"Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" When Harry Emerson Fosdick preached a sermon by that name in 1922, he galvanized the modernist-liberal movement that carries on to this day.
"Can the Fundamentalists Win America?" When Harold John Ockenga preached a sermon by that name in 1947, he galvanized the neo-evangelical movement (a label he would later coin) that also carries on to this day.
With the double exception of Adam and Eve, every single human being possesses a navel. This is because we are born connected to our mother by an umbilical cord that is severed after birth and then dries up. The purpose of cutting the cord is to enable you to sleep in your own bed, although the child is later reattached to the mother by apron strings.
Whether the United States will actually go to war against Iraq is still unclear at the present time. What is clear is that preparations for the war are proceeding apace. The preparations have been both ideological and military. On the ideological front, the Bush administration has been readying the American public for a "pre-emptive" attack on Iraq ever since Sept. 12, 2001 – a media blitz that continues right down to the present day.
The new Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace Rowan Williams, is a highly intelligent man. In his most recent book , Lost Icons he discusses the function of "play" in Western society. "Games," he writes, "are unproductive." By this he means that the purpose of a game is not to manufacture a product. Its goal is not "competition for limited goods."
Having a poor visual memory is a source of considerable regret to me. Art historians stir a profound awe in me because they need to know everything that any expert knows and in addition apply it to what they have seen. On the three occasions in my life when I was in some danger of committing the sin of pride, I picked up Charles Cuttler's great book, Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel and committed the sin of envy instead.
What do you do with the tinsel on the Christmas tree after Christmas? Save it for next year? Decorate birthday gifts? Throw it away?
I still have the handmade Santa Claus that I fashioned out of poster board, and then colored with red crayon (Santa’s suit), with black crayon (Santa’s belt and one boot) and with brown crayon (Santa’s other boot) plus a clump of fluffy cotton glued on for his straggly beard. Santa has hung around on the family Yule tree every year since I was in the first grade.
Once again we approach Christmas. Yet particularly this year, people all over the world are struggling with fear and anxiety: fear of a possible war in the Middle East and its unpredictable consequences far beyond the region; fear of deadly terrorist attacks like those that occurred in Bali or in Moscow recently; fear of loss of livelihood and destitution, as in Argentina; fear of a long-drawn-out illness and death among those living with AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa;
Being a keen observer of the human condition, and a sometimes participant in it, I think it is fair to say that most new mothers love their new babies. When our first child arrived, Margaret exclaimed in wonderment to the attending physician, "I thought all newborns were ugly; my daughter is beautiful!" Nature knows that a baby without a mother's love is in for big trouble. Even government knows.
The 214th General Assembly (2002) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved 13 amendments to the Book of Order and recommended them to the presbyteries for their affirmative or negative votes.
A majority of the 173 presbyteries must approve an amendment for it to pass. The votes are to be reported to the 215th General Assembly (2003), and all those approved will take effect at that time.
Amendment 02-A has five components, each of which seeks to strengthen educational ministry within the PC(USA) by requiring a new competency level from those who answer calls as pastors and associate pastors serving in the role of educator. The first three amendments in this group are attempts to raise standards of educational ministry in the church for persons who feel called to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament with a specialty in education.
Even in the midst of an impassioned discussion regarding our understanding of the nature and practice of ministry, the Presbyterian Church, U.S. A. can be grateful that God is calling us to wrestle seriously with such issues. The question of how to vote on Amendment A challenges each of us to probe deeply our assumptions and expectations of roles and titles commonly used in our denomination. My own prayerful - and difficult - probing of the issues surrounding this amendment and my attitudes regarding those issues, has led me to speak in favor of the proposal set before us.
As one of the members of the Task Force on the Educational Design for the Ordination of Certified Christian Educators, I must take exception to some of the interpretations of the effect of the overtures, and to some of the arguments, offered in the front-page assessment article by Bill Lancaster (Jan. 13-20). Allow me to be specific:
The summaries and responses below are in rebuttal to the con positions presented in the "Assessing the Amendments To the Constitution" article from the Jan. 13-20, 2003 Presbyterian Outlook.
