This is exactly the kind of thinking that I had to deconstruct in order to progress my career above a minimum wage.
Jesus’s command to become like little children is NOT an anti-intellectual manifesto. To portray it as if it were is to take it right out of context and miss the point that He was actually making. Here are the relevant verses—Matthew 18:1-5:
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
Jesus’s command to become like little children was in response to a specific question that His disciples were constantly bickering about: “Who is the greatest?” His point about little children was to tell them to stop thinking in terms of jockeying for power and position. Children are anything but in charge. They are accountable to everyone and responsible for no-one. They have rules and restrictions that adults don’t. They lack rights that adults enjoy. They have to go to bed early. They are not allowed to drive or to vote. They have to go to school. All in all, they are Just Another Brick In The Wall.
Describing intellect as “often detrimental to faith” is to turn faith into the glorification of gullibility and wilful ignorance. The Bible tells us that we are to move beyond childish thinking and on to a mature faith, informed and tempered by wisdom (e.g. Hebrews 6:1-3). We are also told elsewhere (e.g. 1 John 4:1) not to believe every spirit, but to test the spirits to see which are from God. Pastors and Bible teachers should be teaching us to exercise faith and intellect together in ways that complement each other and build each other up, not to view them as some sort of dichotomy where you can only have one but not the other.