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Re: Error on the side of caution?
Sometimes I think that certain standards are more like a disguise imposed by a third party. The pastor or leaders can pass out a list of rules, and as long as everyone looks uniform, it appears that all the saints are on the right path. It's almost an ostrich mentality. When you teach principles and leave specifics up to individuals, you allow individual weaknesses to become obvious--which should be okay, because then you have a teaching opportunity.
Some pastors are more concerned with a uniform look so they can look good to their friends than they are actually strengthening each saint's relationship with God.
When I found myself in a church where I was no longer required to live by certain standards (meaning: no one was beating me over the head with them), I went through a period of time where I had to sort things out for myself. It demanded self-examination, Bible study and basically growing up. All Christians need to have that metamorphosis, that transition from milk to meat. Unfortunately, some saints will be bottle fed all their lives, all their decisions will be made for them, and they will never have to approach God independently or approach His Word with fresh eyes.
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"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
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