Bandits No More

At one time there were 380 tons of high explosives at this Iraqi base. Now (apparently) the explosives are not there.

Kerry and his campaign are shouting high and low that this is yet more evidence of mismanagement by Bush.

Pro-Bush people retort, “The explosives were already gone by the time the 3ID arrived last April,” implying, “We’re not at fault.” In this piece by Clifford May in NRO we even see the suggestion that the UN inspection regime bears major responsibility for never doing anything about the explosives.

As far as I am concerned, blame is irrelevant. If we are in the midst of a war, then what matters is:
(1) Where are the explosives now?
(2) Is there anything we can do to retrieve or destroy them?

Why must our political culture focus on assigning blame? They sound like a bunch of children. We become aware of an apparent disaster and all we can do is talk about whose fault it is.

It’s time to grow up.

This is only a tiny (the last) part of an extensive interview with Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, Biblical Scholar, evangelical leader and member of the commission that produced the report. He brings up the very important subject of adiaphora and discusses the complexities attached to it. Clearly the modern notion that everything is adiaphora (except for qualities and actions that make you PC) won’t work. Here’s what he has to say.

Another thing that’s central to the report is the question of what is known in the trade as adiaphora, things indifferent. It has been a principle of Anglicanism, from the very beginnings in the 16th century, that there are some things which Anglican Christians can agree to differ about. The real question at the heart of much of this is, which of the things we can agree to differ about and which of the things we can’t agree to differ about.

Again and again I hear people on both sides of the argument simply begging that question and assuming that they know without argument that this is something that we can agree to differ about, or assuming that they know without argument this is one of the things we can’t agree to differ about. What we all have to do is to say about any issue—whether it’s lay celebration [of Communion], whether it’s episcopal intervention, whether it’s homosexual practice—How do we know, and who says which differences make a difference and which differences don’t make a difference? [Presiding Bishop] Frank Griswold and his colleagues make a great song and dance about difference and about accepting difference and respecting difference. That’s almost the only moral category that is left within postmodernity, welcoming the other, which is actually a very difficult moral standard to implement right across the board.

The critical thing is there are some differences which would divide the church. For instance, if somebody decided to propose that instead of reading the Bible in church, we should read the Bhagavad-Gita or the Qur’an, most Christians would say this is no longer a church and that’s a difference that we simply cannot live with. But if somebody says I really think we should never put flowers on the altar and somebody else says I think we should always have a bowl of flowers on the altar, most people would say that’s an issue which we must not divide the church about. It’s a local issue, which each church will have to decide for itself. And there’s no point in getting in a lather about it.

Now the question is, all these different issues that we face, which of those two categories do they come into? How do you know? And who says? Until we have prepared to address the question in those terms, the thing will just remain as a shouting match.

Go and read the whole thing.

It has been more than 100 years since the Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson’s great-great-grandmother was prohibited from marrying her great-great-grandfather. She was Irish and he was black – mixed-race marriages were illegal then in Virginia.

It seems odd to say that all restrictions about who can marry whom are now considered to be evil. I know that the current cry is for men to be allowed to marry men and women to marry women, but this seems different than what happened to Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson’s ancestors. My guess is that people at the time saw the relationship as a marriage, though an illicit one, while they would have failed to see a cross racial same sex relationship as even being a marriage.

The argument is not so much about who can marry and who can’t, but about what constitutes a marriage. The urge is to get the government – at some level – to get in and tinker with this basic social institution and change its nature.

Last Summer Lyle Schaller spoke to a group at the meeting of the Northern Illinois Annual Conference. His basic message is that that Conference, if they keep going in the same direction, will not be with us much longer. The reporting of the message is somewhat disjointed, but here some some of his main points:

“The Methodist Church is an HMO with an offering basket,” the church growth consultant concluded. He pointed out that a 75 percent majority at the national conference in Pittsburgh said “we needed a bigger offering basket” for larger employee pensions.

The national conference approved a 33 percent increase in church expenditures over the next four years.

“Old institutions choose between greater change and obsolescence,” he said. “About 1966-67, the decision (by Northern Illinois Methodists) was to vote we’re not going to be competitive. It carried and has been implemented.”

The church’s weekly attendance has nose-dived since then from 75,000+ to 46,000+. He noted that the number of new members is down 50 percent.

