1 Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in their hearts;
there is no fear of God
before their eyes.
2 For they flatter themselves in their own eyes
that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
3 The words of their mouths are mischief and deceit;
they have ceased to act wisely and do good.
One of the things that I have noticed is that the emergent church is starting to go liberal. There is a concern for social justice and reacing the unchrhed. But this can lead to a softening of the gospel
Sunshsine Mary has a description of a feminist Lutheran pastor who is takeing her church down the social justice, queer freindly route. She dresses like a camp transecuzl prelate. She deliberately is abusive, She is being rewarded for her transgressiveness,
Now this is not the way we should be.
The Kirk is not about power, but service. It is not about being rewarded, but rewarding others. It is not about keeping power, but giving it away.
1We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.2Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. 3For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” 4For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. 5May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, 6so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. 8For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name”; 10and again he says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people”; 11and again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him”; 12and again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.” 13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We will find ourselves allied with people who are not of our faith. Christians are the minority throughout the Christian world.
They have always been a minority.
I may agree (in fact I do) with the aesthtetic judgement of my friends who are as camp as a row of Guardsmen. They have taste. But that does not mean that I agree with what they do. Fro in some places they are fallen.
Coming back to Sunshaine, I commented there...
One of my closest friends is a liberal. She would have no problem with the theology here, but she and I were comparing notes (Small town, both Presbyterians). She left her kirk when the woman pastor arrived.
Not for theological reasons.
But because the woman is simply in love with power. With the symbols. With the acting of the liturgy.
But she is not in love with service, with pastoral care. She does not bleed in prayer for her congregation.
Again, comparing notes, the good pastors (who are generally male– and in my view should be male) simply do not care about the costumes, the acting. They love the liturgy and worship. But they care for their people and the word. Many of them are not the greatest and most innovative theologians. But they lead their flock by example.
Which has absolutely nothing to do with being trendy, right on, queer friendly, and leaving the gospel toone side in a crazy chase of the current fashionable ideas. It is the hard work of pastoring.
And most women are not up to it. They can lead women. But they cannot lead men.
But when I say that, I am quite aware that I am equally fallen. Her is the error of the religious right: they forget that they are poor, needy, and spiritially impoverished. But at least they try to preach the gospel. Not use the curhc as a place for pwoer or promotion., leading their congregation to perdition.
The fact of feminism disqualifies even alot of women to lead women.
More and more I’m becoming convinced that we are not good at leading other women, either. The tendency for female leaders of other women in the church is to slide slowly into a more feminist frame. I’ve noticed this with Beth Moore, who has written many popular women’s Bible study curricula which are used here in the U.S. She used to be explicit about not wanting authority over men. Sadly, she must no longer feel that way, as I see that she has been preaching Sunday sermons to mixed gender groups (
http://apprising.org/2012/07/08/southern-baptist-bible-teacher-beth-moore-receives-direct-revelation-from-god-hes-now-called-women-as-pastors/).
The emergent church has been sliding toward liberalism for a good seven years now. They started out as strong teachers from the Bible who happened to be very youthful and dressed in skateboarder fashions, and almost immediately slid into social “justice”, by which I don’t mean helping the poor but rather concerning themselves with people’s “rights” (gay rights, rights of people to be supported by the government for their entire lives, the usual stuff).