Tolerance is a wonderful virtue. Diversity and inclusiveness are good values. None of us has a corner on the whole truth. But good values can be twisted and mis-used. G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Tolerance is the mood of those who do not believe anything anymore”. When does tolerance become an excuse for lack of moral courage? When does it degenerate into “indifference?” There is such a thing as “intolerable tolerance.” Leslie Newbigin wrote, “The relativism which is not willing to speak of truth but only ‘what is true for me’ is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture. It is the preliminary symptom of death.”
This is the Assembly that took a position on sexual standards for Christians far different from the historical, orthodox position of the church for some 2000 years. They went against Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Barth, and C.S. Lewis who all saw homosexuality as a departure from God’s original intention for humankind. But this is 2008 – the 218th GA had a better idea than those old fuddy duddies. I wonder what inconvenient sins this GA would have tried to expunge from the Book of Confessions, if it had only had more time.
The terrible irony is that these decisions were made by the supposed theological descendants of John Calvin – and some call these decisions “prophetic.” Does anyone really believe Amos would have voted for this stuff? Has anyone actually read Calvin on homosexuality or what he thought about the over-dressed effeminate men of his day?
I think Oprah would have loved this Assembly! Instead of the “Book of the Month Club”, maybe we could be “Denomination of the Month.” She could tell how we now want to celebrate Ramadan with our Muslim friends, how a marriage service was carried out on site for two homosexuals, how we want to ordain to office self-affirming, practicing gays and lesbians. Oprah’s audience will love us! They will smile and applaud and probably break out into a verse of “Kum Bah Yah.” But I’m afraid Calvin has rolled over in his grave. That flaming, zealous heart of Calvin depicted on his personal seal, a heart which he gave to the Lord “promptly and sincerely”, has surely now been broken.
Dr. Rusty Douglas
Greenwood, MS
