NDUNGANE'S FABLES

Contact Online (South Africa) ^ | November 2003 (cover date) | Mark ?

[ahadams2]

Mark's Reality Column

VOLUME 7 - ISSUE 11 November 2003

NDUNGANE'S FABLES

WHATEVER the fall-out from the primates' meeting at Lambeth, it is highly likely that, in the very near future, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane will finally come out of the theological closet and openly support the pro-gay revisionists.

A noun here, an adjective there and His Grace will, at last, have reached the shores of transparency. He is nearly there. Writing in the Church Times on the eve of the make-or-break gathering, +Njongonkulu stated: "There may be things we need to learn from their [homosexuals'] testimony about their closest human relationships, whether sexually active or not, as they try to grow in faithful, generous, reciprocally supportive, mutually enriching love that bears marks of God's covenant commitment to us."

So there you have it... "whether sexually active or not...", "...as they try to grow in faithful, generous, reciprocally supportive, mutually enriching love that bears marks of God's covenant commitment to us".

As our archbishop put it in the Church Times, "Honesty and openness in dealing with difference is fundamental." It will therefore be as much of a relief to us as it will be for him when +Njongonkulu finally dispenses with the fiction that, whenever he publishes an article, appears on television or radio, or addresses a conference, he is merely reflecting the views of the CPSA and not giving his personal opinion. After all, some of us in the CPSA have waited in vain for our beliefs and opinions to put in an appearance in one of +Njongonkulu's writings or utterances.

Instead of reflecting the diverse opinions that jostle within the CPSA, +Njongonkulu's utterances and writings replicate - but with added ambiguity and metaphysical mumbo-jumbo - the standard revisionist line: the church exists to create heaven on earth by getting with the liberal-left ideological programme. (That is a one-sentence precis of +Njongonkulu's recently published book, "A World with a Human Face".)

Like all post-modernists, +Njongonkulu is in favour of telling stories. Stories suit the post-modern mindset because their validity cannot be called into question by awkward things such as facts and truth - especially (heaven forbid!) revealed truth.

+Njongonkulu reproduced some of his favourite stories in his article in the Church Times. Why not make yourself a mug of cocoa, snuggle up to your computer and enjoy a selection of these fairy-tales?

Ndungane's fable: "Reducing issues to stark polarisations may make good television, but it is not a constructive approach for the Church to take on this, or any other, disagreement."

Reality: Some issues can, and should be, reduced to stark polarisations whether they make good television or not. Incest - right or wrong? Murder - good or bad? Satanism - an evil or a worthy religion? Jesus - the son of God or merely another prophet? I could go on.

Ndungane's fable: "Being defined in Christ means we irrevocably belong together."

Reality: We can only be united in Christ if we assent to trusting, teaching, believing and behaving in the way that Christ requires. It is Christ who has decided, and revealed, what it means for us to be defined in him. We cannot dictate to Christ the terms of that definition. We cannot be defined in Christ if we endorse what he has repudiated. Christ cannot simultaneously accept and reject and be indifferent to homosexuality. If this were so, Christ is either divided against himself or suffers from acute schizophrenia. If, in the event of a disagreement, unity must automatically triumph over truth, the church's default position on any issue will have to be indifference. We would all have to agree with the revisionists in denying that a trustworthy record of revelation exists and instead believe that God leaves it up to us to decide which issues fall under his or our jurisdiction.

Ndungane's fable: Debating human sexuality distracts the church from more important issues such as poverty, HIV/Aids, homelessness, international debt, fair trade, war and peace.

Reality: It is a complete repudiation of scripture from Genesis to Revelation to suggest that sexual ethics and behaviour are trivial issues to God. Secular issues to do not take precedence over those affecting salvation. Jesus made it perfectly clear that his mission is to save us from the consequences of sin and give us eternal life.

Ndungane's fable: "When the sheep and goats are separated, I hardly imagine Jesus will discuss our stance on 'the gay-bishops debate'."

Reality: As Hamlet might have put it, "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your post-modern philosophy."

Ndungane's fable: Endless discussion and dialogue are better than separation.

Reality: Dialogue and separation are not necessarily mutually exclusive. One can be in dialogue - with atheists, agnostics, Muslims, revisionists - without having to be yoked together with them. But two cannot walk together unless they be agreed. At the same time, abusive, exploitative or damaging relationships should be terminated. In fact, in such cases, it is only after separation that the possibility of dialogue taking place emerges.

Ndungane's fable: Remaining in a state of perpetual dialogue and "wrestling together" is the harder option for the Anglican Communion.

Reality: Perpetual dialogue is the harder option for the orthodox, not the revisionists. Perpetual dialogue is of great comfort to revisionists because they can go on fooling themselves into believing that knowable revealed truth does not exist and that everyone shares their agnosticism. The really harder option for revisionists is to wake up and find themselves a minority surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses boldly declaring God's truth. Revisionists need the orthodox to pay up and swell the membership rolls. Should the orthodox leave the Anglican Communion, it would become apparent to all just how few people the revisionist bishops "represent", and they would get even less of a hearing than they already do when trying to further their ideological agenda.

Ndungane's fable: "The Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA) is full of good people who are trying their best to discern God's way forward."

Reality: ECUSA is run by religious con artists who have almost succeeded in destroying what is still quaintly called a "Christian denomination".

Ndungane's semi-fable: "Our God is not one who is for or against his children on the basis of single issues. Our God is revealed to us in Christ as Emmanuel, God with us, who remains with us and wrestles with us, through all the long journey of life."

Reality: According to +Njongonkulu's reasoning, it would make no difference if one agreed with everything taught in scripture except for "the single issue" that Jesus is God. A favourite revisionist fiction is the assertion that truth is only present in the person of Jesus while there are no knowable objective truths. An alternative fiction is that the Holy Spirit and scripture can contradict one another, thereby providing revisionists with a handy means of side-stepping "inconvenient" doctrines: "The Spirit told me so." God's truth is equally objective and personal. As philospher-theologian Douglas Groothuis puts it, "Jesus personifies truth precisely because all that he says is true and his life reflects and embodies perfect holiness by being true." The same scriptures that reveal Christ as Emmanuel, reveal God's will for sexual relations, marriage and family life. On what basis do +Njongonkulu and his fellow revisionists decide that one part of scripture is reliable while another must be rejected?

The reason the orthodox and the revisionists cannot live as equals in the body of Christ is not primarily because we disagree over how to read scripture; but because we worship different Gods. It is illogical and theologically untenable to believe in a God of love, but who has not and does not communicate clearly with the very humanity for whom he died. The orthodox believe in a God who has revealed himself in word and deed. When Paul went to Athens he found an altar to an Unknown God. If Paul were with us today, he'd find that the revisionists have erected a similar altar in the Anglican Communion.

[ahadams2]

ping.

[No_Outcome_But_Victory]

Someone's been nipping at Frank's Sufi-foofie dust.