I warn my seminary students to watch out for “litmus test” theology. “If you find yourself getting backed into a corner on a doctrinal issue, with someone pressing you merely to ‘check “yes”’ or ‘check “no,”’ do your best to redirect the conversation,” I advise them. Being a Christian believer is not, primarily, about checking the right boxes.
What does it mean to be an Easter Church—that is, a church that confesses “God raised the crucified Jesus from the dead?” Is there only one correct interpretation of that most central of Christian confessions or is there room in that confession for different interpretations of what it means? Is there only one “orthodox” interpretation?
Reflections on John 20:1-18
Every few years the calendar conspires against the church by placing the moveable feast of Easter on the same day most of the country springs forward to Daylight Savings Time. This year’s calendar is kind to us, and this ecclesiastical “perfect storm” is avoided.
LOUISVILLE -- Jim Wallis, the editor-in-chief of Sojourners Magazine, is a man who once was arrested in the Capitol rotunda, in front of eighth graders studying civics, while demonstrating against tax cuts for the rich. He describes himself as "a 19th century evangelist born in the wrong century."
Because Wallis is the kind of evangelical Christian who stands in the streets and speaks up for what he thinks is right, who thinks religion should always inform politics, who resonates in his bones with those 19th century Christians who fought for the abolition of slavery and for women's right to vote and for child labor laws.
He's in the midst of a book tour for the just-published and best-selling "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It."
Iain R. Torrance, a former moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, a scholar and writer with a deep interest in ecumenical concerns, was inaugurated and installed on March 11 as the sixth president of Princeton Theological Seminary.
In structuring his inauguration, Torrance clearly paid attention to today's ecumenical realities. The inaugural events included presentations from Christian, Muslim and Jewish theologians. And the audience as Torrance gave his inaugural address included a Greek Orthodox leader from New Jersey and more than 60 representatives from institutions of higher education, including the four ancient universities of Scotland as well as U.S. schools not directly connected with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), such as the divinity schools of Yale and Howard universities.
Despite the flap it's caused even internationally, many Presbyterian churchgoers are not aware of the vote the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) took last summer to authorize a process of selective, phased divestment in some companies doing business in Israel.
And among those who did know, there were differing opinions about the wisdom of what the assembly had done. A survey found ministers and liberals tending to favor the divestment action, and laypeople and conservatives tending to be opposed.
For a good, old-fashioned family movie, this one has it all: a timeless small town, a cute little girl, a well-meaning but distracted Dad, a few colorful secondary characters, and a dog who has an amazing capacity for bringing the humans closer together.
Annasophia Robb plays Opal, the pig-tailed 10-year old with the skinny legs and the big, blue innocent eyes and a wise-beyond-her-years outlook. She moves to this small town because her Dad (Jeff Daniels) is the new preacher. The church is just forming, and is meeting in a convenience store.
Opal describes her Dad, whom she also calls "Preacher", as a tortoise always going back inside its shell. He seems to spend a lot of time in their mobile home reading the Bible, but not much time going out and seeing people. He's sad because his wife, Opal's Mom, left him several years ago, he says, because she couldn't stand being a preacher's wife. So his resentment of his profession hangs with him along with his gritty determination to keep doing it, because he's already paid too high a price not to continue.
I liked it better than "Hoosiers."
In "Hoosiers," the new high school coach in a small Indiana town in the '50's preached teamwork, teamwork, teamwork, pass the ball, set picks, four passes before every shot, and then when the star shooter arrived, all that went out the window.
His big motivational ploy was to get them to measure the hoop when they went to the State tournament. They reported it as ten feet from the floor, the same height as every basketball hoop. It was his way of demonstrating to them that they didn't need to be intimidated. And in the end, they go all the way to the State Finals.
Now it's the '90's. Coach Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) arrives at Richmond High in California, a school that graduates only 50% of its students; a school where only 6% go to college. When he preaches "teamwork, teamwork, teamwork," he means more than passing the ball to the best shooter, or running a trap play to force a turnover. He means taking responsibility for yourself, and for everyone else on the team.
