Posted on 12/29/2007 5:17:53 AM PST by Huber
[Hat Tip: In Newark]
Although I think it somewhat unjust to the originals, "Puritanism" has come to mean the application of pointless and wrong rules to systems and people. Most people may find themselves "puritanical" at some point in their lives. The Father suddenly realizes that his long-held, and strictly enforced, "Very Important Rule" about some household matter actually thwarts the good that he wishes to see in his family. The Sabbath-keeper suddenly realizes that her Sunday is not at all restful. In its extreme form, the Nazi guard at the camp realizes that the prisoners working out in the snow enjoy gathering around a little fire in the stove on their limited breaks -- and so he makes up a new rule about breaks and kicks over the stove, extinguishing the fire.
Mostly it's "traditionalists" that get tarred with the "Puritan" label. And indeed, there are a number of segments of hyper-reformed Calvinists, for instance, who vigorously denounce the celebration of Christmas as the importation of "pagan rituals" that have furtively and wickedly infiltrated Christianity. But progressives may be "puritanical" too. I'll never forget walking through a beautiful Episcopal graveyard, with blooming crepe myrtle and green grass and lovely church buildings, and the Worthy Opponent with whom I was walking and enjoying a nice conversation sighing heavily and remarking that all of this -- the buildings and the garden scenes -- [roughly paraphrased] "even though beautiful, should never have been built and instead the money given to important causes and the poor." As if, somehow, beauty, heritage, and respect for the dead were not "important causes." In that moment, my Worthy Opponent became "puritanical."
It was H. L. Mencken who defined "Puritanism" as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
And so, with that as background, let us note this prime example of Puritanism from the Episcopal church's very own Bishop John Shelby Spong, who in his own warm and pastoral way back in 1997, helpfully snatches away Lessons & Carols [at least ideally and theoretically] from his parishioners in the hapless and neglected Diocese of Newark . . . just like the hyper-Reformed segments of the Christianity which he so despises.
"Despite its history, the beauty of its music and even its popularity, I do not believe I would allow this service in its present form again in a church where I was serving as rector or vicar. Nor do I believe I would attend this service again by choice. My reason is that the service of lessons and carols is based on a fundamentally flawed theological concept. As such, it undergirds an attitude toward the Bible that I find uninformed and increasingly distasteful. Let me explain. The service begins with readings from the Hebrew scriptures. These particular passages are chosen because they appear to us Christians to be literal prophecies that were lived out and fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth. We act as if these Hebrew scriptures actually contained a blueprint for the words Jesus spoke and the deeds he did. Listen even now to the typical way we hear the familiar narratives that we have incorporated into the Christian story. "A shoot shall come out from the stump of David, and a branch shall grow out of his roots (Isa. 11:1)." "But you Bethlehem......from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from old, from ancient days (Micah 5:2)." "A young woman (The King James Bible would say 'virgin') is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Emmanuel (Isa. 7:14)." "Rise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you (Isa. 60:1)." "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light (Isa. 11:3)." "And his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace (Isa. 9:6)."
We recognize these passages immediately because they have been read over the centuries as part of our Christmas celebration. Indeed, Frederick Handel imprinted many of these passages into our minds indelibly as part of his incredibly beautiful oratorio "Messiah." So deeply have we come to associate these texts with Christ that many people believe they were actually written about him. Some even think they are found in the Gospels. Actually every quotation I have cited above comes out of a period of history from the 8th century B.C.E. to the 6th century B.C.E.! Once this elementary insight enters our minds, then the Christian rationalization process begins and one hears it said that even though these words were written 600 to 800 years before the birth of Jesus, they are nonetheless actual prophecies about Jesus, which were fulfilled in a literal and miraculous way. Underlying this claim is the assumption that God planned the story of salvation in such a way as to require these ancient writers to pen words for their texts that would be fulfilled centuries later in specific detail. This was thought to prove the divine nature of Jesus. It was such a cozy, circular and apparently persuasive theory that such explanations became normative with little or no critical study. Most of us have grown up with some version of this understanding.
But these assumptions are biblical nonsense and commit us to accept a superstitious interpretation of the Bible. Think for just a moment exactly what such a claim would mean to the concept of revelation: It would first understand God as the master planner in the sky who dictated the content of the prophetic writings so that a divine plan would be seen to occupy vast sweeps of time as one unfolding whole. God would have to control the world so tightly that the words God caused to be written centuries before would govern little events that occurred centuries later. Because we know today that the Gospel writers did not quote the Hebrew originals, we would also have to ascribe to God the micromanaging process of directing the various translations of these texts so that the exact prophetic message, penned in the original Hebrew, would still be preserved intact in the new Greek language into which the Gospels were destined to be written. Next we have to take into consideration the fact that in this six to eight hundred year migration, God would have to guarantee that the prophetic predictions would be accurately and precisely hand-copied literally dozens of times."
