The Pros And Cons Of Dissenting Christians

Inevitably, this makes Dissenting or Free Churches strongly supportive of societies which allow freedom to their citizens and value plurality, the differences between people. Because of their history, beliefs and in faithfulness to Christ, dissenting Christians resist attempts to impose beliefs and ideologies and are opposed to any discrimination against people on the basis of what they believe. Because of their own way of being and doing church - emphasising the ‘priesthood of all believers’, dissenting Christians tend to support political systems which encourage the participation of all in the political process and, within their social action work, oppose activities which they see as being immoral – such as arms trading and oppressive regimes

God’s people have always been tempted by idol worship, the same temptations, in different guises – such as celebrities, power, money etc. - are present today in our cultures and societies. These ‘idols’ have been exalted into objects of worship, gaining a control over people which only God should have (Stott, 2006, pp. 49 - 51). Dissenters maintain that our honour and praise must be reserved for the Lord. The practices and governance patterns of these churches, both historically and today, shows their insistence that only Christ is Lord and professes their refusal to go along with ‘the crowd’. Dissenting Free Churches believe and base their practice and worship on the fact that the church is called to show people a better way, a contrasting way of living which offers people and communities the opportunity to be

Before the Reformation, and even contemporarily in the Catholic Church – and even in some Anglican churches, the questioning of doctrine and practice is strongly discouraged. Siting Vatican II, Bruce Sabalaskey – A Staunch Catholic who campaigns for the upholding of Catholic practices across the Church - writes against the clearly still active Spirit of Dissent, saying that “…the Church has always taught that submission of one's will to the doctrine of the Church is necessary for salvation…” (Sabalaskey, 2000)
He writes that the Catholic Church teachings state clearly that Catholics must promulgate and defend doctrine, that obedience to said Church doctrine is required for salvation, and that the virtue of obedience, as opposed to the vice of dissent, is to be cherished. He even chastises the ‘Dissenters’ saying that the absence in the vocabulary of the dissenters is that very word obedience goes against the will of God and that Dissent is essentially rebellion or disobedience to the teachings of the Church, which are in reality Divine Truths revealed by God. In other words, listening to the Church is listening to