I remember when I first posted this 3 years ago and the stir it caused. So many people were offended by it. I don’t claim this is the case for all churches. But it certainly is true for some. Been there.
Many of my drawings are available.
brain check
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My name is David Hayward, and I am the nakedpastor. I am a graffiti artist on the walls of religion.
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Even after three years, some brains are still checked in at the First Church 2011!
Which is why my blog (http://brainatthedoor.blogspot.com/) is headed “Don’t Leave Your Brain at the Door”
So glad brains are a requirement at my church! So sadly true, though, for so many . . .
Great cartoon, David!
My brain wonders what-it-is that generates so much (as the cartoon suggests) mindless religion and (evidently) brain-washed and manipulative congregations so that people fall away in dismay.
What might be the antidote? What is the nature of our (or their–for those who don’t identify with the problem) sense of the truth that is so collapsed by …what? Our human nature? Our rationalized & logical reduction of mystery? How far does our “brain” take us in this “offense” beyond reaction. “So many people were offended by it.”
Maybe some update on Z-Theory could stimulate
some brainy back & forth as we “think on these things.”
Brains are great for working out ‘things’ but not the Divine.
The Mind is more than the brain.
Mystery is by definition mystery – Mind can take us to the boundary of the Kingdom but trust takes us in.
Having said that many church ‘leaders’ play an anti intellectual game that asks us to leave our critical facilities at the door. This enables them to spin their web around us like a spider and its gullible prey.
Genuine spirituality involves the ‘not that’ of the Mind and the existentialist leap of the broken
“You shouldn’t have to check your brain at the door when you enter a church.” I said that so many times to my kids when they were growing up that it became a ritual with us. Now they are active church people and tell it to thier kids and the kids in their youth groups. I LOVE this cartoon. Are prints available?
Hi Dean. Yes, prints are available: http://nakedpastor.wazala.com/?page=product_det&id=44982
I probably commented the same then as I do now: (unfortunately) been there too!
IT’S ABOUT FAITH, NOT BELIEF
The advantage of faith over belief is that faith makes it easier to see God more frequently and in more places.
Belief restricts and clouds our vision, even blinds it.
Faith opens our eyes, improves clarity and enables us to see wider and further.
Believing is a passive verb.
If faith had a verb, it would be an active one.
When we confess the Apostle’s creed, there is nothing in there which our brain would conceive of. It does not come from natural law or theology. Except that there is a Maker. I have always believed in a Maker, but I grew up in a Christian home. Anyhow, you can’t think yourself to the articles of faith. And living a life asking for and receiving forgiveness of sins (and extending) certainly goes against the grain.
This does not mean that we have checked our brain or that church has made us dumb. I have always felt that church has made me “smarter.” The church as always been an institution furthering the cause of education and health care, as well as art and science.
Early on we learned to sing beautiful hymns with many poetic verses. Early on we learned to play musical instruments and sing and play in groups with four parts. Early on we trained our minds by memorizing. Early on we started learning foreign languages in religious school: English first, Latin second, French next and then kept them going simultaneously with grammar studies to go with it. When critical thinking skills increased we were in studies and thought, and discussed and argued.
Contemporary, popular culture has made us over into dumb consumers. Money, looks and entertainment over everything. Ownership makes me feel good and “rightous”, in a sense. The sooner I own the latest thing, the better I am. Consumers of asinine junk.
The consumer mentality is also infiltrated into the church. We must please the culture, so they will come to our church of high emotions and fun. The brain has also been “checked” where religion must come from the “heart” (be a “real” Christian) vs. the head (“empty ritual”), as if we could or should separate the two.
Dylan Morrison Author
October 1, 2011 | 10:05 am
Brains are great for working out ‘things’ but not the Divine.
—-Speak for your self.
Worked it out fine for me.
On consumer culture making us dumb – hear, hear! Commercials likely rot the brain. Useless, false information overload.
Whatever some churches might be today, to say that the “church [has] always been an institution furthering the cause of … science” is pure falsehood (Galileo, anyone?). Clearly not furthering history, either.
On the Apostles Creed – that’s as theology as it gets. Written by people who APPLIED religious teachings into a doctrine. Brain all round.
And as for things our brains wouldn’t conceive of – ever heard of particle physics, or metaphysics? Our brains can and do think many unexpected things. Don’t rule them out just because the items you reference seem impossible. The brain thinks impossible, too.
Christine
October 1, 2011 | 8:21 pm
And as for things our brains wouldn’t conceive of – ever heard of particle physics, or metaphysics? Our brains can and do think many unexpected things. Don’t rule them out just because the items you reference seem impossible. The brain thinks impossible, too.
—-Here, here!
Some interesting points, Christine. About Galileo, that was a major shift; those always take time and certainly the scientists involved were Christians. Even now, many scientists are Christians and all the main universities started out as specifically Christian institutions. Talking about Galileo is kind of stereotyping which does not cover the picture. Mendel was a monk, etc., etc.
Anyone can just study the cartoon and the thread right here now and draw some at least tentative representative conclusions re; brain and mind, belief and faith, science and religion–their differences and relationship and why we can’t Just Get Along. Class warfare?
*sigh*
Gallileo is but one (of many) examples. It’s not a stereotype. It’s a pattern. Besides, you said “always”.
Not that the church has never encouraged or supported science – but to say it has “always” “furthered” the “CAUSE” of science (scientific method, scientific fact) is flat out wrong. When science has reached the “wrong” conclusions, the church has generally turned on the science it previously supported.
Christians supporting science is NOT the church institution supporting science. Once-christian universities supporting science is NOT the church institution supporting science.
What you are saying now is that it is understandable that the church persecuted scientists, because well, those scientists were Christians (this makes it better how?) and those ideas were new (all scientific discoveries are new by definition). The church can’t be expected to accept new ideas (although I have no idea why not…). Or is it that the church should only be expected to support small scientific discoveries, not large ones, at least not without a few centuries to get used to the idea.
See how far this is from saying the “church [has] always been an institution furthering the cause of … science”!
I didn’t say Christianity and thought or Christianity and science can’t go together (but you seemed to be saying that at one point). But HISTORICALLY they have been at least partially at odds with one another, and none of us benefits from denying it.
At odds with each other, I agree, Christine. And should be: the two modes are incommensurate. To reduce xtianity to science is as contaminating as to reduce science to xtianity. The complement and relate–but are naturally and appropriately hostile. Think of the wiseguy kid who asks his 6th grade class if an omnipotent god could make a rock so large He couldn’t lift it. The confusion begins early and lasts a life time. Neither logic nor sermons convince, says Whiteman. Nor do they convince each other.