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Thinking about our working theology

Philip Turner, an Episcopalian, is the former Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. He also served ten years as a missionary in Uganda and returned to do graduate work in Christian Ethics with Paul Ramsey at Princeton University.

Writing in the current issue of First Things ("An Unworkable Theology," June/July 2005), Turner noted the difference in the Episcopal Church's theological articles, liturgies, and confessional statements compared to what he called his church's "working theology." To find the working theology, one must review the resolutions passed at official gatherings and listen to what clergy say Sunday by Sunday from the pulpit.

His piece haunted me. As he describes the working theology of many Episcopalians, it sounded so very United Methodist. Consider the following. 

Upon completion of his graduate work, Turner taught at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest. He writes of his excitement as he listened to his first student sermon "only to be taken aback by its vacuity." The student asked the right question, "What is the Christian gospel?" But his answer throughout the sermon was simply "God is love. God loves us. We, therefore, ought to love one another."

Stunned by the shallowness, Turner writes "I waited in vain for some word about the saving power of Christ's cross or the declaration of God's victory in Christ's resurrection. I waited in vain for a promise of the Holy Spirit. I waited in vain also for an admonition to wait patiently and faithfully for the Lord's return. I waited in vain for a call to repentance and amendment of life in accord with the pattern of Christ's life."

The rich content of preaching he had heard for a decade in Anglican pulpits in Uganda was simply not there. Nor was this an isolated incident. Over the years, he added, "I have heard the same sermon preached from pulpit after pulpit by experienced priests."

Unfortunately, so have many United Methodists. We have heard repeatedly that the gospel is the "good news of God's unconditional love. Now let us go out and love one another in the same way." (This admonition can be cruel if we don't help folks come to grips with the human condition of sin that makes it impossible for us to just "go out and love one another.")

The working theology of the Episcopal Church, writes Turner, begins with the claim that "God is love, pure and simple. Thus, one is to see in Christ's death no judgment upon the human condition. Rather, one is to see an affirmation of creation and the persons we are. The life and death of Jesus reveal the fact that God accepts and affirms us." This sounds plausible at first, but it is classic half-truth. Indeed, God loves us while we are yet sinners, but he calls us to repentance, new life, and holy living.

From this understanding of God, we move to a further conclusion, Turner says. "God wants us to love one another, and such love requires of us both acceptance and affirmation of the other.Accepting love requires a form of justice that is inclusive of all people, particularly those who in some way have been marginalized by oppressive social practice. The mission of the Church is, therefore, to see that those who have been rejected are included-for justice as inclusion defines public policy." The result of all this, Turner claims, is "a practical equivalence between the gospel of the Kingdom of God and a particular form of social justice." For many in the Episcopal Church, he says, the gospel has been equated with the social justice concept of "radical inclusion."

So, what we are seeing today in the Episcopal Church (and the other mainline denominations as well, he adds) is not simply an ethical divide about the "rightness or wrongness of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. It's a theological chasm-one that separates those who hold a theology of divine acceptance from those who hold a theology of divine redemption" (emphasis his). This new theology of "divine acceptance" no longer needs terms such as faith, justification, repentance, and holiness of life. These terms "belong to an antique vocabulary that must be outgrown or reinterpreted," he says.

This leaves only one kind of witness, writes Turner-the inclusion of the previously excluded. God has already included everybody, and now we ought to do the same. The new message, then, amounts to "inclusion without qualification" (emphasis his).

This "working theology" of many contemporary Episcopalians (and many liberal Protestants, he suggests) is far from the basic content of "Nicene Christianity." In fact, he concludes, "It is a theology which most Anglicans in the rest of the world no longer recognize as Christian."

 

A Troubling Labor Day Event

Lake Junaluska, North Carolina is the scenic headquarters and conference center for the Southeastern Jurisdiction (SEJ). However, folks planning to spend the Labor Day weekend there may be shocked to discover the "Hearts on Fire" conference to be held there that weekend.

The "Hearts on Fire" conference is being sponsored by the Reconciling Ministries Network. You can learn more about the conference by visiting the Ministries' website: www.rmnetwork.org. You will also find the group's mission statement there: "Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) is a national grassroots organization that exists to enable full participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life of the United Methodist church, both in policy and practice."

Under the section on Reconciling Ministries Clergy, you will learn the group supports "persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities" and seeks "their full inclusion in all aspects of the church's life." Full inclusion, of course, includes ordained ministry. The language is careful. It says nothing about "practice," only "orientations" and "identities." But practice is assumed, or one is not being true to his or her "orientation."

What is most troubling about this event, however, is that three of our United Methodist bishops are listed as leaders. Two are active bishops, Minerva Carcano (Desert Southwest) and Susan Morrison (Albany Area). One is retired, Richard Wilke. We are not surprised to see names such as Beth Stroud, Karen Oliveto, and Randy Miller. But our bishops, according to the Discipline, are "authorized to guard the faith, order, liturgy, doctrine, and discipline of the Church" (Par. 404.1). Further, they have a constitutional mandate of "carrying into effect the rules, regulations, and responsibilities prescribed and enjoined by the General Conference" (Par. 47. Article III). While everyone is certainly free to hold to contrary opinions, they were not consecrated to be public dissenters.

At this Labor Day event, these bishops will join others to teach, support, encourage, and strategize how to further the acceptance of a practice the church has determined to be "incompatible with Christian teaching."

United Methodists who would like to voice their opinion about this event may write to the SEJ bishops (their addresses can be found at www.UMC.org) and Jimmy L. Carr, the executive director at Lake Junaluska. You can write him at P.O. Box 67, Lake Junaluska, NC 28745. Or email him at: jlcarr@sejumc.org.



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