Mouths need to be fed at the same time that souls are saved
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2008
I appreciate the clarification from Walter L. Taylor and Viola Larson (letters to the editor, posted May 27, 2008) regarding my statement that liberals and not conservatives resisted Hitler. I based my comment on (a) I tend to list Karl Barth, author of the Barmen Declaration, as a “liberal” since he is also the father of neo-orthodoxy – sometimes labeling leads to misunderstanding, (b) Martin Niemoller in October of 1945 apologized for the surviving Confessing Church for their failure to speak out against the Nazi regime, and (c) Pope Pius XII was widely criticized for his silence during the Nazi years. But yes, I’m sure it’s true that many theological liberals got cozy with Hitler.
But enough about German church history. The point that I was trying to make is that liberals have in fact often engaged society and faced justice issues in a way that many conservatives haven’t. I am not aware that the Moral Majority people ever brought in very many homeless from the cold, although perhaps some did. More and more, a new breed of evangelicals is coming to the realization that mouths need to be fed at the same time that souls are saved. Nineteenth century evangelicals, in Britain and the U.S., were equally active in evangelistic rallies and revivals and in social reform, i.e. the abolitionist movement, prison reform, child labor laws, etc. The late Francis Schaeffer denounced the “personal peace and affluence” values of so many contemporary evangelicals. Here at African Bible College in Malawi, where I am the faculty member responsible for student outreach, students are going out weekly and doing feeding programs in villages while conducting Bible studies and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The other point I was trying to make is that the mainstream of the PCUSA, in pursuing “justice,” has (a) adopted a radically leftist political agenda (re: the Ufford-Chase peacenik thing), and (b) left Jesus and the Scriptures behind. This, in turn, is widely seen as a leading cause for the denomination’s decline – in numbers, finances and missionary presence. Though I’m in the EPC, I would like nothing better than to see the PCUSA change course at its upcoming General Assembly and adopt a more Biblical position. Miracles, while almost by definition are rare occurrences, can still happen.
Presbyterians have a proud legacy of promoting education and storming the beaches on the mission field. They opened hospitals and built churches in the world’s remotest areas. The American government looks like Presbyterian polity because the Constitution was largely written by Presbyterians. Today the liberal Presbyterians are rapidly shrinking while the conservative ones are mostly treading water. I think that Presbyterianism is worth preserving. My prayer is that the American Presbyterian legacy is never lost.
Larry Brown African Bible College, Lilongwe, Malawi
I have seen military service absolutely transform young people
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2008
I find Mr. Ufford-Chase’s anti-military/anti-USA behavior absolutely shameful! I am blessed to be descended from a strong Christian-Presbyterian family (at least the last 250 years that I can document) and also descended from generations of men who have fought and some who died defending our country. As a youth director at a crisis ministry working with the poor, I am appalled as I have seen military service absolutely transform young people into successful adults. The military provides the greatest opportunity for young adults to move out of poverty and ignorance into an educated and middle class lifestyle. And serving in Iraq is much safer than living in many of our large cities urban areas.
I have spoken with Mr. Ufford-Chase in the past, and my evaluation is that he is spiritually blind and historically blind. I pity him. I also praise God that I am not longer affiliated with the PCUSA!
Andrew McCaskill
PPF’s program just happened to fall on the Memorial Day weekend?
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2008
I sometimes wonder if those in leadership positions in the PCUSA think their members are complete idiots. Take for example, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship’s (PPF) latest message from Rick Ufford-Chase about their program titled “Resisting Militarism.”
Rick says the program just happened to fall on the Memorial Day weekend by accident because it was a three-day weekend. Are we supposed to think that when planning the program, no one really knew what holiday was being recognized that weekend?
Then he goes on to say that the program was simply intended to inform students that there are “other, non-military options for living out a life of service to the Church.” Really? Somehow that doesn’t quite seem to fit the program title of “Resisting Militarism.”
If the PPF is going to spend their funds on efforts to degrade military service, that’s up to them. Frankly, I’m quite pleased to see them wasting their money that way since they will not succeed. However, it really bothers me when they then lie about their intents.
Ronald Everett Col, AUS-Ret., North Olmsted, Ohio
We must move beyond one faceted interpretation of Biblical verse’
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2008
The Layman treats homosexuality as if it is a modern leprosy plague. With declining church and attendance and membership, we must move beyond one faceted interpretation of Biblical verse and allow congregations to embrace gay people in the same way they welcome straight people.
Patrick Allin Ridgewood, N.J.
Let us be careful what we hope for
Posted Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Commissioners to General Assembly are being asked in this petition “to support proposals which will ensure every congregation its property rights.” Let us be careful what we hope for.
Congregational ownership of property is the ultimate local-option hammer that could lead to church properties being diverted from worship and sold for secular profit. A close look at church properties in small communities in most any presbytery in the land will reveal the potential of this problem.
William E. Diggs Tulsa, Okla.
