On
page 16 of the March 2007 issue of the Canada Lutheran,
within the B.C. Synod's pages, an advertisement, presented
as if it were news or information, identifies All Saints Lutheran,
Kelowna, a mission church of the British Columbia Synod, as
the Canadian distributor for "Living the Questions" (LTQ),
"a stimulating study series that uses DVD-based presentations".
LTQ is described as having been "used very effectively
in several congregations around the synod" and at All Saints.
If one goes to All
Saints' web site, one learns that two other ELCIC Lutheran
churches in the Kelowna area (Christ Lutheran and Faith Lutheran)
as well as a United and an Anglican church have offered the
LTQ study series. If one Googles "Living the Question
+ ELCA", you will find that this resource is also being used
by numerous congregations in the ELCA.
The
All Saints' 'infomercial' invites "churches across Canada"
to order the study materials from them. According to All Saints'
pastor, Tyler Gingrich, LTQ "opened up great conversation
and dialogue around how we might interpret scripture in new
ways - how we live as faithful people in our context, and
what it means to be a part of a faith community today".
So
how does the LTQ program inform us about "how we might
interpret scripture in new ways" and, in particular, how we
might live as faithful people today in the context of
a Lutheran church? To get some answers to such questions,
I went to the LTQ
web site and, as well, watched the seven-hour DVD program.
At
the LTQ web site I learned that this DVD series, developed
by two United Methodist pastors in Phoenix, is intended for
"thinking (progressive) Christians" who want to explore "progressive
Christianity". It is described as an "unapologetically liberal
alternative to Alpha" where "participants can discuss the
revolutionary re-visioning of Christianity already emerging
in the world" and will help "seekers" to discover "the significance
of Christianity in the 21st Century and what a meaningful
faith can look like in today's world". The intention of LTQ
is "to expose people to ideas and concepts that have been
taught and discussed for generations in the seminaries but
don't get taught or discussed in our churches."
The
"noted scholars and theologians" - Marcus Borg, John Dominic
Crossan, John Shelby Spong, Lloyd Geering, and John B. Cobb
Jr. - whose presentations are featured in the LTQ series
are among today's most radical, liberal scholars and theologians,
all known for their revisionist views of Christian tradition.
Crossan was a cofounder in 1985 of the Jesus Seminar, a group
of academic scholars, which includes Marcus Borg and Lloyd
Geering, who seek to "demythologize" Jesus using a radical
"historical critical" approach to understanding Scripture,
which purports to rely extensively on human reason. Their
proclaimed goal was to isolate the "historical Jesus" from
the "God-man" who has been worshipped and adored by the Church
for two millennia. In his essay, "Lessons
from Luther on the Inerrancy of Holy Writ", author
John Warwick Montgomery makes this vivid distinction between
how historical or higher critical scholars and Luther approached
Scripture: "While Higher Criticism poses its questions in
a posture of rationalistic dominance over the text, Luther
asks his questions of God's Word on his knees.The contrast
could hardly be sharper."
According
to the Jesus Seminar:
-
The Bible is not a divine product but a human product, the
response of two ancient communities to the spirit of God.
It is not how God sees things but how the ancient people saw
things.
- Jesus' mother's name was Mary, and he had a human father
whose name may not have been Joseph.
- Jesus was born in Nazareth, not in Bethlehem.
- Jesus was an itinerant sage who shared meals with social
outcasts.
- He did not walk on water, feed the multitude with loaves
and fishes, change water into wine or raise Lazarus from the
dead.
- Jesus was arrested in Jerusalem and crucified by the Romans.
- He was executed as a public nuisance, not for claiming to
be the Son of God.
- The empty tomb is a fiction - Jesus was not raised bodily
from the dead.
