So what's really gone on since the last General Assembly? What is the state of the PC(USA) today?
If ever there were an uncertain sound, yet a cacophony of competing interpretations, it is today. Some reassure while others remonstrate. Some warn of impending disasters, while many are enjoying sunny skies. Some fear we'll drop off the right edge of the planet. Others worry that we're falling off the left edge. How's a person to know?
This edition of the Outlook has been prepared to provide accurate and insightful reporting so informed leaders can really lead the church well in this season between the 2006 Birmingham General Assembly and the 2008 San Jose GA.
So where are we now?
A sea change has been reshaping our national office. The restructure of the General Assembly Council and the election of Linda Valentine as GAC executive director have drawn an influx of fresh eyes and voices into the mission agencies of the church (read article). A new vigor is flowing through those ministries.
"The Trinity: God's Love Overflowing," a report received by the 217th General Assembly, has sparked considerable discussion. I find this encouraging. When a church is eager to engage in vigorous conversation about a core Christian doctrine, it signals to all its members: theology really does matter.
The primary aim of this report is to help our church renew its faith in the triune God by "reclaiming the doctrine of the Trinity in theology, worship, and life" (66-67). Trinitarian doctrine contains good and joyful news. It identifies the God of the gospel as "the triune God who in loving freedom seeks and saves us, reconciles and renews us, and draw us into loving relationships that reflect the eternal oneness of God" (79-80). Far from offering either a novel or an exhaustive exposition of Trinitarian doctrine, the report focuses on the good news that this doctrine enshrines and, most decidedly, on its practical significance.
The Rev. Cliff Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Jack Haberer recently met to discuss "some of the pressing issues" facing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). During their hour-long conversation, Kirkpatrick stated, "Some of the conflict we've had -- I know it's not the only issue -- things like [concerns about] the Trinity paper are really based on a misunderstanding of what the General Assembly did. So we're seeking to reach out that way." (The Presbyterian Outlook issue of 4/9/07. Cf also issues 4/16/07 and 4/30/07).
If these concerns truly are the result of simple misunderstanding, then clarifying the issue should be an effortless task and easily dismissed. However, the 217th General Assembly, while receiving, "The Trinity: God's Love Overflowing" without approving it, commended it to the church for study and use in worship. Additionally, the Rev. Charles Wiley of the Office of Theology and Worship has admitted that the triad "Mother, Child, and Womb" fails the paper's own criteria and is gravely flawed in two respects. (Letters, The Laymen Online 2/14/2007). First, as he explains, it has a weak scriptural foundation. Secondly, mixing the two "personal" images, mother and child, with the "functional" womb is fatal to good Trinitarian theology.
Ottati. Falwell. The twain did meet -- so to speak -- in their departing.
How strange to be honoring Doug Ottati upon his departure from Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education to head to Davidson College as other Virginians were bidding farewell to Jerry Falwell on his journey to the Promised Land. In the minds of its alums, Davidson does resemble the heavenly estate, but that's beside the point.
A symposium honoring the legacy of an icon of liberal theology seemed oddly juxtaposed to the reactions to Falwell's unexpected death, with countless supporters and critics reminiscing or railing over the legacy of an icon of religious conservatism.
Presbyterians give Falwell mixed marks. Some appreciated his strong stands on conservative values. Many shuddered over what they saw as narrow-minded, reactionary fundamentalism. We could fill a few months' magazines with commentaries on those mixed reactions. Little would be gained for such efforts.
The immigration problem in America is puzzling. As many voices are saying ...
The movement of illegal immigrants across our borders threatens the job market for American citizens. Labor unions cry foul. Trained farm workers can't compete for jobs against folks willing to be compensated below the minimum wage--and without benefits or taxes.
But that's not the point.
The movement of illegal immigrants across our borders raises the specter of hoodlums, drug dealers, and terrorists destroying our peace. True, so far, no terrorists have been interdicted on the Mexican border, but the drug trafficking alone is destructive. Plus, if we should let down our guard, terrorist organizations surely will take advantage.
But that's not the point.
What a boost my ministry gained through the D.Min. program I took two decades ago. The lectures were superior, the reading deep, and the discussions insightful.
One of the most valuable and lasting lessons came in the opening orientation.
That academic program, offered jointly by Columbia Theological Seminary and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, would hold us students to certain standards of performance, we were told. No surprise there. However, I bristled when we heard that one of those standards was the demand that we use inclusive language in all our written work. "You will be marked down if your choices of pronouns are gender exclusive," we heard. I wanted to react, but the professor's explanation was winsome. "It's basically about loving your neighbors as yourself," he said.
