What Would Gandhi Say? - Allan Dobras
Date 2009/8/13 15:40:00 | Topic: As Eye See It
| What Would Gandhi Say?
By Allan Dobras
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
August 13, 2009
Mahatma Gandhi, the iconic Hindu leader of the Indian struggle for independence from Great Britain, was also a great admirer of Jesus Christ and quoted Him often. Because of his admiration of Christ and the Bible, E. Stanley Jones, the great Methodist evangelist and missionary to India, once asked him why he didn't become a Christian. Gandhi's reply was, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Gandhi's criticism of Christians likely stemmed from his early experiences with racism he encountered in attempting to worship in a Christian Church in South Africa where he was practicing law. Nevertheless, his appreciation of the Christian Gospel remained strong, noting in a 1925 speech that he "approaches it [the Bible] with faith and reverence." In fact, Gandhi carried a copy of the New Testament with him throughout his life.
Dr. Jones also asked Gandhi how Christians could "make Christianity more naturalized in India." Gandhi made several suggestions: "First, all you Christians, missionaries and all, must begin to live more like Jesus Christ. Second, that you practice your religion without adulterating it, or toning it down..."
"Crisis is always a remarkable opportunity" - Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.
It is safe to say that the racism Gandhi experienced in trying to enter a white church is not an overriding issue in 2009 America. But for a Hindu who held the Bible in reverence and thought Christians should practice their religion "without adulterating it, or toning it down," he would likely be stunned at what he sees passing as Christianity in our post modern society.
A case in point is a recent speech by the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church (USA), The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori. At the July 7, 2009 General Convention, Bishop Schori's opening address included some startling comments regarding the "crisis" facing the Episcopal Church:
"Crisis is always a remarkable opportunity-that's how Christians are meant to engage crisis...The crisis of this moment has several parts, and like Episcopalians, particularly ones in Mississippi, they're all related. The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy-that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.
"That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention: Ubuntu [A Southern Africa concept that suggests humans exist only in interconnectiveness with others ~ ADD]. That word doesn't have any "I"s in it. The I only emerges as we connect-and that is really what the word means: I am because we are, and I can only become a whole person in relationship with others."
So, in one fell swoop, Jefferts Schori has declared the entire Protestant Reformation to be a heresy, and replaced it with a primitive African creed. In doing so, she discarded the fundamental Christian concept that a person [singular] is justified before God by faith as revealed to Martin Luther in his study of Romans 1:16,17:
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek [gentile]. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."
Crisis management.
There certainly is a crisis facing the EC (USA), but not the "overarching great western heresy that we can be saved as individuals," as Jefferts Schori declared. Nor is the crisis due to the numerous socio-political issues named in her address. In reality, the crisis that faces the EC (USA) is the widespread schism now fracturing the denomination, which was ignited by the church's arrogant dismissal of the authority of scripture and the welcoming of non-celibate homosexuals into the ministry.
These divisive policies have caused the rolls of the EC (USA) to plummet by about 1.3 million congregants in the last 40 years, or nearly 40 percent of its membership.
The EC (USA) began to fall apart several decades ago, but survived such clergymen as Bishop James Pike who escaped four heresy investigations regarding his theological views and leftist politics; Bishop John S. Spong, who institutionalized heretical teachings in the denomination; and the failed heresy trial of the Rt. Rev. Walter Righter, who opened the church to the ordination of homosexual deacons.
The final straw in the denomination's demise was the 2003 consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson-a divorced father of two who left his family and later took up with his homosexual lover-which ultimately led to the formal breakup of the church, the establishment of the reform minded Anglican Communion Network, and the separation of 22 provinces from the Worldwide Anglican Communion.
As if to put an exclamation point on its reckless objectives, the July General Convention passed a resolution ending the self-imposed three-year moratorium on consecrating homosexual bishops and initiated a process for the "consideration of theological and liturgical resources for the blessing of same gender relationships."
The Episcopal situation is not unique.
The contentiousness that has developed in the Episcopal Church over scriptural authority is not unique. For example, now retired United Methodist Bishop Joseph Sprague said in a 2002 speech titled Affirmations of a Dissenter that he did not accept that Jesus was the Son of God and called His virgin birth a "myth." He denied Jesus' bodily resurrection, His atonement on the cross, and described the Christian view that the path to salvation is only through belief in Christ as "arrogant."
Mark Tooley, director of the reform-minded group, United Methodist Action, said in his newsletter that Bishop Sprague should have resigned, believing that "honor and integrity" should have compelled him to vacate his office. Most disturbing, Tooley claimed that Bishop Sprague's views are only symptomatic of the denomination's problems, asserting that it is not an exaggeration "that thousands of United Methodist clergy similarly fail to really believe these doctrines about Jesus, not to mention many, many church agency staff and seminary faculty."
Unfortunately, most of America's old, mainline Protestant denominations-i.e., the Episcopal Church (USA); the United Methodist Church (UMC); the United Churches of Christ (UCC); the Presbyterian Church (USA); and the Lutheran Church-are all struggling over theological issues and a consequential precipitous decline in membership. At the denominational level, each of these church bodies has institutionalized a contentious realignment of the historic tenets of Christian faith and practice that is characterized by:
* A distinct movement away from Christian orthodoxy and toward heretical teaching.
* An activist and decidedly leftist political agenda, which embraces contemporary cultural standards.
* A passionate, if not irrational, commitment to the unqualified acceptance of open homosexuals and other "sexual minorities" into the life of the church.
As a consequence of their misdirection, these mainline denominations have lost about 7.5 million members in the last forty years, or about 25 percent of their 1967 membership. Yet, like Jefferts Schori, they're looking for solutions in all the wrong places.
What would Gandhi say?
Taking into account the present state of America's mainline denominations, we might wonder what Gandhi would say today to Jefferts Schori or Bishop Sprague if one or the other asked why he didn't become a Christian. I suspect that his present day answer would more likely be, "I like your Christ, I do not recognize your Christianity. Your Christianity is so unrecognizable from your Christ."
As dire as the situation is, God always leaves a faithful remnant. Active within all of the aforementioned denominations is a growing and vocal renewal movement that is working toward the re-establishment of scriptural authority and practice. These renewal movements will succeed with the firm commitment of an aroused laity energized to effect change-a cause every Christian should embrace no matter his or her denominational affiliation. I think Gandhi would approve.
-----Allan Dobras is an author and freelance writer on religious, science, and cultural issues and is an electronics engineer. He lives in Springfield, Virginia.
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