Sunday, July 17, 2005
Some Things Matter...Some Don't
Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth and I was in undergraduate school, I had a girlfriend, that for a while I wondered if she was "the one." She wasn't -- I GOT A MUCH BETTER DEAL LATER -- but one of the ways I found out she wasn't was a huge row I had with her mother over Sunday dinner. Her mother was convinced that Roman Catholics were not Christians and were going to rot in hell for all eternity.
I had never heard of such a thing before, and her statements smacked to me of those that think Jews are "Christ-killers." So in my youthful enthusiasm, not having yet learned the pointlessness of arguing with the purposefully ignorant, I dove in head first. Silly, silly me.
But given that backgound, I was not terribly surprized when I read this article which blogging ally Hedgehog Blog pointed me to Friday.
Given that there are so many "flavors" of Christianity, what is it really worth fighting over, and what should we let go? One of the things that I find interesting in that various theological perspectives seem to coexist in a given denomination, but cannot seem to coexist interdenominationally. The PCUSA that I belong to is founded theologically almost entirely on Calvinism, but there are a lot of Arminians, and even increasingly some annhilationists in our midst. We coexist pretty well. But I know a lot of Presbyterians that love their Arminian pastor that condemn Arminian Methodists. This tells me the division is far deeper that just theological. But what is it that separates denominations other than theology and government?
So are these beefs really about power? I tend to think so. If you think about it, the Reformation was less about theology, though it played an important role, and more about abuses of power on the part of the Roman Church, or about about potentates accumulating power to themselves as in the case of the formation of the Church of England. It was, if you think about it, the abuses of the Roman Church that sent Luther looking and that looking is what began the theological part of the Reformation.
This, the biggest problem with the adoption story is not that there is a theological disagreement, but that the adoption agency is using that as a basis for abusing its power.
I had never heard of such a thing before, and her statements smacked to me of those that think Jews are "Christ-killers." So in my youthful enthusiasm, not having yet learned the pointlessness of arguing with the purposefully ignorant, I dove in head first. Silly, silly me.
But given that backgound, I was not terribly surprized when I read this article which blogging ally Hedgehog Blog pointed me to Friday.
A Christian adoption agency that receives money from Choose Life license plate fees said it does not place children with Roman Catholic couples because their religion conflicts with the agency's "Statement of Faith."Legally, I support Bethany's right to make these decisions, ignorant though I think they may be. But as Christians I think this raises some really important issues.
Bethany Christian Services stated the policy in a letter to a Jackson couple this month, and another Mississippi couple said they were rejected for the same reason last year.
"It has been our understanding that Catholicism does not agree with our Statement of Faith," Bethany's state director Karen Stewart wrote. "Our practice to not accept applications from Catholics was an effort to be good stewards of an adoptive applicant's time, money and emotional energy."
Given that there are so many "flavors" of Christianity, what is it really worth fighting over, and what should we let go? One of the things that I find interesting in that various theological perspectives seem to coexist in a given denomination, but cannot seem to coexist interdenominationally. The PCUSA that I belong to is founded theologically almost entirely on Calvinism, but there are a lot of Arminians, and even increasingly some annhilationists in our midst. We coexist pretty well. But I know a lot of Presbyterians that love their Arminian pastor that condemn Arminian Methodists. This tells me the division is far deeper that just theological. But what is it that separates denominations other than theology and government?
So are these beefs really about power? I tend to think so. If you think about it, the Reformation was less about theology, though it played an important role, and more about abuses of power on the part of the Roman Church, or about about potentates accumulating power to themselves as in the case of the formation of the Church of England. It was, if you think about it, the abuses of the Roman Church that sent Luther looking and that looking is what began the theological part of the Reformation.
This, the biggest problem with the adoption story is not that there is a theological disagreement, but that the adoption agency is using that as a basis for abusing its power.
Phil 2:5-8 - Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.The most powerful man ever to walk the planet was also the most humble. Christian institutions carry with them enormous power, that power demands humility. That is my prayer for the Church Universal this date.
