The Womb, the Closet and the Cross
by J. Daryl Charles*
Abortion and homosexuality are two issues most Americans wish would simply go away. On the one side are advocates of abortion and homosexual rights. "Rights" is the key word here, since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision discovered something new in the Constitution – a "right" to privacy (i.e., unrestrained sexuality). Subsequently, homosexual rights advocates learned a valuable lesson and have been notably successful in framing the issue of sexuality in similar terms. Mere societal "toleration" of homosexuals will not suffice. Homosexuality, like abortion, must be culturally mainstreamed through the systematic removal of opposing social stigma. Hence, neither of these two groups can afford to permit either issue to "go away."
On the other side are more conservative, normally orthodox Protestants and Catholics, who view these two issues as a most profound assault on the entire structure of biblical morality. Instinctively these individuals know that when two elements are bleached from the fabric of culture, namely, a moral consensus in society and the resistance by the church, nothing else remains sociologically speaking, that can act as a deterrent to unbridled sexual expression. Hence opposition to abortion and homosexuality represents no less than a key to faithfulness to the church's broader cultural mandate.
If only those unenlightened "fundamentalists" would be more tolerant, a sort of "compromise" could be worked out that would bring an end to all the rancor and turmoil. Surely, it is hoped, a tolerable "settlement" can be achieved that will end the bitterly divisive struggle that tears at our cultural seams. Charles Krauthammer expressed the sentiments of many when he wrote – perhaps a bit prematurely – following the 1992 presidential election, "One can declare a great national [moral] debate over."
ERASING OUR CULTURAL MEMORY
Until recently there was little need to reaffirm the Church's historic understanding of both abortion and homosexuality. Both were regarded as morally repugnant and a corruption of civilization, based on the moral code of Western culture that derives from biblical law and the Ten Commandments. But now leadership in large mainline denominations has incorporated secular assumptions virtually wholesale into the Church's life and liturgy. Denominations have put together "task forces" to tool out sundry "statements" or position papers onùnotablyùabortion and homosexuality.
Fueled by its dread fear of the fundamentalist bogeyman, mainline Protestantism was determined to shed its inferiority complex and show surrounding culture that it really wasn't such a social misfit after all. By inhaling contemporary "rights" rhetoric, blessing "abortion services", and "compassionately" embracing homosexuals in their "orientation", Protestants could at last say, "See there, we're not so socially irrelevant after all!"
While the seminaries and denominational leadership are busy erasing inconvenient ecclesiastical facts from the historical and cultural record, it is appropriate to reconsider precisely why the two issues that everybody wishes would go away, in fact dare not disappear. Simply stated, there was never a time in the history of the Christian Churchùapart from the twilight of the 20th century – when abortion and homosexuality were accepted – much less incorporated into the Church's structure of moral teaching. Both have always been viewed as moral evils. So these two issues will continue to be an accurate barometer of the Church's faithfulness – in a culture where the crotch has replaced the cross as a sign of the sacred.
OF SAINTS AND SEXUAL SIN
The Christian community is bound to argue for the unborn and against homosexual insurgency for reasons of theological integrity. It knows that whatever the cultural forces arrayed against it, the Lord of the church requires faithfulness to biblical authority. There is, as well, a distinct sociological reason why the Christian Church has historically viewed these two issues as abhorrent, namely, the singular character of sexual sin. While all sin grieves the heart of God, sexual sin is unique: the effects of sexual sin are without parallel; indeed, they are absolutely devastating – and universally so. Throughout both the New and Old Testaments, the consequences of sexual sin are catastrophic: hence, the biblical language of "abomination".
Sexual sin ruins the vessel; it leaves scars that last a lifetime. Most people never fully recover from them. Even the example of a person who has fallen and then submitted to biblical authority and the gentle process of restoration in the context of a supportive Christian community, serves as a sober reminder that certain things cannot be wiped away. Women who have had abortions tend to deny physical, psychological or spiritual trauma in the aftermath of an abortion; those who have been restored to faith and spiritual accountability within the Church testify universally to the great emotional, physical and psychological scars that were in need of divine forgiveness and healing. In matters of sexuality the Church is compelled to speak the truth in love, namely, that shedding blood in the womb is not the solution to sexuality gone awry.
