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(I’m new here, so please forgive me if this is too rant-y for this space.)
There’s this thing that no one actually says out loud but always uses their faces to express at me: that if you’re a “good Christian”, you’re not supposed to want to (or even allowed to) study in certain academic fields.
These fields include but are not limited to: psychology, philosophy, religious studies, anything Christianity/Bible related at a “secular school”, and anthropology.
I have wanted to study all of these at one time or another and every time I announce it I get the weird eye for the backsliding girl.
If this whole god thing is supposed to be so evident to people who haven’t even heard about god, then how is this a problem!?
If god is truth like everyone says he is, then shouldn’t the whole universe be exuding that truth? Shouldn’t it be that the harder I look at everything, the more evidence I see? (But apparently the field of biology is okay because of this reason?)
If all of history and nature are supposed to be point me to this god, how is that certain academic fields are off limits? It’s out of a fear of something, but what is the something? And why am I not afraid of it? And why is everyone else so weird and afraid of it?
A family friend I haven’t seen in a while asked about what I was studying in school and I told her “journalism and religious studies” very matter-of-fact-ly, and I swear the moment I finished forming “religious studies” I saw that same look creep into her eyes.
I tailored by answer a little bit to what she wanted to hear, but that look never really subsided from her face. She still answered multiple times with that empty and nervous, “Oh … That’s interesting … “
What the h, guys?
Have any of you experienced this? How did you handle it? Did you ever convince the other party or did you just proceed anyway and let the benefits speak for themselves?
… I just feel like sometimes I’m too much for people (and this god) to handle. It hurts.
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This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by
David Hayward.
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This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by David Hayward.
AnonymousI experienced it so strongly that I abandoned going to college as a young person. A few years later I wanted to return to school but was told it would a waste of time and money. God had things he wanted me to accomplish and I would be missing those by going to school. I am in school today. I will graduate with my PA of Psychology next spring. I know I’ll probably want a Masters too.
AnonymousBA not PA – Geeze, I really make a lot of typos right now.
Oh! I have not experienced what you are talking about, so I do not have advice to share from my own experiences.
Except that I was a journalism major in college and have done my own dabbling in and more seriously studying religion, and I’ve gotta say: My response to the fear of the “the world” I’ve seen in some Christians has been pretty much exactly what you’ve pointed out. Not always out loud, I admit, but….If God is supposed to be all-powerful and transcendent, just what is it I am supposed to fear about learning about the world and all the beings that this God created?
If God exists, I’m not too much for God to handle. I don’t believe that you are, either. Some christians would judge me “immature” or “not really a christian”, though their book tells them not to suppose they know enough about me to judge me. I refuse to be afraid of ideas, questions, of searching, or of the concept of intellectual honesty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_honesty).
My $.02.
I didn’t really run into this kind of attitude until years after college, but it still has to do with thinking and considering ideas and maybe even being different, myself, from the person who has the reaction you describe. Some of them may just be uncertain how to respond, depending on how far outside of their church circle they socialize…
I got that all the time! All the time. All the time! Did I say, “All the time!”?
I’ve got a degree in theology. Responses to that have varied hugely;
– non-Christians who think I’m odd and theology is a waste of time (on the grounds that all Christians are fundamentalists who live with a medieval world view).
– Christians who made the comment “I hope all that theory hasn’t robbed you of your joy in the Lord.” I discovered the same couple had done the Alpha course for the umpteenth time; so I was tempted to respond, I hope doing the basics over and over again hasn’t stunted your growth. But I didn’t.
– a Christian who asked about my course, “Is it liberal or is it good?” I responded that it’s liberal enough for me.
AnonymousNot really. I didn’t have much exposure to evangelical culture growing up. And I grew up in a pretty mainstream if not left of centre congregation.
When i got to seminary though there were lots of evangelicals. Two questioned me having a BA in world religion and sociology, because from their POV the only thing worth studying was theology. I studied false religion and liberalism. So then I kind of went off on them, and they behaved themselves around me after that.
Well, I studied mostly in the “safe” subjects of chemistry/physics/math, so I didn’t encounter this too much. My wife, however, is just now starting a masters in family counseling program and she’s gotten lots of strange looks, etc., from people.
I should say that my interests in the fields you mentioned has grown substantially as I have left the “conservative” church, and the two are definitely correlated for me. My old faith just didn’t work with my honest perception of human nature.
And you’ll have to work harder than this to create a post that is too rant-y! Love what you wrote…
And welcome!
Haha..absolutely know what you mean. During my first semester I initially got involved in a campus ministry and I have a distinct memory of a conversation with the leaders one night about my (then) major of psychology. They shared their “concern” in a way that really confused me. Not long after, I drank the kool-aid.
AnonymousOh, not just religion/theology, but no one should study biology at a secular school either (that whole evolution thing, ya know). And psychology was off-limits as well.
I never heard a peep, as I studied nursing at a Christian school. If only they knew that I started believing in evolution there because of my wonderful biology professor! LOL. When I did go to a secular university, I never heard a word about what I should study, only that I should be careful not to let “worldly” ideas creep in. And again, if only they knew that’s when I stopped believing gay=sin.
AnonymousAnd again, my consistent refrain: “Grrrrrrrr.”
The questions you’re asking are legitimate, Deanna. And, as I read/hear them my heart immediately says, “She already knows what to do.”
This reality, in and of itself, is most likely what people are responding to. What? You have your own opinions? Your own desires? Your own thoughts? Your own ways of understanding spirituality and religion and God? How dare you?
How dare you not?
And…at a personal level, my choice to attend a very non-traditional seminary was seen as highly controversial. A reality that only continued to play itself out in my life as I learned new things, made new choices, and began to speak…feel…see. It was the BEST decision I could have ever made – no matter the consequences.
AnonymousHey Deana!
Gosh! You pose great questions. I have to say that I don’t believe that churches in general are really too concerned with “seeking truth.”
I had a similar experience when I wanted to go to grad school for psychology and I was super involved with a Calvary Chapel church and Bible College in Southern California. It was like I was going against everything to believe in psychology. The fact that God and scripture was not big enough.
Looking back it frightens me how tight of a hold those church members have on the inerrant Bible. It’s like they would rather die than to know or question that any one part of it may not be true.
I ended up at a post modern seminary 3 years later and now I don’t go to church at all. Sadly, it seems like I find only small pieces of “truth” in the church setting anymore.
The rest of what is taught seems to be used to control and only perpetuated out of fear.
I can relate because I once operated in that. But I can no longer do that.
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