Everyone, even those least familiar with medicine, knows that, in most cases, treating symptoms is a vain pursuit if the actual disease is ignored. No amount of Tylenol will conquer a serious bacterial infection; it will only give temporary relief for the suffering associated with it. Ignore the disease long enough, and death, even from some minor infections, is possible.
When word came to me that Robert Bullock was retiring as The Outlook’s editor, I realized that I had been the beneficiary of the skills of four Outlook editors who gave their lives to a ministry of writing. I speak of Aubrey Brown, George Laird Hunt, and the present retiring incumbent who is storing away his sharp pen and bold blue pencil in order to move on to other things. I mention with reverence the quiet and commanding figure of Ernest Trice Thompson, who was my teacher, and whose influence gave The Outlook its particular sheen.
I want to express my personal appreciation for Jennifer Files’ attention to the Presbyterian Foundation, a unique and important entity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) . As a current member of the board of trustees of the foundation, I add the following comments.
As members of the church, we have been and are being greatly blessed by the foundation. For more than 200 years, Presbyterians have entrusted gifts, in large and small amounts, to the foundation's care and management.
Upon my departure in April, 1999, after six years as President and CEO of the Foundation, I made a commitment to myself to continue to love the Presbyterian Church and the foundation — and to keep my mouth shut! Like many, I had seen the examples of hangers-on who, after leaving full-time involvement in an organization, continued to make their "contribution" by meddling, without responsibility or accountability for the performance, or even for what they said.
As disputes in our denomination are wending their way through the judicial system, there are frequent expressions of confidence in the "independent judiciary" to resolve the disputes in progress and to help us escape some of our most pressing difficulties. It would appear that this notion has its origin in the system of governments in the United States, where there is a "separation of powers."
Outlook National Reporter Leslie Scanlon wrote an interesting and informative report on giving to affinity groups in a recent issue of The Outlook: "Conservative groups receive more money; large donors' identities are still kept secret." The article itself was well researched and carefully worded, providing helpful information.
Dear members of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church:
I write this open letter to you to suggest — maybe even plead — that you refrain from using your newly won, and ill-conceived, authority to meet privately.
No good will come of it.
Conservative Presbyterian special interest groups tend to have deeper pockets than liberal ones — although who’s giving the money often isn’t being revealed.
This year, for the first time, groups that wanted to rent display space in the Exhibit Hall at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), held May 24-31 in Denver, were required by the Assembly to submit financial disclosure forms — Internal Revenue Service Form 990s, which the federal government requires nonprofit groups with incomes over certain thresholds to file.
I rise to speak to you this morning as an elder of the church but not for any other elder or the session. I speak as an individual, a Christian, and a Presbyterian in a faith tradition going back thousands of years. I speak because, at the beginning of the service this morning, a member of our congregation, without permission, carried the United States flag down the aisle and placed it beside the altar.
Note - The following sermon was sent by Denton as a response to the guest viewpoint "Of Flag and Faith."
At a recent meeting of the Presbytery of the James, the Peacemaking Committee had stricken from its report this commendation to all the churches — "pray for those fighting in the name of our government. Pray for their protection and safe return home;" in its place was a more generic motion to "pray for all engaged in combat and for their safe return home.
Like almost every pastor, my early years in preparing for ministry were somewhat chaotic, even a bit on the bipolar side, swinging from one theological pole to another — not unlike a steel sphere in a pinball machine — accompanied by swings of mood and attitude.
Start with a centrist Sunday-school theology from my home church; add some revivalist leanings from summer mission experience; then the shock of "higher criticism" in college religion courses, etc.
In his travel classic, Blue Highways, William Least Heat-Moon recounts this tale:
A woman in Texas had told me that she often threatened to write a book about her family vacations. Her title: Zoom! The drama of their trips, she said, occurred on the inside of the windshield with one family crisis after another. Her husband drove a thousand miles, much of it with his right arm over the backseat to hold down one of the children. She said, "Our vacations take us."
Ushered onstage with a glowing introduction at the 215th General Assembly in Denver in late May, Presbyterian Foundation chief executive officer Robert E. Leech asked the elders in the auditorium to remember the church with a gift in their wills. "Make it 10 percent — it's only money," Leech said.
