Are the Preachers Christian?

What would happen if you asked your minister about the basic tenets of the Faith?

You may be shocked to find that he (she?) doesn't believe what you think he should! I was reminded of this recently while reading up on Martin Luther King, Jr. One article was written by a black Baptist conservative woman who was shocked speechless when she started reading King's actual words about Jesus and miracles. King was a theological liberal, just like many ministers, who was too sophisticated and intellectual to believe that the miracles of the Virgin Birth, Deity of Christ, and Resurrection were actually literal! He had plenty of emphasis on social justice but not so much on whether the supernatural is legitimate and whether that matters after this world is gone. A survey of his speeches and papers is pretty damning, such as the January 3, 1964 TIME magazine man of the year article:

(King speaking) "I had doubts that religion was intellectually respectable." At Morehouse, King searched for "some intellectual basis for a social philosophy." He read and reread Thoreau's essay, "Civil Disobedience," concluded that the ministry was the only framework in which he could properly position his growing ideas on social protest. At Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa., King built the underpinnings of his philosophy. Hegel and Kant impressed him, but a lecture on Gandhi transported him, sent him foraging insatiably into Gandhi's books. "From my
background," he says, "I gained my regulating Christian ideals. From Gandhi I learned my operational technique."

Immanuel Kant impressed him?! Good grief. Really, this didn't surprise me. I regularly have to wade through books, journals, websites, and entire universities full of theologians that don't believe the Bible at face value. They're too smart for any of this superstitious stuff and instead delve into all kinds of convoluted conspiracy theories to explain away the Bible.

*cough* Da Vinci Code *cough*

There are precious few institutions that still train ministers to believe in a supernatural (as opposed to naturalistic) view of scripture. This trend started in Europe a few centuries ago and has been popular in Universities here for over a century. I no longer expect most ministers I meet to be what I would call a believer in Jesus Christ, but rather more of a fan of Jesus of Nazareth's philosophy.

My only real question is why? Why be a minister at all if you don't really believe? Why not just be a social worker or join the Peace Corps? Why? As near as I can tell, the ministry is not lucrative and can be incredibly draining. But I feel compelled by God and called to this ministry. My confidence in the supernatural is all that keeps me going sometimes and if you took that away, I'm not sure that I'd see the point to all of this.

So what are these guys up to? Why don't they do something else? How do they carry on in light of the compromises they've made? It makes me suspicious of ulterior motives.