Union Seminary
symposium looks at the challenge to mainline Christianity
by Chris Iosso
25-October-2000
One visitor
comments, comparing this account of the event with the Layman's
report.
Union Theological Seminary in New York recently held a
symposium to consider current challenges to mainline Christianity, in
the context of wider political and religious developments
About 250 people came out on Thursday evening, October
19, to hear sobering and at times elegaic accounts of struggles for
theological direction and practical control in several denominations.
The presentations were moderated by Anne Hale Johnson, Chair of Union's
board and a member of the Presbyterian Information Project and several
other national and church organizations. New UTS President Joseph Hough
introduced the themes and history to be addressed by the four main
speakers.
Alfred Ross, a New York City attorney and head of the Institute
for Democracy Studies, put the struggles in the churches within a
framework of efforts to reverse "pro-choice" policies, to put
more federal judgeships in conservative hands (even if it means leaving
them vacant for years while Clinton appointments are blocked), and to
remove other legal, social and religious protections against
unaccountable power of various kinds.
The Rev. Welton Gaddy, Director of the Interfaith
Alliance, spoke about the process in the Southern Baptist Church of
purging moderates, while the moderates themselves refused to organize
and denied what was happening. He pointed to the very close cooperation
between the Christian Coalition and the Reagan administration (Ralph
Reed now an advisor to "W"), and to the use of speakers and
briefings back and forth, redefining the religion and politics boundary
on the conservative evangelical side. Gaddy's mourning for a lost, more
independent, Southern Baptist Church was elegaic, and is echoed in Jimmy
Carter's recent letter of withdrawal from the national leadership of
that denomination.
The Rev. Robert Bohl, Pastor of the Prairie Village
Presbyterian Church in Kansas and former Moderator of the General
Assembly, outlined a Presbyterian ethos of freedom based in educated,
non-fundamentalist piety and a commitment to justice that resists
bullying in all its forms. He noted his own conception in West Berlin,
and also described watching events at the Southern Baptist seminary in
Fort Worth, whose President was forced out the minute that
denomination's take-over was complete. (The Boh's then put up the
seminary president's family for a while.) Bohl was careful not to equate
the Baptist and Presbyterian situations too closely, but drew some
important parallels. He spoke also about the number of Presbyterian
congregations which continue to ordain only men to the eldership, and
identified the role of women as a key component in assessing what is at
stake in the denominations.
J. Ann Craig of the United Methodist Women's Division
presented a wonderful mix of analysis and hymn-singing based in the
Spiritual, "Mary, don't you weep." The Methodist women were
the only ones to preserve some administrative independence when other
Protestant women's organizations were being merged into overall national
staffs and reduced to "desk" status. Thus they are used to
being attacked for not following the party line. She noted the
willingness of many Methodists to restrict the freedom, roles and
relationships of gay/lesbian people in the church, and the election of
this kind of "Good News" Methodist to several boards at their
last General Conference. They will continue pointing the issues and
helping create a healing worship life and opportunities for discipleship
in their church.
Anne Hale Johnson then graciously closed the meeting
and invited all to a (long) reception. Copies of A Moment To Decide
and other research reports were available.
As a pastor, bringing in four lay persons largely
unfamiliar with the debates, I felt particularly proud of former
Moderator Robert Bohl's personal determination to speak the truth in
love even for opponents of an inclusive church. A former Roman Catholic,
now an elder, commented that she would "never go back to an
authoritarian church." I pray we don't become one.
Christian T. Iosso
