Blogotional

I have posted a couple of times regarding Glenn Lucke's questions about the PC(USA) - first here and then here. The comments have continued on Glenn's original post, including the appearance of a self-described liberal in two rather lengthy comments.

The liberal is a PC(USA) church planter by the name of Richard Hong. His first comment is here and his second is here. Rev. Hong describes himself

You asked me in what regard I am a liberal: I am politically well to the left of Ted Kennedy (if I were European, I'd be in the Green Party or perhaps a Socialist). I think that barring GLBT persons from marriage and ordination is a sin of the church and society. I think that "intelligent design" has no place in any school devoted to serious academics. Theologically, I am pretty much a believer in Barth-ian universalism.

I'd say that qualifies as liberal! Although, I find Rev. Hong's claim to not practice evangelism based on his strick Calvinism in his first comment and his claim in the pull quote above to "Barth-ian universalism" somewhat cognitively dissonant, I am struck by how much Rev. Hong sounds like I do, right up to a point. Consider these two paragraphs

To be blunt, I believe that the major reason why conservative churches are growing and liberal churches are declining is that we are in a society where it is much easier to sell the message: "come and save yourself" rather than "come and help others." We live in a Wal-Mart world: "if I save money, who cares if workers are treated poorly?" If people who think like that are drawn to conservative churches, shouldn't conservative churches be WORRIED?

[...]

Making disciples is different from making believers. I want to make disciples - people who act as Christ would have them act.

I have said numerous times on this blog that the church fails in doing its job by being too evangelistic at the cost of making disciples. To these words of Rev. Hong's I shout AMEN! But then, Rev. Hong follows that last sentence with these words

That is far more important than making them believe what Jesus would have them believe. Granted, faith can be a good foundation for action. But I'll take a selfless atheist over a selfish "Christian" any day.

...And we must part company. Here is the difference from a theological perspective. Indeed we agree that selflessness is a key indicator in the transformation the Holy Spirit works in the Christian, and we agree that many who are saved still operate from selfish motive but, what I know is this, the selfless atheist still operates in his heart of hearts from selfishness, while the selfish Christian is on the path to selflessness, for the selfish Christian has the Holy Spirit at work in his life. We are not perfected by our salvation, we only begin the journey towards it.

But I believe the place where Rev. Hong and I most deeply part company is this

You shall know them by their fruits, and I regard the "fruits" of conservative politics to be completely opposed to Christian faith. So my question to conservative pastors is simple: doesn't it bother you that your message appeals to people who vote for a party that clearly has no regard for the poor and the oppressed? Shouldn't that cause you to ask yourself whether something is wrong in your message?

Political conservatives do not oppress or create poverty, they believe in minimalist government, that's all. They believe in feeding the poor, the difference is they believe the church should be doing it, not the federal government. They so believe because they believe that the transformative power of the Holy Spirit will make men better and service will happen.

And here I believe we come to the point where liberalism is largely responsible for the decline in the PC(USA) - the liberals simply put the cart before the horse. Now bear in mind, the horse is NOT SALVATION, the horse is sanctification. The message of the tranformative, not merely salvific, ramifications of faith in Jesus Christ gets lost in the business of trying to look like tranformation has already occurred. The fact of the matter is that as sinners we do not want to do the hard work of sanctification absent the transformative influence of the Holy Spirit, noted exceptions notwithstanding.

Oh I praise Rev. Hong's heart and his empathy and his hurt for the less fortunate - I share it. My heart aches. But God counsels us to patience, not action for action's sake. As Rev. Hong points out, selfless acts are often performed by the selfish. But God desires selfless acts performed by selfless people. Anything else descends into an ugly, if liberal in the best sense of the word, legalism which is precisely why people are staying away in droves.

The PC(USA) needs to recapture it core message, the message of transformation, not mere salvation, on this Rev. Hong and I agree completely. When that message re-emerges, I believe Rev. Hong will see selflessness on levels even he cannot dream about. But if we force the selfless act without the tranformation all we do is allow the selfish to congratulate themselves, and miss the voice of the Holy Spirit urging them to genuine selflessness.

Related Tags: PC(USA), selflessness, selfish, mission, transformation, salvation