Religious nuts or devoted believers?

As the cartoon above finishes, “too bad he usually gets religious nuts.” All of us are very aware that religious nuts are much more prominent than fruitful believers. In fact, often it seems (and may very well be) that religious nuts number more than fruitful believers. For me, the problem has often been to differentiate the religious nut from the fruitful believer. After all, many of the behaviors of religious nut are identical to those of the fruitful believer. Both may fast, go to church more often than once a week, pray, read either Scripture or some devotional work, volunteer at their church, teach Sunday School, etc., etc. So, how do we differentiate the nut from the fruitful believer?

I think there may very well be several ways, but, I will warn you that none of them are definitive, per se. The first way to distinguish a fruitful Christian is the fruit that they produce in other people’s lives. It would appear to me that it would be easy for the religious nut to look fruitful in their personal life but difficult for them to produce fruit in other people’s lives. Thus, even when a religious nut leads a Bible Study or a Sunday School or even a home group, it appears that they people whom they manage to gather around them are not necessarily gentle, kind, and long-suffering, but may be somewhat judgmental. Also, both the religious nut and the people that they influence may very well call attention to how gentle, kind, long-suffering they are. That is, the fruitful believers that I have met do not tend to call any especial attention to themselves, but rather they seem to simply be what they are without the need for an advertising campaign.

I think a second way may be whether their presence tends to bring unity or disunity to a group. Now, this one is more difficult to ascertain, because Our Lord himself spoke of bringing a sword upon Israel. Nevertheless, the religious nut manages to bring controversy to a group even if everyone in that group theoretically believes the same way. For example, let’s say that the whole group is a theologically conservative group in which all agree on the basic tenets of their faith. Somehow, a religious nut tends to bring in a whiff of discord. Inevitably, a question of interpretation of some doctrine or other will crop up that will need long discussion, and careful consideration as to whether this fine point of doctrine needs to be a key point of doctrine. Next thing you know, a previously united group is divided in dissension, courtesy of the religious nut. Mind you, even a fruitful believer can end up having to insist on a point of doctrine. But, short of one of those times in Church history in which truth must be defined, the fruitful believer can help bring doctrinal resolution without dividing the body. An unbalanced insistence on doctrinal purity seems to be one of the marks of a religious nut. [Note: an unbalanced avoidance of doctrinal adherence seems to be the mark of a different problem, but that is another post.]

Both the fruitful believer and the religious nut will have a sense of their calling. Nevertheless, somehow it is easier to believe the call of the fruitful believer than it is of the religious nut. This is not as clear an indicator, as many a prophetic personality has been disdained by those who ought to be listening to them. But, at the risk of sounding like a 1960’s hippy, the religious nut gives off a different vibe when they proclaim their leadership. The problem, of course, is that false leadership is such a common tactic of the deceiver that true leadership is hard to identify when it shows up. Putting yourself forward for a leadership position is not bad, in and of itself. After all, a young man has to eventually go to his priest in order to announce that he has a calling to attend seminary and become a priest. I no longer adhere to the idea that, somehow, the congregation must seek you out to anoint you. That is an over-reaction to clericalism, and somewhat naïve.

A religious nut appears loving, but their true colors come out when they are thwarted, often issuing in either outward anger or other non-loving manifestation. A fruitful believer may occasionally be less than loving, but their true colors are a consistently loving personality. A religious nut is quite willing to share (for prayer, of course) the problems they see in other people. The fruitful believer may talk to the person with the problem, but will not share that with others. Moreover, the fruitful believer may not even directly talk to the other people about their problem, but will somehow be available to them at times of difficulty so that the other person can lean on them as needed.

You get the idea. I suspect that you can come up with other ways of distinguishing the religious nut from the fruitful believer.