A Guy in the Pew

For those who seem bound and determined to leave the Episcopal church over sexuality, it seems important to emphasize that "It is not about the sex." Point one on the list of grievances about the Episcopal church is the allegation that the Presiding Bishop does not believe in orthodox Christian doctrine on salvation. As I pointed out in previous posts, this misstates what the Presiding Bishop has said--and it also distorts true orthodox doctrine. The Presiding Bishop has once again elaborated her beliefs on salvation, and once again they seem fairly orthodox--unless you think that the current Pope is also not orthodox. Here are some highlights. First, she addresses a core issue--canthe unbaptized of other faiths be saved: Yet the ancient question remains: Is baptism necessary for salvation? Theologians have wrestled with this in a number of ways and made some remarkably gracious and open-ended responses. Vatican II affirmed that salvation is possible outside the church, eve...

The First Things blog "On the Square" has two very interesting posts today on the Catholic Church's International Theological Commission’s (ITC) Report on Limbo, “The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized.” The two posts are worth reading even by non-Catholics. What is quite interesting is that the ITC was faced with the nearly impossible task of reconciling a pastoral problem (what to tell the parents of unbaptised infants who die about the eternal life of their children) with clear Church teaching and tradition about the importance of baptism to salvation. The solution, not uncommon in any discussion of salvation, is this: “Our conclusion is that [there are] . . . grounds for hope that unbaptized infants will be saved and enjoy the beatific vision” , but “the church does not have sure knowledge about the salvation of unbaptized infants” because “the destiny of . . . infants who die without baptism has not been revealed to us, and the church teach...

Christianity Today is hosting a spirited debate between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson on the topic of "Is Christianity Good for the World?" Douglas Wilson is author of Letter from a Christian Citizen , senior fellow of theology at New Saint Andrews College , and minister at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. Christopher Hitchens wrote, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything ( Twelve Books ). Hitchens is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a visiting professor of liberal studies at the New School. The debate is a quick read, but to me the most interesting aspect of the debate is that Hitchens uses penal atonement as one ground of attacking Christianity, and Wilson simply ignores the argument twice ! Here is the first instance : Many of the teachings of Christianity are, as well as being incredible and mythical, immoral. I would principally wish to cite the concept of vicarious redemption, whereby one's own responsibilities can be flung onto a scapego...

Father Dan Martins has a great post on salvation today, that deals with the very tricky question of what to make of the last clause John 14:6 ("No one comes to the Father but by me" ). Here is part of what Father Dan had to say: Must one be a Christian to be saved, to avoid Hell and gain Heaven, or are there alternative pathways? This, of course, is the very tempest into which the Presiding Bishop sailed before she even took office last year, and one of the bases for continuing assertions of her sub-orthodox christology and soteriology. The funeral service for President Ford in Washington Cathedral encountered the same storm when somebody (no one has claimed credit, to my knowledge) omitted the last clause from John 14:6, the gospel reading for the occasion. What was left out? "No one comes to the Father but by me" (Jesus speaking). For some reason, this is a particularly interesting question to secular journalists and pundits and social critics who attempt to ...

Wow. Two days in a row, David Kuo posts a great comment on his blog. The topic this time? Mathew 25 ("the least of these"), Angelia Jolie and James Dobson. You need to read the whole thing , but here is a sampling: I am absolutely convinced about several things. I am convinced of every word of the Nicene Creed. I believe in the virgin birth, I believe Jesus sat in the temple as a boy and amazed the rabbis with his knowledge of God. I believe in everything from turning water into wine to his death, resurrection, and ascension. I believe he will one day reappear. I believe those things. But as certainly as I believe those things I also believe - by necessity, not by choice - other things, scary things, intimidating things. I believe, for instance, that Jesus' words at the end of the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel are true [.] . . . Those words should absolutely terrify every person who purports to follow Jesus. Every person who has uttered any words that they want the...

The conservative blogs are having a field day with this report that the Very Rev Jeffrey John, who had to withdraw before taking up an appointment as bishop of Reading in the Church of England in 2003 after it emerged he was in a long-term gay relationship, is about to make a provocative radio commentary on BBC Radio 4 that will attack traditional beliefs on atonement: In a BBC Radio 4 show, Mr John, who is now Dean of St Albans, urges a revision of the traditional explanation, known as "penal substitution". Christian theology has taught that because humans have sinned, God sent Christ as a substitute to suffer and die in our place. "In other words, Jesus took the rap and we got forgiven as long as we said we believed in him," says Mr John. "This is repulsive as well as nonsensical. It makes God sound like a psychopath. If a human behaved like this we'd say that they were a monster." Mr John argues that too many Christians go through their lives faili...

As I mentioned in my last post, there are numerous orthodox Anglicans who argue that the Episcopal church's views on same sex relationships is just the final straw. In most cases, the example used are comments made by our Presiding Bishop about her views on salvation. As an example of this argument, one conservative Rector argued as follows: "When bishops refuse to affirm the Nicene Creed and core essentials of the Christian faith, there is a crisis in the Church. When they vote to bless and call holy behaviors that the Bible defines as sin, there is a problem. When the leader of the denomination responds to Jesus' words -- "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me," (John 14:6) -- by stating that Christians should not say that Jesus is the only way to God, "If we insist we know the one way to God, we've put God in a very small box," orthodox Anglicans take issue. "Another statement was: "Ch...