Last Sunday’s discussion took a turn for the heavy, as we considered unbelief and doubt by way of Hebrews 3.

Because people were turning away from the faith. (apostating)

We’re seeing this today. Bart Ehrman, an “evangelical” scholar (depending on your opinion of him) recently publicized his total apostacy based on the issue of God’s providence and theodicy (the problem of evil). He simply could not reconcile the two: “For many people who inhabit this planet, life is a cesspool of misery and suffering. I came to a point where I simply could not believe that there is a good and kindly disposed Ruler who is in charge of it.” Some may have seen this long coming, for others it is a shock; how did it come to this? Surprisingly, there was a point when Ehrman was even a youth pastor for an Evangelical Covenant Church, the denomination we’re affiliated with. Safe to say, his views do not represent our denomination. Nonetheless, the question is repeated: how did it come to this?

As we gazed down the barrel of how people give up on their faith (for the purpose of strengthening faith) one conclusion we came up with is that it is never, ever an intellectual decision alone. Apostacy never happens exclusively as a rational decision in the brain. It happens with a breakdown in community. In family. In relationship. It results from emotional trauma, disappointment. I don’t know if this was the case for Ehrman. But for every scholar who apostates there are also those who run the race to the end and can still attest to the providence of God in the midst of evil. It is a sore spot for all of us. But giving up on God in the face of suffering is like removing the safety net, discarding the parachute; if there is no God for our suffering, then what hope remains?

The supremacy of community when it comes to nurturing & sustaining faith can never be underestimated. We might think, and rationalize alone, and that is well and good; but faith never upholds in a vacuum; we need people, an inter-connected web in a disconnected car-suburb society. Can we re-achieve the village of life together, the communal experience? Or have our habits of “church” severely hampered inter-connectedness, thus alienating more and contributing to our nagging doubts?