The Questioning Church

That's a term that pops out of "The Acid Reflux of the Questioning Church," a post at the magazine/blog The Catholic Thing. The author was lamenting the habit of some internal Catholic dissenters of making every event or development an occasion to complain. Sound familiar?

Here's how he introduces members of the Questioning Church.

... the Ever-Questioning Church. I hesitate to call them the Left because that is a political category, and I don’t want to call them heterodox, though many of them are. Let’s give them benefit of the doubt. For the Questioning Church, there are no settled questions. Everything is up for endless and oh-so-thoughtful debate.

Obviously, the Catholic incarnation of the Questioning Church is much more entrenched institutionally than the Mormon version. The Mormon Questioning Church nevertheless embraces the idea that "there are no settled questions" and manages to engage in the same sort of "endless and oh-so-thoughtful debate." I'm not sure there's a Protestant version of the Questioning Church. I think there's a different dynamic to dissent on the Protestant side of the wide divide.

Comments

[chanson]

The question of "stay in the church and try to change what you see as wrong" vs. "just nod your head and obey" vs. "just leave the church" is a complex and interesting one. In the case of that article, however, it's hard to get past the irony of his writing such a bitter rant about how "angry" his enemies are...

[Dave]

Salut, Chanson. I liked the article because it shows that it is not just the Mormons who deal with a broad range of opinion within the Church. I do agree that those with many doubts often face troubling choices. But I don't encourage such people to define themselves by those doubts. So I probably shouldn't talk about "doubters" or "dissenters," but rather as people with doubts.

[Manuel]

I am one of those "questioning" doubters that indeed thinks some (not all but some) questions are most definitely unsettled, ignored, or people who should take responsibility for them prefer to comfortably turn their blind eye in an awkward act of denial. But I disagree that the "Mormon Questioning Church" embraces the idea that "there are no settled questions." This is probably a bit of an umbrella generalization.

This is a double whammy for me because I am a convert from LDS to Catholicism. Catholicism to me was repressive and asphyxiating. In my opinion and experience, there is little room for people to truly reap any progress in the doctrinal/spiritual. Things are what they are and that's it. Back in the days when I discovered Mormonism, I would have never thought I would find parallels of Catholic repression within Mormon thought, but here it is.

Historically, the Catholic Church has been one very repressive organization. Inflexible, unbending. Or have they? Yes, in their pride they have, but not really in practice, they first defame and scorn the "questioning doubters" only to adopt their views decades or centuries later. This is why Luther should be happy there are no more payments for indulgences in the Catholic Church today. Similar phenomenons can be seen in Mormon history, and this isn't a compliment nor something to be proud of.

To me, Mormonism provided an amazing new window with an amazing view of horizons and possibilities for spiritual development, which in my opinion comes in great part from questioning. In fact, this is how the church was restored. Joseph dared to question the religious traditions of his upbringing and his surroundings. The result of his questioning, repression of course. And when he dare to say others were wrong, actual persecution (per his own claims).

I understand being questioned is not easy. It would be more comfortable if people considered us perfect. It is easy for an organization to be tempted to silence those who question it. It is easier to never come out with answers. It is easier to worry about the organization's "reputation" more than the spiritual progress and well being of those with questions.

This post is most ironic to me. A Mormon bringing passive glitches of Catholic's system of silencing and repression and applying it to the LDS setting (which came about as a fruit of questioning). I find it disappointing when Mormons begin to adopt Catholic attitudes.

Catholics though, have accepted in many occasions their poor judgment and apologized for it. Mormons on the other hand seem to be much more reluctant to do so (IMO). Perhaps is this ability to admit they have been wrong is what they need to emulate from Catholics and not their silencing tactics?

But then again, that would be a matter of "endless and oh-so-thoughtful debate." And we wouldn't want that.

[Sabio Lantz]

I was heartened to hear such questioning. Even in our Atheist circles questioning can be frowned on. Humans are funny, no matter what belief they clothe themselves in.