Spiritual, Religious, & Intellectual Honesty
by F. Paul Haney © 1/2007
Honestly, I hear, is the best policy,
especially regarding business dealings and whatnot. If this is true, then honesty within religious circles must surely be a
wonderful policy. And it is! Too bad it is such a rare one. But I hasten to add that strict honestly might be unnecessary
in some cases. You wouldn’t tell a bad-looking person sitting next to you in church that he was really ugly, now, would you? No, you grin and bear it. Babies are said to be “cute” when they are not so pretty. You know what I mean.
Spiritual
honestly has a lot to do with intellectual honesty. You cannot face the truth so you create a false image in order to make things
a bit easier, or, you ignore the truth and instead, opt to merely accept what your church or pastor tells you without investigating
anything. If I tell you that the Trinity doctrine I false (and I certainly will), you might ask your pastor or preacher to verify
the issue. Most likely (in an orthodox church) he will say that it’s true. He might point to a couple of passages that
he says proves it, like
Maybe for you it is important that people in your church think you are ok and look up to you. After all, you spend a
lot of time there and many business contacts are made in churches. And perhaps you have a vested interest in that organization,
say in tithe money or gifts you have made to the church. I know a number people personally who are vested in their belief system
in such a way. They are said to have a “vested” interest in the wellbeing and proliferation of their species of organization. They are intellectual losers but societal winners. Which is best for you?
Of course, this kind of vested interest does nothing
for your religious life. You may be living a lie. People live lies all the time. Not wanting to move ahead or being
afraid of change, these people decide to close their eyes to challenges and to install blinders against “different” ideas. They
are fearful. The upshot is that when the opportunity comes to really learn something about the belief system you have adopted,
you ignore it because the adoption procedure is done. You are in a box and in the box you will stay.
What’s wrong with thinking
outside the box? This is how ideas are discovered and grow into great undertakings. Buildings cannot be built without
dreams but when one’s head is in a box (or the sand) dreams cannot come to fruition. Intellectual honesty comes about (in a
religious sense) when someone says your belief system needs an overhaul and you endeavor to fix it. You study and decide, based
on serious scholarship, that thus and such is the way to go and then you make the needed changes. If you see needed changes
and do not do them, you have become intellectually dishonest. “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him
it is sin” (Jas.4:17). #
