This article from First Things is a critique of Matthew Vine’s work on homosexuality.

THAT will get some comments (possibly), but that is NOT what I want to focus on. What I want to focus on is the bottom of the article in this paragraph:

We do not judge a Christian teacher only by his age or experience, to be sure. But the new progressives have an authority problem. Whether their own family members or martyred apostles, they show no hesitation in correcting those who would—and should—teach them. They do so, furthermore, with precious little confessional and congregational accountability. Ecclesial accountability—though no fail-safe—is given us for our good. Beware Greeks bearing bonds, you might say, and bloggers without churches.

If there is anything that could sum up the frustration I feel with our current diatribes and the insistence we have on separating out generations, it is this point in this paragraph.

We NEED authority in our lives. We need to understand authority, listen to authority, discern what authority says in our lives, and … ahem … honor authority.

Human authority is not always right. Yet, there is a place of learning we all need in our lives and it shouldn’t come only from those our age or only from those whose opinions we happen to like. 

My parents taught me authority for elders, even if elders were wrong from time to time. You learned to respect people, even if you disagreed with them.

I clearly remember the time when I mouthed back to a pastor when I was very young. He wasn’t a very good pastor, and my opinion never changed after that episode, but in that episode I learned a valuable lesson. When I smarted off, the pastor rocked back on his heels a bit, then said, “You need to learn to respect your elders.”

Whether I personally liked the guy or not, those words pierced me. He was right. And I still remember that lesson.

We need the generations together and we need to learn from the generations together. When we quit listening to those who have gone before we will make the mistakes of those who have gone before. We may get some things right… but we will needlessly get a lot of things wrong.

Angst is very popular. It’s the only way to get published on the “Huff and Puff” post.

Angst exists in every generation. But learning needs to exist as well. That we don’t have enough of these days.