Likewise with homosexuality. An individual who is deeply entrenched in a homosexual way of life embodies, sexually speaking, the most complete form of rebellion against the Creator. Homosexuality constitutes radical evidence of rejecting God's authority. It is the fullest expression of clay saying to the Potter, "Why have you made me thus?" From a biblical standpoint, to deny our sexuality, a matter of creation, is to deny at the most fundamental level who we are. Hence, a throwing off of this "oppressive" stricture represents the full maturation of rebellion. Historically, sexual license and homosexuality depict a ripened phase of societal degeneration.
SPEAKING THE TRUTH: THE HERETICAL IMPERATIVE
Christian compassion is a response to someone's suffering. This can be readily seen in the Christian response to problem pregnancies and the scourge of AIDS. The Christian community will continue to reach out in service to those who continue to suffer.
At the same time, Christians are equally obliged to serve a prophetic function. The Church cannot get caught up in the urgency of the circumstances surrounding abortion and AIDS and forget its prophetic role. The task of the Church as a steward of the truth by the One Who is the Truth, is to help people ultimately to a true understanding of their needs.
If humanity is dying from a certain lifestyle it must be exhorted by the Christian community to forsake that life style. The prophet is under an heretical imperative; he cannot but disagree with and point out the fatal fallacies of the culture of his time. Prophetic faith judges culture. If the "faith" has become secularized or socialized, that religion, in truth, has become marginalized, and it is no less than an extension of prevailing culture. The Church, if it is faithful to its mission, clashes with culture and the creed of the times. It is continually discerning the false presuppositions of a diseased society and exposing them in the light of truth. Christians perform this necessary cultural service even when critics in culture – including critics within the Church's own confines – decry them as "unloving" or lacking in "compassion."
Recall a situation in the ministry of Jesus (Matthew 9:2). To the "postmodern" Protestant it might seem to be the height of presumption for Jesus to announce to the paralytic, "Your sins be forgiven". Wasn't the paralytic in need of a doctor for obvious medical reasons? Or a psychologist, to help sort through the feeling of an embattled self-esteem? Jesus' priorities offends the modern mind set – both religious and secular. The authentically prophetic message does not go down very easily. Yet then, and only then – when the Church speaks what is on the heart of God – can the directive follow, "Rise, take your bed and walk."
In addressing a culture that is sexually out of control, the Church finds itself in the unenviable position of bucking conventional wisdom and becoming exceedingly unfashionable.
RENEWING THE CULTURAL MANDATE
Valson Thampu, Chaplain at St. Stephen's College in Delhi, India, defines Christian compassion as love and truth in a state of dynamic embrace. It is dynamic insofar as it moves us in the direction of specific tasks. Yet that dynamic, if it is to have theological integrity, must be truth-directed.
The Christian community does no service to God or surrounding culture by failing to speak the truth in love. We cannot pander to the individual who is recalcitrant or obstinate in his or her sinful ways. Nor should we stand by while others don a religious cloak and systematically dismantle Christian truth by recasting the meaning of the Bible in order to justify an unbiblical sexuality. Human life – and with it, personhood, marriage, the family, indeed all of society – is at stake. Misplaced compassion must not be unwittingly translated into further civil "rights." Rights, lest American culture has forgotten, are not bestowed on men and women because of their behavior – and in this case morally outrageous behavior. Rights are for all human beings, precisely because they are human beings. And to be fully "human" is to be faithful to the "image of God."
In the end, the Christian cannot escape the hazards of its prophetic obligation. The prophetic spirit inevitably broods over the Church in much the same way as over God's servant Ezekiel during a period of receding Israelite culture: "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me."
Let us be encouraged that, regardless of how unpopular our cause in a militantly secular society, the cause which we in fact do serve is the cause of truth. And that truth, preserved through the centuries by the Holy Spirit of God, is the one cultural force that can truly liberate the human spirit.
We cannot do anything against the truth, the Apostle Paul reminded the Church living in a decadent Corinthian culture, "but only for the truth" (II Cor. 13:8). One glorious fact stands foreordained: veritas magnas et praevalebit. The truth is mighty and shall prevail!
