The Preacher's Pen

Ever heard an athlete, at the press conference announcing his signing for zillions of dollars, say ""It's not about money""? It certainly seems like it is about money (and lots of it) doesn't it? I am about at the point of deciding that whenever someone says ""It isn't about money"" that I will just automatically assume it is entirely about money.

And the same holds true whenever I hear someone say ""This is not a creed."" Recently the Southern Baptists drafted some changes to their basic statement of faith. Many of their changes I actually agree with, but what amazes me, is that in the midst of talking about the Statement of Faith in a Dallas Morning News article the Baptists said ""it is not a creed but is a statement of general concepts that individuals or individual churches are free to accept or reject."" Really? Of course last year an Austin church was thrown out of the Southern Baptist convention for failing to accept what the creed, er, Statement of Faith said about homosexuality. The Morning News article goes on to say that ""acceptance of the document has been used as a litmus test for hiring at Southern Baptist seminaries and agencies."" It looks like a creed. It walks like a creed. It quacks like a creed. I'm really beginning to wonder if it isn't a creed.

A creed is simply a document that attempts to codify key beliefs. It is often born of good-intentions, usually when certain important beliefs are under attack. Yet creeds all ultimately fail because they get in the way of genuine faith. Instead of asking what the Bible says people ask what the creed says. Instead of serving God according to the New Testament ultimately people just follow the rules some man wrote in the creed. Of course, the human authorship of any document means it is subject to error. Thus a creed might in fact codify error! So at one and the same time creeds stifle Bible study while perhaps making Bible study more important than ever. That is a terrifying thought, isn't it?

Creedalism is always tempting. It looks orthodox. It appears to defend the ""true"" faith. It makes it easy to decide who is ""in"" and who is ""out."" Yet they are contrary to the very idea of a personal relationship with God through His word. Thus I intend to continue to resist creeds, both official and unofficial. Questionnaires, litmus tests, statements of faith - folks always say ""it's not a creed"" but they look like and act like creeds. That means they are obstructions to real Christianity.