For TEs who choose to attend YEC churches

[Pats]

How do you handle being "out of the closet" as a TE?

 

[LewisWildermuth]

I don't, most of the time I hide everything.

I've had a few problems with pastors when they found out, but mostly it is the other members that make my life at the church miserable once I was "outed".

I'll be so glad when I get out of this area and I can go to church and not pretend I am something that I am not (A TE people, no I am not gay ).

 

[rmwilliamsll]

How do you handle being "out of the closet" as a TE?

i haven't been outed yet, so everyone here needs to whisper.
thanks.

 

[Pats]

See! I hate living with secrets. Secrets are bad. I'd rather just say, "Let's agree to disagree."

My parents don't know fully that my origins view has changed. My dad is thinking I am more interested in evil-lution though. He has said, "I am not even for "evolution if goddidit," but ... that's better than atheism.

So... I am hesitant to talk about it. And yet, I always like to see the world change. I think the quieter we are amongst people who feel differently, the less change we can affect.

Has anyone had experiences with being open about their Origins POV? (LOL... love all the puns, btw)

 

[Marshall Janzen]

How do you handle being "out of the closet" as a TE?

For me it hasn't been too much of a problem. I'll talk anybody's ear off about creation if they're willing to discuss it. On issues I haven't looked into as much, it would be different, but I've grappled with creation more than most people at my church -- in the process changing from YEC to gap to TE -- and so I usually have a response to the major arguments against evolution. My main issue is trying to be less reactive and listen more. In any case, even though many of my church friends disagree with me on this issue, we respect each other's opinion. (And, some have come around to the TE perspective.)

This summer I drove partway across the country to a conference with one of my pastors, and during the ride we discussed many issues, including creation. Like many in my church, he accepted young-earth creation but hadn't given it a lot of thought, and he was already curious about some things related to it, especially since he had been reading some McLaren books. We had a good, non-confrontational discussion. On that topic, I think I helped him out, and he helped me on other topics.

So, in general, I'm quite happy being open with my beliefs about creation.

 

[Pats]

For me it hasn't been too much of a problem. I'll talk anybody's ear off about creation if they're willing to discuss it. On issues I haven't looked into as much, it would be different, but I've grappled with creation more than most people at my church -- in the process changing from YEC to gap to TE -- and so I usually have a response to the major arguments against evolution. My main issue is trying to be less reactive and listen more. In any case, even though many of my church friends disagree with me on this issue, we respect each other's opinion. (And, some have come around to the TE perspective.)

This summer I drove partway across the country to a conference with one of my pastors, and during the ride we discussed many issues, including creation. Like many in my church, he accepted young-earth creation but hadn't given it a lot of thought, and he was already curious about some things related to it, especially since he had been reading some McLaren books. We had a good, non-confrontational discussion. On that topic, I think I helped him out, and he helped me on other topics.

So, in general, I'm quite happy being open with my beliefs about creation.

I think for me, being that I am no where near as familiar with any of the scientific issues as I am the theological, and that is limited knowledge, I don't want to get into it face to face because I don't always have a response for every major arguement.

 

[chaoschristian]

How do you handle being "out of the closet" as a TE?

good news is, this topic hasn't raised its ugly head out of the abyss yet in my church

good news is, my pastor knows precisely where I stand on this issue and he's ok with it

good news is we focus on the Good News and give the culture wars a pass

 

[shernren]

Tonight was a gruesomely hilarious moment for me as a TE. I was leading a Bible study on John 20, the Resurrection passage, and one of the questions was:

7. How does John demonstrate that the resurrection was historical?

Already you could see them struggling, it seemed almost axiomatic to them that if it was in the Bible it was historical, asking how John showed it to be historical is a little like asking how to prove that the NIV is written in English.

So I tried to help them a little and asked "When you read the passage what do you see that tells you it wasn't just all made up?" And I was just a hair's-breadth away from saying "Because, you know, there are parts of the Bible that look precisely like that, like, say, Genesis 1-11."

