Our pastor has been preaching on Biblical doctrines of conscience, and he cited a book that I went ahead and bought: Conscience: What is it, how to train it, and loving those who differ, by Andrew David Naselli and J. D. Crowley. I have been reading it.
It is a good and short study on the subject, about 140 pages with discussion questions, bibliography, lots of citations, and readable. I recommend it, and I am not a recommender.
However, I do have some thoughts. One of the authors is a missionary in Southeast Asia, or has been, and the other is a professor at Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis. That is John Piper's institution. This second author (who gets first bill on the book) also has a Ph.D. from Bob Jones and one from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. The Bob Jones background shows. But having been a part of fundamentalism, I feel his pain. It comes out in the examples they use.
Some of the examples seem dated, like wearing jeans, others fit more, such as getting tattoos. Since anyone reading the book might be in different places with their spiritual maturity, I'll leave that. They do deal with drinking. Today, I think more deal with the LGBTQ business (how supportive or close one should be with a gay friend, whether one should attend a same sex wedding), but I suspect they would say any of that is off limits for a Christian.
Pastor alluded to AI use the other day. I think that is one we need a lot of grace about, but also far more teaching on the Biblical problems in it. I am dogmatic against it and have probably been offensive to those who use it for Bible study. I don't trust it for anything, and especially not Scriptural instruction.
I will quote one line that hit me this morning, from p. 95. "Here's the gist of what Paul told those with a strong conscience. 'You can continue to use your freedom because in principle you're right about these issues (i.e., I add here, we have a lot of freedom in terms of dress, eating, the arts, entertainment). But what you must not do is look down on (i.e., despise) the strict. You must welcome them, learn how to get along with them, and learn to appreciate their subculture. You need to assume that they're being strict for God's glory, not because they're neurotic fundamentalist."
However, I want to switch the dynamic. I find the people with a lot of scruples or a weaker conscience to be the ones who are judgmental, and those of us who are too worried about their weak conscience find ourselves pretending for them, rather than their giving us mutual respect. And what it leads to is their enhanced prize because they are making more sacrifices than the rest of us, in order to be different, be sanctified, to outside the box.
We hide our true selves because of their weakness, which comes out in judgment. The answer here usually is to cut ties, not because we want to but because they don't want to be around us. Case in point, homeschooling. Homeschoolers take a superior position in this weak-strong conscience dichotomy and exhibit pride about their decision.
However, I find these debates about cultural issues are less a problem than in the 1990s and before. There are times I would like there to be stricter expectations about how women (and men) dress in church and in general. I don't understand why everyone is such a slob anymore. I guess you can save money that way. . . .
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