Last month I revealed the unease I felt during a charismatic service of such duration and energy, that I was worried that my visible failure to participate would be seen as evidence of some great personal sin, and that the three thousand strong congregation would somehow want to relieve me of this supposed burden. I accept that many people enjoy this style of service but on that occasion at least, I was relieved when it all ended in an orderly fashion.
This month I reflect on how the doctrines of some faiths can give purpose to the lives of adherents but, at the same time make life uneasy for others.
Since the death of Jesus there has been speculation about his second coming. From time to time, this speculation becomes widespread, and gives rise to sects and doctrines designed to cope with the impending event.
During the early eighteen hundreds throughout Europe and the USA, a large number of sects sprang up who believed that the second coming of Jesus was imminent. Many of them went so far as to calculate precise dates. However, as these dates came and went most of the sects disappeared but a few remain to this day. During the early nineteen seventies one such group again calculated the second coming was due and, although could not give a precise date, were confident that the year was to be 1975.
The newspapers did not give great prominence to this projection and so most people got on with their lives unaware of any change to the universal order. One such person was a friend of mine who, during those years, was a mortgage advisor. Part of his role was to arrange loans for purposes of building churches and this particular sect approached him in 1973 for assistance in building one of their halls at a place called Ripley in Derbyshire.
A twenty-year mortgage deal was amicably concluded and, during a relaxed chat subsequent to signing the contracts, one of the church Elders revealed that their prophetic message included the second coming of Jesus just two years ahead.
This alarmed my friend who enquired, “Who will pay the remaining eighteen years of the mortgage, if Jesus sets up a new world order in which mortgages do not have to be repaid?”
An urgent discussion then ensued about doctrinal ethics and the morality of taking out a loan knowing that you were going to repay only two years out of twenty. When I next saw my friend I asked him the outcome? He replied, “We settled on ten years.”
All this goes to show that doctrines can have consequences that are sometimes more important to others, than for those who believe in them.
View from the Pew 