THE OUTLOOK has received a multitude of letters responding to Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase’s Guest Opinion, “Is Peace Possible,” in December 2004 (reprinted on p. 14 of this issue.) His hope has been realized, for in these pages, the church has begun serious, even heated, conversation about peace and war.
by Warren Goldstein (New Haven: Yale University, 2004)
In his biography entitled, William Sloane Coffin Jr.: A Holy Impatience, Warren Goldstein reminds us of a person who made a deep impression on may of us during the last four decades of our lives.
Christ is our peace. The gospel is not that peace is possible, but that it is actual. The dividing wall of hostility has been broken down, first between earth and heaven, then between Jew and Gentile, then between male and female, then between slave and free. If these divisions fall — biblically the great divisions — they all fall.
Reflections on Matthew 21:1-11
On Palm Sunday at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, churchgoers arrive early to get a good seat. The graceful procession of the children waving palms is a sight I recall decades after I worshipped there.
Luke 7:31-32 and 2 Corinthians 1:8-10
Editor’s Note: The author gave this presentation at a Vigil of Remembering for the 37th anniversary of the Tet Offensive and Counter-offensive in Vietnam. He writes: “This year, with one son now on station in the Gulf of Arabia with the 15th MEU(SOC), the vigil takes on an added significance for me.” Most of those attending were Vietnam War combat veterans and their families.
The response to the tragic tsunami on December 26 in a wide area of southern Asia has been overwhelmingly positive as the United Nations, numerous countries around the world, non-governmental agencies like the Red Cross, Oxfam, Catholic Charities, and United Jewish Appeal, orchestras in Vienna, celebrities and school children have donated generously to save lives and rebuild destroyed cities and villages.
Last July, I was troubled by the General Assembly’s resolution condemning the invasion of Iraq as “unwise, immoral and illegal.” It wasn’t the assembly’s weighing in on a public issue that bothered me, since it does so almost every year. Nor was it the church's stand against the war -- I had questioned the invasion myself.
The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) announced on March 10 the members of teams that will work over the next few months to write draft sections -- possible approaches that the task force will consider for inclusion in its final report to the denomination.
The task force will vote on its report to the denomination on August 24 and 25, in a meeting in Chicago added to its schedule specifically to take that vote. The report is to be presented to the church by September 15
The three-year Presbyterian boycott of Taco Bell has ended, after the restaurant chain's parent corporation agreed to a deal that will increase what farm workers are paid by a penny for each pound of tomatoes they pick. That may not sound like much, but representatives of the farm workers say it can make a real difference in the amount of money those workers will earn.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), called it an historic agreement, and said its real significance is in the promise it holds on two fronts: for encouraging others in the food industry to also insist on fair wages and working conditions for farm workers; and for sending consumers a message that they should be responsible in spending their money with companies that require fair treatment for workers.
In this funny old town where I live and where I was trained theologically (at Union Seminary in Virginia) a continuing controversy is plaguing Black History Month. It concerns the use of a mock slave auction in an elementary school classroom in one of the conservative (red) suburbs that surround Richmond, the former capital of the Confederate States of America. Ironies abound.
While I make no brief against Black History Month or mock slave auctions, I do question the value of the latter in an elementary school. More to the point, I question the value of anything other than strict, basic education in elementary school (and in Sunday School) for elementary children. Children need to learn the basics if they are going to function responsibly as adults, as citizens, and as faithful Christians.
Presbyterian clergyman and professor, Charles W. Baird, shook up Presbyterian worshippers just 150 years ago with his historical study, Eutaxia ("good order"), in which he investigated Calvinist liturgical inheritance.
