Here's an interesting Michael Spencer post that his disciples at IMonk reposted this week. My title might be a bit flip, but Spencer was looking at the problems of toeing a theological party line as an evangelical. His main focus was on creation issues (you're not going far in life sciences as a young-earth creationist and not going far in church circles as a old-earther or IDer), but the same can be true about any number of theological issues. Southern Baptists can get fired for being too Pentecostal or too Calvinist (if you're not in a neo-Reformed hotbed, in which case being too Arminian can get you the left foot of disfellowship) or too liberal; I'm reminded of the Kentucky Baptist regional body who rejected one prospective member church for being too Reformed and another church for being gay-friendly.
However, most of us don't have to worry about that too much unless we have careers that are theologically/ideologically sensitive. When I taught finance, I taught at church schools that weren't that picky about theological fine points as long as the Gospel was respected amid the internal rate of return math and at for-profit schools that didn't mind the occasional church reference amid good finance teaching. Even when I did my doctoral work at a state school, I could throw in a theological reference now and then; it didn't hurt that bringing the Gospel into finance leaned it to the left a bit, making things a bit less greedy and a bit more communitarian.
Thus, we're freer from having to worry about a theological party line if our jobs don't depend on it. Pastors may have little leeway in questioning their denominational distinctives or apprecating the distinctives of other flavors of the church, but mere churchgoers have much more freedom of thought as long as they aren't making an active stink about an issue. If our job isn't in some secular hotbed where orthodox Christian thought is unwelcome, we have freedom to be ourselves and let the theological chips fall where they may.
That lets us be freer to go where God leads, without having any third rails to get zapped upon.
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