Generations (January/ February 2007)
by
Viola Larson
_ _The new issue of _Horizons_ January/February 2007, is subtitled
‘Generations.” Several of the articles in this issue are about
multi-generations of families. Some are about multi-generational giving. One
article is about multi-generational advocacy for women. A few of the
articles are positive and although about human misfortune are encouraging
and helpful. Yet this issue of _Horizons _is filled with inconsistency. The
emphasis is about honoring past generations, yet much of this new issue both
dishonors and ignores the true biblical faith of past generations. While
many of the articles tie together generations and faith; it is a faith
grounded in pluralism, secular humanism and pragmatism.
Different articles, in this issue of _Horizons,_ attempt different solutions
to human brokenness; one offers a sociological solution, one a women’s
rights solution and one just suggests that teenagers will grow up and become
parents too! (See, ‘All Bones and Baby Fat,” by Charlotte Johnstone.)
The first article, ‘Better Together,” an excerpt from, _Better Together:
Restoring the American Community_, by Robert D. Putnam and Lewis M.
Feldstein with Don Cohen is very interesting. It highlights a particular
problem for the United States, what the authors see as a lack of ‘social
capital.” This means that people in America are failing to interact on a
social level. It seems that most Americans prefer to be alone and no longer
support social institutions such as church, school or community clubs. Even
the intimate neighborhood associations are missing from peoples lives.
The authors write, ‘Once-familiar social activitiespicnicking, playing cards
with friends, even hanging out at the neighborhood barare fast becoming
relics of a bygone era.” They explain how this has created a generation of
Americans who fail in so many ways, including failure to trust others, to
give to charity or to participate in political life.
The authors insist that ‘Every institution, [the church is included], must
make building social capital a principal goal or core value. To go further
one reads, ‘Looking through a social capital lens, for example, we see front
porches not as an architectural frill, but as an _effective strategy_ for
building strong, safe, friendly neighborhoods.”(Italics mine.) The authors
of ‘Better Together,” in the end plead for institutions which will suit,
‘_our times_,” and honor ‘_our values_: diversity, tolerance,
inclusiveness, equality, fairness, compassion, hope and public
spiritedness.” (7) (Italics and bold mine.)
There are two problems with this article and they are a clue to what is
wrong with the slant of the whole issue. The first problem: although the
authors are writing about people and their need to interact with other
people, they are using sociological and economic jargon which is
dehumanizing. Well yes, front porches are nice, they offer a place to sit
and wave at your neighbors or chat with them as they pass by. (Some of us
even have little raised flower beds with a lamppost where the neighborhood
kids like to sit and visit when they are finished roller skating.) But
describing front porches as an ‘effective strategy” is part of the problem.
The other and far more serious problem is including the church among those
democratic institutions which must strategize to ‘build social capital” by
mirroring the *times *and *values* of American society. All of those values
named by the authors are admirable ideals but as societies change so do
their values.
In fact, in a changing society words such as diversity, tolerance and
inclusiveness can be redefined. The book _Animal Farm _comes to mind. In it
a group of totalitarian pigs redefine the word equality with the statement,
‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” The
truth is we are losing our humanity and will not gain it back without
turning back to the one who took on himself our humanity, redeeming it on
the cross. Only in union with Jesus Christ can the Church develop its
relationship with society.
Here one is reminded of Karl Barth’s retort to the German Christian’s
suggestion that the Church leaders of Germany must do all they could to
bring the German people back into the Church in order to help fulfill the
government’s vision of racial superiority. Barth wrote, ‘The Church has not
to do anything’ so that the German people may find again the way into the
church,’ but so that _within _the Church the people may find the Commandment
and promise of the free and pure Word of God.” Continuing he writes:
It is not the Church’s function to help the German people to recognize and
fulfill any one vocation’ different from the calling’ from and to Christ.
The German people receives its vocation from Christ to Christ through the
Word of God to be preached according to the Scriptures. The Church’s task is
the preaching of the Word.1
There are in this issue some good and practical articles about generations
and how they help one another, such as Carol Gruber’s ‘Living In-Between:
Caring for those who cared for you,” and ‘Mission in our Midst,” by David
Gill. But all of the good and practical help is surrounded by articles and
recommendations which redefine the Christian faith.
