I was 14 years old when I was confirmed into full membership in the church. That fall, I participated as a visitor in our congregation’s annual stewardship drive. We went out in pairs and called upon members of the church, sharing information about the church and its budget and inviting them to pledge their support of the congregation. I had already been pledging and giving a portion of my discretionary money to the church in addition to my family’s pledge, which was determined by my parents. One of the visits we made was to an elderly widow. It didn’t take us very long to make our pitch. She was well aware of the church, its budget, and probably had been supporting the church for many more years than I had been alive. She, however, wanted to talk about other things. The meeting soon became a process of her interviewing me and not the other way around.

She asked me what I thought of the space program. I was an active and avid follower of US space exploration. I had written letters to several of the original 7 astronauts. I had a picture of the seven and an autographed picture of Wally Schirra on the wall in my bedroom. My parents were pilots and I aspired to become a pilot as well. I had to wait until I turned 16 to be able to fly solo, but I was already taking lessons and flying the airplane with my father who was an instructor pilot. I shared my excitement and enthusiasm with the woman. She pressed me, and asked if I wasn’t worried that shooting those rockets into the sky might penetrate heaven and anger God.

I can’t remember how I answered her. I know I didn’t have anything clever to say. I was completely shocked at her concept that heaven was a place that might be somehow harmed or destroyed by rockets. I didn’t think of heaven like that at all. I didn’t see scientific exploration as any kind of a threat to faith. I was surprised that there was someone who was a member of our church - a woman I had known all of my life - who had such a view of the nature of the universe.

She was not alone in her understanding of the universe. There were many people of faith, including some of the authors of parts of the bible who viewed a three-tiered universe with heaven on top, earth in the middle, and hell below. They lived before there was an understanding that the earth is a sphere. They didn’t have information about the movement of the planets or the nature of the universe beyond our planet. They had no concept of the size of the universe. Some of the ideas and images of the ancients have persisted. Some people read the bible today and take parts of it literally. They believe that the seven days of creation in the first chapter of the book of genesis are measured the same way as we measure time. Their view of the length of time and the size of the universe is limited by their interpretation of a few words of scripture.

It took me a lot longer, however, to be able to accept the faith of those who view the universe differently than I as genuine. My encounters with fundamentalists in college led me to believe that they had bad faith, when in reality they simply had bad theology, a much different thing. After four years of college and four years of graduate theological education, I had a fairly complex theology of my own. I also was much better versed in the bible and in biblical interpretation. As I aged and my faith matured, I became more accepting of people who had different beliefs than my own. I have now come to the understanding that faith is not a matter of having the right beliefs. We can argue about theology, and I’m prepared to do so for hours, but the organization of our thoughts about God, the nature of the universe, the role of humans, the development of community and church, and other topics are only a small part of Christian practice.

Recently I heard the report of one of the members of our congregation asking another minister of our church about having a minister of another denomination lead a worship service at our church. The minister of our church hesitated and said something about needing to “check out” the other minister to make sure that their theology was consistent with that of the United Church of Christ. I didn’t say much when I received this report, but I smiled inwardly. The minister who wanted to check for theological consistency is a young pastor and will gain experience, and hopefully a bit of grace, as time passes. I remember the dilemma myself. The request came most often in relationship to weddings. “Pastor we want to have our daughter’s wedding at our church, but she wants to have her friend, who is a minister at another church officiate.” I have helped congregations develop policies that attempt to give the congregation control over who is allowed to lead worship in their building. I have also co-officiated with pastors of other denominations who have said outrageous things at weddings, who have implied beliefs with which I disagree, and whose interpretation of the bible is based in ignorance that borders on disrespect of scripture. More than once I’ve had to bite my tongue to keep from expressing my outrage. So I understand the desire of the minister of our church to avoid having someone spouting bad theology and uninformed biblical interpretation.

But the diversity of belief and interpretation is already present in our church. There are already members of our congregation whose beliefs are more fundamentalist than mine. There are others whose beliefs border on something I wouldn’t call Christianity. Our community is not held together by agreement about beliefs. Salvation does not come from having the correct theology.

It turns out that heaven safe from rockets and God has nothing to fear from scientific exploration. It also turns out that we don’t need to protect the members of our church from occasionally hearing words from those with whom we disagree. It took me a while to learn that lesson, and I need to have patience with others who have yet to learn it.