As a white male who had enjoyed many status advantages, my conscience couldn't argue his point.
Why preach?
Among all the different methods available for teaching, the lecture format may be the least effective. Brainstorming, research-and-report, experimentation-and-analysis, and other pedagogical methods promote more vivid impact than only the spoken word.
Among the different media available for communicating, the hotter media of television, movies, and the Web all provide multi-sensory data that instruct via the multiple intelligences, thereby increasing students' retention tenfold, twentyfold or better, over simply listening to a leader's monologue.
Anger is to humanity what nuclear energy is to electricity. Powerful and creative. Volatile and dangerous.
God created anger, and for good reason. Anger stirs social workers to rescue abused children from violent parents. Anger provokes prophets to expose exploiting power brokers. Anger compels the courageous to break chains of injustice. Anger confronts religious hypocrites and drives moneychangers out of temples.
Then again, evil hijacks anger for destructive purposes. It batters spouses and children. It unleashes the privileged against the powerless--and vice versa. It propagates hatred. It murders innocents. It morphs into resentment, escalates into bitterness, depresses into isolation, and explodes into carnage.
We have witnessed what happens when anger goes nuclear. 9-11. Columbine. Ted Bundy. The recent shooting rampage at Virginia Tech provided its own commentary in the form of a video made by the shooter. It showcased rage's demonic darkness.
Few of us will ever descend into the pit of wickedness as did that student, but every one of us experiences anger.
I could hardly believe my ears when a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor blurted a few years ago, "We need to rethink the whole topic of women's ordination." I was stunned because those words were coming from a woman.
"Why of all things do we need that?" I reacted. "Women's ordination is an established policy in the denomination."
"But too many people support it for the wrong reasons," she responded. She then explained how many of her colleagues had sensed a deep calling to Christian vocation, including the proclamation of the Word. But they also knew that the Bible singles them out to keep silent in church. Recognizing the disparity between God's call to them and God's Word to all, they simply chose to dismiss the Word -- at least those specific, exclusionary texts -- as pre-modern expressions of male chauvinism and patriarchy.
They didn't set out to make a statement. They simply were looking for a new president.
Their schools, er, uh, school -- Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education -- shares a storied history and a legacy for academic excellence in educator training and minister formation.
A year ago President Louis Weeks announced his retirement plans. Board Chair Art Ross commissioned the search committee, led by John Kuykendall, to find a gifted leader to succeed him.
I think that all of us this week have felt like we have been living inside a Wizard of Oz storybook. Midweek..
This week a college student coolly, cruelly and deliberately murdered thirty-two fellow students and professors at Virginia Tech University. Scores of others..
Mom always stopped the car whenever she scouted an open parking space near Joe Gatta's on Main Street. His little deli -- the size of a one-car garage -- provided the freshest fruit and vegetables, delivered there right from the farm.
Today Joe Gatta's is no more. In a supermarket world, only a few delicatessens still survive. We Americans enjoy the wide array of choices and the wide range of prices -- from store brand staples to exotic imports -- now provided by the superstores that dot the landscape.
That culture change has depressed many a Main Street. It also has hurt many a Church Street. Many small and medium size churches have suffered through an era of diminishing returns, as supermarket churches have boomed.
Divorce is hell. Amicable divorce is an oxymoron. When a church divorces its denomination, it can be just as painful as a marital dissolution. Sometimes it's worse.
You know how divorce happens. The aggrieved party looks back over recent history, shudders over the hurtful things the spouse has done, and remembers all the unrequited steps he or she took to try to bring reconciliation. The aggrieved party transitions from trying to save the marriage to building a compelling case to justify ending it.
In the process, the accused party reacts and does things that are really, really stupid, reinforcing the anger of the aggrieved. Soon each party can't stand the sight of the other.
I've been participant in or immediate observer of a dozen congregational splits and denominational separations. Every one of them has followed that divorcing pattern.
We can do better.
Whether it be spouted by the Jesus Seminar scholars, the Da Vinci Code author or The Lost Tomb of Jesus producer, this is the season when magazines give undeserved attention to Jesus' detractors. In spite of their allegedly formidable arguments, confident Christians worldwide will gather in huge numbers on Easter morning chanting, "He is risen. He is risen. He is risen indeed."
Such affirmations continue undeterred, because the arguments supporting the resurrection and the legacy of Christ-changed lives far overwhelm lame claims about some Passover Plot.