* J. Daryl Charles, D. Phil., is Scholar in Residence, the Wilberforce Forum, Washington, D.C. His essay discusses the Church's obligated response to Cultural Devastation.
I Believe in the One Gospel Church
by David Bunn*
The theme of our 1994 Sierra Pacific Synod Assembly was unity. Many stressed the need to unify around the Gospel of Jesus Christ, despite our serious differences on many issues. My question for all of us remains, "What is this Gospel around which we are to unify?"
Our ELCA history and Constitution tell us that the Holy Scriptures, expounded upon and supported by the creeds and confessions, are the foundation of our faith, the definition and explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But the escalating conflict over defining right and wrong, good and evil, true and false within the ELCA points to a gradual rejection of this biblical foundation.
When we honestly reflect on the variety of beliefs, pronouncements, activities and language in the ELCA, we are hard pressed to come up with any objective common ground that might define us all as a faithful body of Christ, linked in belief and practice to the great Church Universal, the spotless bride of Christ. Simply examining the central truths of Christianity (the Rule of Faith), truths we are supposed to share with all Christians – let alone those of our own denomination – reveals little agreement.
The Rule of Faith teaches us the concept of the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Yet it is becoming ever more common in our church to change the biblical language describing God and to question the nature of God reflected in these divine names.
The Rule of Faith also teaches the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, substitutionary death, physical resurrection and ultimate return to judge the world. Among pastors and teachers in our church one encounters all kinds of deviations and objections to these truths from Scripture. Some reject all or many of the miracles and supernatural events of the life and history of Jesus. Some reject the concept of judgment and hell. Some question the unique and necessary nature of Christ's sacrificial death for the forgiveness of sin. Some, in fact, reject the concept of "doctrine" itself.
The result is that the great concepts of our faith, stripped of biblical authority, no longer have any certain meaning. One theologian describes this as the "epitome of decadence," when our great Bible language, words like faith, truth, sin, repentance, love, judgment, grace and salvation, have been emptied of meaning. The book of Judges in the Bible comes to mind, when "every man did as seemed best in his own eyes."
Contrast this with the Scriptures. Jesus says in John 14: 6: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by me." Unity built on Jesus Christ, the fullness of truth and the only mediator between God and mankind, can be no vague and subjective unity. This unity results from complete and on-going submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all areas of life, "taking every thought captive to obey Jesus Christ" (JJ Corinthians 10: 5), and "not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Romans 12: 2).
We in the ELCA are losing a common Rule of Faith, a common language, common definitions and common values. The much-publicized debate over sexual morality and immorality is but a symptom of the deeper illness: we are not unified because we are not faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The challenge to unify in Christ – heart, mind and mission – is always difficult. Without a common foundation in the Biblical Gospel of Jesus – Savior, Lord and Truth – it is impossible.
*David Bunn, a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and a 1985-6Fullbright scholar in Germany, is an agriculturist and a member of the Parish Council of St. Ansgar Lutheran Church in Salinas, Calif.
ASSEMBLY REFLECTIONS: Bishop Mattheis elected Synod overseer
by Gordon Selbo*
Election of a bishop highlighted the recent Sierra Pacific Synod Assembly in Fresno. Though some dubious political maneuvering in the form of bloc voting was painfully evident, we trust the Holy Spirit's guidance and wish Pastor Robert Mattheis well in his vital role as overseer of our synod's life and mission.
He has enjoyed productive ministries in the Midwest and California, not least the past twenty years in Lodi, and obviously has earned the respect of many throughout the synod. He deserves and needs our prayers and support.
Perhaps his greatest challenge, as intimated by several speakers, will be to help unite a divided synod. The Assembly theme, "One Heart, One Mind, One Mission," is a noble goal not fully realized among us.
The first six years of our synod's existence have witnessed the suspension of congregations, illegal ordinations, defiance of our bishop and violation of ELCA policy. These are not the path to unity.
Jesus' prayer for unity in the church was referred to by Robert Smith in his Bible studies on John 17 and 18. That prayer is given substance by Jesus' words, "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth." Unity apart from adherence to the Word of God is deceptive at best.
