Non-Denominational Stupidity

The older I get, the more I hold groups like the Southern Baptists, Lutherans and others in absolute disdain. I consider the best of them schismatic and the worst heretical. But I can at least must some intellectual respect for them for having a Statement of Faith (because calling it a "Catechism" would be bad). They have doctrines and theology. Occasionally goofy and incoherent theology, yes, but they have it. And that's worth something.

What I CAN'T respect is the non-denominational crowd. To use an analogy, everybody has gotten themselves sucked into a political discussion at work or a group of casual acquaintances or whoever. And without exception there's always some hipster dillhole in the group who wants to position himself as a free-thinking maverick and so he announces that he's an "independent", both main parties suck and he's the ONLY one in the room with all the answers.

That's who non-denominationalists are. They're religious independents.

Now, say whatever you want about the Southern Baptists (I've said quite a lot about them, much of which isn't very flattering) but they at least have the stones to put their core beliefs on paper. There's some amount of conviction to that. It takes courage and intellectual candor to do that. So at least on that basis, I can admire them. I can't admire them about much else but at least they're not too chicken to tell you what they believe.

By definition non-denominationalists can't do that because they're almost as bad as the Disciples of Christ when it comes to theological disunity. Their parishioners are at the mercy of whoever the lead pastor of their local church is. Whatever he believes, implicitly they believe too. But when they find a new pastor with maybe different views, I assume the parishioners will change their views too.

So by definition you can't ever say what the non-denominationalists believe because they're anything but monolithic. And because of that, they never have to take the risks of unchangeably putting their beliefs on the record. That means they're perfectly free to criticize what everybody else does but can escape criticism (or even curious inquiry).

Compare that to the Catholic Church, where, love us or hate us, EVERYBODY knows what we teach about a lot of things and nothing ever gets magically reinvented just because we have a new Pope. The Church's core teachings, beliefs, doctrines and creeds are evident (explicitly or implicitly) starting with the early church going right on through 2,000 years later to today. Meanwhile, I seriously doubt that new non-denominational Independent Fellowship of Faith will be here even fifty years from now, much less 2,000.

To all you non-denominationalists and "independents" out there: Grow a sack and pick a side already.

For everybody else: I thought I'd lived through my share of weird experiences in life but I, a Catholic, was once called "divisive" by a non-denominationalist. Just let that sink in for a minute.

More to follow.