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22 Jul, 7 tweets, 1 min read
Here’s a question I get sometimes:

When people who disagree with you say that you’re deceived, and quote a Bible verse that seems to back up their position, how do you know that you’re right and they’re wrong?
Two-part answer.

First, I don’t need to know I’m right to know that they’re wrong.

There are very few things I’m certain about. I’m sure I’m wrong about a lot. It doesn’t follow that the proof-texters and fundamentalists are right (it’s possible, e.g., that we’re both wrong).
Second, one of the few things I’m certain of is that truth is coherent—it has integrity; it can’t contradict itself.

And I know that God created human beings with brains that he intends for us to use: the light of reason.
For example, it brings me unspeakable joy to see my child’s sense of enchantment with the world around him and his drive to understand and articulate how it all fits together.
And I know that God takes infinitely more pleasure in my efforts to understand truth, because God’s the one who created me and invited me to interrogate the world around me.
It follows that God never intended for us to use fragments of Scripture as a substitute for rigorous inquiry; and he didn’t create us to fear what we might find if, in addition to Scripture, we use our intellect to search for truth.
So even if I’m wrong about any given thing, I know I’m closer to the truth than anyone who thinks his proof-texts give him license to abandon basic logic in favor of easy answers and spiritual manipulation.

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More from @scott_m_coley

Scott Coley Profile picture
12 Jun
It’s been suggested that those who promote “wokeness” or “woke theology” should be regarded as false teachers. This claim reflects a kind of theological illiteracy that needs to be exposed. I’ll start with a brief note about terminology, since it’s a source of much mischief.
Critics of “wokeness” often identify concerns about systemic injustice with Critical Race Theory (CRT). But you needn’t endorse CRT—or care anything about CRT, really—in order to be concerned about systemic justice. #WG2021TX
CRT is just one among many academic disciplines that deal with questions about systemic justice; and it is hardly the first or the most important. Roughly 2500 years before the inception of CRT, Plato discusses systemic justice in his ‘Republic’ and ‘Laws’.
Read 20 tweets
Scott Coley Profile picture
12 Jun
No good is served when ambitious theologians speak with unearned confidence about technical matters that they haven’t studied in any disciplined way; and it is harmful when they then attempt to shoehorn their views into Scripture and present their convictions as the Word of God.
If these men want to give lectures on political philosophy, I suggest they host a dinner party for likeminded friends. Or perhaps they might start a book club. These are fora in which it is appropriate for amateurs to discuss their passions.
It is unbecoming of an academic to hold himself out as an expert on subjects that are far afield from his training. Beyond that, it is toxic for theologians in particular to hide extra-Biblical agendas in their presentation of Scripture. #WG2021TX
Read 4 tweets
Scott Coley Profile picture
12 Jun
There’s a lot of overlap among evangelicals who dismiss social justice (or “wokeness”) as Marxist, those who embrace patriarchy, and those whose theology borrows heavily from the thinking of men who claim biblical support for chattel slavery and segregation. #WG2021TX
The overlap isn’t coincidental: all of these commitments flow from an authoritarian outlook that organizes people into a divinely ordained hierarchy, based largely on innate physical characteristics, and conceives of morality as a matter of obedience to one’s natural superiors.
They all hold that God has designed some people to exercise authority, and God has designed others to practice submission to authority. Moral order is achieved when we inhabit our God-ordained place in the hierarchy; and apart from that hierarchy, there is no morality. #WG2021TX
Read 22 tweets
Scott Coley Profile picture
29 May
It’s been suggested that those who promote “wokeness” or “woke theology” should be regarded as false teachers. This claim reflects a kind of theological illiteracy that needs to be exposed. I’ll start with a brief note about terminology, since it’s a source of much mischief.
Critics of “wokeness” often identify concerns about systemic injustice with Critical Race Theory (CRT). But you needn’t endorse CRT—or care anything about CRT, really—in order to be concerned about systemic justice.
CRT is just one among many academic disciplines that deal with questions about systemic justice; and it is hardly the first or the most important. Roughly 2500 years before the inception of CRT, Plato discusses systemic justice in his ‘Republic’ and ‘Laws’.
Read 20 tweets
Scott Coley Profile picture
29 May
Recent discussion of critical race theory (CRT) in conservative evangelical circles has become a distraction from substantive issues of real concern—a chimaera, invoked by culture warriors in a transparent effort to preempt serious conversations about systemic racism.
In point of fact, the concept of systemic racism is used across a number of disciplines to describe a variety of different phenomena. Two general fields of application stand out. One has to do with psychology—racist attitudes and so forth. The other has to do with institutions.
Yet some politically conservative evangelicals talk as though the concept of systemic racism owes its existence to CRT; and they define CRT strictly in terms of theorizing about racist attitudes.
Read 13 tweets
Scott Coley Profile picture
28 May
Once we’ve embraced premise that God designed some people for dominion and others for submission, the line between gender-based subjugation and race-based subjugation is morally arbitrary.
The patriarchist might tell himself that he has Scripture to support his position while the racist does not.

But the racist can match the patriarchist for biblical proof-texts, in both quantity and purported clarity.
Whether it’s organized by race, gender or what have you, authoritarian theologians baptize their preferred social hierarchy in biblical proof-texts that they alone have the authority to interpret and deem sufficiently clear to bind the consciences of all believers.
Read 4 tweets

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