Sunday, June 1, 2008
An Overture and a Report: A Hand in A Glove
The Committee on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations have an Overture and a Report listed which at first I thought were rather contradictory. But the more I study them I see that they fit like a hand into a glove. The overture is 07-03 On Investigating the Actions and Conduct of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church from the Presbytery of Peace River, the other, the Report, 07-info, is the World Alliance of Reformed Churches Report to the PC(USA), 2006–2007, Report of the General Secretary.
After reading both report and overture, and doing some research on the information given by the General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, I am convinced that the leaders of the WARC would happily rid themselves of anyone who believed that Jesus Christ was the only Lord and that the Church's main calling was to proclaim his life, death and resurrection.
The Overture is an attempt to get the “Executive Office,” of WARC to investigate the EPC with the unsubstantiated accusation that they "are actively pursuing a strategy to persuade" PCUSA churches to disaffiliate from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and be dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The EPC is in correspondence with the Presbyterian Church (USA) since they are both members of WARC. It would, undoubtedly, be easier for Presbyteries and Synods to keep the property of churches leaving for the EPC if that Reformed denomination was not in correspondence with PCUSA.
At the same time in the Report from the General Secretary of WARC, he “highlights some of the work” that has been done through the “Geneva offices and networks.” He mentions several small conferences in different areas of the world. One was near Manila in the Philippines and was focused on “global empire,” corresponding to the Accra confession.
They produced a document entitled An Ecumenical Faith Stance against Global Empire for a Liberated Earth Community.
This is a very long document but it should be read by all Presbyterians. It is extremely political with very slanted biases and even blatant historical mistakes, such as the claim that the United States not only bombed Japan with the atomic bomb but also Korea. The poverty, hunger and refugee problem in North Korea is blamed on the USA. The authors write:
“North Korea’s economy, already weakened by the ravages of neoliberal globalization, has been pushed to the brink by the US trade embargo and economic sanctions. As a result millions suffer from hunger and malnutrition, leading to a scandalously high incidence of child mortality and a massive flood of economic refugees.”
But I am concerned with this document's diatribe toward all of historical Western Christianity. The authors of the document write:
“Western Christianity has been closely related to empire since the Roman days and has thus spread throughout the world. [So undoubtedly the Christianity of Africa and South America is Western Christianity!?] It is now being used to provide ideological legitimization for today’s empire. Globalized Christendom and the “crusades” it embarks upon today are symbiotically intertwined with global capital and the power of the global empire. In its triumphalistic [sic] pursuits, it discounts if not condemns all other religious faiths and cultures. The indigenous religions of many communities are destroyed and Islam is vilified.
The convergence of Christian religion with Western modernity has destroyed the religious and cultural life of peoples and their communities throughout the world. The powers and principalities of the global market and empire are being baptised by these theological distortions of “Christianity”, which promote religious conflicts and bigotry globally.”
Once again as in the Communiqué from the Workshop on Spirituality of Resistance, Liberation and Transformation, also aided by WARC, Christianity is disparaged. The saints through the ages, who have ministered the word of God to those who were dying without Christ, are made to seem evil. (Of course some missionaries committed grave errors, we are all sinners, but the story of missions is not so simplistic.)
If the General Assembly sends with a yes Overture 07-03 to the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and if WARC removes the Evangelical Presbyterian Church from their organization it will have nothing to do with any wrong done by the EPC. It will instead be because any church that proclaims the unique Lordship of Jesus Christ can find no resting place in worldly organizations. But they can find that place in Jesus Christ.
Jesus, as he visited and taught in the home of his friends, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, explained that in setting at his feet and listening to his words Mary had “chosen the good part.” (10: 42) Those who listen to Jesus Christ as he makes himself known and is known in the Old and New Testaments have chosen the good part. They are safe in the care of Jesus Christ, rejected perhaps by the world, they are enclosed in the love of God.
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13 comments:
I understand the pragmatics of the issue.
But I have to ask, as a matter of principal: WHY WOULD THE EPC WANT TO BE IN AN ORGANIZATION THAT IS EITHER AS APOSTATE OR FACTUALLY CHALLENGED ON THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY AS WARC as evidenced by the document you cite ... among a number of others?
