Teach for understanding’s sake
April 4, 2006
As a sometimes struggling adult Bible study leader, I generally agree with what Bill Tammeus writes from Kansas City.
Kansas City Star | 04/01/2006 | Teach for understanding’s sake
Authority in our culture has lost much of its appeal and credibility. If either of these teachers had presumed simply to announce what we, as Presbyterians, are obliged to believe about these subjects, the reception would have been — how to say this? — chilly.
We Presbyterians don’t do anger too well, but we can be top cabin at chilly. We’re not called the “Frozen Chosen” for nothing.
It is certainly not wise for a teacher in church to push what “we Presbyterians are obliged to believe,” but doctrine is important. The martyrs thought it more important than their lives, and they were no dummies.
The search for truth always involves hard questions, but at the end of the day the discussion leader has the obligation to stand forthrightly for truth as it is revealed in the Bible and to say why he or she so believes. Ultimately, the Holy Spirit is the Convincer, but the leader should beware of grieving the Spirit by shoddy preparation and fuzzy thinking.
Dave, getting a little nervous about teaching from the Bible.
The rebirth of outrage
April 1, 2006
Lexington | The rebirth of outrage | Economist.com
Worse, many partisans don’t accept the legitimacy of their opponents. Plenty of conservatives don’t just dislike liberals; they don’t regard them as real Americans. (“I never use the words Democrats and Republicans,” James Watt, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of the interior, once said. “It’s liberals and Americans.”) Many liberals don’t just dislike conservatives; they regard them as sexists, bigots and cheats (that 2000 election), not to mention liars and torturers.
What can I say but that this is, well…outrageous! Whatever happened to civility in public discourse? What is happening to us? The urge to denigrate has even spilled over into the church, with the political tags of “fundamentalist,” “evangelical,” “progressive,” and “liberal” taking on all sorts of nasty undertones that are very unbecoming of followers of Jesus Christ.
Before continuing this off-the-top-of-my-head rant (I should know better), I will make it clear that I am not advocating unthinking tolerance of all views or peace-at-any-price. The Bible teaches that we need to discern between what is essential and what is not. We need to know how to draw the line between truth and falsity without nastiness and resorting to character assassination, a skill that seems particularly rare nowadays within the church.
My personal models for such civility are the Lincoln-Douglas debates, some of which were held right here in Quincy, Illinois. They prove that argumentative, even hot and angry, words can be effectively fired away within the boundaries of mutual respect.
Dave, firing away every now and then.
Anti-semitism
March 28, 2006
Thanks to daughter Linda for pointing me to this interesting article. My education about things Presbyterian continues.
With the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA scheduled to convene in June for the first time since the 2004 GA passed a notorious anti-Israel divestment resolution, supporters and detractors of divestment are discussing whether the Church’s decision was anti-Semitic, or – somehow - anti-Israel without being anti-Semitic. Curiously, despite the storm caused by the divestment vote, most Presbyterians remain unaware of the extent to which the PCUSA leadership has involved itself in old-fashioned theological anti-Semitism.
The anti-Semitic alliances undertaken by the national church are particularly surprising in light of the well-known open-minded and unbiased attitudes of the overwhelming majority of Presbyterians.
Few of us sitting in Presbyterian pews are able to figure out what the anti-Israel divestment issue is all about. It helps to know something about “old-fashioned theological anti-seminism, and we all need to be aware of the misguided activism of some of our denominational leaders and that the PCUSA formally rejected Replacement Theology in 1987.
Dave, head-scratching pew-sitter.
Who’s really running the church?
March 20, 2006
Christians believe that the church was ordained by God and represents the presence and influence of Jesus Christ on earth. The casual observer may be excused for looking askance at that assertion. Christians also believe that the church members are not exempt from human failings, an attribute commonly ascribed to the influence of the Devil.
How the Devil Wants to Run Our Churches - byFaith Online
If Jesus is Lord, then He runs the church. The trouble is, though, that Satan is always grabbing at the controls. What is the devil trying to do?
My concept of a Devil is strongly influenced by what C.S. Lewis wrote in his delightful little book, The Screwtape Letters. It’s all so believable to anyone hanging around churches.
Bounds begins by asking this question: What is the truest measure of a church’s strength? His answer is, “True strength lies in the vital godliness of the people. The aggregate personal holiness of the members of each church is the only true measure of strength. Any other test offends God, dishonors Christ, grieves the Holy Spirit, and degrades religion.” To put it another way, the strength of any church is the work of the Spirit in conforming its members to the life of Christ.
The going gets pretty heavy here. The quest for personal holiness gets bad press, even from within the church, but I think my Free Methodist friends are on to something important here. Anyway, the article and the attendant Holiness Manifesto should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in the church.
