A visitor, the Rev. Robert Rogers, comments on the extreme reactions to Dirk Ficca's talk at last summer's Peacemaking Conference, and decries the demands for "false certitude." We are, he says, in danger of replacing the living truth of Christ with a sinful attempt to claim possession of all the answers.

[2-26-01]

After hearing so much of the criticism, paranoia and arrogance that has come in reaction to Dirk Ficca's presentation, I decided that it was time for me to read the full text. After reading the text this evening, my immediate reaction was that of admiration of the courage Ficca displayed by openly asking the question we all are confronted with day after day after day in our diverse and pluralistic world. As Einstein said, "since the coming of the nuclear era, everything has changed except our way of thinking." (And this only increases the chance of our annihilation.)

I would like to build upon that statement and say that since the earth-shaking horror of the Holocaust, everything has changed except for our Christian theology -- especially our Christology! The Constantinian theology of glory and triumphalism is rooted deeper in our "Christian" faith and "Christian" institutions than most want to admit. The strong public reaction and some individual church's cries of heresy to Ficca's lecture shows how much more deeply we Presbyterians are infected by the sinful arrogance found in our sinful attempts to control the Absolute!

The reactions so cruelly made in the form of accusation and threat show us a theology shaped not so much by scripture, but formed and influenced by Chalcedonian dogma. Jesus Christ is present even when the "correct formula" or "creed" or "name" is not expressed. The sovereignty of Christ is not dependent upon our correct or incorrect expressions of faith. It is not necessary for Christians to elevate Christ -- God alone does that and does it in surprising and mysterious ways. Why can't we allow Jesus to be who he is instead of feebly attempting to imprison him in our Christologies? As Douglas John Hall points out in his systematic theology: "the particularity of Jesus is a false scandal when it is divorced from his actual person and is reduced to dogma."

Frankly, I am frightened by the climate that we find in the Presbyterian Church these days. We seem to be bordering on "witch trials" -- as evidenced by these reactions to someone who was only thinking theologically and doing that contextually. Mr. Ficca has every right to express his struggle. Good for him for refusing to be the victim of some false certitude that only temporarily eases our basic anxiety. My worst fear these past six or seven years has been the growing number of "sex police" that have been deputized, and who carry through on that by "running home and telling their mommy" what a neighboring congregation or pastor said or did regarding homosexuality and the church. And now we find others have also been deputized as "thought police," who feel the purity and holiness of the church depends upon them.

Truth is a living thing -- or should I say Person -- and that Person cannot be spoken of permanently in words and thoughts that never change. It is a sheer mystery that God even allows us to speak of God in our finite speech. So it is a sad day of delusion, idolatry and blasphemy when we start to believe that our God-talk is itself true ... completely true! Again, as Hall reminds us: before our creeds and dogmas about Jesus came to be -- there was Jesus!! The gospel of the cross insists that we quit standing on the theology of glory that claims to have all the correct answers -- that is just our sinful attempt to silence doubt and suppress anxiety and escape our creaturehood. It shows that we are caught in the grips of the Tower of Babel archetype where the finite attempts to control, define and even play at being the Infinite. The theology of the cross insists that we allow the questions to be asked because the asking of the questions is ultimately more important to our wholeness because when the answers are not quickly found, we come face to face with "the Answerer." (Hall)

I thought we Presbyterians were more intellectually honest with the realities of this world and our faith to have to resort to a narrowness and one-sidedness typical of the neurotic. But then, I guess we are very neurotic -- and paranoid as well!!!

Robert J. Rogers
clergy member of Donegal Presbytery


NOTE:  Emphases have been added by the WebWeaver.

Voices of Sophia blog

Heather Reichgott, who has created this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:

Witherspoon’s Facebook page

Mitch Trigger, Witherspoon’s Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!

John Harris’ Summit to Shore blogspot

John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive

Got more blogs to recommend?

Plan now for our 2010 Ghost Ranch Seminar!

GHOST RANCH SEMINAR

July 26-August 1, 2010

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