byFaith Magazine - In the Church - It Has Become Clearer That Emotions Sometimes Trump Truth

It Has Become Clearer That Emotions Sometimes Trump Truth

Stuart Latimer, Issue Number 21, September 2008

To change your mind, you have to change your heart.

Our emotions are much more entangled in our belief system than most of us realize. We like to think that we examine data rationally and make decisions that are logical and reasoned. But in reality, our emotions can make us hold onto a cherished belief even when we know intellectually that our belief is unfounded. We are not emotionless computers.

I was weaned on Calvin and Owen in a Reformed Baptist home. And I was proud of the uniqueness provided by both words of that identity—“Reformed” unlike most Baptists, and “Baptist” unlike most Reformed people. I loved to argue against infant baptism and I was able to win most of the arguments I had with peers. And not once did I ever consider the fact that I might have been wrong.

Then I went to seminary. The straw man in my mind began to fall apart my first year of seminary, but I was scared to study the issue of infant baptism intently. I “knew” I was right but I was afraid I might be wrong. My last year of seminary, a professor who had traveled the trail from being Reformed Baptist to Presbyterian gently but firmly showed me intellectual arguments on a number of issues that I could not in good conscience refute. So suddenly, as I approached graduation, I realized that intellectually I was a Presbyterian, but I could not let go of being a Baptist emotionally. It took another year and another seminary before I was able to admit that I was a Presbyterian.

We must recognize the role our emotions play in our knowledge or we will be held captive by them. Winston Churchill once said, “There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.” But therein lies the problem. How do we decide what the right direction is? We believe what we believe because we are convinced that we are right. And some beliefs we hold to with more emotional fervor because they are a part of our identity or because we believe they are important for us to believe for some other reason.

The purpose of much rhetoric in theological debate is not to make people think but to make people react. This emotionally-charged rhetoric prevents people from considering the arguments logically—it prevents us from being Bereans. We are called as Christians to study the Word, to meditate on the Word, to test all things by the Word. But often, our emotional attachments to our beliefs prevent us from hearing the Word we claim to believe.

If we hold to all of our beliefs with the same conviction, we will never change our mind on anything. We will emotionally block out all arguments before they are even considered. Instead, we must hold most firmly to the central doctrines of Christianity and less firmly to doctrines where there is disagreement (especially among those within our own tradition). If we change our hearts in this way, we will see our minds changed theologically by the Scriptures.

Stuart Latimer is senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church of the North Shore in Winnetka, Ill.

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Eve B.

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Chicago

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Stuart,

It's true--we are often more attached emotionally to our beliefs than intellectually. It's hard to root that out in myself--but I can see it clearly in other people!

You said, "we must hold most firmly to the central doctrines of Christianity"--but I'll bet we would even have trouble agreeing in this forum what is central and what is tertiary.

Eve

2008-09-30 17:22 Permalink Reply

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Much of what is said here is so applicable to the political contest we are now engaged in. Especially what Winston Churchill said

2008-09-30 20:45 Permalink Reply

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Terry

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Glen Burnie, MD

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What arguments could you not win against? What changed your emotions again?

2008-09-30 23:02 Permalink Reply

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M. Lichlyter

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Colorado

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So true about emotions! PCA women will verify that, when you fall in love with a pair of shoes - the only pair of that style and color in the store - your mind may instruct you that those shoes are a half size too small, but your heart convinces you that somehow your feet will shrink. That's how a lovely, unwearable pair of shoes gets in your closet.

Salespeople know reason doesn't sell. It informs, but something else acts. Watch commercials or political ads with the sound turned off; then listen to them without watching them. Where's the
truth, the reason? I can't find it either.

Integrity is key. Where there are speakers, there will be rhetoric; listeners have baggage of their own to add to it. Thank God He made our minds and hearts and is Lord of both.

2008-09-30 23:19 Permalink Reply

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dexter o. malud

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digos city, philippines 8002

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I love to read this blessed truth, so often this had true to the churches around the globe. Thanks for touching this subject my prayer is that this truth will way for christians to evaluate the kind of practice we have. More power dear brothers in the faith.

Brother in the faith
Dexter O. Malud,
Phils. 8002

2008-10-01 02:31 Permalink Reply

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James Tollison

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Sumter, SC

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I remember when you were in South Carolina years ago, and I have traveled pretty much the same path. I went from independent Baptist to Reformed Baptist to Presbyterian--it did indeed take time, and you are right that the heart must make way for the mind if truth is to prevail.

2008-10-04 14:26 Permalink Reply

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John

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Raleigh, NC

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How true!

2008-10-07 11:07 Permalink Reply

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Martins Kapickis

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Riga, LV, E.U.

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That's why Apostle's Creed and Nicene Creed should remind us of core Bibilical doctrines all evengelicals (and even Catholics) hold to.

2008-10-12 09:24 Permalink Reply

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David

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Philippines

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So true! Just now I have finished reading a book on returning to the biblical roots of Christianity. Part of me wants to yield to what I believe is God's prompting to obey his word to the letter, while a part of me wants to take offense in the message of the author when there is nothing really in there meant to offend me.

In the end I guess we should just keep on going back to the word of God and let it renew our minds everyday.

2008-10-13 05:52 Permalink Reply

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Tom Brown

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Baltimore, MD

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A good read, thank you.

"Instead, we must hold most firmly to the central doctrines of Christianity and less firmly to doctrines where there is disagreement."

Is it true that central doctrines are those not in dispute, and those where there is disagreement are not central? And if so, what constitutes a dispute, and who determines whether one exists?

I think "central doctrines" are susceptible to emotion-clinging just as are all others. We "must hold most firmly" to what is true, whether it is central or not, or whether that which we left behind was central or not. Otherwise, narrow transitions from, say from the Reformed Baptist camp to the Reformed camp, or maybe LCMS to PCA would be the most we could expect to occur.

Peace in Christ,
Tom

2008-11-19 11:55 Permalink Reply

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