Jonathan Justice adds to Shawn
Coons' comments on the Coalition's plans for a "shadow
denomination"
[11-15-01]
Shawn Coons is rightly concerned that the Presbyterian Coalition has
elected to articulate its posture as a shadow denomination in a sense
roughly parallel to the British parties' practice of shadowing the
government operated by the party in power, so that they will be able to
hand out Ministry portfolios to people who actually know what goes on in
a given Ministry if they should win the next parliamentary election. The
Coalition would seem to have a more dramatic program in mind. Meanwhile,
I think there is also a different sense in which we might refer to a
shadow denomination in our efforts to understand what is happening in
our denomination as we move through the present crisis or valley.
Does anyone else think it just a mite strange that a
bunch of Presbyterians professes a new Confession, and pronounces itself
the new connectionalism, but cannot be bothered to create what some of
us might call "polity"? The (Presbyterian) Confessing Church
Movement's friends at the Lay Committee regularly report on the growth
of the list, and boast of the big churches on that list. But somehow the
mundane business of organizing the group in any way that might make
someone an official and responsible representative of this fabulous new
thing, or subject those who might presume to speak for it to such
restraints as a representative organization might choose to impose, has
to wait for the really fabulous party they plan to have towards the end
of the Presbyteries' voting on Amendment 01-A.
Until that does get done, I have to think
"shadow" is exactly what is intended. A whole phantasmagorical
series of shadows on the wall intended by its operators to variously
frighten and inspire without bothering to get down to the plain daylight
work that what we might call "true witness" requires. God is
reported to have a certain distaste for the other sort of witness, and I
think that quite sensible on God's part.
Consider for instance what Moderator Rogers
encountered in his daylit earnest effort to listen to the people at the
Coalition's fourth Gathering in Orlando last month: Bob Howard walked
into the Open Mike session at the end and used most of it up with his
Power Point presentation of the wonderful stuff the Confessing Church
Movement is going to do to the Presbyterian Church.
What constituent assembly formulated this program? To
what degree does this manifesto parallel programs that have been
endorsed by other organizations. What are those organizations? Why does
the idea of the divine right of kings come to mind? ( Well, for one
thing; "oligarchs" is such a long word, and requires so much
explaining, and for another, real oligarchs like to have formal
organizations so that the agreements they have negotiated in private can
be publicly endorsed, while kings are ostensibly above all that, getting
their orders directly from God.)
Jonathan Justice