American colonial Presbyterians, highly suspicious of Roman Catholic and Anglican practices, were, on the whole, "low church" in their worship. The First and Second Great Awakenings-- with their emphasis on preaching, reading the Scriptures, Psalm singing and long, pastoral prayers--influenced them. When Presbyterians organized a General Assembly in the 1780's, they considered and adopted a Directory for the Worship of God (1788). At that time they considered discretionary prayers, but eliminated them for a book of directions only.
Charles Baird and his family lived under this Directory in the early years of the nineteenth century. Baird was Princeton born. His father, Robert, was a Presbyterian minister. Robert, with his French spouse and family, spent much time in Europe, living in Paris and Geneva and visiting other places. The senior Baird promoted a revival of religion among Europeans. Son Charles studied at Union Theological Seminary (N.Y.) and at New York University, where he was recognized as a brilliant student. After brief service as chaplain at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, he returned to America and finally settled down as pastor in Rye, N.Y. During this time he published a history of the Huguenots, with whom he had been acquainted in Europe. He gave faces to those from the old world who had immigrated to this country. With this background he was able to help Presbyterians appreciate the richness of their heritage.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) explains why it's considering pulling investments from some companies doing business with Israel, and Jewish leaders dismiss the church's position as unfair and misguided.
The story was no different Feb. 11 when Jay Rock, the PC(USA)'s interfaith relations coordinator, addressed ADL leaders to tell the church's side of the divestment story and to discuss interfaith relations. The ADL invited Rock to speak at its annual National Executive Committee meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla.
At certain times, Christians have felt compelled to speak out -- compelled by difficulties in their world to write a statement confessing what they believe (and often what they oppose) and why.
Some 20th century examples:
· Germany in 1934, as Hitler rose to power (The Barmen Declaration).
· South Africa in 1986, in the midst of apartheid (The Confession of Belhar).
· Korea in 1988, as people longed for reunification (The Declaration of the Churches of Korea on National Reunification and Peace).
· So what can the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with its own basket of troubles, learn from such confessional statements-- known by the Latin term "status confessionis"? (The term basically means "a situation in which confession is demanded," according to theologian William Stacy Johnson.)
The Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathered again in Texas beginning March 2 -- and this is considered to be a crucial meeting, coming just six months before the group's September 15 deadline for releasing its report to the church. Its only other meeting before the deadline is scheduled for July.
But the heart of this meeting -- the most serious discussion -- will be held behind closed doors. The task force has voted unanimously to close basically half its meeting to observers.
The President, Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, and Faculty/Staff Council of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary are greatly disturbed by the false claims published by The Presbyterian Layman Online regarding classroom teaching by Dr. Mark Achtemeier, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, and by the false claim that members of the seminary faculty spoke with The Layman.
The President, Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, and Faculty/Staff Council unanimously affirm their full confidence in the integrity of Dr. Achtemeier as a presbyter and Doctor of the Church. We join with Dr. Achtemeier in calling for a retraction of the article and a formal printed apology from the editors of The Layman.
The meditation for Lent IV on Jesus' healing of the blind man in John's gospel effectively opens the central question before our beleaguered, cacophonous church. The PC (USA) is in an identity crisis. Publications and websites put forward by numerous associations claim to know the truth and to have the truth, and the truths are as different as night and day. Such stubborn knowing (seeing) is appropriately called into question by Chris Chakoian's meditation.
It set me thinking about how our eyes are opened, and how we learn to see. In John's story, learning to see is costly for the man healed, for his community of faith -- and even for the disciples. It is not, pun intended, a pretty picture. The healing provokes judgment as well as grace, for the light, which in John is never extinguished by the darkness of the cosmos, reveals as well as it enlightens.
Editor’s Note: After the OUTLOOK guest opinion “What have we done for Brown?”, Nibs Stroupe, pastor of Oakhurst Church in Decatur, Ga. responded with the following letter. His letter in turn sparked a reply by Ken Woodley, author of the original opinion piece. Both letter and response add to the information about this chapter in civil rights history in the United States.
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