Jefferts Schori -- Jesus is "our vehicle to the divine"
Posted November 11, 2006
Don't look for the new leader of the Episcopal Church to be speaking at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville any time soon. Katharine Jefferts Schori's recent comments about Christianity aren't sitting well with the school's top official.
(See www.almohler.com)
President Al Mohler maintains that Christ is "the way and the truth and the life" and that no one can come to God the Father, except through Jesus.
But in Time magazine and other media outlets, Jefferts Schori, seems to portray faith in Christ as only one of many possible pathways to the Almighty.
"We who practice the Christian tradition understand him (Jesus) as our vehicle to the divine," Jefferts Schori told Time. "But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box."
As Mohler notes, the Episcopal Church has declared, for more than 200 years, in its Articles of Religion that it is "only the Name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved."
It's not just Baptists who are posing questions about Jefferts Schori's theology. According to Mohler, an NPR reporter asked recently if the new bishop is a Unitarian. (A better question would have been -- is Jefferts Schori a Universalist -- someone who believes all people will be saved.)
Jefferts Schori isn't the first Episcopal leader to suggest that faith in Jesus isn't essential.
I once asked Frank Griswold why someone should select Christianity when there are so many other faiths to choose from. Griswold (Jefferts Schori's predecessor) gave me this reply in the summer of 2005:
"Having been shaped and formed by the Christian religion, and seeing the person of Jesus as fundamental to my sense of self and the world around me, I would want to make that deep sense of the joy and life that I receive from Christ available more broadly. But God is not restricted to the church. I think it’s interesting that Abraham has three children: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And what does this say about God’s capacity to be present in other religious traditions? I think one of the things Christianity does for me is give me a lens through which I can look at other religions and see where God might be at work. Compassion in the Buddhist tradition is not far removed from love in our religion. Certainly,-Judaism and Islam at its best have the same core values, and all those core values are reflective of one divine reality."
Archived Comments
Why even be an Episcopalian? What's the point?
Give me a break with this Lisa.
All Episcopalians believe that their own personal path to salvation and heaven lies through Christ. I will admit there are varying degrees of belief, but that is within any denomination.
However, we are also open minded enough to admit that God is mysterious and cannot be put in a box, and how can we, or any other Christian possibly condemn people of other faiths? Do we truly have God figured out? Something so mysterious and powerful as God, we have it all figured out?
How can anyone be so presumptuous? If we continue on this path of thinking, then do Buddhists go to hell? Do Jews? Hindus? Muslims? Right there we've already condemned well over a billion people.
Just something else for people to pile on the Episcopal Church about, when they know nothing about the reality.
Dear Allen: I will never have God truely figured out. That is why I will not stop reading the Bible. Sometimes as adults, with varying degress of education-which mine is limited I can assure you- However, we tend to put way to much thought of exactly what we think the Bible says instead of listening to what the Holy Spirit has put into the scriptures. Example if you read to a five year old, Romans 10: 9-10 and then ask him to explain, I bet your answer would be, One must believe in Jesus to be saved. I did not make this, this is written in the Holy Bible-any version-simply put if your a Buddust and do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, then I guess I won't be seeing you in heaven.
Jack asks, "Why be an Episcopalian?" And the answer is that the Episcopal Church is not for everyone, but for those of us who grew up in its traditions and were educated under its umbrella, it will always be "our" church.
We love the Book of Common Prayer. We love the inclusiveness of the church, and the fact that we don't have to check our brains at the door.
St. Paul said that learning about christianity and religion is like learning about anything else; you begin simple, and get complex. He said that he preached the milk and pablum, the baby food, of faith, to those who could digest only that much. The same is true of the evangelical and fundamentalist churches today. They preach a dumbed down postcard form of christianity.