I was correct in deciding that the PCUSA is beyond reform’
Posted Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Good thing these anti-military protesters were not around during World War II or we might all be speaking German (or Japanese). This program dishonors my 26 years of service in the USMC as well as that of my son who is currently serving. It also convinces me that I was correct in deciding that the PCUSA is beyond reform. I almost (and should have) left the PCUS during Vietnam as the handwriting was already on the wall, and reunion was just around the corner.
After over 50 years in the mainline denomination, three years ago my wife and I found refuge in the PCA, a denomination that completely supports our military, especially with chaplains. I only wish we made the move earlier. It is refreshing to hear preaching from a Reformed perspective and to belong to a denomination that actually knows what it believes – the five solas and the doctrines of grace.
Charles P. Preston Jr. Col USMC (ret.) , Tappahannock, Va.
The Church must never be captive to any human political ideology
Posted Wednesday, May 28, 2008
I would like to recommend a very powerful book which I trust you will read during this time of presidential elections in our country. It is: The Myth of a Christian Nation – How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church by Gregory A. Boyd (Zondervan Publishing Co.), an evangelical pastor of a large church in Minnesota. He warns of the danger of the church being captive to any political party or ideology, something which is happening among many evangelical churches today. Though the Church stands for the politics of Jesus and the principles of the kingdom of God, it must never be captive to any human political ideology, whether left or right. Presently the danger is to be captivated by the right-wing political agenda.
Boyd is very Biblical in his approach and I believe makes a very strong case in defense of his thesis. I personally believe he is being prophetic and hope you will read his book even if you end up disagreeing with him. He should at least be heard. He is no theological liberal and is clear on his evangelical convictions but rejects the identification of the Christian faith with either the Democrat or the Republican party.
Rev. Eriberto (Eddie) Soto
Ufford-Chase has difficult time when expected to show patriotic support for military
Posted Wednesday, May 28, 2008
I noticed some commentary about Rick Ufford-Chase and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship’s “Resisting Militarism” program directed toward Presbyterian youth, a program that happened this past weekend in New Mexico.
Lest there be any doubt about how Rick Ufford-Chase feels about the U.S. military and the war in Iraq, and the subject of showing patriotic spirit in a public setting, one has only to read his Rick’s own words, ostensibly extemporaneously written on his laptop computer and posted in the first section of his blog titled “What I See” on Nov 17, 2005. He wrote the piece as he sat in the airport in Atlanta, Ga., waiting for a flight connection.
He clearly admits that he has a difficult time and feels emotionally conflicted when he is in a public situation where he feels there is an expectation for him to show patriotic support for U.S. military servicemen and women. The first half of his blog that day pretty much lays out his feelings, but to be sure that his comments are taken in full context, one can read the whole blog.
I fear that we may have a candidate for president who may share with Mr. Ufford-Chase many of the same conflicted feelings toward military service, but I don’t think you will be able to get that candidate to talk about it honestly during the campaign.
Gary J. Green Chandler, Ariz.
Baby boomers have made a conscious choice to live for self
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Resisting Militarism has been alive and well in the Presbyterian Church (USA) for over a generation. Accurately, it should be titled “resisting the military.” Sadly, it is only part and parcel to the baby boomers being the first generation in American history not to emulate the values of their ancestors. Instead of living for God or country, they have made a conscious choice to live for self. Such a lifestyle has shown itself in the promotion of materialism, consumerism and hedonism. Even more sadly, such a lifestyle has had the effect of a total lack of discipline in both parents and children today. Small wonder the United States is a target for terrorists.
Sidney L. Leak III Chaplain (Colonel-Retired) USA
The church should be slow to embrace the policies of political parties
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008
As an executive board member of the Witherspoon Society, I am offended by your characterization of the Witherspoon Society as a Democratic Party interest group. First, I am a Green Party member who finds both of our political parties’ choices sorely lacking in anything approaching a future orientation.
Second, I am a graduate of Grove City College and am quite familiar with the program and tactics of the neo conservatives for whom you so often speak. Since neither of the major political parties espouses the ethics and social responsibility taught by the Gospels I agree that we in the church should be slow to embrace the policies of those political parties wholesale.
Having said that, I look forward to you explaining your embrace of the Southern strategy Republican agenda.
Rev. Dr. Darcy E. Hawk
PCUSA peaceniks make excuses for their misguided behavior
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I have no regard for Presbyterian peaceniks, who make excuses – even lie – in order to avoid criticism of their misguided behavior. No thinking person would schedule an anti-military event on a national holiday which honors servicemen who have died serving their country. Several of my friends have permanent residence in Arlington National Cemetery.
It is even more reprehensible that the PCUSA is sponsoring and lending its name to such an event.
As a 40-year member of this denomination, I resent being associated or connected in any way with this effort. As a retired Army officer who served in two wars, I resent even more the effort to tell young people they should not serve in the military. Have the advocates for such behavior ever served a day in the military? What is their rationale, other than a hatred for anything military? They don’t have the foggiest idea of the rewards for serving in the military. After five years of active duty, I was given an all-expense-paid year and a half to get a master’s degree from Georgia Tech.