Together the amendments of 02-A.1-5 and 02-C.1-5 provide both theological and institutional clarity on Christian educators in our church today.
If passed by a majority of presbyteries, Amendment A will create a pathway for certified directors of Christian education (DCE) to become associate pastors (AP) of the Word and Sacrament, and in specified situations to continue to function in their present locations. The following points are lodged against the approval of this amendment.
Advent/Christmas means nothing if it does not mean the real presence of the triune God with and for God’s people and the world. Incarnation, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, is real presence. The church of Jesus throughout the world, past, present, future, is the real presence of the body of Christ in God’s created order. The Holy Spirit, the awesome personal power of God in us and in all that God has made, is the real presence.
Shall we ordain practicing homosexuals? The way the question is being posed leaves only two possible answers: yes or no. The form of the question has turned the inquiry from seeking more complex resolutions and has pushed us into looking for the solution in the wrong place.
It seems to me that when we strip all extraneous issues from the discussions, the matter grounds to a single question: Is a person born with a sexual preference?
The year 2002 marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of The Presbyterian Presence: The Twentieth Century Experience. The seven volumes, plus study guide, were published by Westminster John Knox Press between 1990 and 1992.
The original initiative from the Lilly Endowment was to commission a series of case studies of mainstream Protestant denominations that were experiencing precipitate decline at the end of the 20th century.
Ten years ago, our nation’s President was George H. W. Bush.
Ten years later, the family is the same, but the middle initials have changed. Ten years ago, we were making demands of Saddam Hussein. Ten years later, we are making demands of Saddam Hussein. Ten years ago, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was struggling over biblical hermeneutics and human sexuality. Ten years later . . . well, you get the idea by now.
How often do you recall final exam questions — or your answers? A decade has passed since I first sat in a classroom furiously composing a response to this question for "Presbyterian Heritage," a course taken in my middler year at Louisville Seminary.Describe the current trajectory of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as you see it and evaluate that trajectory based on what you consider the distinctive marks of the Presbyterian tradition.
The current directed study on Reformed Theology for certification of Christian educators in our church refers readers to "‘The Presbyterian Predicament’ [by] Coalter, Mulder, Weeks (A six-volume set of the history . . . )." The actual title of the seven-volume set — they wrote another book later — was "The Presbyterian Presence in the 20th Century," but the mistake in thinking of our study as the "Presbyterian Predicament" is both a common one and a telling one.
A religious and spiritual revival is underway on the campuses of American colleges and universities. It is propelled by students searching for meaning in their lives, by the growing religious pluralism in American society and, perhaps surprisingly, by the post-modern movement itself. No campus is free from its influence, but only a few have recognized its power. To the extent that we Presbyterians understand our higher educational mission as a mission to promote Presbyterianism we may achieve a sectarian goal, but miss being a part of this extraordinary movement.
The older I get the more content I become with my own preferences. I try very hard to participate with the modern world but I find it difficult and often annoying. For example, a recent Presbyterian book of worship recommended the use of dance in the church service.
You may have missed it, but here in the Empire State a woman in Brooklyn has started a mini-revolution. On Sunday, June 2, a front-page story in the New York Times headlined: "The Elderly Man and the Sea? Test Sanitizes Literary Texts." Jeanne Heifetz, who is the mother of a high school senior, had inspected 10 high school statewide Regents English exams from the past three years and found that a large number of passages from well-known authors had been sanitized of any reference to race, religion, ethnicity, sex, nudity, alcohol and even the mildest profanity.
"Constitutional crisis." Those two words roll off the tongue as easily as "Just do it" or "the real thing." These days, "constitutional crisis" seems to be rolling off more Presbyterian tongues than the other expressions. Have we fallen into a constitutional crisis? Is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on the verge of exploding for a lack of constitutional cohesion?
The Board of Directors of Presbyterians for Renewal, meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, Sept. 28, 2002, issued the following statement:
We believe in and intend to follow faithfully Jesus Christ as Lord of all, and the will of God as revealed in the Holy Scripture.
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