 Witherspoon speaker opposes efforts to convert others By John H. Adams The Layman Online Sunday, May 25, 2003
But a close paraphrase of what he did say to a gathering sponsored by the Witherspoon Society on Sunday afternoon might be: What's the big deal about the difference between Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, New Agers and Native American religions? Not enough to try to convert people to the Christian faith, he said.
His "What's the big deal about Jesus" set off a firestorm across the denomination, with Presbyterian leaders trying to fend off critics with a series of statements that Jesus was the Lord of Christians – but not the sovereign Lord of all. The debate finally subsided after the 214th General Assembly approved a statement produced by the denomination's Office of Theology and Worship that declared Jesus Lord of all. In his address to the Witherspoon Society and its allies – mostly a coalition of people affiliated with groups seeking to repeal the "fidelity/chastity" clause in the denomination's constitution – Ficca made it clear that he doesn't believe in evangelism in the traditional sense of telling people that there is "salvation in no other name" than Jesus. "What does it mean," he asked, "to present the gospel to those who, with their whole mind and soul, believe that they are right" in their non-Christian beliefs? The commandment of Jesus is to love people of other faiths, "to welcome the Buddhists, the Sikhs, the Muslims as we would welcome Christ. The God who comes to us in Jesus Christ also comes to us in the Hindu." He said his philosophy of accepting people of other faiths on their terms doesn't require theological agreement. And that applies within the Presbyterian Church (USA), he said. "The peace and unity of the church has to do with something entirely different than agreement," he said, not mentioning that traditionally there is a third leg for that framework for the Christian community: purity. Ficca said the real issue is what he called one's "bent" – a decision to be tolerant of other beliefs. "What happens when your enemy is a member of your own faith community?" Ficca asked, and then selectively quoted Jesus' commandment to his disciples, "Love one another as I have loved you." "How are we going to do this?" he asked. "We're never going to completely agree on how to read Scripture, Christology, sexuality, salvation." His answer to the disagreements in the denomination was the "bent" – essentially a decision to trust others. "Trust is not the same as agreement. Try to think of one person you know in this life with whom you have complete trust." But he also said trust requires the liberals in the denomination to give up some of their demands when the church takes actions that they disagree with. "We must give up our claims to be right, but not the rightness of our claims. Can we see the greater value of the collective decisions by the church?" But Ficca drew a line of his own when it came to the decision by the U.S. government to respond militarily to terrorism. "After bombing the hell out of Afghanistan, we still haven't found Osama Bin Laden," he said. "The internationalist approach has appealed to fears at home" and more terrorism. Ficca argued that the United States should have cultivated more international alliances instead of going after Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. "This is why Jesus said, 'Do not return evil for evil,'" he said. "We will not win this struggle against terrorism without allies. … We will need to appeal to the humanity of children who one day could become suicide bombers." The military response to terrorism, he claimed, "is not the idealism of Jesus." Ficca also identified one Presbyterian whom he would like to convert to his way of thinking: Parker T. Williamson, an evangelical who is chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications. "I want him to change," Ficca said. "I want his view of the faith to be different." Ficca said he feels more comfortable talking with people who believe in other gods than he does with Williamson. Those who believe in other gods covers quite a variety. The Council for a Parliament of World Religions numbers among its members atheists and even a witches' coven, as well as people of traditional religions. Before Ficca spoke, Gene TeSelle, the issues analyst for the Witherspoon Society, talked briefly about what the society will try to persuade commissioners to do this week. The list includes a woman's right to abortion, even partial-birth abortion; repeal of G-6.0106b, the "fidelity/chastity" ordination law; a Presbyterian report on the family that asks the PCUSA to recognize homosexual couples and single women with out-of-wedlock children as acceptable models of God's plan for families; the opportunity for the Theological Task Force for Peace, Unity and Purity to conduct its theological discussions privately so that its 20 members do not have to have their own theological views held up to public scrutiny; and opposition to conservatives who might seek to get evangelicals elected to the denomination's highest court. |
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