has degraded and beat it's adherents over the head with rules and fears of eternal damnation for lack of “perfection” in adhering to those laws, I respect and aspire to the conviction fundies have to the inerrantcy of scripture as it was written and that 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-18 (New International Version)

Some may argue (including me) that in the fundie culture obedience to the law has become the way of salvation (legalism). However, have a hard time believing that anyone can argue that the motivation for that mindset is unfounded.

Warning!!!! Scripture Alert

Hebrews 3 – 6But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
Warning Against Unbelief
7So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the desert,
9where your fathers tested and tried me
and for forty years saw what I did.
10That is why I was angry with that generation,
and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.'
11So I declared on oath in my anger,
'They shall never enter my rest.' “[a]

12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15As has just been said:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”[b]

16Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed[c]? 19So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Also, Hebrews 5 – 11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Also, Hebrews 10 – 5Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7Then I said, 'Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.' “[a] 8First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). 9Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16″This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”[b] 17Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”[c] 18And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. 19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d] and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”[e] 31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

This is a ton of scripture, but I really dislike using scripture out of context (Although Scott is already laughing at that statement). Hebrews is written to a people who have been
bombarded with the truth but refused to believe, However, If you read the entire book you realize, that although entitled Hebrews, it is in no way limited to just them. We have the benefit of the big picture revealed in the scriptures to us. Hebrews just condenses it down to a manageable read.

Perhaps many Christians who are put off by the fundamentalist movement (and rightly so) are more offended by the reality that though “grace abounds”, God absolutely, undoubtedly hates our sin and through Christ and the Holy Spirit has made it possible for us as believers to live lives not characterized by sin. We will still sin – but scripture clearly indicates that we have the ability to chose not to sin and that when we do sin our hearts should be grieved at our disobedience to God, not because of the Hell that awaits us, but because of the price that was paid for us.

I think that fundies have the right idea, but the implementation is all wrong. As non-fundies, we can and should be as secure in our faith and how to live it out as they are. The surety of scripture, the reality of rights and wrongs, the awefulness of sin, the truth of Hell, the sovereignty of God – these are things that many “hipster” believers see as things to question. Because the answers challenge the human nature in us that wants to sin, that wants to do it our way, that wants to have it all explained before we decide if we want to accept it, we dispense with the truth for something that has some truth in it, but allows us to live a watered down, lukewarm, inoffensive version.

Where fundies get it wrong, is the idea that we can cease sinning and that any sin we perform is an instant damnation. Fundamentalism for all the scriptural truth it contains, lacks the love that Christ and God demand. We are love each other and hold each other accountable with the understanding that we will still sin, we will still have temptations, we will even get caught in sin lifestyles that can damage us. Instead of throwing believers out on their ears when they sin, nurture them with love and bring them back into the fold. Not breaking certain rules and keeping certain others becomes the be all and end all, instead of being as God designed, that is markers of faith and spiritual maturity. The keeping of the rules has become the goal instead of teaching the reasons behind the rules.

We are God's representation as imitators of Christ here on earth. We are strangers in a strange land loving others when it hurts us and puts us at a disadvantage. We don't participate in certain activities not because they will doom us to hell, but because they are a sin that is offensive to God and a slap in the face to the great price that was paid for us, not to mention that many of those activities wind up hurting others which is in direct opposition to God's ultimate mandate , (Luke 10:27 New International Version)

27He answered: ” 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[a]; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b]“

I know I rambled a bit, but all this to say, a combination of good ole fashioned fundamentalism and reform theology would be the best thing. For all you doubters – James has some wonderful things to say. Instead of using your wonderful intellect to find reasons that scripture is faulty and faith is a vice of the weak, dive into scripture, and consider the applications to yourself not just to the “people it was written for”, know that God doesn't lie and would not use fairy tales or amazing stories in the Bible to make himself look good. God is Good and he doesn't have to prove it to us. We may not, rather, we do not understand everything – we won't this side of heaven – and on the other side it won't matter. Don't let man's attempts at explaining this world through his own lens of sin, steer you away from what God says in His Word. Intellect is good. WE are made in God's image and he is the intelligence. But, our intellect apart from God leads to half-truths and vain attempts to explain what God has yet to reveal to us. In short, it can lead us toward spiraling despair. Intellect is part of our humanness, our sin nature; but, Faith, being wholly from God is not. It can pacify the consuming desire to understand and replace it with knowledge of the truth as truth without need of explanation. It is nothing we can do ourselves and beyond explanation requires God's intervention.