It is a bit ironic that some of the more passionate pleas for church unity are being voiced by those most instrumental in disrupting it. It will never be achieved by an attempt to appease or reconcile contradictory views of biblical authority, the uniqueness of Christ, the mission of the church, or basic morality.
Oneness of heart, mind and mission will not come through a naive appeal that we should all "agree to disagree" on such matters.
One must add that we have witnessed in our synod, perhaps in extreme form, the symptoms of a fragmentation that increasingly portends crisis in the ELCA. There is an inclination to identify this crisis with the homosexual issue. Certainly this has been a flashpoint recently, with the ill-fated Task Force on Human Sexuality report, denounced by the Council of Bishops, pastors, seminary faculty, and an overwhelming negative response from the laity.
Surely something went radically wrong in both the process and content of that report. The attempt, even by our presiding bishop Chilstrom, to blame the media or to pass it off as only a first draft, is singularly unconvincing. Untold damage has already been done.
Our out-of-step synod, not surprisingly, reaffirmed by resolution its decision to allow the blessing of homosexual relationships. We continue thus to convey the irrational and mutually exclusive positions of defrocking actively homosexual pastors, but allowing other clergy to give in solemn rite the church's blessing to same-sex relationships of lay people. Unbelievable!
A resolution drawing considerable interest concerned the removal of Ross Merkel from the clergy roster, by reason of his homosexual relationship. Strongly affirmed by some was his effectiveness as pastor of St. Paul's, Oakland. Evaluation of his ministry of course was not in dispute and was thus irrelevant.
Unfortunately, the proposed resolution seemed to blame former Bishop Lyle Miller exclusively, and ignored the fact that he was both simply implementing ELCA policy (which, as bishop, he was committed to do), and was upheld by an official hearing.
Thus one of the sadly unfortunate moments at the Assembly came when Bishop Miller found it necessary to defend himself from the accusation "that these charges represent the Rule of Law without any application of the Rule of Love, and in substance are a grave injustice to the spirit of love". To impugn motives is the weakest form of argument, and in this case, deplorable. Those who on biblical grounds oppose homosexual conduct are sometimes accused of being judgmental. Who was judgmental at this point? The cause of unity surely was not being served.
More profoundly, the resolution displayed horribly bad theology, as if love never speaks the law of God. This is Lutheran? It's this kind of fuzzy thinking which beclouds the real issue.
It's too bad we have to spend so much time on that which divides us. But such an agenda has been forced upon the church these days.
To conclude on a positive note: the Assembly included inspiring worship experiences, stimulating Bible study, an appropriate honoring of our former bishop and synod staff, an hilarious presentation by youth of the church, thoughtful addresses and sermons, andsome resolutions worthy of action in our congregations.
*Pastor Gordon Selbo is the president of F.O.C.L. He was the former president of Augustana Academy, a school of the American Lutheran Church.
PERSPECTIVES
Getting tired of the old liturgy? Try on this prayer for next Sunday instead: " Our maker Sophia, we are women iny our image: Withthe hot blood of our wombs we give form to new life. With the courage of our convictions we pour out our life blood for justice. Sophia, creator God, let your milk and honey flow, shower us with your love. Our sweet Sophia, we are women in your image: with nectar between our thighs we invite a lover, we birth a child; with our warm body fluids we remind the world of its pleasures and sensations. Our guide, Sophia, we are women in your image: With our moist mouths we kiss away a tear, we smile encouragement. With the honey of wisdom in our mouths, we prophesy a full humanity to all the peoples."
Some 313 ELCA church women were among the 2000 Mainline church women's organizations who enjoyed this worship exercise. It promoted a Milk and Honey ritual as a substitute for the Holy Communion, at the Global Theological Conference By Women, billed as a "Re-imagining God Conference," held last November in Minneapolis. One woman theological professor announced, "We don't need folks hanging on crosses and dripping blood and weird stuff. We do not need atonement, we just need to listen to the god within." Another led a New Age Pranic healing exercise, advising the conference, "If you feel very tired, go to a big tree and ask the tree, 'give me some of your life energy.'"