Peaceniks in the PCUSA seem to be obsessed with taking political journeys into territory in which they are ill-equipped. Twenty years ago, they published a study “Peacemaking, Are We Now Called to Resistance.” This was during the height of the cold war with the Soviet Union. Yet this study recommended punishing the USA by withholding income taxes and making violent attacks against U.S. weapons storage sites. In response I volunteered to serve on our presbytery’s peacemaking committee to see if such sentiment was widespread. Yes, it was! Only their crusade spouted anti-Semitism toward Israel. No rationale, just hatred toward the Jews.
It seems there are like-minded overtures before the 218th General Assembly.
Jack Vanderbleek Col. U.S. Army (Retired), Elder, Northeast Presbyterian Church , St. Petersburg, Fla.
Nazified Christianity was a natural outgrowth of theological liberalism
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008
With all due respect to my brother Larry Brown, [letter to the editor, posted May 23, 2008] he is not correct in asserting that “When the Nazis took over in Germany it was the liberals who put up what little resistance there was. Conservatives slipped on their swastika armbands and heiled Hitler along with everybody else.” In actual fact, Protestant liberals overwhelmingly supported the Nazis and the so-called “German Christian” Movement, which attempted to Nazify Christianity. The reason that this happened was because liberal Protestantism based its theology on an epistemology very much akin to that of the Nazis. Liberal Protestants (much as they do today) made the same appeal to “Blood and Soil” and human experience as a source of revelation, as did the Nazis.
Those who made the most significant protest against this movement within the German Protestant Church were not theological liberals. Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Schneider and the other brave figures of the Confessing Church were not liberals or friends of theological liberalism. In fact, they argued that the emergence of a Nazified Christianity was a natural outgrowth of theological liberalism.
Within our own Book of Confessions is the Theological Declaration of Barmen, the confessional declaration made by the Confessing Church. It is hardly a liberal document. Its presence in our Book of Confessions, in light of all the “blood and soil” experience-based theology in our denomination (liberation theology, feminist theology, gay theology, etc.), is an ironic sign that God has not left Himself without witness in the PCUSA today.
Rev. Walter L. Taylor Oak Island Presbyterian Church , Oak Island, N.C.
Can anyone clarify the definition and tasks of exegesis and hermeneutics?
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008
As a layman with limited formal training in Biblical interpretation (all my formal training is in electrical engineering and computer science), I am requesting that either the editors or perhaps a knowledgeable reader help me with understanding the definition and tasks of exegesis and hermeneutics. I have taught an adult Sunday school class for many years, and my understanding of the meaning of these words are largely informed by that found in How to Read the Bible for All It Is Worth by Fee and Stone. In this text, the authors explain that exegesis is the task of determining what the Scripture passage meant to the original recipients of the text, i.e. what it meant in its original context. Hermeneutics is then the task of determining what the passage means in a modern context, i.e. to us today. These authors also emphasize that exegesis must precede and inform hermeneutics to avoid completely disconnecting the modern understanding of the passage from its original meaning. This explanation seems logical to my engineer’s mind.
I was confused by a passage in the recent review in The Layman by David Guretski of a book on Karl Barth by Richard Burnett. The paragraph that I found confusing reads:
- “Biblical hermeneutics, it will be recalled, is commonly understood as reflection upon the nature and procedures of Biblical interpretation. As such, hermeneutics is often understood to be something that is logically prior to exegesis, the task of interpreting Biblical texts. In fact, this would have been more or less accepted as axiomatic among Biblical scholars and theologians of Barth’s day (and to a certain extent, even today).”
This seems to turn around the order of exegesis and hermeneutics. I am sure that the confusion is simply a result of my limited understanding, but would really appreciate any clarification of these definitions that you or your readers could provide.
Mike Madden Talking Rock, Ga.
Ufford-Chase’s audacity to criticize those who died for his freeedom
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Who possibly could be surprised by the audacity of Ufford-Chase’s blatant disregard for those who gave their lives so he could have the freedom to disrespect them? He is simply reflecting the attitude of the Presbyterian “elite” who demand rights and privileges but have no ability or capacity to understand the cost of such freedoms. I salute those who have served this nation with such honor. They provide the opportunity for people such as Ufford-Chase to continue to pursue their causes. I believe freedom is only true if it allows such dissent. While I find him and his actions despicable, thank God and the American soldiers of all generations he can be what he is. If, as he says, this is coincidental and he had not realized its impact then maybe he is not the person for the job, but that is another argument entirely.
David W. Turner
PCUSA has gone further away from Christian values than the ACLU
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I guess I am one of the uninformed Presbyterians, for I did not know that we had a branch of the ACLU as a part of PCUSA. Certainly when we have groups trying to discourage young people from considering military service – while we have troops giving their lives to assure our freedoms – we seem to have gone even further away from Christian values than even the ACLU.
If anyone wonders why so many congregations are seeking to leave the PCUSA, and why many Presbyterian churches are declining in membership, the leadership which allows or in some cases even fosters such lunacy as this “Peace Fellowship” is not only dishonoring our servicemen and women, but do a disservice to Presbyterians everywhere.
Jay Dull Boca Raton, Fla.