Dave, pursuing holiness but never quite catching it.
The Power is Yours
March 3, 2006
I’ve added Gruntled Center to my blogroll. Here we have a sociologist and Presbyterian elder who sees himself as a centrist in the church, whatever that is. His daughter wrote a series of articles on meliorism (I learned a new word today) that seems to reveal the man-centered religion that is so pervasive in the church today. To read all three of her well-written articles, go to the blogroll link for Gruntled Center, and scroll down.
Gruntled Center: The Power is Yours (1 of 3)
Meliorism rejects the idea that the world is either inevitably slipping down the drain or on a perpetual upswing. Instead, it offers up the idea that, through our action, we can make the world a better place. It is time for us to embrace a melioristic outlook on the world.
Quiz time: Does historic Christianity embrace meliorism? If not, what does it offer in its place?
Dave, Calvinist to the core.
Doing church
February 28, 2006
One phrase of church-speak that really irritates me is talk of “doing church.” I’ve never thought too much about why it does until I read the following on the Kruse Kronicle:
Kruse Kronicle: Toward an Evangelical Public Policy: Chapter 3
So, if I may be forgiven from cribbing a quote from a quote from a book review, which practically guarantees losing its original context, here is what author Paul DeVries says about Presbyterians, compared to Lutherans.
While Lutherans believe that we should obey the Lord in our daily occupations, Calvinists believe that we should seek to obey God through our daily occupations, because we cannot blindly assume that our occupations actually serve the common good.
This neatly captures one of the reasons why I am a card-carrying Calvinist. I see a clear distinction between what we churchgoers do and who we really are (or should be). I, for one, don’t want to be known as a do-gooder. Maybe some day I will try to elaborate on that thought, after I calm down.
Dave, mostly irritated with himself.
Presbyterian Church USA’s Friends
February 7, 2006
Presbyterians struggle to know their own mind about modern day Palestine and Israel. The Zionists among us are intrigued by the idea that today’s Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy about events preceding the return of Christ. They tend to exalt Israel and demonize the Palestinians. Others, myself included, consider present day Palestinians, especially Palestinian Christians, as largely oppressed by an Israeli occupation of their land. I admit that my views are colored by a study pilgrimage that I made to Israel in 1997, where I met a family of Palestinian Christians and heard from their lips the difficulties of life under the Israeli government.
Israpundit.com portrays the present situation as war between Palestinian terrorists and all of Christiandom.
Israpundit: Presbyterian Church USA’s Friends
Now let’s take a look at what PCUSA’s good friends in Hezbollah are planning to do in Norway and Denmark. Per “The War is On” From the desk of Hjörtur Gudmundsson on Fri, 2006-02-03 01:54
Yesterday (Thursday) Mullah Krekar, the alleged leader of the Islamist group Ansar al-Islam who has been living in Norway as a refugee since 1991, said that the publication of the Muhammad cartoons was a declaration of war. “The war has begun,” he told Norwegian journalists. Mr Krekar said Muslims in Norway are preparing to fight. “It does not matter if the governments of Norway and Denmark apologize, the war is on.”
Islamist organizations all over the world are issuing threats towards Europeans. The Islamist terrorist group Hizbollah announced that it is preparing suicide attacks in Denmark and Norway. A senior imam in Kuwait, Nazem al-Masbah, said that those who have published cartoons of Muhammad should be murdered. He also threatened all citizens of the countries where the twelve Danish cartoons [see them all here, halfway down the page] have been published with death.
Note also that Hezbollah is a Foreign Terrorist Organization as defined by the U.S. State Department and that it is guilty of murdering 241 United States Marines with a truck bomb. The Presbyterian Church USA has consorted with this terrorist organization on more than one occasion.
The Presbyterian Church USA is aiding and abetting Palestinian terrorism by agitating for divestment from Israel.
The position of the PCUSA is not as unambiguous as that last sentence implies. The national leadership of the church has an unsavory anti-U.S. flavor to it in many respects, and that leads them to make naive and uninformed public statements that do not necessarily reflect the majority view of PCUSA membership.
Dave, remembering his Palestinian Christian friends so far away.
Presbyterian - new category
February 5, 2006
I am an elder and clerk of session in my church, First presbyterian, Quincy, Illinois. I find myself more and more taken up with church affairs and figure it’s time I start talking about it more on the Orlop. I have added the subcategory “Presbyterian” under “Bible and Religion.”
My denomination is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and like all mainline (some now call us oldline) denominations, PCUSA finds itself caught in many cultural cross-currents and has been declining in membership and influence for a long time. Our church has been active in various renewal groups that are dedicated to helping the PCUSA clean up its act theologically and be more effective in what some are calling the post-denominational age.
Dave, which a little renewal wouldn’t hurt him, either.
