Celebrating and Weeping (September/ October 2006)
by
Viola Larson
Two newsy publications came in my mail this Tuesday. One was the
September/October _Horizons, _and the other the VOW newsletter. Most of the
articles in both of them were about the 2006 Presbyterian Women’s Gathering.
Strangely one would have thought the women who wrote the articles had
attended different gatherings. In the introduction inset of _Horizon’s _the
author writes, ‘Photos help, but still don’t completely capture the feeling
of sitting or standing amidst more than 3, 100 people, singing, laughing,
praying and celebrating the end of the triennium and the beginning of the
next.” While, in Vow’s newsletter, Sandy Huneycutt, Moderator of (WOC) of
Benton Heights Presbyterian Church in Monroe, NC, wrote, among other
complaints, ‘Overall, I was very disappointed in the lack of emphasis on
Jesus Christ!”
Huneycutt goes on to explain, ‘The underlying agenda prevalent throughout
the entire program was clearly liberalism, radical feminism,
multiculturalism, inclusiveness, spiritual diversity, and acceptance of all
beliefs; evangelism was omitted.” And it is true that little in either the
new issue of _Horizons _or the Presbyterian Women’s Gathering was concerned
with the person of Jesus Christ.
Likewise, there were two different views of the 2006 Business Meeting of the
Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women. The difference in views mainly
is about a new method of doing business, that is, the consensus model.
Author Yvonne Hileman, Assistant Editor for Presbyterian Women, simply gives
one line of attention to the new model, writing nothing but that it is ‘a
procedural change” from _Roberts Rules of Order._ Marcia Slentz-Whalen a
board member of VOW and Resource Chair of the Local Presbyterian Women’s
Coordinating team in Severna Park Maryland wrote a whole article around the
new method entitled, ‘Business Meeting or Rubber Stamp? In summing up her
final conclusions, Slentz-Whalen writes:
What I saw in action was a decision-making model that
gobbled up an inordinate amount of precious time,
exerted undue pressure on the assembled delegates to ‘go along” with the
majority (as if the ultimate goal was not necessarily the wisest decision
but rather unanimity),
allowed the ‘facilitator” to function as a debater, offering an immediate
response to every objection raised by those delegates who differed with the
CT’s position on the recommendation being considered.
Was exploited by the ‘facilitator,” who called for a ‘consensus check” at
arbitrary times (usually, if not always, immediately after her own rebuttal
of a delegate’s expression of concern and never immediately after a
convincing argument was made in opposition to the CT’s recommendation),
at the end of the day, left many delegates (including several who spoke with
me following the meeting) feeling frustrated, manipulated, and in some cases
even ‘steam-rolled” by the CT.
In this issue of _Horizons _an excerpt from Kikanza Nuri Robin’s Gathering
speech, ‘Community in Diversity,” plus highlights of Susan Andrews’ speech,
‘Out of Chaos” with comments by Alexa Smith are featured. I have written in
other articles about both speeches but needless to say Robin’s speech which
places all faiths at the same level of importance and authority is
unfaithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, and Andrew’s speech which names chaos’
as one of the attributes of God is simply about a different Lord then the
One Christian believers adore.
In a rather different mode, Benedita da Silva, the first ‘Afro-Brazilian
woman elected to Brazil’s Senate and another plenary speaker at the
Churchwide Gathering, is featured in _Horizons._ Thankfully the article
highlighting her work and life, written by Alexa Smith, includes da Silva’s
conversion. As Smith relates it, ‘After reading that biblical passage on
truth, [The truth has set you free], she began thinking of her-self as
valuable, maybe even pretty. She was, at least, important to God. So much so
_that someone died for her_. And that, she says, made all the difference.”
(Italics mine.) Da Silva urges others to follow Jesus and to also work for
women in developing countries to obtain leadership positions in politics,
business and society.
Ellen Birkett Morris writes about Lorraine Hartin-Gelardi, the story teller
for the Gathering. Morris in her article in _Horizons _writes, ‘Few stories
are more powerful than those rooted in our faith tradition, a truth that was
affirmed by participants of the 2006 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian
Women, who were treated to the performances of storyteller Lorraine
Hartin-Gelardi.” Morris is right about the powerfulness of stories rooted
in the Christian faith tradition and Hartin-Gelardi is truly a powerful
story teller but in a supposedly Christian gathering her story telling fell
flat for several reasons.
First, no other speaker was really speaking of Jesus Christ, the cross or
resurrection and Hartin-Gelardi was left to fill in the empty spots. Of
course she didn’t. The second reason is that in one of her stories,
Hartin-Gelardi implied that all human visions of God are equal and with this
implication she placed humanity’s ideas about God on a level with God’s
revelation of himself.
The third reason is that one of the main biblical stories she told was the
creation account and for this she used material from _God’s Trombones: Seven
Negro Sermons in Verse, _by James Weldon Johnson. While this is a classic
piece and enjoyable to listen to from such a talented person, like Milton’s
_Paradise Lost, _theologically it is flawed. God is lonely so he makes
himself a world, so the lines in the sermon poem tell the listener. But
actually our God created because of his great grace and love for within the
Trinity there is completeness in relationship and God is not lonely.
