Last week, Ben over at Open Switch wrote a post titled “How to stunt your spiritual growth.” I’ve been thinking about this post a lot, especially since in my American Literature class we’ve been reading the work of early Puritan settlers.

Ben’s post is essentially is a list of things to do if you don’t want to grow spiritually. While I understand where he’s coming from, as he is a youth minister and this is from his point of view, at the same time I can’t help but disagree with him.

Which shouldn’t be so unusual, really, as I do every thing on his list (well, “Hang out with the wrong crowd” can be debatable, since I don’t think there is anything wrong with the people I hang out with), but I do not think I’m spiritually stunted. Of course, people could say I’m deluding my self, but that’s their opinion.

But, what I really wanted to say1 is that Ben forgot the most important step to stunt spiritual growth.

Stop thinking.

I don’t mean regular thinking, like writing a blog post or an email. I’m talking about thinking for yourself where you form an individual opinion. So often I run across people who when we discuss anything controversial, their opinion was formed when they were younger, and they never thought about it again.

This accounts for the big outrage with The DaVinci Code Code. People were shocked that someone would write a story where Jesus had a love interest, and a family. Never mind that the entire story was fiction. Many people saw this as an attack on their beliefs, and attacked back. Whole churches banded together to boycott the film.

For some, they took the opportunity to start a dialog about their beliefs of Jesus’s life, and actually thought about things, taking the opportunity to look at what the believe. Others, though, just through a blanket over the whole thing, condemning a fiction book they hadn’t even read yet, because they didn’t approve of the plot line.

I think everyone should think for themselves. They should have a reference text–such as the bible–which they turn to for clarification or for research on what they’re thinking about. But they should never except what other people say as spiritual law, if they haven’t thought about it for themselves.

After all, my spiritual beliefs have changed as I’ve grown up. With each new text I’ve been introduced to, I’ve had to rethink the things I believe in. And at the moment, Jonathan Edwards is scaring me creepy with “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

- “Your Disease,” Every Six Seconds: Saliva

  1. And I mean really wanted to; I had to write this post twice because the first one got lost in computer ether.[back]