The Reformed Pastor

This is actually from the first day of the Episcopal General Convention, but it is so outlandish, so ridiculous, so extreme, and its source so important, that I wanted to be sure to get it up before things went any further. The speaker is the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefforts-Schori, the Presiding Bishop herself, making her opening address to the Convention, in which she claimed the following:

The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of use alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being. That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention.

Now, there is nothing wrong with stressing the centrality of the Kingdom of God in the preaching of Jesus, or of the Body of Christ in the letters of Paul. No one–not even the people that the bishop so absurdly caricatures–denies the importance of the church to God’s plan of salvation. But to claim that we aren’t saved as individuals, that we are only part of the collective, flies in the face of so much Scripture as to be breath-taking. Just one example should suffice:

[W]hat does it [the righteousness of faith, referred to in verse 6] say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:8-13)

Passages such as this are the reason why, when we stand to recite the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed as a statement of our faith, we begin, “I believe,” as have generations from Christians since the writing of these two confessions. For that matter, it is the reason that we publicly and verbally confess our faith, an act that Jefforts-Schori seems to hold in contempt, or at the very least seems to think is a trivial matter of no consequence. The hilarious thing is that when she says that some contend that “reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus” is necessary for salvation (if she can find such a person I’d love to meet him or her), she refers to them as “me and my words,” despite the fact that they aren’t my words, they are the church’s words, words that we use to express our solidarity with other believers through time and space.

Oh, and one other observation: the spectacle of this woman, who presides over a body (the House of Bishops) that includes among its membership a man who repudiates every single significant Christian teaching–from the personal nature of God, to the Trinity, to the resurrection, atonement, and virginal conception of Christ, etc.–to use the word “heresy” with regard to anything may be the laughable thing to ever come out of the mouth of a Christian leader.

The Episcopal Church is meeting in its trienniel General Convention this week in Anaheim. There’s already been a tremendous flow of information about the goings-on from TitusOneNine and Stand Firm, so much that it’s really impossible to keep up with it all. So I’m going to pick out items here and there as they appear to try to give a flavor for non-Anglicans of what’s going on (keeping in mind that there’s a lot more happening than I can mention, some of it self-destructive, some of it constructive). The first comes from a clergy deputy from South Carolina, Steve Wood, who is blogging about his experience there, and today offers this insight from the World Missions Committee:

Here’s the set-up for the Legislative Committee, World Missions, that I am assigned to monitor.  You’ll see our own retired Suffragan, Bill Skilton (blue shirt) sitting next to Bishop Wolf and Gay Jennings.  Bishop Wolf and Deputy Jennings chair the committee representing the House of Bishops and House of Deputies, respectively. [He's referring to a picture that follows underneath this text--DSF]

Silly me, I thought that a committee entitled “world missions” might actually talk about the proclamation of the Gospel message to the ends of the earth.  And, maybe they will.  But not just yet.  Instead, here is a sampling of the resolutions set to appear before this committee:  equal access to discernment process for transgendered persons; several resolutions seeking to overturn or supersede resolution B033 (a moratorium on same-sex blessings/ordinations passed in 2006); affirmation of full participation in the Anglican Communion for all Lesbian/Gay/Bi-sexual and Transgendered persons.  And, that’s just the appetizer.  I’ll keep you appraised on these as they move through committee and onto the floor.  The only connection I can make between these topics and world missions is that passage will effectively END any credible efforts at world mission.

One side note: Interestingly, when the Archbishop of Canterbury walked into this legislative session the topic under consideration immediately shifted to Resolution D057: “Five Marks of Mission”.  When members of committee objected as to the reordering the agenda and questioned the chair as to the rationale for the out-of-order consideration of the this particular resolution, the chair responded by saying, “I thought the ABC might rather hear us discuss the mission commitment of the Episcopal Church”.  I’d like to hear someone around hear discuss, and affirm, that Jesus it THE way, THE truth and THE life.

The mind boggles.

(Via T19.)

Both political parties tend to think of security in terms of unilateral defense. But people of faith begin with the truth of human inter-dependence — which teaches us that security is never won through weapons and walls but through attentiveness to the injustice that affects other children of God.

–General Secretary Michael Kinnamon of the National Council fo Churches, commenting on the German attack on Poland D-Day invasion expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait reduction of suicide bombings in Israel U.S.-Russian nuclear arms agreement discussed in Moscow this week; when asked to what extent sin was a factor in international relations that necessitated the use of force in the face of evil, Kinnamon replied, “I’m not familiar with that word, could you define it for me?”

The cap-and-trade climate bill recently passed by the House of Representatives may be the worst single piece of legislation to ever come out of Congress, and that’s saying something. Stuffed full of pork, giveaways to big business that vitiate one of the purposes of the bill, impossibly complicated regulatory schemes, the biggest tax increase (in effect) in U.S. history during a deep recession, blueprints for a huge ramp-up in bureaucracy bloat, ever-greater controls on people’s lives by a know-it-all government, all based in questionable science that is being increasingly repudiated even within the government and tied up in a bill that none of the members who voted on it had read in its entirety–put it all together and it spells disaster.

But that doesn’t mean that certain people in the religious left aren’t pretty happy with it. Jim Winkler of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church trumpets the fact that even as the American economy is being torn to shreds by this monstrosity, at least some people will be protected because of the efforts of the religious left:

Our message to Capitol Hill on climate change has focused on two principles: stewardship and justice. Working through many coalitions, including faith-based emphasize three basic points: reduce emissions in line with scientific recommendations; protect those living in poverty in the United States; and provide funding for international adaptation to assist those in poverty around the world adapt to the impact of climate change.