Undoubtedly Hartin-Gelardi told the story of creation because the
Presbyterian Women’s Gathering had emphasized creation and light using
Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1. Using the piece from _God’s Trombones, _she was
able to bring an artist’s and poet’s view to the story. In the same manner
the new Horizons’ Bible study looks at Genesis from different perspectives,
but mainly from a feminist perspective. One perspective that some will bring
to the study of Genesis is of course the scientific perspective. The new
issue of _Horizons_ offers the first of the Editor’s Bible study resources
and this one does look at Science and Religion. The article, ‘Science and
Religion: Partners in Understanding Our World,” is written by Barbara A.
Pursey who holds a ‘PhD in chemistry and an MDiv in theology,” and is on
the board of the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the
Christian Faith. Many inconsistencies and prejudices arise in Pursey’s
attempt at giving an accounting of all the various views within the
Presbyterian Church.
First in explaining the three views, ‘young earth creationism,”
‘intelligent design theory” and ‘theistic evolution,” Pursey argues with
the first two before she is even finished listing and explaining the three.
When explaining the first view, ‘young earth creationism,” Pursey suggests
that it is because of an ‘overly strong reading of the classical
confessions,” that these Presbyterians rule out her view, theistic
evolution. Her argument is a very unscientific argument to say the least.
She goes on to state that in 1980 the Presbyterian Panel found that only
fourteen percent of Presbyterians affirmed the young earth view.
When Pursey explains the intelligent design view (the view I hold) she
quotes Michael Behe’s term ‘irreducibly complex,” and William Dembski’s
term ‘specified complexity” but later in her notes suggests that Margaret
Gray Towne’s _Honest to Genesis _is the book to read for a ‘more complete
explanation of Intelligent Design.” One would think that those who propose
the intelligent design argument would be the ones who would give the more
complete explanation. If I want to truly understand Calvin or Augustine I
read Calvin or Augustine! Or I at least read those thinkers who agree with
Calvin and Augustine before I read their detractors.
After explaining that the proponents of this view see the designer
intervening at certain points in evolutionary history in order to create, (a
rather strange way of explaining intelligent design), Pursey argues that
‘there is no scientific evidence” ‘of interventions by a designer’ in the
flow of evolutionary biology as the best explanation of life on earth.” It
would seem that if you hold a theistic evolutionary viewpoint which holds
that an intelligent designer does not intervene in evolution that the
argument that there is no scientific evidence that a designer intervened is
a circular argument and therefore it is a fallacy.
Of course Pursey is not writing a book just a small article but she needs to
distinguish between her own opinions and true arguments. She must address
the arguments that both Dembski and Behe make about irreducible complexity
or specified complexity. Pursey offers no statistics on how many people in
the Presbyterian Church hold the intelligent design view.
When giving the explanation of theistic evolution theory Pursey states in a
rather patronizing manner that ‘a preponderance of Presbyterian scientists,
church leaders and members would find themselves here.” Pursey’s argument
for theistic evolution is that ‘God undergirds (sic) the processes of
creation, but not in a scientifically detectable way.” So how does one know
that God under girds the processes of creation? According to Pursey by
reading scripture to understand why there is a creation. But that means that
while Dembski and Behe would debate the differences between theistic
evolution and intelligent design on scientific grounds Pursey would only do
so on theological and scriptural grounds a seemingly fundamentalist
position! Wouldn’t it have been easier and fairer if the Editors of
_Horizons _had askedproponents of the three views to simply explain, without
comment, their three views?
Some are afraid of other views as is the main person in this _Horizon’s_
story from Dispatch from Forbearance Presbyterian Church. Jane, the
character in ‘Taking the Dare,” goes to a meeting at Forbearance Church
which is meant to explore ‘inclusiveness, race and ethnicity. She is
concerned about all the changes she is experiencing around her. The author,
Charlotte Johnstone, tells us that ‘A Muslim family had moved into a house
across the street.” Jane quits going to a shopping center when she notices
that ‘many of the shoppers” were of a different ethnic background.
Johnstone relates that Jane was ‘quite taken aback when, during a
Forbearance service, the infant son of a lesbian couple was baptized.
According to the Johnstone:
Forbearance was no longer just another all-white church, and it was no
longer a church where gays and lesbians were reluctant to come for worship.
Forbearance was a city church nowa grown-up church with diverse skin colors,
accents, social positions and life experiences. Other traditions and
priorities were present now and topics that had not been discussed
beforerace, class, sexual orientation, cultural expectations, bias and
deep-seated prejudicewere on the table for examination.
After hearing at the meeting such words as, ‘racism,” ‘cultural
proficiency,” and ‘homophobia,” and with the help of God, Jane concludes
that she is afraid of the unknown; she is fearful. She has a new birth of
‘cultural and spiritual freedom.”
As I read this story I was reminded of thirty-two years ago, when after my
sixth child started nursery school, I went back to school. I remember the
great joy and freedom I felt as a Christian given the opportunity to be
among such a variety of people and be able to tell them about Jesus Christ
and how he died on the cross for their sins. I still remember sitting at
lunch at a table full of women who were both lesbians and witches. We talked
about many things including Jesus Christ as they passed my Bible among them.
We were always friends although they knew I did not agree with either their
lesbian lifestyle or their religion. Real freedom and lack of fear does not
come from giving up the truths of scripture but from knowing Jesus Christ
and walking in his grace and righteousness.
_Truly, Truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world
will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. (John
16:20)_