I'm a Heretic, You're a Heretic

I first heard the story of John Calvin and Michael Servetus from a kindly Church History professor. Calvin was a towering figure in the Protestant Reformation, rejecting Catholicism to form his own strain of Christianity in Geneva. Servetus was a fellow reformer who made the mistake of disagreeing with Calvin on the doctrine of the Trinity. Long story short, he was denounced as a heretic and burned at the stake outside Geneva.

As Hurley on Lost would say, "That’s not cool, dude." It’s even less cool when you consider the following progression:

• The monotheistic Jewish faith was a major innovation in a world of polytheists. One God? That was heresy back in the day.
• Fast-forward a few thousand years, and along comes Jesus and Christianity—viewed by Jewish leaders as (guess what) heresy.
• Catholicism is the dominant form of Christianity for another 1,500 years until Luther, Calvin, and the boys arrive. They are viewed by Catholics as (all together now) heretics.
• The various branches of Protestantism find adherents, label each other as (once more with feeling) heretics, and start forming more and more branches.

So today’s evangelicals stand in a long line of religious innovation, and each new stream of thought was denounced by the group it emerged from. When you think about it like that, we’re all heretics. And that really takes the pressure off.