A Puppet on a String
Arthur at “the voice of one crying out in suburbia” has written another excellent post called “Faith, religion, control, power, money.” His first sentence spells out his point:
There is ample evidence throughout history that when you have people with strong faith under the influence of people with control you get a combustible mix.
He continues by pointing to examples in history where people are led to do things that they would not normally do because of the way they are controlled by those in authority. Historically, the church has succumbed to this as well.
What’s the antidote? Well, Arthur spells that out in his conclusion:
The church of Jesus Christ has its genesis in the submission of Christ to the cross, of Him condescending to take on a tabernacle of flesh, of emptying Himself for the sake of poor, miserable sinners. It has for its example the God of the universe washing the feet of His disciples, of a King with no place to lay His head, of God coming in the flesh as a helpless infant born of a peasant. We as His people exhibit strength in our weakness, claim foolishness as our source of wisdom and find our greatest power in powerlessness. The greatest among us are not the scholars or the mighty orators but instead are the servants (Matthew 20:25-28). Everything about the church of Christ and the Gospel of Christ is counter-intuitive to the world and its love of control. There is no place for those who seek control or hunger for power in His church.
Thank you, Arthur, for reminding us that a kingdom citizen will always seek to submit him or herself, and never seek to control another person.
I was just re-reading your post about questions – and then read this post… Hope it’s okay to respond to 2 posts at once, lol!
It occurrs to me that asking questions is very often seen (especially by so-called servant-leaders) as being un-servant-like, un-submissive, wanting-to-take-control, un-trusting, un-believing, seeking power rather than weakness, turning to human wisdom rather than the foolishness of God… UN-CHRISTIAN…
I have been literally banned from some “Christian” groups for asking questions, having been told that I am destroying the “faith” of others by asking those questions. Faith in who or what, I wonder?
Faith in Jesus is of course dangerous. Radical. Combustible.
Oh yes, and Jesus asked questions.
(We do of course need to ask the right kind of questions. With the right heart and motives. Reference Jesus!)