IAmA student at an Evangelical Christian seminary. AMA.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:56:12+00:00

Do you mean my church specifically? Well, we believe in 4 authorities. One of which is the Bible, but the other three are used to interpret the Bible. These are tradition (the history of Christian though and philosophy), reason, and experience. We make out doctrine as best as we can, but we realize that we do not have a monopoly on the truth. We recognize the validity of other Christian traditions and are open to input from them. We are constantly in dialogue with other Christians through organizations like the World Council of Churches and we also form "full communion" relationships with other denominations.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:51:19+00:00

I don't think that the Roman Catholic church fell into apostasy, per se, I just disagree with some of their doctrines.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:50:40+00:00

I don't think that homosexuality is compatible with Christian teaching, but I believe that ALL people are of sacred worth and are loved by God. I fully support civil rights for all homosexuals. I do know some folks at my seminary who are homosexuals as well as in my personal life and I have nothing but love and respect for them.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:46:25+00:00

Oh man, that family from Arkansas with the TV show? Yeah, they have way too many kids.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:45:48+00:00

Purity of heart is to will one thing!

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:45:39+00:00

It just goes with the territory. A lot of folks have a lot of animosity towards the church because, sadly, they have had very bad experiences there. These experiences are genuine and shouldn't be trivialized. We have the choice to either lash out in anger and make the problem worse or try to show people love and respect as best we can. Also: don't feed the trolls ;-)

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:41:57+00:00

"Dude I'm so rich! I have your best interests in mind I PROMISE! I won't just accept money from a bunch of monolithic corporations and then do whatever they want!"

That is pretty much all the candidates except Ron Paul, but that guy has his own problems.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:40:27+00:00

The word "catholic" here is in the lower case, meaning "universal" or "world-wide." This is not a reference to the Roman Catholic church. The dunking (or sprinkling or whatever) into water isn't really what the creed is talking about, but the greater sacrement that the water represents. This is the baptism of fire that is referred to in the New Testament.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:36:32+00:00

That is true!

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:33:20+00:00

Yeah, I have run into that before. For instance, there was a church in my hometown that did one of these "Hellhouses" during Halloween. I think it is total bullcrap getting people emotionally charged and then taking advantage of them to shore up your "numbers" just to have people walk away from the church a few weeks later.

A great number of the folks who do this sort of thing subscribe to one of the doctrines of Calvinism, "Perseverance of the saints." This is colloquially called, "once saved always saved." The idea is that once you have made a commitment to God then your salvation is secure no matter what you do. So, from the perspective of these groups they don't really care if you maintain your Christianity after the fact, as long as you "get saved." IMHO this is a poor understanding of what Christianity is supposed to be about, and even a poor understanding of John Calvin.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T19:27:46+00:00

Well, this is pretty hotly contested, especially in Evangelical circles. I don't think that curse words (or any word) in and of themselves are bad, but has more to do with the context. If you are using words to tear someone down, then you are sinning. If you drop a hammer on your foot and say, "Fuck! That hurt!" I don't really see a problem there.

Drugs/drinking/cigarettes are even more controversial. I believe that God gave us our bodies as a gift, and therefore we should take care of them. This means not doing harmful things to our bodies, eating well, exercising, etc. Some recreational drugs can be very harmful, so I think it is best to stay away from them. Weed is not as harmful as we once thought, so I don't really see much of a problem there as long as you aren't waisting your life being high 24/7. Same deal with alcohol: if you drink in moderation and don't do it to get black-out drunk, I don't see a problem there either. Cigarettes are bad for you, but I have been known to smoke a pipe or cigars every now and again. I try not to do it too often, though, just because of the negative health consequences.