The
Jesus Seminar's reconstruction of Jesus portrays him as a
wandering wisdom sage who did not found a religion or rise
from the dead. For example, in one of his presentations in
the LTQ study series, Marcus Borg explains that, "The
difference between you and Jesus is a difference in degree
but not a difference in kind". Within LTQ, Borg
makes the observation that, "The church in North America
today, especially the Protestant church, is deeply divided
and the single most divisive issue is the Bible. Whether the
Bible is to be seen as a divine product, the inerrant and
infallible words of God, or whether it is to
be seen as a human product, a product of these ancient communities".
Lloyd Geering elaborates claiming that one of the great discoveries
of religious scholars that the modern world has not yet come
to terms with is that, "The Bible is written by humans and
it reflects all the prejudices of the people who wrote it".
Applying such an understanding of the Bible, much of LTQ
is devoted to articulating what these "progressive Christians"
do not believe in, which includes the miracle stories
in the Bible, virgin birth (such "stories", according to Spong,
are "a dime a dozen") and the divinity and physical resurrection
of Christ. That is, LTQ dismisses all of the basic
tenets of what I understand it means to be a Christian, as
concisely expressed, for example, by the Apostles' Creed.
The theological understanding promoted by these self-declared
"progressive Christians" rejects the very heart of Lutheran
doctrine, namely, justification by grace through faith in
Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour - a doctrine, according
to Martin Luther, upon which the Christian church stands or
falls!
Thus,
if the LTQ study series was "used very effectively"
whereby the participants were convinced by its message, then
it would be impossible for such people to any longer call
themselves Lutheran Christians. One would basically have to
disavow Article II (Confession of Faith) of the ELCIC's constitution,
which members of this church pledge to uphold. Furthermore,
one could not imagine how pastors promoting such a theological
understanding could be true to their ordination vow. Upon
ordination, pastors in the ELCIC answer "I will, and I ask
God to help me" to the following question posed by the bishop
conducting their ordination:
"The
Church in which you are to be ordained confesses that the
Holy Scriptures are the Word of God and are the norm of its
faith and life. We accept, teach, and confess the Apostles',
the Nicene, and the Anthanasian Creeds. We also acknowledge
the Lutheran Confessions as true witnesses and faithful expositions
of the Holy Scriptures. Will you therefore preach and teach
in accordance with the Holy Scriptures and these creeds and
confessions?"
So
one seriously has to ask the question how pastors who are
promoting such a theological understanding can be allowed
to do so within the confines and sanctuary of a Lutheran church?
From
watching the DVDs, I also learned, according to the
viewpoint of Nancy Ammerman, professor of sociology of
religion, Boston University, that over most of the 20th century
a growing gap developed - an 80-100 year lag - between the
theological understanding of the people in the pews and that
of the pastors coming out of the seminaries. However, Ammerman
noted that she was most "delightfully surprised" that more
progressive Christians are nowadays beginning to forthrightly
declare their liberalism (coming out of the closet so to speak).
Ammerman was excited about the possibility that congregational
pastors, who she referred to as "resident theologians", would
now more boldly transmit their 'progressive Christian' understanding,
picked up at the predominantly liberal-thinking seminaries,
to the people in the pews. This raises the question as to
whether the activity among the ELCIC churches in Kelowna is
just the tip of the iceberg as far as a 'progressive Christian'
movement within the ELCIC.
During
the 2005 National Convention debate on the National Church
Council's local option resolution, the first speaker, a pastor
from the Eastern Synod who is a strong proponent of same-sex
blessings, made the revealing observation that, "There are
two theologies in the hearts and minds of our people". Similarly,
the bishop of Alberta and the Territories, Ron Mayan, has
talked about how different understandings of Scripture have
led to two different theologies in this church with accompanying
incompatible teachings and practices. Is the radical "revolutionary
re-visioning of Christianity" that is being promoted by the
self-declared 'progressive Christians', the "Emerging Theology"
of which Lothar Schwabe spoke in his essay, "Conflict
in ELCIC Congregations Concerning Two Theologies"?
Ron
Voss
Cochrane, Alberta