XD

I really don't know what my church would do if I were a TE. I suspect that the majority would care far more for my less controversial theological leanings (as well as my bass playing ) and not care about it. But I suspect as well that the minority who would care would want me stoned or at least excommunicated.

 

[Assyrian]

Could you play bass in church if you were stoned?

 

[Pats]

good news is, this topic hasn't raised its ugly head out of the abyss yet in my church

good news is, my pastor knows precisely where I stand on this issue and he's ok with it

good news is we focus on the Good News and give the culture wars a pass

Some times I just value your friendship, CC.

 

[chaoschristian]

Some times I just value your friendship, CC.

back at ya Pats

and a hardy, howdy! to everyone else here too!

 

[Pats]

I just value every one's input here as well.

When I ask these questions here, most of you should know by now, I'm rather serious in my interest in reading your answers.

 

[shernren]

Could you play bass in church if you were stoned?

Actually, I normally look quite stoned when I play bass. But that's a different sense of it altogether. Like I said, the portion of church who would care at all and want me stoned is a minority. Thankfully.

Then again, it can be a pretty vocal minority. Once the theologians at church banned "Above All" because they didn't like this line: "Like a rose, trampled on the ground / You took the fall, and thought of me / above all". Said it portrayed Jesus as having sinned ("the fall"), or something. I really don't know what will happen if they catch wind of my orientations, lol.

 

[Assyrian]

Like I said, the portion of church who would care at all and want me stoned is a minority.

How many does it take?

.

 

[shernren]

How many does it take?

.

Too few!

 

[Redneck Crow]

I don't hide my beliefs when I'm among the YEC. It's probably my age--it seems that when you've hit fifty and moved on, you really don't care as much if something you believe makes people get their undies in a knot.

 

[rmwilliamsll]

I don't hide my beliefs when I'm among the YEC. It's probably my age--it seems that when you've hit fifty and moved on, you really don't care as much if something you believe makes people get their undies in a knot.

curiously i am more concerned about upsetting people now that i am over 50 than i was under 30. i never watched my words carefully or thought about how something would be interpreted back then, now i am a lot more careful not wanting to alienate people without sufficient cause..

 

[Redneck Crow]

Myself, I prefer to know exactly where people stand on an issue and let them know where I stand.

It's possible to express one's beliefs without behaving insultingly towards another.

Some people are going to view any deviation from their set of beliefs as hostile. That's their choice, and their problem.

 

[shernren]

I don't hide my beliefs when I'm among the YEC. It's probably my age--it seems that when you've hit fifty and moved on, you really don't care as much if something you believe makes people get their undies in a knot.

I don't know if (and don't think that) this was directed to me, but anyways. It's not so much that I want to hide my views on this. It's just that those views seem terribly irrelevant to how I live my life and how I conduct myself as a Christian. They even seem quite irrelevant to how I read the Bible, for the most part of it my approach to Scripture has not really changed other than bearing in mind the foundational nature of science to interpretation (which, really, is a default mode of reading which is switched off by creationists wrt Genesis 1, instead of something anomalous switched on by TEs) and not calling it God's Word.

Sometimes I think I stop being a TE once I log off ChristianForums, outside the intentional discussion about TEism there simply is no reference point for origins theology in my life besides the general "we worship God as Creator" common ground. It's not something that matters to me, although I think that if in real life I were confronted with a vocal creationist I would probably stop and throw a few bricks back before affirming that touchy-feely universal brotherhood of Christ.

 

[Redneck Crow]

Not directed at you, just an observation in general.

Usually I bring it up when I hear one of my Christian brethern make an observation about the "godless atheist evolutionists."

I generally do so because this is a hoop that no one is expected to jump through to become a Christian, and I believe that the insinuations of a small but extremely strident segment of the YEC Christians that the scriptures must be taken literally on this point to even be a "real" Christian is a stumbling block to belief for many.

(And occasionally because I enjoy a good commotion once in a while. )