Why would anyone who had any respect at all for Reformed Christianity want anything other than to run the other way. Or at the very least, to demand the immediate resignation of every executive in WARC ?
Will,
I was tempted at every turn to use your phrase "run the other way" EPC, run the other way. After all WARC is not a Church, there is no biblical or moral reason to belong. And I agree we should demand the leaders resign.
But the EPC does have the right above many others to be there; they are certainly Reformed.
Viola - like I said, I understand the pragmatics.
The EPC IS Reformed. WARC is not ... or at least its leadership and direction is so far removed from Reformed that one would not be incorrect to regard the name as some form of false advertising. This is unfortunate because of the faithful people in some of its member denominations ... but the organization itself is very far gone.
After looking at a lot of their information and documents I can only agree.
And I'm sure you know who the President of WARC is? Yes, our Stated Clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick.
He came home from Accra pushing that deeply disturbing and roundly biased document as if it were a new epistle from Paul. I have not read a phrase from him distancing himself or WARC from the Cuba or Manila manifestos to all the comrades in the glorious revolution of the proletariat laboring against Western empire and Christian faith.
The deep rot within WARC theology and politics is truly stunning--as is Kirkpatrick's clueless shilling for it. Watch him defend WARC funding at General Assembly when the per capita issue comes up.
Jim Berkley
Bellevue, WA
Jim - Yes, I wasn't thinking directly of that connection ... though, of course it occurred to me that there might be conflict of interest of some kind when Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick requests that presbyteries overture the GA to have WARC investigate the EPC - as he is the president of WARC.
I'm not sure it is 'clueless'. I imagine Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick knows fully well what he is supporting. That is is vile and offensive doesn't preclude this. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I highly doubt someone reaches that position within an organization without understanding exactly what he is doing.
I personally think he is clueless as are a lot of people. In fact using such terms as Empire and Western Christianity tends to throw some people off. They don’t know that Empire in the context of “An Ecumenical Faith Stance against Global Empire for a Liberated Earth Community,” stands for Capitalism as opposed to Socialism or some kind of Marxism. Nor do they understand that the “Western Christianity” that is being bashed is really traditional or biblical Christianity which has always proclaimed Jesus as the only way to know God.
There are in fact Christians in many lands under many different circumstances who are the seed of the sacrifice made by missionaries from Western Christianity. And on top of that what we call Western Christianity was itself seeded by many in Africa during the years of early Christianity. They acted as missionaries and theologians to those in the West. The people who wrote “An Ecumenical Faith Stance against Global Empire for a Liberated Earth Community,” are themselves clueless about the history of Christianity, its faults and its goodness which of course belong to Jesus Christ.
Kirkpatrick, I think, is perhaps an example of those who for good reasons or maybe bad reasons, strive for the inner ring. As C.S. Lewis puts it, “Of all passions the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not a very bad man do very bad things.”
I have been surprised to find that some of the actions that are going on toward the churches who are leaving, including those in my presbytery and some of the actions toward another church body, the EPC, has troubled me almost as much as someone pushing bad Christology. Maybe that is because they are also part of Christ’s body.
I believe the primary, if not sole, reason that the EPC remains a part of WARC is to maintain a formal means of communication with denominations such as our so that credentials such as ordination papers can be processed and transferred with less headache.
Mateen I have no idea why they are staying in WARC but I am sure god has a purpose.
I'm a little late to this conversation, but I can confirm what mateen said. At our 2006 GA, there was an overture put forth by the Presbytery of Florida to withdraw from WARC. No one who spoke had any illusions about the organization, or wanted the EPC to have anything to do with it other than membership. The sole reason for keeping our membership was to be in "correspondence" with the PCUSA, so that churches that wanted to transfer to the EPC could do so. I left without any doubt that once the churches that wanted to had made the move, or if the PCUSA ever did something to make it impossible, we would withdraw without hesitation. It isn't a pragmatic matter with us so much as a way of throwing a lifeline to brothers and sisters in need.
Oh, I should add that the overture was voluntarily withdrawn by Florida.
Thanks David,
I thought you had said something like that on your blog somewhere but I couldn't find it.
So God soes have a purpose and EPC knows it:)
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