Of Pastors and Heresy

I thought about titling this entry "Anything you write can and will be used against you..." I've been contemplating authority and openness. A couple of my pastors now follow my blog (at least casually), and I've thinking about the implications.

One of result is this: It's an awful lot harder get away with heresy. And in general, I think this consequence is a good thing. I know, I know, America has stereotypes of leaders being evil men (and women) who can't wait to use their power for evil. How many admirals in Star Trek were ever good guys? (Kirk was demoted back to captain...) Even the beloved Twenty-Four doesn't exactly overwhelm us with good high-ranking officials.

But the absence of authority does not prevent evil - it merely leads to other evils. For example, if we had no environmental laws, how many corporations would be ecologically friendly? Child labor laws are the result of children's work conditions. Anti-theft laws are the result of stealing. And so forth. I'm not claiming that all power is used for good, but that we (I) often underestimate the legitimate good use of power.

I see leaders restraining evil -- appropriately -- as a GoodThing(tm). It's a GoodThing for my pastors to know how I communicate - both content and tone. It's good for them to be able to say "I know you want to teach a church class, but you really need to work on your attitude toward Apple and iMacs. Your writing just doesn't reflect the tone and awe toward them that we feel is vital in teachers." (For those of you not familiar with my church, a significant fraction of our staff and leaders are Apple fanatics.) It's good for the pastors to know the people they are giving responsibility to. It's good for them to know people's doctrine, heart, character, and such.

That said, real openness toward church leadership is hard, especially when one aspires to lead. It's easier to settle for a fake openness that doesn't seem too wicked, too evil, or too corrupt than to genuinely own up to one's beliefs/attitudes/character and see how leadership responds.

It's harder still to accept negative responses from leadership, such as "We're sorry; we don't think you're ready for that responsibility." Rejection, err, constructive criticism is harder still when one thinks leadership's reasons are garbage. Been there, done that. Sometimes leadership is right and I didn't see it. Usually I was right. (Okay, maybe not. But more right than not.)

But the really tough question is this: Do I trust God to work through leadership, even when I think they are making the wrong decisions for the wrong reasons? I'm not talking about really important decisions like "What is the gospel?" but just the "minor" day-to-day decisions that appear to impact me. Do I think God is bigger than the authorities in my life? And do I think he works more powerfully when I faithfully serve under my leaders, or when I work around my leaders?

[Disclaimers: Happily, I haven't had any major clashes with leadership lately. It makes writing this much, much easier. Often I think of these important topics when I'm going through the trial, and it's tough to write about while doing justice to all parties. But I have had my fair share of clashes with various authorities. In many clashes, I've decided much later that leadership was right. There's a few I'm still pretty certain I was right about, and it's been a huge challenge to trust that God sees and guides. And there's a handful where I'm not clear who was right.

I also don't intend this post to suggest that leadership should always be followed, or that advice is the equivalent to command, or that one should stay under abusive leadership. I'm thinking more about day-to-day living, not the "What should I do if my demon-troubled king starts hurling spears at me?" question.]