CarissaExplainsNothing
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Questioning
🕑 Added 2023-11-21 13:55:33 +0000 UTCA community where questions are discouraged or even punished is really more of a cult than much else. Yet that is exactly the experience so many of us have in church. Questioning why we believed what we believed, questioning authority when they were clearly not making wise choices, questioning why things had to be done a certain way that didn’t seem to benefit the community… any questions like these were rarely ever acceptable.
People who asked too many questions were seen as trouble-makers and lacking in “faith.” I was taught that obedience was essential to being a good Christian and that it meant obeying immediately and without questions. What a terrible thing to teach people, especially impressionable and vulnerable children.
I remember in my late 20s I heard of a group of college students in my community who were in trouble for asking questions, such as “is the Bible infallible.” My response was “some questions are too dangerous to even ask.” At the time I meant the danger was in the question. I didn’t realize then the danger was in not being allowed to ask the question. Questioning and wrestling with answers is a part of being human.
Groups that don’t allow questions likely don’t have good answers.
Comments
PingPong
You are a Gorgeous Tease
Robert Boyd
I asked a lot of questions, and learned there are a lot of scared people who want to have a false sense of security and safety by having an authority figure tell them the right way to be and do. It is very uncomfortable for those people who have missed the support for holding the discomfort of not knowing, considering multiple possible truths, having to think for themselves about what their personal moral values and compass might be, and honoring the right and intelligence of every human to puzzle things out.