A WCC feminist official volunteered, "We cannot have one savior, just like the Big Mac, prepackaged and shipped all over the world." One lesbian Catholic proposed "substituting friendship as a metaphor for family: Imagine sex among friends as the norm, young people learning how to make friends rather than to date. Imagine valuing genital sexual interaction in terms of whether and how it fosters friendship." One Methodist clergywoman told the audience that her homosexual partner is not 'practicing;' She's pretty good."
The affair was hailed as "asecond Reformation," and so Elizabeth Bettenhausen, a member of the commission that put the ELCA together, and one of the conference presenters, allowed, "Very few of us feel constrained by official theologies anymore; it's very exciting to see."
"Exciting?' Or simply nauseating? Can we hear the warning spoken to an apathetic church by the One True God whose name is not "goddess Sophia." "I will spew you out of my mouth!" (Rev. 3:16).
HE CAN BE NAUSEATED
Will our ELCA leaders be as faithful to the Word of God as are many Presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (USA)? They are formally protesting, demanding their General Assembly act upon this outrage. The Assembly staff granted a sizable sum and played a leading role in the event which also celebrated lesbianism as an acceptable alternative lifestyle for Christian women. According to Ecumenical Press Service, for example, one "re-imagining" speaker alleged that Mary and Martha (Luke 10) were not biological sisters but women in a lesbian relationship.
Since there is little prospect that the responsible officials who promoted this fiasco will back off and apologize for their part in this freak sideshow, the Presbyterians' General Assembly Council is "re-imagining" its 1994 budget, and expects the protests to register at least a $900,000 shortfall in the church's 1994 revenue. James Brown, ex. sec. of the Council, trying to bluntthe damage, conceded: "aspects of the liturgies used in Minneapolis were in poor taste, theologically and aesthetically, and ought to be labeled as such" (PCUSA News). He also hired a public relations firm to put a spin on the affair.
Meanwhile, an ELCA seminary teacher who attended opines of the re-imaging conference, in the May Lutheran, "Speakers and other leaders were thoughtful and insightful in challenging participants to explore the breath of Christian tradition as well as possibilities for fruitful dialogue with other culturally experienced religious traditions." Maybe heresy is only in the eye of the beholder? If our readers want to hear for themselves, and not be snowed by the spin doctors that these are isolated and atypical quotes, they may order the complete set of audio tapes from Resource Express in Apple Valley, MN. "
BALANCING THE BOOKS
According to the media watchdogAccuracy in Media, Mrs. Karen Gounaud of Fairfax, VA. found that 97% of her Fairfax public library' s books in the Dewey decimal category 306.76 were biased toward the activist gay agenda. She says that this is a serious problem everywhere, since the American Library Association is "very supportive of the homosexual agenda". She worked to correct this unbalancing, by suggesting books that can help homosexuals to a reformed life.
Our readers may want to want to assure their fellow ELCA members that no person is beyond the help of reform in this matter, by purchasing for their congregational library the books suggested: (1) You Don't Have to Be Gay, by Jeff Konrad; (2) Overcoming Homosexuality, by Ed Hurst with Dave and Neta Jackson; (3) Out of Egypt, by Jeanette Howard (lesbian); (4) Homosexuality in American Psychiatry, by Dr. Ronald Bayer; (5) Alfie 'sHome, by Richard Cohen.
These authors authenticate the experience of the renowned sexologists Masters and Johnson who claim a 77% success rate for those they treat who want to change from their homosexual orientation. Their findings put into question the loud and incessant claim heard even in our churches that homosexuality is irremediable and that therefore we should give it the church's blessing instead of the Bible's earnest warning that those who practice such things will not' 'inherit the Kingdom of God." (I Cor. 6: 9)
The suggested books may be ordered from: Regeneration, P.O. box 1034, Fairfax, VA 22030. Call 703-592-HOPE for a catalogue.
THINKING OF MORAL RELATIVITY
Why has moral relativity captured even church members who, while they insist that they themselves would never participate in certain behaviors (like killing unborn babies, homosexuality, gambling, etc.), nevertheless allow that they have no right to protest such behavior in others? Answer: they adhere to the axiom of David Carlin of Commonweal, which we may call the moral absolute of moral relativity:
"The good society is the society whose only common good is the agreement not to agree on any common good."