After years of inaction, Congress is poised to take up comprehensive climate legislation. I wish I could report that what is emerging is a great bill. It is not. Industry’s fingerprints are all over it.

So too, however, are the fingerprints of justice advocates. We worked hard to ensure that our brothers and sisters living in poverty in the United States and around the world are protected. We were successful.

Through scores of meetings with members of Congress and their staffs, and testimony before the House Energy & Commerce Committee, we successfully advocated for inclusion of language to protect those living on the economic margins. Specifically, those whose incomes fall in the lowest 20% will be shielded from potential cost increases as the United States shifts to a greener energy economy.

Furthermore, we worked tirelessly to include language that provides money for international adaptation. This money will assist those living in poverty around the world as the changing climate threatens their very survival.

I’m glad the poor are being protected from the impact of this travesty that Jim Winkler’s fingers are all over (at least in his own mind). Everyone else is going to see huge increases in the cost of energy and goods that utilize it at some point int their trip to the marketplace (in other words, everything except the tomatoes you grow in your backyard). And for what? Every analysis I’ve seen says that the impact of this bill on global temperature will be negligible.

Remember, the point here supposedly isn’t controlling our lives, supposedly isn’t helping the poor, supposedly isn’t even reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere–the point is to stop global warming (the euphemism “climate change” in this context is particularly ridiculous, since reducing carbon emissions can only have one real effect if the hysterics are correct in their claims). This bill won’t do that, perhaps not at all, almost certainly not to any degree that would make the economic, social, and political cost worth it. Yet Winkler seems to think that passing this bill, or something that goes even farther, is what Jesus would want:

We continue to work to improve the bill and will have to see the final product before supporting it. If this legislation is defeated, climate change will probably be shelved for the remainder of the 111th session of Congress. It likely will remain shelved until after the next presidential election.

In John 10, Jesus states that his purpose is to ensure people may have abundant life. Stewardship of health and the environment are two areas where responsibility to achieve that abundant life has been entrusted to each of us. Creating personal, environmental and social conditions where an abundant life is possible is a joint responsibility: public and private.

With God’s help and with courageous leadership, we can help transform fear to trust, anger to forgiveness, grief to compassion, narrow self-interest to mutual solidarity, ensuring that abundant life Jesus embodied.

So now we are dependent on Congress to provide the “abundant life” of which Jesus spoke. God help us all.

Even though the Ark of the Covenant story didn’t pan out (thanks, World Net Daily), there is news in the history of the Bible that is absolutely real and fascinating. It has to do with the oldest surviving complete manuscript of the New Testament and most of the Old Testament and Apocrypha, the Codex Sinaiticus, which has been digitized and put on the Internet for specialists and amateurs alike to peruse at their leisure. The Web site says the following about it:

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. Its heavily corrected text is of outstanding importance for the history of the Bible and the manuscript – the oldest substantial book to survive Antiquity – is of supreme importance for the history of the book.

It’s not quite the same experience as seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls on display in Israel (which I last did back in 1998 and will be doing again this fall–if you’re interested in joining me in this pilgrimage to the Holy Land, let me know via e-mail), but it is still awesome to be able to look at one of the most important texts in the world. Joe Bob says check it out.

It’s been a long weekend with very little news worth commenting on, so I thought it best to go back to what’s really important this morning:

(From I Can Has Cheezburger.)

Since health care is one of the big issues of the moment, it isn’t surprising that the folks at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has weighed in. For them, the sine qua non of the whole debate is the one thing most congresscritters really don’t want to get into:

Treatments and services that promote reproductive health throughout a woman’s life must be part of any national health plan. These include contraceptive services, maternity care, pre- and post-partum care, abortion care, and screenings for sexually transmitted infections and reproductive cancers.

Most of that is not controversial, and undoubtedly would be included in any federal plan. “Abortion care,” on the other hand, obviously is, especially because federal funding for abortion has been banned since the late 1970s (which is hardly inexplicable–I don’t think I’ve ever seen a poll that didn’t show a majority of Americans were against federal funds going to pay for abortions). Nevertheless, despite the fact that RCRC is demanding a significant change, opposed by the majority of citizens, of a policy that has been in place for decades, guess who it is that’s “politicizing” the debate:

As Congress moves forward with legislation to reform the nation’s health care system, we can expect a few, powerful organizations including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to politicize women’s reproductive health care by pressing divisive debates around abortion. The bishops have warned that including abortion as a health care benefit will jeopardize passage of national health care reform. But it’s the bishops and their allies who will block health care reform if it includes comprehensive reproductive health services.

The ones pressing the “divisive debates,” of course, are the radical pro-abortion advocates–RCRC, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, etc.–who have chafed under the restrictions of the Hyde Amendment for years. Planned Parenthood, especially, is drooling at the prospect of gaining even more access to the federal trough than it already has. What’s also interesting here is that while they could have mentioned National Right to Life, the American Life League, or any of several other pro-life organizations, they confined themselves to naming the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and imply that the bishops (and their allies, of course) have some kind of demonic power to block legislation, which would probably be news to the big Democratic majorities in Congress. Instead of suggesting dark machinations by evil right-wing forces, however, RCRC would do better to wonder why it is that most Americans have no use for the policy that they are seeking to push on to the taxpayers.