The redefining comes slowly and then escalates. For instance, ‘Coming Full
Circle” is by Susan Baller-Shepard who, besides being a Presbyterian
Pastor, is one of the founding members of The Spirituality Book Club.2 She
also is an Ambassador to and has been a speaker at the World Spirit Forum: 3
WSF’s explanation of who they are includes the statement: ‘In many ways the
WSF World Spirit Forum is part of an emerging evolutionary revolution of
consciousness.”
Baller-Shepard’s article focuses on the author’s ancestors and is an
enjoyable read including her poem. Yet, one begins by thinking she will,
within her generation, uphold biblical faith since she writes of the
commandments of God and quotes (Deu.6:2), ‘So that your children and your
children’s children may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life.”
Yet Baller-Shepard surprises with the statement, ‘I want to believe that she
[her ancestor] lives within me, that her genes run in me to keep the wolves
in my life at bay.” (13) Baller-Shepard, although speaking of God and his
commandments seems to be redefining what it means to pass on the faith of
our fathers and mothers. Her article is seemingly about passing on
faithfulness in the sense of being faithful to the kinds of strengths our
ancestors possess, rather than passing on the biblical faith in the one
Triune God.
Baller-Shepard’s question about having done justice to the faith of her
ancestors is hanging in the air. One is not sure. However the following
article and recommendations are truly unfaithful.
Sylvia Thorson-Smith author of ‘Presbyterians and Gender Justice: The Church
and Advocacy for Women,” redefines the meaning of Christian women’s
advocacy. Added to what has always been worthy of Christian concerns, the
poor and oppressed, the un-evangelized, victims of war and natural
disasters, are such agendas as uplifting radical feminism, abortion on
demand and the ordination of practicing homosexuals. This is also an
incomplete history.
When Thorson-Smith makes such remarks as ‘The 1990s were traumatic and
disruptive years for women’s groups.” or ‘The denomination was about to be
tested on just how much latitude would be allowed for women’s prophetic
authority.” she is writing about other faithful women in the PCUSA.
Although she does not name them, does not agree with them and sees them as
problematic to her agenda she is writing about them between the lines. She
is writing about other women who advocated against the use of unbiblical
theology, the promotion of sexual anarchy and the insistence of abortion on
demand. She is writing about those women who in the 1990s stood against a
continual onslaught of unbiblical and dehumanizing demands by the
Presbyterian women leadership.4
Sylvia Dooling, President of Voices of Orthodox Women, in an expose about
Thorson-Smith’s article, points out that the author, ‘comes to her
recounting of the history of advocacy for women’ with a particular bias.”5
That is, that the organization, Voices of Sophia of which Thorson-Smith is a
founding member, was formed out of and after the disastrous ReImagining
Conference in 1993.6 Thorson-Smith refers to that conference and refers to
it as a time of ‘women’s prophetic authority.” (16)
At that conference an idolatrous divinity figure, Sophia, was worshiped in
place of the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As Hilda Kuester, the
woman who wrote the Milk and Honey Ritual, used at the conference, later
wrote:
Creating rituals for the conference and then participating had a profound
impact on me. One dramatic result of my experience is that I am beginning to
hold a feminine image as my primary image of God. This was largely the
result of discovering, as I wrote, all the richness in a fully developed,
gender specific image of God as Sophia. . . . Seeing what flowed from my pen
when Sophia was invoked, described, and praised created an inner shift.
Unconsciously and spontaneously, my thoughts and language moved away from a
neuter divinity to a feminine God with whom I connect in a very deep,
primitive, and natural way.7
The women at the Conference also experienced several speakers ranting at the
bloodied cross of Jesus Christ. In her article Thorson-Smith’s explanation
of the Re-Imagining conference is disingenuous and this despite reliable and
available primary sources. She writes, ‘The 2,200 women and men who attended
shared the richness of women’s liturgical, theological and creative
capacities. However, _reports_ about ReImaginingthe Sophia (God’s Wisdom)
language, milk and honey rituals, critiques of atonement theology and the
affirmation of lesbianswere deeply disturbing to many Presbyterian, who were
surprised by these developments in Christian feminism.” (Italics mine.)
The truth is that while there are many areas that Presbyterian Women,
Women’s Ministries and the Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns can
biblically advocate for, need to advocate for, Thorson-Smith, along with
these organizations, are still pushing an unbiblical agenda.
In fact, Thorson-Smith states that in the 80s ‘women were on the leading
edge” in producing feminist theology. She writes that, ‘General Assembly,
synod and presbytery advocacy groups sponsored numerous gatherings that
included *diverse* theological presentations and *creative* liturgies.”