This moral absolute works admirably also for a passel of modern ecumaniacs: "The faithful church is the church whose only common faith is the agreement not to agree on any common faith."
IT'S METASTASIZING
It has been twenty years since your editor first heard it forthrightly stated, albeit with the plea that the confession remain secret within the group which had addressed the question to the noted ELCA seminary teacher, "Yes, I do believe in Universalism," he said.
This is the teaching that Jesus Christ is noj "the only way to the Father", as He Him self claimed to be in John 14:6, but that all religions, like so many roads to the top of the mountain, lead ultimately to the presence of God.
Like a spreading cancer, this devil-doctrine has now coursed through the life-blood of the church. Read it from an ELCA pastor's recent congregational news letter, bold and brazen: "As Christianity enters its third millennium, I believe it is time to reject Christian arrogance and chauvinism toward other religions, desist from using Jesus Christ as a religious weapon, and dispense with a petty deity who condemns 'unbelievers' io an eternity in hell for 'rejecting' the Christian Savior."
Or listen to a World Council of Churches official: "This theological arrogance [Christian missionizing and conversion] has played its last cards. [Christian] exclusiveness, displacing other religions, must be abandoned. It is no longer through our doctrinal formulation on God or Christ, but rather through our collective human search for meaning and sacredness that the universe of faiths can be adequately under-Stood."
Shall we succumb to this cancer that has vitiated our witness to the Jews, to die world religions, as well as to our next-door neighbor, who is already only too glad to assert that his hazy and imprecise concept of God is altogether sufficient to satisfy any criterion for insuring a trip to Paradise for himself? For do not all roads lead to heaven, wherein the only test for arrival at die mountain's peak is perseverance – whatever the road one takes?
Is there any way the radical Christian, that is, the "roots-Christian" can clarify why "no man can lay any foundation except that which has been laid, namely Jesus Christ", as the Apostle insisted? Consider this, the thoughts from a sermon on "The Uniqueness of Christ", by Dr. Mark Labberton at First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley:
"People say that there are other ways to heaven than that of Christ alone, roads that bear the name of Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, New Age Religion, Mormonism, or whatever. Do not all separate roads up the mountain lead finally to the same crest? What shall we say to those who urge this "Universalism" upon us?
"The helpful response is to remind diem and ourselves that there are no roads whatever that lead or can lead up die mountain to heaven! For all humans are sinful from their origin, and they are therefore perfectly incapable of creating or constructing any road diat will take them to eternal life.
"No, there is only one road, and it doesn't go up the mountain to heaven; it comes dowjj from heaven. It is not a road to heaven; it is a road from heaven. It was constructed by God Himself because only He could build that Way. And that Way is called Jesus Christ, who said, T am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by me.'"
Yes, the cancer of Universalism can be halted. Blessed will be the Church that submits wholly to the radiation of the X-ray Word that penetrates to the division of bone and marrow, destroying the heretical cells of disinformation and deceit that are the hallmarks of the devil, and that have been coursing so destructively through His Body these last years. – GHM.
Our German Lesson*
The German Constitutional Court, the highest in the country, has reaffirmed that "from the beginning of pregnancy right to life belongs to unbom human life, on the strength of its human dignity." Although the makeup of the court has changed, this is the same principle adopted by the court in a 1975 ruling that said Germans had aparticular obligation to guardagainsl the Nazi atrocities derived from the logic of abortion. The present ruling strikes down an abortion compromise reached with the former East Germany, where the Communist regime did not recognize a right to life.
That compromise law was much more protective of the unbom than is U.S. law, but, said the high court, it was not protective enough. The state, said the court, "has a duty to place itself protectively before unborn life, shielding this life from unlawful attacks by others." Abortion cannot be included in a national health insurance scheme, for that would make the "act of killing" seem normal, said the court. Not all abortions that are unlawful (rechtswidrig) will be criminally punished. Criminal punishment may be applicable in die later periods of pregnancy, but the goal of the court is to encourage the mother to bring her child to birth. To advance that goal, there must be a waiting period, informational counseling with a pro-life purpose, and a wide array of prenatal and postnatal social support systems.
