The Rev. Jim Winkler, the general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, is a left-wing theocrat. He wishes to impose his particular religious vision of society on America. Time to man the barricades!
Winkler writes in the latest edition of his agency’s newsletter that if we would just read the Book of Isaiah, we would see what God wants the United States to look like:
Hear these words from Isaiah 48:18: “Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace (prosperity in the NRSV) would have been like a river, and your righteousness (success in the NRSV) like the waves of the sea.”
I confess to impatience and frustration that we continue to ignore scripture.
I take it from this that Winkler, like Rousas Rushdoony and the other “dominionist” boogeymen of the religious left, wants to apply the Old Testament law to America, since we’ve been neglecting those commandments.
The prophet Isaiah was awakened to two realities: the awesome holiness of Yahweh and the depth of his own nation’s sin. Like the prophet Amos, Isaiah furiously assailed the powerful, unscrupulous officials who governed the nation, as well as the venal judges who had conspired to rob the helpless of their rights. Read the first 10 chapters of the Book of Isaiah and you will find him condemning the upper classes who were rich and pampered, concerned only for material possessions and pleasures without moral standards or faith in God.
Does any of this sound familiar as we look at our present condition in the United States of America: in a land where the rich are getting incredibly richer; in a land where immigrants, the kind of people we used to welcome, are now being condemned, deported, denied health care and education; in a land where one in four children goes to bed hungry every night; in a land where we round up and incarcerate a remarkable number of black and brown men?
Isaiah is telling us that God challenges us to muster sufficient theological imagination to see how divine purpose is unfolding in ordinary events of the world. What is the “new thing” that God is about to do?
It’s informative as well as interesting that Second Isaiah does not try to “foretell” what God will be doing. Rather, Isaiah prods the attention of his audience backward into images of “the way in the wilderness” and “rivers in the desert.”
Not sure what “Second Isaiah” Winkler is reading. Isaiah 40-66 in my Bible is full of forward-looking prophecy regarding what God is going to do in the life of His people and the world, including prophecy regarding the Messiah, who is never once spoken of as working for the United States government.
Isaiah speaks to a people like us: a people in Babylon who live in the midst of a secular, pagan culture that promises its gods can give prosperity, success and happiness.
Funny thing about that: Isaiah never once says that the people in exile should try to take over the government of the Babylonian Empire and transform it in the image of theocratic Israel. Must be in the lost chapters to which only mainline bureaucrats have access.
Somehow, hope surrounds us. I believe the large majority of the American people support the agenda the Occupy Wall Street movement promotes:
- Tax the rich and corporations
- End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
- Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all
- End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
- Transition to a clean-energy economy and reverse environmental degradation
- Protect workers’ rights, including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
- Get money out of politics
Yes, that’s the great hope, the magnificent vision, the extraordinary future which Isaiah lays before us: Occupy Wall Street. Campaign finance reform and green pie-in-the-sky. That’ll preach.
We are haunted by our lack of imagination.
A few days ago, a United Methodist pastor sent me an email that included these words:
Is there any way to retain democracy and a government by and for the people while eliminating capitalism at the same time? A free enterprise system based on capitalism and the concept of a democracy go hand in hand.It seems Moody knew what he was talking about, doesn’t it? [Winkler had earlier referred to Dwight Moody's dismissal of biblical scholars dividing up Isaiah into three parts--Moody wondered why we should why bother with two more Isaiahs when most Methodists don’t know the first one?] I have no doubt this pastor should read Isaiah: “Oh you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey” (Isaiah 10:1-2)!
That last verse, written over 2000 years before Adam Smith, is obviously meant to indicate that capitalism is evil. It was–what’s the word?–prophetic.
Capitalism, as I explained a while back, is hardly a system of divinely revealed economics. Rather, it is the best system human beings have been able to come up with to govern economic life in a fallen world. It is also, in its present form, an incredibly complex system that reflects the presence of literally billions of components–people, companies, governments, laws, etc.–and their countless interactions. But Winkler thinks we can throw that entire system out, replace it with a collection of abstract notions derived from the religious left’s idiosyncratic reading of the Israelite prophets sprinkled liberally with discredited Marxist bromides, and impose it all on a religiously and politically diverse population.
That, my friends, is the very definition of a theocrat.
