My Friend, the Liberal
By Riley B. Case
My pastor friend Harry, down the road, is a liberal. Harry does not identify himself as a liberal. To Harry, labels like “liberal” or “evangelical” are divisive. “Why can’t we all just be Christians?” Harry asks, not aware, evidently, that such. talk, where distinctions are blurred in the name of inclusiveness, is the talk of liberals.
If he must live by a label, Harry prefers “middle-of-the-road.” Harry votes with the majority at his United Methodist annual conference and on the general boards of which he is a member. He does not understand why anyone would criticize the denominational Sunday school materials, or want to attend something other than a United Methodist seminary, or be upset with the Board of Global Ministries. He is not sure, at the present time, that the church is ready for the ordination of practicing homosexuals, but, as he argues, he is “open,” and bis mind could be easily changed.
In short Harry is “middle-of-the-road” because his point of reference is the limited, liberal, mainline world He is quite oblivious to the greater part of Christianity – fundamentalist, evangelical, Pentecostal – which exists quite unrelated to Harry’s training and denominational experience.
Harry is suspicious of hard edges. Talk about Original Sin and Substitutionary Atonement and Hell sounds harsh to him. His sermons are essays about God-in-general, faith-in-general, and doing better. The exception is when Harry comes home from a preacher’s conference. Then he gets prophetic and talks on saving the whales or American foreign policy.
Consistent with his desire to be always relevant, Harry experiments with whatever is in style at the moment, whether it be spiritual formation, or liturgical dance, or defense of the environment, or intinction. He works hard to make sure his language is always “inclusive.”
On the Board of Ordained Ministry, Harry is more concerned about whether ordinands know how to think than in what they believe. Faithfulness to Harry means loyalty to the denomination rather than to the God of the historic creeds and the doctrinal standards. When he rails it is not against unbelief but against rigidity and intolerance, as in the view that the Bible is the written Word of God and that salvation is only in Jesus Christ. If his congregation is sometimes disappointed in him it is because of their undue conservativism and their lack of enlightenment.
Harry is a typical United Methodist pastor, trained in a United Methodist seminary, and buying the official United Methodist approach to Christianity. Harry is a liberal.
Riley Case is pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, Kokomo, lndiana and former district superintendent in the North lndiana Conference.
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