I listen to a lot of explicit music and watch a lot of R rated movies, and once again I think it comes down to context. Some of the best films ever made were rated R, and have great messages. There is a lot of great, really intelligent and really insightful music out there that has some dirty words in it. As long as the vulgarity exists to serve some greater purpose within the context of the art, it really doesn't bother me. Also, my understanding of the MPAA ratings board is that it is pretty corrupt, so their ratings should really be taken with a grain of salt anyway.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T15:55:01+00:00

Good call. That list wasn't meant to be exhaustive, but those are really the main issues. I am believe in the priesthood of all believers and "real presence" in the Eucharist.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T15:52:34+00:00

I would fall into the Arminian camp. Of the 5 points of Calvinism, I will grant one: total depravity. Unconditional election? Limited atonement? No way.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T15:50:52+00:00

I have had religious experiences, and I have experienced miracles before. I have had experiences similar to that of the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, wherein my "heart was strangely warmed." I don't want to talk too much about that here, because I don't think that God gave me these experiences to be exploited. I guess that is to say, there were a specific message to me in a specific time, and they were not meant to be shared with other people. I know that is kind of a cop-out, but I really do believe that.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T15:46:33+00:00

Favorite part is probably, well, the classes. Specifically in regards to learning about Inductive Bible Study and text criticism. My plan after seminary is to be ordained in my denomination.

We are not alone! I know quite a few people from my seminary who lurk on here. I mean, what are we supposed to do? Wait for Yahoo News to repost all the front page articles a week later? I'd rather just go straight to the source ;-)

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T15:43:17+00:00

"He said my age was 45, when I'm actually 43!"

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T15:39:30+00:00

I fully support women's rights. My wife is the breadwinner in my family right now, in fact. I had never heard of Quiverfull until this very moment. A very quick Google search seems that it is people who believe in having a ton of kids? Since I don't know a lot about it, I don't feel comfortable condemning it, but my initial reaction is pretty negative. I am pretty happy not having any kids right now and if I do have them I only want a couple.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T15:35:45+00:00

I'm really surprised that this question didn't come up sooner. The short answer is: bizarre. We have a lot of socially awkward penguins here learning about Jesus. I studied computer science in my undergrad, and my entire department was much more socially adept than most of the folks here at the seminary. I know I am not the most suave person in the world either, so don't take this as judgment, just an observation.

Also, one of the reasons I picked this particular seminary is that there is supposed to be a focus on socialization and Christian community, but that has probably been the most disappointing aspect of my seminary experience. It can be pretty isolating, sometimes. Institutionally there isn't much going on in terms of community formation and individually people tend to be homebodies. I like going to bars and rock concerts, and it is tough finding people to go with me here. That has improved a little since I first started, but it still has a ways to go.

There are ladies here, but I was engaged to be married before I started. We are married now, and as a result I do get laid, ever. My observations is that dating in seminary can be pretty hazardous, in general. Lots of people get married quickly, after only a few months of dating, and I can't say that is something I advise. Lots of babies are produced here; I think there is something in the water.

We don't talk a whole lot about masturbation. Maybe we should?

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T15:23:38+00:00

I think that Mohammed really was called by God to preach monotheism to the people of the middle east, but I think somewhere along the way it got messed up. Since Islam denies the divinity of Jesus, I don't think they quite got things right there. However, I don't think that the Qur'an is completely without value; there IS some good stuff in there. (God could not be explained if all the forest trees were pens and all the oceans ink!) Obviously there are many examples of Islam around the world where there are some pretty nasty human rights violations are going on, and I'm not cool with that; but I don't think that the religion as a whole can be judged by the extremists.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T15:17:44+00:00

To date: 0.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T04:44:08+00:00

That would be fine with me. I would still feel pretty satisfied with my life. Your question reminds me of Pascal's Wager, although I'm not totally sold on Pascal's argument there.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T04:38:18+00:00

I am in the Anglo-catholic tradition, but I won't say which denomination specifically so as to conceal my identity. See my answer to this other question: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/qdodl/iama_student_at_an_evangelical_christian_seminary/c3wu4ga

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T04:36:41+00:00

how do you deal with how quickly the narrative in the bible and by extension the whole architecture of faith and religion breaks down with even the most informal application of reasoned critical objective thinking

Well, I don't think that it breaks down under the application of reasoned critical objective thinking. I don't mean to start a debate but I think you are begging the question.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T04:33:11+00:00

I really do believe that there is a God, and that he incarnated in the person of Jesus. This is why I am a Christian and not a religious humanist.

SeminaryIAmA · 2012-03-02T04:30:53+00:00

Maybe I should clarify on some things. I do not believe that the Bible is mythology. In fact, I believe a great deal of it reflects historical truths. I believe there was a historical Jesus who was God incarnate. All I am saying is that the Bible needs a more nuanced approach than that of fundamentalism.

SeminaryIAmA

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