The wisdom of the German court is of several parts. It recognizes that the debate about abortion is not just about abortion; it presumes basic beliefs about human life and community responsibility. It recognizes also that the criminalization of abortion is not enough. The goal of government and other social institutions is to reduce the number of abortions as much as possible, declaring it "unlawful" even if it is unpunished in some cases, while providing maximum incentives and helps for women to bring their children to birth. As we work to move beyond the madness of American law from Roe through Casey, we can take a lesson from die Germans. It may be the most important lesson we have to learn from the former enemies of life whom we defeated in World War II. They are now teaching us what we fought for then. – from First Things, Nov. 1993, p.52: from column: The Public Square, by Richard Neuhaus.
NEEDED – A NEW REFORMATION
by James Hoefer*
A recent feature article in the Los Angeles Times surveyed the perplexity of the most recent crop of parents, many of whom have resolved to raise their children withoutreligious training. These parents were beginning to face the problem of how to plant moral values without the complication of acknowledging adeity. Orthey were searching for appropriate answers to their children's initial questions about how the world came into being, or about what happens after we die; without depending upon Genesis or the Resurrection of Christ.
While we Christians might get some ironic satisfaction out of their discomfiture, the truth remains that the generations coming of age are rapidly discarding the religious training and world view of past generations. We are heirs of a baby boomer generation that insisted, "If it feels good, do it", or "If it doesn't hurt anyone else, it's all right."
While that sounded like a harmless way to "lighten up", the consequences have been enormously destructive as they have been predictable. History recalls with a vengeance what happens to societies which abandon moral absolutes in favor of private systems of values. Inevitably, it's the most vulnerable, the poor and the young, who receive the whiplash results.
Today a local counselor was sharing with me how many of her clients have multiple personality disorders, which not long ago was largely unheard of. This most difficulthealing challenge, the experts say, is almost always the result of tremendous child abuse I went back to my library, And found in McDowell's Research Almanac and Statistical Digest (1993), that in the next 30 minutes in our nation:
• 228 children will be beaten, molested, or otherwise abused by their parents.
• 57 kids will run away from home and three out of four girls will end up selling sex to survive.
• 20 children will attempt suicide.
• 23 teenage girls will abort their baby.
• Adult bookstores now outnumber McDonald's restaurants three to one; and 70% of pornography ends up in the hands of kids.
• And on and on it goes . . .!
We have a higher percentage of our own citizens incarcerated than any other nation on earth, And still crime spirals! We who know the love of God in Christ Jesus can't help but share in His sorrow; these are not cold statistics to Him, and each of us has been wounded in some way by our society's moral sickness.
Isn't it time to pray for a new reformation? Isn't it time to invite the Holy Spirit of Christ to open the eyes of a new generation to the timeless truths of God's Word?
And as this year's F.O.C.L. Reformation Rally approaches again, we can rejoice that while we still have our differences with Roman Catholics, there are many ways we together can proclaim the truth of God's Word!
Indeed, there are few voices of prophetic truth today clearer than Pope John Paul's. I personally appreciated the way he urged 170,000 youth in Denver to reject this "false morality". I think he struck a chord when dealing with abortion and euthanasia ù "the actual killing of another human being," the Pope said. They "are hailed as 'rights' and as solutions to problems."
We have forgotten to be grateful for God's gift of life. "In a culture which holds that no universally valid truths are possible, nothing is absolute. Therefore, in the endù they sayùobjective goodness and evil no longer really matter. Good comes to mean what is pleasing or useful at a particular moment. Evil means what contradicts our subjective wishes."
It takes an extraordinary exercise of pride to claim that we know what's best for ourselves and others, apart from our Maker. Yet since Adam and Eve, we've been doing just that, and we're still paying the price.
* James Hoefer pastors Los Altos Lutheran Church, Los Altos, CA. He is a member of F.O.CL's Board of Directors. His board memberships also include the Navajo Lutheran Mission and the Lutheran Bible Institute in California.