Last Sunday, I peeked in on services at First Reformed Church in Oak Harbor. I hop around churches a bit. I'm not a joiner, but a sampler. Coincidental to my latest interest, the sermon was on the subject of the Fall. The pastor told of the Creation, the making of Adam and Eve, Paradise, and the temptation of Eve by the Serpent.
Eve took the bait, made Adam take it too, and when confronted by God, blamed the whole mistake on the snake. And as we all know, God threw everybody out of the garden, condemned the snake to crawl on his belly in the dust, and that was the beginning of sin and the loosing of evil upon the land.
Or something else. How about Free Will? What evil act does not come out of a choice, of free will? I saw this on website owned by a therapist who works with sex offenders (I wish I could find it again, I'd cite it): The offender asks the psychiatrist why he offends. The psychiatrist replies something like this: "You do that because you want to. You thought you would try it once and see if it felt good, and it did, so you did it again. You had no consideration for the child whose body you took control over. You are evil."
The church was built to keep man in touch with God, and through fellowship and teaching, keep evil from taking over altogether. Churches, like other institutions, have a leadership structure. To simplify, I'll call it a shepherd and a flock.
What is the shepherd's responsibility? Certainly to keep the flock from wandering off and also to maintain the health and well-being of each individual. In his human flock, the pastor leads his congregation spirtually, chosing the doctrine and delivering the teachings.
The less dissension and more cohesiveness the easier the job. "Discipleship," coupled with evangelism fills the bill in some churches. Campus Crusade for Christ is the best example I can think of, and it also happens to associate with many churches using this programming. (Now that I've looked at their website, they don't talk about discipling out in the open. But Bill Bright, the founder of CCC, created the model in the 1950s. In this model, disciplers program disciples, who when finished become disciplers, "evangelize" to find new disciples, and in this way build churches. It is not for the new convert to discover until he's been prepared for it. Since the website reaches out to new converts, I can see why the model is not explained there.)
In Christianity, disciples were the students of Jesus during his ministry. In Campus Crusade for Christ, and churches structured in this way,disciples are the followers of organization leaders. There is more than a subtle difference between discipling the son of God and discipling a human being. Certainly there is room for error! Classic power abuses bring about such things as isolation (from "non-believers," including family), humiliation, and financial fraud, borne of human arrogance.
Man-made disciplers in some of these churches take unquestionable authority over their parishioners. A member would make no decision in his personal life without the approval of the discipler. He gives full confession in front of full congregations to create intimacy with the group. "He hears such words as obey, submit, die to self, and brokeness." (Mary Alice Chrnalogar). Is this a well-intentioned attempt at throwing off free will in order to get back into the Garden? Whose Garden?
It's virtual enslavement and absence of privacy. By giving up free will, and the critical thinking that goes with that, how can a person navigate moral waters on his own? "Animal nature" does not go away, it learns to hide. And evil crawls around on it's belly in the dark places where light cannot penetrate. In darkness, it keeps secrets.
Free will expresses man's dual nature of evil and good. Yes, free will is indeed an instrument of pure misery, but it is also an instrument of the most profound love.
I am Eve, and I will not live inside man's Garden. I'm outside, and I'm looking into the eyes of the child victim. It is my free will, and I decide to take his hand and say to him, "There are no walls here in the bright sunlight, and you are free. I can love you and accept you. I'll stand by you while you get your balance and your footing, then learn to walk without chains."
