1/16/24 (2 minutes reading time) 

I was listening to the Andrew Klavan Show today. Andrew is a witty and entertaining bestselling novelist who hosts the Andrew Klavan Show podcst. His guest was Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. Pastor Wilson made a comment in favor of dogmatism that caused me to think that I should clarify my position on the topic. I use the slogan “Ditch the Dogma” on top of my blog site and have spoken against dogma in an earlier post. But, as I also mentioned in that post, I believe there is a certain amount of dogma that is necessary in a belief system.

In Christianity the Bible is the only thing about which I think it’s worth being doggedly dogmatic. I listened in on a university class lecture on the origins of Christianity. One of the things I found particularly interesting was how, as Christianity developed from a few scattered home churches in the beginning into the largest belief system in the world, the layers of organizational rules and regulations also began to pile up.

Ignatius Theophoros, known as Ignatius of Antioch, was a bishop in the growing Christian church during the first century. He is noted for the letters he wrote to the various Christian churches in Asia as he was being transported by soldiers to Rome for his execution. In these letters Ignatius used his influence as a bishop and soon to be martyr to induce the churches to follow a set of guidelines for the practices associated with conducting the services.

While I appreciate the need for regularization and organization in a growing body of believers, the level of granularity that Ignatius was proposing got to the point of dictating on which days a believer should fast. It is opined that this was due to the fact that the Jews fasted on certain days, and it would not be good optics for Christians, the opposing team, to be seen fasting on the same days as the Jews.

This is the type of religious dogma that I find distracting to the core purposes and practices of the Christian belief system. Too many pastors use the church to promote their personal agendas and biases. If one is to be dogmatic about doctrine, that is to say, unyielding about the total veracity of a particular point of doctrine, I would prefer that it be on a point that is directly relatable to a teaching from the Bible rather than some ancillary belief particular to a certain sect of Christianity or a pastor’s personal perspective.

There is also a social dogma associated with the running of an organization that is necessary. Rules like “don’t park on the neighbors’ lawn when you are attending church” and “no running with scissors” are appropriate and necessary to assure and organization is smooth, safe, and effective. However, when it comes to religious dogma, I believe it is extremely important to examine the source. If it is not a direct commandment from God and supported by biblical text, it may be something that should be open to questions.