If you were going to invent a religion, what would you include?
Probably you'd begin with devotion: we humans have a need to worship, pray, and maybe offer expressions of sacrifice to the deity.
Probably you would add some kind of divine revelation. A seer, sage, or prophet can speak on behalf of the deity, offering words of wisdom to address the human condition.
No doubt you would incorporate teachings about morals and ethics. Any decent religion requires its adherents to love one another, to promote justice for all, and to live their lives in the light of high standards embodied by the deity.
Would you also include the notion of the deity becoming human? Most religionists would think it outlandish to profane the life of the spirit like that.
Here are your instructions. Take out two pens, one red and the other blue. Read through this edition of The Outlook, underlining everything you like with the blue pen and everything you don't like with the red. Then compare the blue-marked words with the red-marked, asking yourself, 1) "Why do I like or dislike this?" and 2) "Why do other Christians of sincere conviction like or dislike this?"
Before taking on that assignment, do finish reading this editorial.
Let's be honest. While the vast majority of Americans presently oppose the Iraq War, most of those same Americans were being well represented when Congress voted its initial authorization for the use of military force against Iraq. Chilling reports of the use of chemical weapons against its own people, a cat-and-mouse game with U.N. weapons of mass destruction inspectors, and reports of exporting post-9-11 terrorism convinced many of us to support the efforts to depose Saddam Hussein.
Since then, the original intelligence reports have proven erroneous. Most allied nations have withdrawn their troops. The quick overthrow of the government has turned into a protracted civil war. We now find ourselves caught in a military quagmire.
Ben Casey. Dr. Kildare. M*A*S*H. ER. St. Elsewhere. Scrubs. Grey's Anatomy. House. Which was or is your favorite medical show?
Right now, I like House. Yes, it's crude and crass. Emmy winner Hugh Laurie plays the part of a pain-killer-addicted, rude-bedside-mannered surgeon who says things out loud that no human should ever think. But I like the plot lines, even if they are predictable. A patient presenting strange symptoms gets run through a battery of tests and experimental treatments until, finally, a diagnosis is established, treatment gets administered, and she or he recovers.
Isn't it heartening to hear evangelical leaders, who represent some of the core constituents of the White House, speaking prophetically regarding environmental issues? They have spurred hope that significant policy changes could help turn the tide on environmental exploitation.
Presbyterians of deep memory know that these developments have been a long time in coming.
Ash Wednesday ain't what it used to be.
In my hometown, Ash Wednesday was an annual coming out party for the Catholics. On that one day each year, everybody knew who they--myself included--were.
The ash smudges on foreheads seemed a perfect metaphor for all things Catholic. Translation: Ash Wednesday proved for all to see that Catholics do guilt well.
Guilt drove my Catholic self to church. What the priests implied, the nuns made explicit: salvation hinges upon doing good, or alternatively, for expending painstaking effort to demonstrate remorse for "any act of rebellion against a known law."
Why is it that so many well-intentioned, ethically-minded people behave so badly, so often? Nowhere is that more the case than during national election campaigns. The best and brightest work countless hours, empty their savings accounts, and promise to enact ennobling legislation, all aiming to fulfill their high call to civic service. But in the process they trash their opponents by slinging false accusations like competitors in a cow-pie-tossing competition.
Where do you go to find the greatest innovations? One place to look is among the young. That's the way it was six years ago when a group of mostly Gen-X pastors formed the New Wineskins Initiative. Fueled by youthful energy, they dared to ask not only "Why?" but also "Why not?"
They diagnosed the failure of our connectional system to really connect pastors and elders among congregations. They imagined a church where informal networking could lift 21st century Presbyterianism to a new level of collegiality, accountability, and transforming ministry. Many of their brainstorms needed refining, as well they acknowledged, but their ideas were hope-filled.
St. Jerome once said, "Small minds cannot grasp great subjects." In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) we can prove him wrong. Our Office of Theology, Worship and Education is directed by a small mind, and he grasps the greatest of subjects. Joe Small is his name, and--all punning aside--his appointment as that office's director means that the great subjects will continue to inform the future of the PC(USA).
To convert or to covenant: that is the question.
American Protestantism travels via two different routes. Both aim for heaven. In most theological respects the groups confess compatible convictions. Both believe in the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. Both depend upon the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to be the source of the grace that saves. Both count upon that grace to reconcile them to God, to empower faith within them toward God, and to mobilize them into service in the world created by God.
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