Questions OALCers Want to Ask But Can't (Volume Two)

Now for the second part of the big OALC question list from "My View." Please refer by number when commenting, and don't forget to include your name (or alias).

45. How are songs for the OALC hymnal chosen? Why did the OALC church take some songs out of the hymnal? Why don’t they add new songs? Are most songs are from the 1700’s?
46. How does the OALC trace its faith back to the Jesus and Apostles?
47. What was the early church hierarchy and how does it compare to today’s OALC church hierarchy?
48. Is the theology of Lars Levi Laestadius like that of the OALC today?
49. Did the OALC change the creed? When and why? Do they use this same creed (“descended into hell in Gethsemane”) in Sweden, Norway and Finland?
50. Why is the Lord’s Prayer worded differently in the OALC than in the Bible?
    

Questions OALCers Want to Ask But Can't (Volume One)

Thanks to "My View" for the following guest post, and to all of you for helping shed light on the mysteries of Laestadianism, American-style. Let's get some answers here!—Free

Even though most OALCers were born and raised in the church, we never paid much attention to its theology, policy, and traditions as we grew up. Some of us, when we get older, tend to take a closer look. It seems to be offensive to openly ask these questions withink the church, however, so we resort to posting them here, and hope to get them addressed.  

I speak not only for myself but for many others. Some of us have left the church, and some of us are sitting in the pews wondering why we are still here, while others are truly just wanting to clarify the teachings from the OALC so we can understand and answer these questions that the world will pose to us. It has been taught to tell the world to “come see,” but sometimes that’s not enough.

These are questions we have asked ourselves,  or that have been asked of us, that we didn’t have the answers to. Some may seem simple, but we really don’t want the easy, pat answers. We don’t want speech-making rhetorical answers either.  We want the truth. While some questions are obviously answerable by looking into the Bible, we ask them here to clarify the OALC stance. If the answer can’t be found in the Bible, we want a very clear answer and worthy purpose for it. "That’s how we’ve been taught” is not a satisfactory answer.  

Ask Those Questions, Sinners!

Readers, Hanna Pylvainen has graciously agreed to answer questions here on the blog about her book "We Sinners."

(Insert totally-worldly happy dance.)

So here's the deal. Email me your questions for Hanna, and I'll consolidate and forward the best, then post the Q&A here.

Her publisher is also offering a book give-away (details to follow).

— Free

The Truth Shall Make You Free

“The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.” —Proverbs 14:15

According to John 18:37-38, Jesus told Pilate that the reason he came into the world was to “bear witness unto the truth.” As the story goes, Pilate replied dismissively with the rhetorical question, “What is truth?” Such evasions aside, truth is simply this: the inescapable reality that is established by a certain framework of indisputable facts. Whether Pilate liked it or not–whether you or your preachers like it or not–there is such a thing as truth, and you cannot exempt yourself from its rules.

If the facts are inconsistent with a claim I am making, then that claim is not true. If the claim is not true, then it is false, and so is every other claim that depends on it. It’s really that simple.

“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead
know not any thing, neither have they any more a
reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”
—Eccl. 9:5

Buyer Beware

If I am trying to sell you a used car, it had better start when you turn the key. My statement that it “runs fine” will be proved false otherwise, and you will have little patience with my excuses. That spectacular failure of my claim to conform with the facts will make you inclined to distrust everything else I try to tell you about the car. There is no way for me to get around this problem. A protest that your “carnal understanding” cannot comprehend the qualities of the car would make me look just plain crazy. So would the assertion that it is only your “wrongful pride” that keeps you from truly considering the qualities of my non-functioning car. Your money would remain in your purse or back pocket, as you move slowly away.

“God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie” —2 Thess. 2:11

It is a testament to the power of religion in the human psyche that it can exempt itself from the evidentiary standards of even a used car salesman. The same question you would be a fool for not asking–Is it true?–in the one case is considered downright offensive in the other. When you give the analogy just a little space to play out, you quickly realize how sad the whole spectacle really is: The car does not only fail to start, but by any objective indication seems not to exist at all. The salesman cannot get his story straight about what kind of car it is, claims it is the only car you could ever possibly own, and threatens you with sadistic tortures if you decide not to buy it. And if you walk down the street, you will find hundreds of equally impassioned salespeople selling their own invisible cars, all claiming to have the only one that actually exists.

I Left the Laestadian Revival Movement . . .

I just found this essay online and am very eager to share it with you. It is by a Finnish woman from Ostrobothnia who left the Laestadian faith ten years ago. I hope she finds comfort and healing. I love her candor and sense a kindred spirit.

Here is an excerpt:

It was emphasised at services that it is not about rules, but rather the fact that a Laestadian wants to operate in a certain way. I recall how I preferred to speak about desires, rather than rules. I was pained to read newspaper articles about things that Laestadians “were not allowed to do”. The question was about what I wanted to do or to choose!
But whose desire was it really all about?
I was not asked what I wanted, or what I felt was important. For instance, the negative stance on birth control was taken in the late 1960s at a meeting of preachers, where only men were present.

I knew already at the age of 13 that I did not want to be the mother of a big family. It was not until I was over the age of 20 that I said out loud that I cannot stand the idea of a big family. My friends answered that “you can’t know in advance what it will be like”.
I was supposed to simply trust that God would give me exactly the right number of children, even if I did not use birth control.
I knew that my mind could not handle such an experiment. I simply did not want to become pregnant reluctantly. My thoughts did not find resonance, because they resounded with the voice of reason, not that of faith.

Some felt that faith is that people are encouraged to push their reason aside in big matters. For me rejecting reason would have been an abandonment of my own psyche.
I was not ready to bend at all in the birth control question, or to hide my opinions. The security of the Laestadian community began to turn into insecurity.