by
Sylvia Dooling
Let me ask you a question. When it comes to choosing a new doctor for
yourself or for your family, do you decide on some criteria beforehand or do
you merely open the yellow pages to ‘Physicians and Surgeons,” stick in
your finger, and pick any old one at random? If you are anything like me,
you will want to know that your prospective physician went to a good school,
that s/he didn’t graduate last in his/her class, and that s/he has a
generally clear record relative to malpractice suits.
How about when you take a prescription to be filled? Do you take it to just
anyone, or do you want to make sure that your pharmacist operates according
to the highest professional standards possible? If you are anything like me,
you do some checking around before you pick someone to fill your
prescriptions. You want to make sure that the person you choose uses
chemicals that are pure, that they’ve been tested properly, and that the FDA
has approved them for the treatment of the particular set of ‘issues” that
took you to the doc in the first place.
What about your drinking water? What about the food that you buy at the
grocery store? You have standards relative to these things, too. If you are
like me, you support and depend on federal and state laws that protect you
and your family from tainted meat and bacteria-ridden fruits and vegetables.
You read the Health Department reports on local restaurants that are
published in the newspaper, and avoid the ones that rate low.
But, how many of us have the same high standards when it comes to making
sure, before we give it, that the money that we give to mission is used the
way that we expect it to be used? More specifically, how many Presbyterian
Women take the time and expend the energy to determine that their standards
are met relative to the money that they give so faithfully month in and
month out to the national PW organization? Even more specifically, how many
of us are sure that the money we give trusting that it will be used to hand
the faith on to the next generation of young Presbyterian women is being
used for that purpose?
Let me give you an example of where my standards haven’t been met.
One of the grant recipients for the 2003 Birthday Offering is called The
Cleveland Campus Mosaic. It is a ministry to university students. At first
blush, it sounds like a worthy recipient of a PW grant. After all, who among
us doesn’t want our young people to be nurtured and challenged in the
Christian faith as they live through this part of their lives?
However, if you were to take the time to study their website
(http://www.cwru.edu/orgs/UPCaM/home.htm ), to look carefully at their
mission statement, and to read the various position papers written by their
leaders, you would probably discover that the Mosaic doesn’t not live up to
your standards, either. The philosophy and theology that the Mosaic teaches
will, most likely, trouble you. Clearly, the Mosaic has its own standards,
but my guess is that they are not the same biblical and constitutional
standards that are held by the majority of Presbyterian Women.
So, what can you to do? Well, it is your right as a member of Presbyterian
Women to expect the highest of standards when it comes to the way in which
the national organization spends your money. Presbyterian Women has a
wonderful history of supporting the mission of the church of Jesus Christ.
But today, in some cases, that standard is no longer being met. Whose
problem is that? It’s each of ours. But, you must take the responsibility to
gather sufficient information upon which to decide if the current standard
governing PW’s mission giving is one that you are willing to continue to
support.
As for myself, I can no longer support the Birthday Offering. And, I will
continue to be unable to support it until I am guaranteed that the money I
give will go to advance the historic faith of the church not some skewed and
warped version of it. Sometimes the women in my circle look a bit askance at
me when I don’t pony up, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay in order to
live up to my standards.
When it comes to your physical well-being, you expect the highest standards.
When it comes to the food that you eat and the water that you drink, you
expect the highest standards. The time has come for you also to expect the
highest of standards for your spiritual well-being and the well-being of our
college young people as well. The words of Paul to his beloved child,
Timothy, apply to us today no less than they did in the first century ‘Hold
to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith
and love that are in Christ Jesus.”