Rachel Held Evans says it’s not always bad to be a stumbling block, depending on which ideas you trip up and where you cause people to land.
The truth is, there are some beliefs that I think Christians should doubt.
…I think they should doubt the notion that God belongs to a certain political party. I think they should doubt Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins. I think they should doubt restricting the roles of women in church leadership. I think they should doubt the wealth, health, and prosperity “gospel.” I think they should doubt religious nationalism. I think they should doubt the idea that Jesus is simply a personal savior and that being a Christian is about being right.
If challenging my fellow Christ-followers to think more critically about these issues makes me a stumbling block in the path of bad ideas, then I accept that role.
And she offers these thoughts to help us calibrate exactly how big of a stumbling block to be:
In my desire to challenge what I believe are false fundamentals, I must be careful of creating false fundamentals of my own. I’ve got to be wary of growing so big and obtrusive and unyielding that those who fall over me have no safe place to land.