Magazine Articles

Editor's note: So as not to fill our pages with heaps of congratulatory, back-slapping praise, Good News asked the former editor of Newscope and Circuit Rider to evaluate the Good News movement and magazine on this auspicious occasion. The following is his critique.

Congratulations on your 40th anniversary. That is a major accomplishment for any publication. Any criticism I might offer is probably tinged with envy.

I've watched with interest the changes that have occurred within the organization and the magazine over the past 40 years.

Charles Keysor, the founder of Good News, wanted to provide more visibility for evangelicals in the United Methodist Church. The magazine and the Good News board mapped strategies to add evangelical content to church school and confirmation literature published by the General Board of Discipleship and the United Methodist Publishing House. Many United Methodists supported the effort to achieve a balance in official materials. However, there was less enthusiasm for the Good News effort to publish competitive materials.

Like it or not, the United Methodist Church is an inclusive body that includes persons from across the theological spectrum. While some writers selected by the Board of Discipleship and the United Methodist Publishing House are liberals, the agencies also select many conservative authors.

Unfortunately, Good News is seldom open to persons with opposing points of view. The board and the magazine generally simplify complex issues so there are few opportunities to engage in serious dialogue. When persons of faith disagree with Good News positions, they are considered unenlightened.

Many United Methodists now celebrate the fact that Good News has softened its attacks upon these two general agencies and has even begun some cooperative efforts.

Mistake to establish the Mission Society
Many congregants regret the establishment of a separate mission board. Our denomination has been blessed with an effective mission agency that provides nourishment to both soul and body. Conflicts between Global Ministries and the Mission Society have reduced the effectiveness of each.

I recall in 1992, the Mission Society for United Methodists and the General Board of Global Ministries became involved in a crisis within the Evangelical Methodist Church of Bolivia. Bishop Carlos Huacani was charged with sexual harassment and misuse of church funds. A majority of Bolivian Methodists elected Zacarias Mamani to replace him. Unfortunately, the Mission Society supported Huacani's refusal to leave office and Global Ministries supported Bishop Mamani.

I had the opportunity to spend time in La Paz to see firsthand how the Mission Society's support for Huacani helped lead to a confrontation between the two groups. I visited dozens of Methodists who were in a La Paz hospital suffering from needless injuries because of that unnecessary conflict.

The establishment of an independent mission society is a lamentable chapter in the history of Good News. It is a costly endeavor to create two mission bureaucracies to deploy mission staff when one could do it more effectively.

The Mission Society may have made some contributions, but it has also fueled discord and siphoned funds from the official mission agency.

Republican agenda
There is some justification for criticism of the General Board of Church and Society for too frequently advocating positions supported by the Democratic Party. However, Good News can also be criticized for supporting Republican Party positions. That political prejudice was clearly seen in an issue in which you praised Ronald Reagan without a whisper of concern about the fact that he was the first president to raise the national debt by more than $200 billion in one year (including billions of dollars on an aborted "star wars" project). One wonders what the Prince of Peace would have to say about a President who increased our ability to destroy life while decreasing social services for the poor.

Wasted effort
Good News has a right to petition General Conference. However, when the organization recruited thousands of people to send individual petitions, it did nothing except create a tower of work for an overworked petitions secretary. No matter how many people submit the same petition, it is still only one petition. Good News would have fared better if it had spent the time educating delegates about the importance of passing the proposed legislation rather than wasting funds on postage and creating needless work.

Attack on the Women's Division
While many might disagree with position papers and actions taken by the Women's Division, they would also lament the establishment of the Good News/Renew Network.

Unlike the Renew Network, the Women's Division must take action in accordance with the official positions and policies of the United Methodist Church. Many of Renew Network's criticisms of the Division are criticism of resolutions passed by General Conference.

While the Division participates in interfaith dialogue, it does so within the conviction that Jesus Christ offers the way to salvation, but that none of us has a complete grasp of God's plan for humankind. Even John Wesley refused to judge those who were without faith in Jesus. "It is far better to leave them to him that made them and who is 'the Father of the spirits of all flesh,'" said Wesley.

Some Women Division members have participated in efforts to retain a woman's right to an abortion within the first trimester; however, their actions are in keeping with the position of General Conference which does not force poor women into potentially lethal, self-induced or back-alley abortions.

Regrettable chapter
A sad chapter of the organization occurred at the 2004 General Conference when Jim Heidinger, top staff executive of Good News, joined an effort to establish a "Task Force on Amicable Separation," which would have split our denomination along theological lines. Fortunately, no legislation was formally introduced and I pray it will not be considered by delegates to the 2008 assembly.

The proposal for an "amicable separation" may sound simple, but a divorce in a family is always painful. Liberals and conservatives worship together in local churches across this nation. They are united in their belief in the lordship of Jesus Christ, and they should not have to form separate denominations because of a single issue that Jesus never mentioned (or at least the Gospel writers didn't think was important enough to include in their records).

Next forty years
Good News now begins to write a new 40-year chapter. I hope it will be a constructive one that will build up our denomination and support the ministries of general agencies and local churches that are proclaiming the Gospel by words and deeds.

I pray you will find ways to help unify rather than divide the church of Jesus Christ.

J. Richard Peck is a retired clergy member of New York Annual Conference. He has served as director of communications in the New York, Troy and Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conferences and is the former editor of Newscope, Circuit Rider, the International Christian Digest, and the Daily Christian Advocate. The Rev. Peck now serves as communications coordinator for the General Commission on United Methodist Men.

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A requested critique By J. Richard Peck

A requested critique
By J. Richard Peck