Monday, June 8, 2009
A fellow "contrarian"
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A quote from Doug Pagitt's "A Christianity Worth Believing," pg. 7. --
"People often think of contrarians as cynical, but I believe we are just the opposite. We are accused of playing the devil's advocate or of being provocative just for the sake of it. But to me, being a contrarian means holding out hope when others have stopped hoping. It means looking past the limitations and imagining the possibilities. It means rethinking ideas that have been ignored or dismissed in the past."
I know that i have often been accused of disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing, but I think Pagitt makes a good point. I want to believe in a "bigger" gospel, have a wider hope, and believe that the good news means the bad news isn't true. This quote reminds me of something Brian McLaren said when challenged about his beliefs regarding hell. He said he was trying to expand the boundaries of the Christian faith, to be believe that more being changed by the love of God.
How could this ever be a bad thing? Why is it looked down upon when "contrarians" imagine new possibilities? Why do we want to keep Christianity to ourselves?
"People often think of contrarians as cynical, but I believe we are just the opposite. We are accused of playing the devil's advocate or of being provocative just for the sake of it. But to me, being a contrarian means holding out hope when others have stopped hoping. It means looking past the limitations and imagining the possibilities. It means rethinking ideas that have been ignored or dismissed in the past."
I know that i have often been accused of disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing, but I think Pagitt makes a good point. I want to believe in a "bigger" gospel, have a wider hope, and believe that the good news means the bad news isn't true. This quote reminds me of something Brian McLaren said when challenged about his beliefs regarding hell. He said he was trying to expand the boundaries of the Christian faith, to be believe that more being changed by the love of God.
How could this ever be a bad thing? Why is it looked down upon when "contrarians" imagine new possibilities? Why do we want to keep Christianity to ourselves?
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