(15) This is where the totalitarian ideology of the pigs of _Animal Farm_
shows up. The words *diverse* and *creative* are redefined by all of these
Presbyterian women’s ministries to mean an exclusive kind of theology. That
is, *diverse* means all kinds of women’s theological understanding except
those understandings which include high opinions of Scripture; *creative,*
means all kinds of liturgical rites by women except those liturgies that
speak of Father and Son.
Just as there is no book by a woman author who could be considered truly
Reformed and evangelical in their view of Scripture in the bibliography [1]
of women theologians on the Women’s Ministries site; usually recommended
book lists in _Horizons_ contain no Reformed author with a high view of
Scripture. This issue of _Horizons _is not different. The Bible study
resource, ‘The Diary of Hagar, the Wanderer: A Narrative Re-telling of
Genesis 16; 21: 1-10,”written by Vanessa Hawkins, is innocuous; yet, nearly
all of the recommended books at the end are heretical.
Some of these books, if I may use an oxymoron, are mildly radical. _Just
Wives? Stories of Power and Survival in the Old Testament and Today_ by
Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, simply retells stories from a women’s point of
view. Still, she suggests that since the Wisdom figure of Proverbs is
identified as Christ in the New Testament and the community of Proverbs is
seen as male, it is possible to imagine the Church as the husband of Christ.
This interpretation is meant to counteract the metaphor of Israel as the
wife of God in Hosea.
On the other hand, _Helpmates, Harlots, Heroes: Women’s Stories in the
Hebrew Bible _by Alice Ogden Bellis, is a compilation of radical feminist
interpretation while Delores S. Williams’ _Sisters in the Wilderness: The
Challenge of Womanist God-Talk,_ among other things denies the atoning death
of Christ on the cross. The most grievous book is _Gender, Power and
Promise: The Subject of the Bible’s First Story_ by Danna Nolan Fewell and
David M. Gunn.
The authors attempt to destroy God, the ultimate subject of Scriptures. They
write in their introduction, ‘The notion that the figure God in the biblical
text is actually God who is worshiped by Jewish and Christian believers
seems to us to be, ironically, a form of idolatry such as biblical voices
constantly warned against.”8 In the chapter on Genesis, slipping into
radical gnosticism, the authors suggest that God is unsure whether he is
plural or singular.
They write, ‘Thus despite the appearance of a world ordered and sustained by
exclusive and fixed definitions; God’s own blurred and slipping world might
in fact be as inherently indeterminable as the identity that creates it.”9
Any foundation linked to the faith of older generations is swept away by
these authors and by those _Horizons _Editors who would suggest such a
book.The pragmatism of Presbyterian Women’s leadership may include care for
the bodies of an older generation but they seemingly do not care for the
whole person, that is, body and soul.
In the midst of their continuing effort to change Scripture, reinterpret
biblical teaching, yes, and even redefine the Lord God of the Church,
Presbyterian Women must face the steadfast faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
They are unfaithful, he is faithful still.The author of the book of Hebrews
writes, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb
13:8) In that sameness of care, compassion and redeeming love, Jesus Christ
reaches out to all generations, from the pages of Scripture, from the throne
of his Father, with the urging of the Holy Spirit, ‘My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and
they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My
Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to
snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:
27-30 NAS)
———————————
1 Karl Barth, _Theological Existence To-Day!: A Plea for Theological
Freedom, _Translated by R. Birch Hoyle, (London: Hodder and Stoughton 1933)
51.
2 See http://www.spiritualbookclub.com/about_us/.
3See
http://www.worldspiritforum.org/en/archive/wsf2005/speakers_details_2005.php
.
4 The web sites of some of those unnamed groups can be found at:
www.layman.org. ; http://www.npwl.org/home/index.php. ; and
http://www.npwl.org/home/index.php.
5 Sylvia Dooling, ‘Foremother of Voices of Sophia Recounts History of
Advocacy for Women in the PCUSA,”
6 Ibid.
7 Hilda A. Kuester, ‘Creating the Sophia Ritual,” _Re-Membering and
Re-Imagining, _Nancy J Bernking and Pamela Carter Joern, Editors,
(Cleveland: Pilgrim Press 1995),18.
8 Danna Nolan Fewell and David M. Gunn, _Gender, Power and Promise: The
Subject of the Bible’s First Story_, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1993), 18.
9 Ibid., 23.