The Layman, September 13, 2010
Public comments by the new Presbyterian Church (USA) vice moderator, the Rev. Landon Whitsitt, in the weeks that followed General Assembly have sparked an ongoing conversation on the authority of Scripture.
Though his latest comments were aimed at clarifying earlier remarks, Whitsitt’s position on Scriptural authority may leave some “people in the pews” with more questions than answers.
‘Sola Scriptura is dead’
The debate mainly has occurred in the “blogosphere” as commentators weighed in on the Kansas City area pastor’s assertion that “Sola Scriptura is dead in most
Rev. Landon Whitsitt
places and rapidly dying in others.”
On Sept. 4, Whitsitt posted to the “Vice Moderator’s Blog” a little about the “stir” that followed, including a nearly 30-minute podcast in which he elaborated on his comments and a popular Presbyterian blogger discussed her reaction. The other two participants were PCUSA Moderator Cynthia Bolbach and Houston-area PCUSA Elder Jody Harrington.
Whitsitt’s comment came about following an interview request by Bill Tammeus, a PCUSA elder who blogs about religion on the Kansas City Star Web site and also writes for The Presbyterian Outlook. In answering a question on important issues facing PCUSA and the Church universal, Whitsitt touched on the authority of Scripture. And Tammeus printed Whitsitt’s response in its entirety.
“Here’s where I regret not being a little more careful,” Whitsitt said, during the podcast. “I wasn’t careful in my speech and didn’t reference clearly that I was referencing Phyllis Tickle.”
But Whitsitt was clear that he agrees with Tickle’s assertion.
“I think that Sola Scriptura is dead,” he said in the podcast. “I am not one who professes to operate under Sola Scriptura. I don’t do that. I’ve done a lot of thinking and a lot of writing on it.”
Following cultural trends
In a July 27 response on her blog, Quotidian Grace, Harrington said she couldn’t argue with Whitsitt’s observation, but expressed a different position on Scripture’s authority.
“It’s little wonder that the concept Sola Scriptura is ‘dead or rapidly dying’ in the PCUSA as conflict over the authority and interpretation of the Bible threatens the unity of the church,” Harrington wrote. “And it is little wonder that the PCUSA is rapidly diminishing as a result. When the church no longer upholds Scripture as authoritative in matters of faith and life, it is like a ship in full sail but without rudder and compass, driven in whatever direction the cultural winds are blowing, our port of destination unknown.”
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Harrington, who was complimented by Bolbach and Whitsitt on her blog response, continued her stand during the recent podcast. She blames an ongoing neglect of the authority of Scripture and suggested teaching the Solas as part of new member and elder training.
“I also believe that the cultural trends that we all live around tend to draw us away from looking at Scripture as authority,” she said. “There’s so many who question it. There’s so much publicity about the new atheists and so forth that I think it’s very tempting for people to go away from Scripture as our sole authority for our faith and for faith and life.”
In further explaining the context of his statements, Whitsitt said he fully embraces the Book of Order and proposed new Form of Government “talking about Scripture being God’s Word,” but he has moved away from the Sola Scriptura concept because of people using the Word of God as a trump card, he said.
“What I have a problem with is people reducing the Biblical narrative to a series of foundational truths,” Whitsitt said. “That really bothers me. I like Scripture because it tells us what God has always been doing, what God will be doing, but when we reduce the Bible to foundational truths that is disingenuous to the Biblical writers; I think it’s disingenuous to the genres that are present in the Scripture. I think it does it a real offense. What I am mostly frustrated is that certain people think that they can unequivocally speak on behalf of the Scripture. … When we say ‘Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone’ and when someone says ‘Landon what do you think Scripture alone says?’, and then I hold forth on what I think Scripture says I have made Scripture into an idol, I have made myself into an idol, I have decided unequivocally that I can speak on behalf of God, on behalf of the Scriptures that we have.”
We must wrestle with Scripture
In response, Harrington said she too is impatient with people who misuse Scripture, but that’s no reason to stop wrestling with it.
“Without foundational truths, I don’t know how we test our own thoughts, what we think God would have us do, if we don’t go back and look at Scripture,” she said.
Following a discussion about the role of the other Solas (fide, gratia, Christus and Deo Gloria) and the Holy Spirit, in the context of Tickle’s book, the subject returned to Scriptural authority.
“What’s at stake here is not whether we like the Bible or whether or not we revere the Bible, because I think we all do,” Whitsitt said. “I have not met a Presbyterian who doesn’t think the Scripture is all that and a bag of chips, because it is. It is absolutely fantastic.
“I think what we’re dealing with here is … how do we read the Scripture? How do we interpret the Scripture? What level of authority does Scripture have on our lives?”
‘Not the Word of God’
Whitsitt added that he believes Jesus Christ is the final authority, and the disagreement over Scripture is on how it’s read and at what point it should be authoritative.
“What I’m trying to do is place Scripture at a specific point in the process of trying to discern what the Word of God would have us do,” he said. “Scripture is only a reference point to the Word of God, it’s not the Word of God, you know, capital W. It’s only a reference point.”
The discussion concluded with Bolbach agreeing on the need for elder training on the Solas. In his final words of the broadcast, Whitsitt said he was pleased that the “gracious and respectful conversation” that began at General Assembly has continued.
Harrington said she hopes the discussion will “shed some light on where people are coming from.”
But, like a ship without a compass, an analogy Harrington used during the discussion, the podcast offers no greater clarity about where the PCUSA is headed under current leadership.