UPDATE: My friend Joseph Slife corrects my ordination of Winkler. He is in fact a layman. I’ve fixed it in the first sentence.
December 5, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Actually, I happily accept the title theocrat. The God I worship is so compassionate and merciful that he became man, dwelt among us, worked a positive righteousness, healed the sick, raised the dead, drove out demons, and suffered the cruel death of crucifixion to bear my sins in his body on the tree. And he rose from the dead on the third day. O, dear Lord, let me indeed be ruled by you!
And what else does Jesus mean when he says that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand?
After all, “theocracy” means that God rules, not clerics. All those people who use “theocracy” as a scare word should be called out. Their rule by hard-fisted ideologues and demagogues isn’t all that pretty, especially given that the 20th century, which crowed about how it had routed theological “obscurantism” with its worship of science and the state, murdered more than 160,000,000 people in the name of its various political gods.
December 6, 2011 at 9:02 am
[...] First, I am a United Methodist Christian with a firm believe that the Gospel is not just doctrine, theology, and being ‘saved’ but that it involves works as well. So, I am attracted to the message of Jim Winkler and others who are firm on the social aspects of the Gospel. But, Dr. Bevere has caused me to pause and consider the laws needed for such an enforcement. Maybe Winkler and others are indeed theocrats, much like Robertson, Wagner and others who wish to see whatever view of Christianity imposed upon others. After all, like the Dominionist Right, the Left wants to use the power of the Government to enforce biblical passages out of context and are, thus, themselves, fundamentalists in a sense that they aren’t looking for the historical method of interpretation but only what the text says to them at this moment. As the Reformed Pastor points out, this causes some concern when reading Isaiah. [...]
December 6, 2011 at 9:30 am
Isaiah 40-66 in my Bible is full of forward-looking prophecy regarding what God is going to do in the life of His people and the world, including prophecy regarding the Messiah…
Well, briefly, in terms clearly denoting Cyrus the Persian. So, in that case, not very far forward-looking. (God’s “servant” Jacob/Israel is never called a messiah in Isaiah.)
December 6, 2011 at 11:49 am
So Isaiah 53 is about Cyrus?
December 6, 2011 at 3:45 pm
The Modern Religious Left has essentially become a tool of the Secular Left (Winkler accepted grant money from George Soros), and they are both more close-minded than Jerry Falwell ever thought about being. They are all about gaining state power in order to dictatorially impose their ideology on others while cloaking it in compassion and tolerance.
If you want to know how truly “tolerant” they are just go to one of their websites and proclaim compassion for gays while eschewing marriage redefinition and upholding clear Biblical (and rational) teaching regarding human sexuality. Stand back from your computer while the flames fly out! If you are not on board with their agenda then you are just an ignorant bigot. And these liberals are given favorable treatment their many friends and sympathizers in the media, entertainment, academia, journalism, etc. (See “Left Turn” by Groseclose).
As demonstrated by David’s deconstruction of Winkler’s Scriptural misinterpretation, Modern Liberals have lost their intellectual acumen, having become an ignorant, angry stew of statists who view the mechanism of government as the best means of achieving their distorted, egoistic view of God’s justice.
December 6, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Here follow hard words, but those over which I have long thought and prayed: Every solution to the world’s ills advocated by Jim Winkler and his followers at the General Board of Church and Society is fascist and totalitarian in nature. The common thread in his writings and programs is always greater governmental control of our lives, the ceding of individual rights to a centralized power and the diminishment of the individual. He favors the use of force (by a government controlled by his allies) against those who hold property he wants uesed for his projects. He has mocked Americans who stand up for the Constitution and its principles of limited government and inherent God given rights. He has used the sexual epithet of “teabagger” to belittle his opponents. The vast majority of Methodists have no idea what he and the GBCS are up to in polticial matters, let alone their promotion of sexual immorality and perversions (like “intergenerational sex”) in their Sex and the Church program. A UMC pastor I know said he once saw a poster of the mass murderer Che Guevara hanging in the lobby of the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill where the GBCS has its offices. I was not shocked to hear it.
December 6, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Yes, hard words, but the truth sometimes hurts.
The General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) has printed articles essentially promoting teen sex, alternative sex, extra-marital sex, etc. They support a radical pro-abortion organization misnamed the Religious Coalition For Reproductive Choice (originally founded as an abortion rights league, the main “choice” they’re interested in promoting is the one FOR abortion).
