Apr
29
2010
Calvinism Made Me Feel Controversial…
Take a look at this excerpt from Matthew Paul Turner’s memoir, Hear No Evil: My Story of Innocence, Music, and the Holy Ghost
Most people thought I was a fully-fledged Calvinist when I began carrying around a book of Puritan prayers and sayings.
But I wasn’t a full-on Calvinist. At the most, I believed three and a half of the five points to be true. The only time I became a five-point Calvinist was when I went home to Chestertown and my father and I felt like arguing about God’s sovereignty. Those arguments brought out the worst in both of us. Dad turned into the stubborn legalist who had no patience for ideas that differed from his, and I turned into the punk know-it-all son with a religious ax to grind.
I liked being Calvinist because it made me feel controversial and edgy to believe something different than what my parents believed. On those trips home, I felt like I was experiencing my own little Protestant Reformation, hammering various disagreements I had with my past into my parents’ faces.
I think that’s why people like Josiah and me sometimes turned into Calvinists. We could be passive-aggressive toward our parents and our past lives without being considered unchristian. Reformed doctrine offered a different way to think about God. And sometimes different, even when it really isn’t that different, is all we need to make us feel alive, creative, and in control of our own destiny.
Turner is on to something here. There is a tendency in us younger evangelicals to desire “edginess.” It’s not always a matter of Calvinism. Sometimes it comes out in our worship style, our innovative church growth practices, or our dismissal of the Christian Right and embrace of social justice and environmentalism.
But a renewal of evangelicalism will not take place if our desire is to be edgy and controversial for controversy’s sake. Believers on fire for God will indeed be “radical,” “edgy,” “subversive” (I like that last word especially!), but lasting change will elude us if our desire for edginess and subversive living becomes an end in itself.
We are most different from the world when we are seeking God with all our hearts. Seeking his kingdom and righteousness is what sets us apart from the world.
Let’s avoid the temptation to adopt certain “edgy” beliefs and practices as a way to set ourselves apart from other Christians. Instead, let’s re-focus on living for God’s glory, which will set us apart from the world in the way that truly makes a difference.
11 Comments
I think you are on to something here.
Here are some thoughts I wrote a while back along a similar vein:
http://www.sbcimpact.net/2008/12/26/church-reform-and-christian-unity/
So being a Calvinist makes you controversial and “edgy”? What a conclusion you come up with, your whole argument is exactly what you claim you want to end. You “attack” a belief you disagree with to try to say don’t attack beliefs, but focus on what unifies us. Very two handed of you. I agree that we need to be unified; however it is not the Calvinist who truly understands Calvinism that is driving a wedge in the faith, but those ignorant of it and those who attack what they do not understand.
It doesn’t really seem as if he’s attacking Calvinism per se…. more as if he’s attacking the modern, hipster-like tendencies of certain individuals.
Trevin,
Excellent point. There are many of us who are drawn to that which is controversial and “edgy” just for the buzz that it brings. This is a misguided focus and bound to end up generating much more heat than light. As you pointed out, our only real focus should be humble obedience to the Lord. Let all other chips fall where they may.
Bob,
With all gentleness, I think you need to reread Trevin’s words: “It’s not always a matter of Calvinism. Sometimes it comes out in our worship style, our innovative church growth practices, or our dismissal of the Christian Right and embrace of social justice and environmentalism.”
Humbly I submitt that your accusation of an “Attack” is extraordinarily unfounded. This article was about the tendecy for some young evangelicals to be edgy for no other reason than to be edgy. Calvinism was just the jump off point to a discussion about motives.
Bob, an apology is due for the accusation.
In my experience, those who are in it for the edginess do not maintain any particular set of convictions for long. A path I’ve seen several people go down is Southern Baptist to Reformed Baptist to Presbyterian to Anglican to Catholic. Some I’ve known have even gone a step further to Judaism.
I had read one of his books (Turner’s) a while back and I can see how he craves the “edgy” label. I do see your point Trevin.
Unfortunately this is the sort of thing that adds fuel to the fire for those that are looking to falsely frame Reformed theology as some sort of step on the path to heresy.
Trevin,
Awesome Post man, for someone who has had to deal with this in my own life it’s an excellent point for those of us who tend to desire to be radical, rather than simply do the work of the ministry, which in doing that will cause us to be radical. I like what you said, it’s not the goal, but it’s a byproduct.
I’m wondering if this “edginess” is what is contributing to the success of Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church and Acts 29 network. I have attended a service there and listened to his sermons, and he seems to be directing his preaching to an under 30 crowd of hipsters.
Sad, but true.