I'm just reading an article about Gorbachev, and how he truly believed in Communism, and that true belief is a prime reason why it collapsed - essentially, he thought it was strong enough to survive reform.
I have thought before that there are many parallels between political ideology and brethren beliefs. But what caught my eye in this case was a little reference to lip-service. Apparently by the Eighties, even most Party members in the USSR had stopped really believing in their system, yet it was necessary to claim to believe. Gorbachev himself read Lenin for enlightenment on issues, whereas for most it was a politically sensible move to have his books on the shelf but no more.
"It was politically correct to have Lenin in your library. If you had to write a speech you were keen to find a Lenin quote so you turned to the index."
Doesn't that sound exactly like a brother preparing to preach on Sunday, especially if he doesn't do it very often? My preference was always for novel phrasing of conventional doctrine, but I know many contemporaries who did it this Russian way by checking ministry indexes. It was always pretty transparent, I thought.
Incidentally, the magazine with the article is Prospect. It's one of the few magazines with enough words in it to be interesting for more than half an hour, I find, but I'm regularly disappointed to find yet more friends who think it's the very essence of dullness.
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Interesting, as I compare these thoughts with the comments of two recent young leavers.
a)Why would BDH bother with it unless he believes in it.
b)(in reference to members)....they only carried through with it for the sake of appearances.......few actually cared about the issues surrounding why they were at the church......it became a routine endured for the sake of the social interacton that followed.
c) .....an enthusiastic preacher but more often than not they would be expounding on their recent experiences with MR HALES, ...... and how every word he uttered was divinely inspired.
d).....up to that point I had been reading my Bible first thing in the morning, but was directed to instead read Bruces ministry as it would serve me in better stead.
Collapse - possible or probable? The younger members have the advantage of technology for learning other views, communication, networking and the confidence to question things.
An interesting analogy Survivor.
I've thought about this for some time but you have put it into a few words more adequately than I could.
Totaliarism is the word that springs to mind - even if the lower echelons really didn't believe it!
I remember trying to read the current ministry a few times and not being able to make any sense of it. More than 30 years after I left, I came across some more recent ministry and had the same experience. Somehow I had not absorbed the necessary base assumptions that leant meaning to the words. Something to be thankful for, i guess.
I wonder if current brethren ever discuss the finer points of Darby's theology. Do they ever mention 'dispensations'?
"... a brother preparing to preach on Sunday"
Brethren have told me that prepared sermons are wrong because the Holy Spirit speaks directly through the preacher in the assembly.
I believe that was the view from the beginning of the movement, though I know that early on JND championed B W Newton as the "elder" in Plymouth because he (JND) was concerned about inappropriate teaching from some members of the Plymouth gathering. Darby wanted only those who had a correct theological understanding to speak.
From outside, it does seem that Brethren may only be paying lip service to their inheritance. Presumably, like the people in Russia, they fear the consequences of raising their doubts and difficulties with the leadership? In their silence they are complicit in all kinds of wrongdoing and unkindness.
It looks like there is further clarification needed on some of this. I don't like to put too much content into the comments here so I'll write a follow-up post when I get a minute or two.
In essence, this is another situation where there is a difference between what the brethren THINK they're doing and what their values are, and what the PRACTICAL result is.
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