I want to make a tie between this article and the tales of Huckleberry Finn. In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, the antagonists are Tom Sawyer and Widow Douglas. Huck Finn calls their homes “smothery houses.” While, Tom constantly tells Huck what is “regular,” “considered best,” “the correct thing to do,” i.e. normal tradition. But that is the greatest enemy, complacency, laziness and self-righteousness.

I like this article because you mention the danger of tradition. Tradition can be the most dangerous enemy because one never notices it; everyone accepts it. It is the hidden poison that is sitting right next to you in church. Just like the the tradition of slavery that lasted for 200 years in the US (Twin abhorred it). It was the status quo.

I like your last statement, “Perhaps there is a certain maturity I have yet to reach where I take all of this with the right amount of levity, but I find that I have the same tendency to asset my religiousness over others.”

We will never be perfect on this side of heaven.
But life is more interesting when there are challenges and growth. Self-development never ends, once it ends we become stagnant and that leads to death.

It seems to me that your main point is about the topic of hypocrisy and how it relates to tradition. You seem to be saying that we all need to be aware of this, and that Jesus exposed hypocrisy as a major problem of the Jewish leaders. Is that a fair assessment?

Hypocrisy

I like these two statements you made:

“In the Pharisee’s minds the traditions were now authoritative and could be sinned against. In other words, a tradition was held coequal to the scripture.”

> This is indeed a major problem, found in many parts of Christendom. Making Tradition and Scripture co-equal is not something I see stemming from Christ’s teachings. What I do see is more of the Wesley Quadrangle, where Tradition, Scripture, Reason and Experience all work together to understand humanity and the world around us. In the Karcher Pentagram, I add the Holy Spirit into the mix. I really think all 5 components need to be weighed in order to avoid the pitfall you point out.

“They do this because they love God, but they undermine this when they neglect the gift God has given to them.”

> Great, succinct summary of the religious leader’s main problem! They loved God, but they undermined that love by neglecting the gift of God. That is a powerful statement. In fact, that is a good way to summarize my entire book about to be published. When we were steeped in UBFism, we did love God, but we undermined that love repeatedly. All the good things we experienced at ubf were tainted by this neglect. That is what I rail against.

This does not surprise me at all, and I fully believe it happened. In fact, a long time ago I also told a sheep a similar thing who went to visit and help his single mother during Sunday worship times. I think I quoted Philippians 2:21. Ouch. I’m so sorry for that.

If you fail to do so, expect some wrath, rebuke, retribution, disapproving comment, “training,” gossip, slander, etc, coming your way. In my opinion, this is driving many mavericks, committed and innovative young people away.

Is it any wonder why some/many older leaders “hate” UBFriends?? Oh, some also do not like Wikipedia! Apparently, many have repeatedly tried to alter the unfavorable comments about UBF!

Such accounts are almost as varied as there are UBF chapters: “I had a man tell me once if I missed a daily bread meeting to see my mother who has cancer I would love her more than God and when I mentioned we are to honor thy father and mother I was told that Jesus said to hate our father. Thus he nullified the Law for the sake of a tradition.” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/08/27/matthew-15/#more-9468