{"id":524,"date":"2010-06-01T07:23:55","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T07:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/06\/is-the-church-the-best-place-for-doubters.html"},"modified":"2010-06-01T07:23:55","modified_gmt":"2010-06-01T07:23:55","slug":"is-the-church-the-best-place-for-doubters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/06\/is-the-church-the-best-place-for-doubters.html","title":{"rendered":"Is the Church the Best Place for Doubters?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the variety of interviews<\/b> I’ve done for the new book<\/a>, in print and radio, the interviewer and I always seem to agree on a few things:<\/p>\n

1) Everyone has spiritual doubts, though many of us hide them.<\/p>\n

2) It’s better to be honest and open about our doubts rather than to ignore, suppress, or disguise them…<\/p>\n

3) …except we live in a church culture where doubts may be feared, misunderstood, and not entirely welcome. Which leads us back to #1.<\/b><\/p>\n

Lather, rinse, repeat. <\/p>\n

But eventually we conclude with #4, which is something we always agree on, too:<\/p>\n

4) Doubt shouldn’t keep us from continuing to pursue a life of faith, regardless of what language you use to describe it<\/b> (“following Jesus,” “living as a Christian,” etc.)<\/p>\n

For most believers, #4 involves going to church. The same churches from #3, that are not always comfortable with doubters. This poses a problem. <\/p>\n

I’ve heard churches ask doubters to leave<\/b> prior to a prayer service, fearing that the presence of spiritual doubt will diminish the power of that community’s prayer (James 1:6<\/a> gets cited in these occasions). <\/p>\n

I’ve heard people say that they’d sooner admit to a porn addiction<\/b> in church than to admit they aren’t entirely sure God exists. <\/p>\n

I once got an email<\/b> from a reader who said she was embarrassed to be seen reading O Me of Little Faith<\/i><\/a> by her church friends and family members because she didn’t know what they might think of her.<\/p>\n

—————-<\/p>\n

Last week <\/b>I interviewed<\/a> author Nick Fiedler<\/a>, who left organized Christianity a few years back while trying to come to terms with his beliefs. In response to a recent post<\/a>, he commented with a question that I’ve been thinking about ever since:<\/p>\n

After establishing that we are almost all doubters, my follow up question would be, ‘Is the church really the best place for doubters?’ In my experience, no. <\/p>\n

Now there is always the exception, but when the doubt gets heavy or something substantial is doubted, the church gets antsy. Do you guys have a church that is good for doubters?
<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I want to open that question up to you. Earlier we discussed clergy who don’t believe<\/a>. What about churchgoers who doubt?<\/b> <\/p>\n

Is the church the best place for them during periods of doubt — particularly if that church might be judgmental or negative toward them? Are you aware of churches who seem to do well with doubters? What can\/should these churches look like?<\/p>\n

This blog is read by pastors and parishioners. I welcome the comments of both.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the variety of interviews I’ve done for the new book, in print and radio, the interviewer and I always seem to agree on a few things: 1) Everyone has spiritual doubts, though many of us hide them. 2) It’s better to be honest and open about our doubts rather than to ignore, suppress, or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conversations","category-questions"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the Church the Best Place for Doubters? - O Me of Little Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/06\/is-the-church-the-best-place-for-doubters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the Church the Best Place for Doubters? 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