Over at TitusOneNine, some of my scripturalist friends are asking again why those of us who don’t subscribe to the Nicene Creed would want to belong to the church. One commenter even begs us to leave "their" religion alone and go start our own.
I responded that for some of us, membership in a particular church is an accident of birth, but the resulting personal attachments are important to us. We’re not going to abandon our "extended family" just because of disagreements over doctrine.
Suppose much of my biological family believed that the Red Sox were going to win the World Series. Suppose others of us were convinced the Indians were going to go all the way.
Wouldn’t it be pretty stupid of us to break up the family over that World Series dispute? After all, time will tell which of us (if any) was right.
The same goes for the church’s disputes about what God does or does not want. Eventually, we hope, we’ll learn which of us (if any) was right. In the meantime — especially if we trust God to be a loving father — it’d be pretty stupid for us to break up the "family" over honest disagreements.
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