You Shall Know Them By Their Fruits
Christianity is not just a Belief System, but a Behavior System
At church today the sermon was about how the soul is comprised of the Intellect, the Heart and the Will.
Assent - Intellect
Adoration - Affections
Allegiance - Will
He talked about something I have come to know to be true through my experience the past few years: that the mind AND heart must be changed in order to see a transformation in a person. The intellect AND the affections. This made me think of Jonathan Haidt's "The Righteous Mind," which had such a big impact on me, and his discussion of the rational mind (the rider) and the emotional mind (the elephant). We all want to think our rider controls our elephant, when usually it is the other way around. We make up our minds with our heart or our emotions or affections first, and then we rationalize them backwards.
This was certainly the case when I left woke ideology, which is the thing I get asked about in interviews: "What woke you up?" It wasn't a list of facts. That came later. My heart had to be changed first, before I could be open to change my mind. For me, it was falling down a rabbit hole on youtube of videos of leftists, people presumably on "my side," attacking Trump voters outside of his rallies. It left me crying. It shook the very foundations of my belief system. It didn't change me overnight. But it caused a large crack in the foundation of my house of belief. A crack that would eventually lead to me razing the whole entire house to the ground and starting over.
But back to the sermon - Bradley was talking about how Christian transformation is often like this too. A person's mind AND heart must be changed. And often it is their heart that is changed first. I have started to realize that maybe this is why you see some people who call themselves Christians behaving in such appalling ways - maybe they believe intellectually, but not with their heart. Maybe they have had a mind transformation, but not a heart transformation.
When you have had both a change of heart and mind, then your will will change. Your behavior will change. This is something I think about a lot now, because I see so many wolves in shepherd's clothing, in every kind of belief system and movement. A wolf in sheep's clothing can devour a few sheep, but a wolf in shepherd's clothing can destroy an entire flock. I have seen these kinds of con-artists in the Christian faith my whole life. It's part of why I wrote Christianity off for so long in my adulthood, because I judged it based on these false prophets. But I see these kinds of con-artists now in the anti-woke movement, in the wrongthinker space, and yes - now that I'm a Christian - still in the Christian community. Although now they tend to be of the woke persuasion instead of the televangelist persuasion.
One reason I appreciate Christianity is because it's not just a belief system. It's a BEHAVIOR system. If your behavior hasn't been transformed by your beliefs, then I don't need to hear you speak words about what you believe. It's meaningless. I should be able to tell what you believe from your behavior. From you exercising your will in accordance with your transformed heart and mind.
If you are interested in the sermon from today, I will share it when it is uploaded. It was by Bradley J Helgerson, Minister of the Word at Church on the Square.
Love,
Keri
Hi Keri! The footage/coverage/NON-coverage of the violent attacks on people attending Trump rallies before the 2016 election also made me cry, and made me furious, and woke me up.
I had already abandoned my mildly-held, reflexive-liberal stance after 9-11. But seeing bloodied people running for their lives simply because they had attended a political event---and then the unbelievable fact that there was almost no national coverage of this, and almost no denunciation from Hillary Clinton---woke me up to the fact that we are now in an alternate, constructed reality where our normal lives will no longer be permitted to continue. The life I thought I would be able to lead is over.
I'm trying to trust in God and trying to figure out what part I might play in resisting, but it's been hard. I've read that despair is actually a sin so that helps me somewhat. Wish I had a chance to attend a church like yours, to find community and spiritual nourishment, and I'm very happy for you that you have found God and then found a great church.
It was so refreshing to attend the ranch retreat; that re-charged my batteries for several months. Definitely hope we can have more of those! Meanwhile thank you so much for standing up and creating a safe Unsafe Space---don't know where you get the energy lol but bless you for all that you are doing.
Much wisdom in this short essay. "A wolf in sheep's clothing can devour a few sheep, but a wolf in shepherd's clothing can destroy an entire flock." and this entire paragraph, "One reason I appreciate Christianity is because it's not just a belief system. It's a BEHAVIOR system. If your behavior hasn't been transformed by your beliefs, then I don't need to hear you speak words about what you believe. It's meaningless. I should be able to tell what you believe from your behavior. From you exercising your will in accordance with your transformed heart and mind."