I will say this for Bishop Spong. He recognizes the insidious nature and terrible influence of tradition. Form enough beautiful traditions in a family, a community, a church, a culture, or a nation -- and people might actually come to wonder what is behind those traditions, and undoubtedly the themes and eternal truths behind such things will be woven inexorably into the hearts of both child and nation.
Bishop Spong's essay denouncing Lessons and Carols is one of the best arguments for the celebration of Christmas traditions that I have ever found.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Spong’s mind and soul resemble the Diocese he once led..barren..empty...a wasteland
What strikes me about this is, well, the unbelief in God and the remarkably self-satisfied belief in his own theological notions.
It defies logic, doesn’t it, unless we believe in evil as an active force.
I remember back when the Episcopal Church was affectionately called “The Republican Party at prayer.” Now it is nothing more than one of the DNC’s puppets.
>> I remember back when the Episcopal Church was affectionately called “The Republican Party at prayer.” <<
Alas, the problem is that the power players in the Republican Party ARE as liberal as Episcopalians. They only feign conservativism, because the Republican grassroots demand conservativism. Ever read Harriet Meiers?
I suppose one has to decide if they believe in an omnipotent God who created the earth, the stars, the universe, etc. Personally, I do. And for all that also believe this, it should follow automatically that such a powerful God, so far beyond human understanding, is perfectly capable of having prophecies given and fulfilled centuries later. That would be nothing, compared to His majestic creating of our universe.
Bingo. And the funny thing is THEY accuse US of “putting God in too small a box”.
I can't really call this a "Lutheran Ping" but please consider these words in light of the blatant revisionism of the ELCA's new hymnal Evangelical Lutheran Worship
I will say this for Bishop Spong. He recognizes the insidious nature and terrible influence of tradition. Form enough beautiful traditions in a family, a community, a church, a culture, or a nation -- and people might actually come to wonder what is behind those traditions, and undoubtedly the themes and eternal truths behind such things will be woven inexorably into the hearts of both child and nation.
I worry about Bishop Spong’s health. Is he getting enough exercise? I suggest a nice long walk in search of Bishop Pike might be just the thing.
Bishop Spong was an early one in the process of leading the church into liberalism. Republicans played no active role, passive - yes. They did nothing to counter the changes as they came about.
the DNC puppets in TEC are now its right-of-center moderates. The very large left tail is Marxist
Cold, but funny!
And if I may say one thing in favor of the dear departed, at least Pike had the honesty to resign his office as Bishop of California, and thereby lose his salary and retirement pension. The retired Spong is still collecting his TEC checks, and it would take crowbar to separate him from that money. It is grossly dishonest to hide behind Episcopal robes while publicly attacking everything central to Christianity.
That said, Jimes Pike, had so many private demons that their names could called 'Legion'.
"In 1966, Pike's son Jim took his life in a New York city hotel room following a period of recreational drug use. Shortly after his son's death Pike began to experience poltergeist phenomena. Books seemed to vanish and reappear, and safety pins were found open and placed to indicate the hour of 8:19, the approximate hour of his son's death. Half of the clothes in a closet were found disarranged and heaped up while the remainder were still in perfect order. [7] Pike led a public (and for the church, embarrassing) pursuit of various spiritualist and clairvoyant methods of contacting his deceased son in order to reconcile. In September 1967, Pike participated in a televised séance with his dead son through the medium, Arthur Ford, who served at the time as a Disciples of Christ minister. Pike detailed these experiences in his book The Other Side."
"In 1969, following an obsession with gnostic spirituality stemming from attempts to contact his dead son, Pike and his new wife drove into the Israeli desert. They were unprepared for the journey, and when their car broke down and became stuck, they separated in order to search for help. Accounts differ and an exact determination is impossible, though it is likely that Pike either fell into a wadi/oasis/creek bed to his death or else climbed in and subsequently died of exposure and thirst sometime between September 2nd and 9th. His body was recovered[and buried (following his wishes and those of his family) in the Protestant cemetery in Jaffa, Israel."
Spong is just one of the “theological” termites nibbling away at the foundations.
I prefer to think of him as dry rot!
Our pastor said there are 320 prophecies from the OT that Jesus fulfilled. From the study sheet that he handed out:
"Could such prophecies have been mere coincidence? Peter Stoner, in Science Speaks, calculates that the odds of any eight of these prophecies having been accidentally fulfilled in the life of one man would have been 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
Suppose we took that many silver dollars and scatter them across the entire state of Texas. They would cover the state to a depth of about two feet. Mark one...just one silver dollar with a red 'x'. Put a man in an airplane, let him fly anywhere he wants over Texas and jump out (we'll give him a parachute). How likely is it that on the first try he finds the one with the red 'x'? Exactly the same odds that the prophets had written just eight prophecies which would be fulfilled hundreds of years later in the life of Jesus Christ."
How sad that a prominent leader in the church is so certain that our God could not have done such an amazing thing.
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