“If you decrease the number of new customers by 50 percent,” he stated, “you go out of business.”

“Are we ready to concede that?” he asked.

“No” was his answer.

A large part of the problem, Schaller said, is that local congregations are now viewed as financial resources for the denominational hierarchy.

“When I was a pastor, denominations existed to resource congregations,” he remembered.

The role reversal “hasn’t worked.”

Church size is important in recruiting members born since 1960, Schaller explained.

United Methodists are not competitive with other Protestant denominations, the speaker asserted. As evidence he compared statistics from 1965 with those of 2000. In 1965 there were 35 Methodist churches in the jurisdiction with 400 or more people going to church each week. In 2000, that had decreased to “only 13.” Five congregations were on both lists.

In the book of Ezekiel God comments to Ezekiel, “The people really love hearing you speak. They say, “The man speaks like a bird sings. It’s so beautiful.” But they don’t do a thing you say.” After reading Lyle Schallers commentary on the church for a number of years I think Schaller must feel like Ezekiel. He’s popular, had dozens of hbooks published, always in demand as a speaker, yet when we don’t listen to him.

A few years ago he wrote Tatterted Trust about the breakdown of trust through the UMC. The pastors don’t trust the laity or the denominational hierarchy. The laity don’t trust the preachers. The hierarchy doesn’t trust the churches. This lack of trust is killing us. In my experience his analysis was completely accurate. As far as I can tell absolutely nothing was done about it.

This past summer he came out with The Ice Cube is Melting, about the continued decline of the UMC and its fragmentation into warring factions. As far as I can tell we’re so much in love with a sort of unity (mostly institutional) that we’re just as prepared to ignore him now as earlier.

The third stanza of Henry Tweedy’s hymn, O Spirit of the Living God, contains a Bozo line – one line that makes me cringe every time I read it.

Teach us to utter living words of truth which all may hear,
The language all may understand when love speaks loud and clear;
Till every age and race and clime shall blend their creeds in one,
And earth shall form one family by whom Thy will is done.

A creed is a set of beliefs. In this stanza we are praying that God will forward our efforts of syncretism. Maybe one day we’ll be a Methodist, the next a Buddhist, the next a Muslim, and so on. Of maybe we’ll just be good Americans and go to the Reilgion Cafeteria and pick what we are attracted to at the moment while we let everyone else pick what they want. If I want spinach salad and you want jello, no big deal. If reality is a particular way whether I like it or not (and it sures seems like it is), then this avoidance of the issue of truth will be quite dangerous. – just like it is dangerous for drivers (and riders) to think that the laws of physics wouldn’t apply to their bodies (in motion) in a wreck. Why wear a seat belt if you’re the exception to the rule (opinion?) that a “body in motion tends to stay in motion.”?

Day 10 is all about surrender. Some really good stuff. Unfortunately, there is also one sappy, sentimental line.
“If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Christ with his arms outstretched on the cross, saying, ‘I love you this much! I’d rather die than live without you.'” He was doing just fine up to this last line. God’s love is tremendous. He has proved that love by the gift of Jesus. We see Jesus expressing love by willingly going to the cross for us. But I can’t imagine that he is so weak-minded to say, “I’d rather die than live without you.” Come on, Rick. You know better than that!

At least he didn’t say, “Jesus loves you so much that he would have died for you even if you were the only person on earth.” That sentiment, though aparently profound, is demonstrable false. Just consider Gal. 4:4 and what actually happened.

The Windsor Report, in response to the American ordination of Gene Robinson as Bishop, and to Canadian acceptance of rites blessing same-sex unions and to the world wide response to these events has now been published. I’m still reading it, so you’ll have to wait for my comments. You can read interpretations of the document here and here.

An example of a UM church practicing generic religion. They don’t need the cross, don’t need the bible, don’t need Jesus. But they have Personality.

Kirbyjon Caldwell, the pastor of Windsor Village UMC, the largest churhc in United Methodism, shares some thoughts on the role of faith in church leadership. Well worth reading.

Good article on the necessity of making mistakes. Chances are that if we aren’t making mistakes it’s because we’re afraid to. We afriad to step out in faith, or afraid to exercise our creatvity.