By Viola Larson, Naming His Grace blog
Who is God? The newest 1001 New Worshiping Community, Mercy Junction, isn’t certain. Their new e-magazine, Holy Heretic, within its August edition, will help you embrace any viewpoint, including atheism, pantheism, polytheism and goddess worship. If that isn’t good enough they will allow you to read a spoof (I hope it is a spoof) in which founder Brian Merritt encountered a god who was drunk. The whole community is backed by East Tennessee Presbytery and Renaissance Presbyterian Church. And, of course, because it is a part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and their 1001 New Worshiping Communities project, it is endorsed by the denomination.
The “devotional” e-magazine, Holy Heretic, has been published several times on various subjects including prayer and justice. But the August edition on God seems to me to lay the foundation for their advocacy work. Since Holy Heretic is intended to be devotional after each description of the various views of God is a little exercise to help the reader experience that type of belief.
At the end of the page on the goddess, the devotional author writes:
“The moon has been used since ancient times as a symbol for the feminine and the Goddess (And her three incarnations, mother, maiden and crone.) The connection likely began because the moon’s 29 day cycle of waxing and waning is a schedule similar to menstrual cycle.[1] Tonight the moon will be more than halfway toward waxing into her fullest, most glorious self-reaching her complete magnificence on Sunday. Starting tonight take time to spend at least 10 minutes in the moonlight, returning each evening until the full moon is achieved. Let yourself relax, let your brain rest. Just be. Go with what you feel. Do you want to dance in the moonshine? Sing to the lady in the sky? Throw back your head and howl?”
At the very end they ask for the readers experiences and give their Facebook page.
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“that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has sought to live up to its commitment to
love people of other religious traditions but many times we have not”
Yeah, that’s understatement of the year, of course to them other religious traditions include Bible believing Presbyterians, which are exempt under this confession, and have a target on their backs.
I have called into question the general purpose and intent of this “1001” initiate in another posting. In this narrative and personal experience shows, 1001 is nothing more than a sham, an illusion, another falsehood in denomination built for and in existence to maintain falsehoods. A lie, wishing to express itself as truth, death wishing to take on the mantle of life.
They offer no hope, no salvation, no redemption, no liberation from bondage to sin and pathologies. In fact such pathologies are celebrated and encouraged. They lack both form and substance. And at the end of the day the vast, vast, vast majority of these 1001 “concepts”, and that is being kind, will crash and burn as their denomination continues in its death spiral, embracing as always the culture of death and hopelessness. Always seeking for hope and peace, but none will be found.
Unfortunately there is nothing new about these viewpoints in the PCUSA. A PCUSA pastor in a neighboring Tennessee presbytery publishes a blog. In one entitled ‘What I believe” he states the following. “That the trinity, the person of Christ,the sacraments, the authority of the Bible were invented in the pre-modern era and are best suited for that time period. That Jesus may have been historical but most of the stories about him in the Bible are legends. But he’s cool”
Telling, isn’t it. Reference a Charles Dennison quote in “History for a Pilgrim People” – Chief Big Deer gave up a dream warden doll to his pastor, many decades ago, to follow Christ Jesus. Then the Presby Archives presented the doll back to the tribe, somewhat recently, to embrace the idolatry.
Protestant just comes with an institutional expiration date, let’s face it. It’s tough, but not all bad – its one way God keeps salvation resonating to the lost as “new every morning” – without changing the ancient message.