  Letters to the Editor Tuesday, September 15, 1998 |
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There seemed to be more negative letters than usual in the last
issue so we thought it was time to give you a pat on the back. Your
organization is the one major factor that has kept us in the
Presbyterian Church these last years and we say thank you for your
courage and perseverance. We pray that we will indeed see that same
kind of courage in the majority of the membership and that we will
move away from the divisive issues that have hindered the progress of
the church and get on with the job of proclaiming the Gospel. Without the transcendent authority mankind will always set up his
own rules and go his own dangerous destructive ways. So we are likely
to suffer more and more from sophomoric groups of the Re-Imagining ilk
who decide to do just that. They hide under the currently popular “poor
victim” syndrome and present themselves as redressing past
injustice. They are self-righteous to the point of absurdity and seem
incapable of logic. This would be a wonderful opportunity for the
church leadership to rescue the truth of the matter. But then truth
has never been very popular and in order to rescue it one must first
be able to recognize it. Dear Sirs: I feel safe in my salutation above as I can only see a dominate patriarchal society in your philosophy that would put women back into second class status, reducing them to mere housewives and homemakers totally subject to the authority of their husbands, fathers, and brothers. A class to be seen and paraded as possessions but silent in home, in courts, and church pulpits. If your theological positions should ever completely take over the
leadership of PCUSA, I see a program that would outlaw abortions as a
crime even in the cases of incest and rape, creationism taught in
schools as true science, and free thought (at least in Presbyterian
colleges and seminaries) severely restricted – in short, the
reinstitution of a religion so severe as to usher in a new dark age
with persecutions almost as deadly as the Spanish Inquisition of the
middle ages and the Salem Witch Hunts of colonial America. Delores Williams, a Presbyterian professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, told ReImagining Conference participants that they must create a “community … where no sexuality is unclean.” While she ignores the inconvenient passages of scripture, she and others of her persuasion cannot ignore what would be in store for the Presbyterian Church (USA) if the Biblical caveats failed to prevail in future presbyteries and General Assemblies. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has acknowledged that it paid millions of dollars to settle a dozen lawsuits against it and the Rev. John J. Geoghan who sexually molested more than 50 children over three decades. It is reported that “the church’s total payout to various victims of clergy abuse amounted to nearly $800 million in the past 15 years.” If we allowed Williams’ idea that “no sexuality is unclean”
to affect our ordination standards, we can hardly imagine the size of
our liability in all 50 states. The General Assembly would no longer
have a “shortfall,” it would be bankrupt. Or are we going
too far in our “Reimagining?” I’ve received my second copy of The Layman. I don’t know who subscribed for me, but I am thankful to have a magazine that “tells it like it is.” I’ve gotten tired of the “official” publications that either gloss over issues in our denomination or glory in actions and policies that offend me. May God bless you in your efforts to lead our church into a closer walk with our Lord. Philip Sheppard, Beaufort, SC In history’s most egregious campaign of cultural imperialism, the current administration has been jamming abortion down the throats of Third World nations in your name and mine. Arrogantly insisting this horrible wrong is a right, in spite of deep division within our own country, they have undermined the life-affirming values of other peoples. If another power had attempted a similar assault on American values it would have been denounced as intolerable interference in domestic matters, if not as an act of war. This administration feigns respect for United Nations authority while it violates U.N. covenants. The U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child states “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.” The U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” to include “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.” The U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) makes no mention of any right to abortion but prohibits discrimination on grounds of pregnancy or maternity. And the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law,” contrary to Roe vs. Wade. Invisible people are the easiest to kill, especially when those who could stop the carnage choose not to see it. Human rights abuses in other nations are mere specks in our brothers’ eyes so long as we cannot see clearly with the beam of abortion in our own. What passes for leadership has forfeited our nation’s moral authority. Alfred Lemmo, Dearborn, MI |
Thank you for printing replies
by Professors Ottati and DeVries to your John Leith interview, and for
inviting Professor Leith’s response to their words. It is a credit
to The Layman that you were willing to give Leith’s critics
so much space, although I must say that they did not use the gift
particularly well. Ottati’s flip suggestion that those who share
Leith’s concerns should simply read his book does not say much for
his intention or ability to engage in critical debate. It was, after
all, the thesis in Ottati’s book that gave Leith grounds for his
challenge. A world-renowned theologian has called not only these professors, but occupants of all Presbyterian pulpits, to a new level of honesty: “If we do not believe that when a person dies there is a hope for eternal life and the continuation of our existence with God, let us say so clearly. If we believe that the universe will simply end in debris without any meaning or significance, let us say so clearly. If we no longer believe that God works personally in the created order, if we no longer believe God knows us by name, hears our prayers and responds in ways beyond our imagining, let us say so clearly.” Having abandoned words that once meant something, many of our preachers (and, apparently, the tutors whom we have employed to train them) are serving their people a broth composed of mere feeling. That will not fill a soul that hungers for the word of God. Roy Tucker, San Francisco, CA Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I thank you for your love and concern for us here in Sudan, the land torn in two because of war. We were born in war and we have borne our children in war. We live in want of security, stability, wealth, love, health and home. We are deprived of the right to own land, to defense, to enjoy life as it is given to us by God. The world seems to weigh very heavy on our shoulders with no one to help but Christ. With the love of our brothers and sisters in Christ, we feel loved, wanted, needed and important. With Christ we have a permanent home. We need your support, and I particularly ask you to shake and move the house of the Lord for the sake of God’s people in the Sudan, the forgotten land and people. Shake the skies and the Lord will listen to your voice. People are dying from oppression and maltreatment. Break the demon’s yoke from the neck of Sudan with your prayers. Love to you in Jesus, Name withheld for the writer’s protection With due respect for the new moderator’s credentials as seminary president, etc., it was with great disappointment that I learned that, while the Assembly was still in session and so soon after his election, he abandoned his proper role as impartial moderator and exhibited his personal favoritism for a fringe minority of the PCUSA which has disrupted the church and General Assembly sessions for the past ten years. I am also disappointed that otherwise intelligent commissioners would be swayed by some cry-baby females acting like little children having a tantrum when they don’t get their way. It is a disgrace that any of the church’s mission money should go to support this group that advocates lesbian activity on college campuses. Helen Tucker, Detroit, MI A commonly invoked mantra is “Reformed and always reforming.” This phrase is often used simply to justify changes people want to make. “Changed (by what?) and always changing” is closer to what they mean. Like a chameleon, they change every time the politically correct winds shift. What the Bible teaches is apparently not important, except for those passages which suit their purposes regardless of whether or not there is a consistent affirmation with the entire Bible. George Kaulbach, Stone Mountain, GA If I remember correctly, ordination vows for church officers require affirmation of the Bible’s authority. Why then does the denomination’s highest office continue to knuckle under to demands by individuals and organizations who refuse to espouse that authority? Are the moderators and commissioners too weak to do what must be done to save the denomination? Grover C. Jarrett, Gig Harbor, WA I am only a layman, but I pray that influential elders, deacons, pastors and seminary professors that make up the leadership of the renewal movement in this denomination will draw strength from our noble heritage. Look to John Knox. Take the sword of the spirit from the altar and use it to complete the job that resolve without action can never accomplish. The task will not be easy. The supermarket of American Christianity makes it easy to find a non-confrontational church that says the right things without being the salt and light to make a difference. It is time for a united renewal leadership to blow the trumpet and – with the help of God – finish the task of change that will renew our denomination. If God wills, this renewal will light the way for our nation, not by fiat, but by assuaging our society’s appetite for sin with that better “fruit of the Spirit” that only the Gospel provides. Spencer Loomis, Towson, MD |
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