The GBCS, under the leadership of Winker and other Leftists, regularly and mindlessly parrots talking points of the secular Left. A few years ago Winkler misused his position to actually call for the impeachment of George W. Bush. Around this time they also touted “Rock The Vote,” which was basically an initiative to encourage young people to vote for liberal Democrats. Mr. Winkler is shameless.
And the story only gets worse. Recently Winkler even compared the protestors of the so-called “Occupy” movement to Christ in the temple:
http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/c.frLJK2PKLqF/b.3455819/k.5F59/Letters_to_the_Editor/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp
How much longer can the United Methodist church tolerate Jim Winkler’s political shell game? How long can the United Methodist church, in its national advocacy programs, continue to replace Christian orthodoxy with left-wing politics before it ceases to be relevant?
December 7, 2011 at 6:37 am
@David,
So Isaiah 53 is about Cyrus?
No. Isaiah 40-55 uses the word “messiah” only in 45:1: “Thus says the LORD to his messiah, to Cyrus &c.”
The “servant” of Isa 53 is never called an “anointed one,” a “messiah.”
I made my comment because, in most of the rest of the post, Fischler appears to take seriously the meaning of the text for its own time as an essential step in interpretation. So, his apparent reference to the “servant” as a far-future “messiah” stood out.
December 7, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Who or what does Isaiah 53 refer to? Some interpretations, such as the politically-correct Harper’s commentary, characterize this as Israel. But the Scripture refers to a man of sorrows who, like a lamb led to the slaughter, silently endures brutal and unjust punishment. One can see how this may be descriptive of Jewish suffering.
However, during the time of ancient Israel, Judaic prophets like Jeremiah were frequently chastising Israel for turning from God. Israel’s punishment—wandering in the desert, exile, etc.—was considered, to some extent, warranted (or “just” in the modern leftist vernacular). Ergo, one can make a strong case that Israel may not be the subject of this particular chapter.
Who else could it be? The individual described in Isaiah 53 certainly bears little resemblance to the heroic deliverer Israel had prayed for and expected. Consequently, it’s reasonable to assume that the Messiah, or Christ, is the subject of Scripture. Surely from a Christian perspective this would seem to be the most plausible understanding.
But, again, self-styled illuminati like Mr. Winkler appear to bypass this understanding in favor of more liberal views. Most interestingly, he even uses the “BCE” terminology instead of “BC.” Perhaps the use of BCE in secular contexts can be justified….but why would one use it in a Christian context? How can Winkler reason this? Only if he is more interested in placating secular interests than advancing Christian ones. Once again we find Winkler in the position of undermining his own faith IN THE NAME OF THAT SAME FAITH. He is, in essence, sawing off the limb he’s sitting on…a position he‘s apparently comfortable in.
Jim Winkler makes a habit of decrying societal dysfunctions while being an apologist for the very mechanisms that caused them. He has been wandering in the desert of his own self-righteousness for far too long…and subjecting the rest of us to the consequences of it.
December 7, 2011 at 9:34 pm
The Apostle Peter (I Pt. 2:22), the Evangelist Philip (Ac 8:32 ff.), and perhaps even the Lord Himself (Mark 10:45) applied Isaiah 53 to Jesus Christ. The suffering servant is the Messiah (mentioned in Ps. 2, as well), or else the consistent testimony of the Christian church through the ages is wrong.
December 8, 2011 at 8:00 am
Kepha, my comments don’t say a thing, one way or other, about whether the servant is or isn’t Christ/the Messiah. My comments are only about *what Isa 40-55 says*, not *what is or isn’t true about the servant*.
Fischler, in taking on his opponents, raises the issue of what the book of Isaiah actually says. That’s why I point out: Isaiah specifically calls Cyrus “messiah.” Isaiah specifically *doesn’t* say that the servant is the Messiah. Whether *others* say it, and whether it’s *true*, was not any part of my posts.
December 8, 2011 at 10:12 am
A-brooke, you wrote that “…in most of the rest of the post, Fischler appears to take seriously the meaning of the text for its own time as an essential step in interpretation. So, his apparent reference to the “servant” as a far-future “messiah” stood out.” That implies that you think reference to a “messiah” is not a serious interpretation. Please note my prior arguments against this view.