Leech asked the ministers at the assembly to push their congregations to give even more generously. "Make it 20 percent — it's only money."
On May 14 it was reported that "a Virginia lawyer has accused a Presbyterian minister of heresy." The lawyer in question is Paul Rolf Jensen of Reston, Va. The minister in question is W. Robert Martin III, our pastor at the Warren Wilson church in Western North Carolina Presbytery.
As the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) debated once again in Denver what direction to take in the ongoing debate over ordination of non-celibate homosexuals, minister commissioner Fitz Neal stepped to the microphone with a reminder:
In other words, let’s wait. Not now."Justice delayed may be justice denied. But at the same time, decisions rushed are often decisions regretted."
We flatter ourselves. No, it is true. Even the staunchest Calvinist among us sometimes thinks that we are in a mess so great that we will never get out of it. Name the issue and you will find voices that say, Woe is ours as Presbyterians in the U.S.A.!
Every generation faces this reality. While some issues truly are landmarks, issues of importance confront each of us in our own way. So it is also true that the issues that divide us today matter to us and to those that come after us. But let us not flatter ourselves too much. Our ancestors confronted this reality, and so will our descendants.
"Wast Thou ordained, dear Father,/ To lose thy youth in peace,
and to achieve/ The silver livery of advisèd age/ And in thy reverence
and thy chair days . . . ." (II Henry VI. V.2. 45-8)
Because 94% of the land in Iowa is devoted to agriculture, the philosophy faculties of the various universities in that state regularly and predictably complain about so much attention paid to farm animals. Truth to tell, most Iowans do indeed put the horse before Descartes.
Can Muslims and Christians seriously engage with each other in these troubled times in creative, nonviolent ways? I am a witness to a community of 30 Christian and Muslim scholars who in early April, just beyond the sound of rockets and big guns, gave a resounding "yes" in answer to that question. We met and talked about our sacred Scriptures and how we view and interpret them. This was the second occasion for such an international gathering.
Because we must eat in order to live, a considerable part of our life is spent at table. Apparently, our first parents, Adam and Eve, were vegetarians (Gen. 1:30) until they took a big bite of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:17). In any case, food customs are deeply embedded in every culture today, and food preferences identify many ethnic groups.
For the last 17 years it has been my privilege to work closely with, and indeed to be partially "on loan," first to the diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, part of the Church of England, now to a diocese of the American Episcopal Church. At a recent diocesan yearly convention that I attended, there was an extended debate on (what else?) the Trinity, inclusive language, the authority of Scripture and the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals. I really couldn’t believe it — the sense of deja-vu was so strong I could taste it.
Christian education is not just about telling the stories of the Bible or delving into the meaning of a particular passage. It is not just about helping children to know they are included in the body of Christ or adults to understand the theology of the church. I believe it is also about helping each of us, whether eight or 80, to find our spiritual grounding.
In times of crisis as well as tranquility, public dissent is the conscientious conservator of democratic freedoms. As Rear Admiral Gene LaRocque, retired Navy, recently said, "Where there is no dissent, there is no democracy."
He was speaking in dissent and opposition to the "Bush Doctrine" of "exceptionalism" which has flouted the judicious wisdom of historic international principles for waging war, including the classical Christian bases of a just war.
Here is the simple thing that I did. I opened an envelope that contained a hospital bill. It was 19 pages long, an exact tabulation of every syringe, every test, every pill, every process that had occurred. It was the concrete, specific inventory of everything that had happened to my mother. It was the ritual of her last days, a medicinal rosary, one bead after another of failed instruments and procedures. Each one, listed here, rested now in my hand nine years after her death.
I have recently read and susequently re-read Robert Bullock's carefully crafted series on the current state of the denomination and those elements that have had an effect on our present malaise. Following this process I have also read articles in Presbyterians Today and The Layman, all dealing with elements of the same concern.
The spring beauty of Easter is here again! On Resurrection Sunday churches everywhere will be overwhelmed with throngs. This is the day when even the faintest faith will flicker again. Some are more preoccupied with the pagan symbols of the goddess of spring — rabbits, eggs, flowers, brightly colored clothes — but they still are attracted to the one Easter object, the sign of the cross.
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