In various ways, we have heard it said: “Today’s heresy is often tomorrow’s dogma.”
What seems so certain today can seem so certainly wrong down the road. It is easy to forget how much of our thinking has changed over the years.
That is why our culturally-influenced conclusions of correctness deserve to be re-examined on a regular basis.
Several years ago, when we were working for The Christian Index, my friend and colleague Bill Neal and I were seated at the press table during a session of the Georgia Baptist Convention. A choir and orchestra from a large, very conservative church were performing with banners flying and spotlights sparkling off sequined gowns.
Then interpretive dancers — in body-hugging black tights — came gracefully down the aisle and onto the convention center stage.
As they moved about, Bill [a former Baptist campus minister in Columbus, Ga.] leaned toward me and said: “And just think, I almost got ran out of Columbus by some pastors for having a square dance.”
Indeed the times change and — one can hope — so do we. Putting all understandings and applications of faith into concrete is dangerous. Holding them up again and again to the brightest Light is a good and faithful practice.
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