I am proud to be an Episcopalian, and proud that I am not required to accept doctrines that are clearly unhelpful, false, cruel, and divisive. We don't exclude gays or lesbians, or people of races and cultures other than our own. The Episcopal Church is the only mainstream church with any signficant black membership, and one of the few churches of any stripe with any significant gay or lesbian membership. We were first in the civil rights movement for blacks, and we are first in that movement for gays and lesbians.
Membership in the Episcopal Church is on the decline, as are all of the mainstream churches. It's only the evangelicals and fundamentalists that are on the increase. They have become the WalMarts of religion. It's not hard to see why. Why indeed would one choose to be among us? Why would someone agree to go through actual classes and actually have to learn something of our traditions and doctrines in order to join our church when one can walk right in to one of the evangelical mega churches, dance around and beat on a tambourine, and clap their hands to a rock tune and raise their hands imploringly to heaven when called by a "worship leader." Then they listen to a simplified, dumbed down story they call a sermon which promises them wealth and achievement if they'll only toe the evangelical line and do a little genteel gay bashing. If that's your brand of religion, you're welcome to it.
Kind of sounds like kindergarten for the soul, which is what it is. The reason the Episcopal Church and other mainline churches are in decline is because most people don't want to graduate from kindergarten.
I admired Bishop Griswold, a salty ex-Marine who liked to say that his job as bishop was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I don't know if he's related to Erwin Griswold, the longtime dean of the Harvard Law School, but they certainly sound a lot alike. I agree with Bishop Griswold's statement.
It is ethnic and cultural presumptiveness of the highest order to suggest that christianity is the only "correct" religion, and that if one is not a christian one is not going to heaven. As Bishop Griswold noted, this is putting God in a box, a heretical thing to do. The problem with so many evangelicals and fundamentalists is that they are not only putting God in a box, but putting him in a smaller and smaller box.
All in all, given the choices, I'll remain an Episcopalian.
As an Episcopalian, I do agree with Allen. God is bigger than all of us. Who are we to put God in a box? Was this not God's answer to Job?
Responding to Lisa, I would point out that many Episcopalians, myself included, believe in what is called progressive revelation, that God reveals more of Godself throughout time. From the human point of view this tends to mean that humankind sees through a glass darkly and probably sees in a different light or more fully as time goes on. The books of the Bible were written in their own times and contexts.
Okay guys: Let me go at this from another approach. I have been in Medical profession for 30 years and several things that hospitals do are background checks, and drug screen tests to make sure that we are worthy so to speak to-to do x-rays or other test on patients--so we won't kill somebody in other words. Now since the main theme to this article-to my understanding-is that Ms. Schori-the newly hired episcopal bishop-has a different doctrine than her church'. In my above commentI was trying to find out who is in charge of her background check. Or does the church allow anyone to come in with a different doctrine--and also how can you be sure that these people are not destroying your soul if you do not read and follow what is in the Bible and correct them. As I understand it, the church's doctrine according to the article has been around for 200 years.
Great post, Caleb. As always.
Thanks, Marcia; I appreciate the kind words.
Lisa, I think you misunderstand Episcopal thought and practice. Frank quoted from the Thirty Nine Articles, presumably the 1789 version adopted by the American church after the revolution. Anglican thought and practice actually go back to the publication of the original Book of Common Prayer in 1549, and the adoption of the original Articles.
However, these articles certainly do not bind an Episcopalian to any particular view on social issues, or on biblical interpretation, and as far as I can tell, Jefferts-Schori is well within the mainstream of Episcopal thought. Certainly, as Frank's quote from the interview with former Presiding Bishop Griswold show, her views are not out of line with his, and I don't see them as out of line with those of our current bishop in Lexington, Stacy Sauls, or his predecessor, Don Wimberly. As I've said in another post, Episcopalians always reserve the right to make up their own minds on issues, and see things like the 39 articles as historic statements rather than binding authority.
As far as how she was chosen as Presiding Bishop, she was elected Presiding Bishop by the church's House of Bishops, a body consisting of all the Episcopal bishops in the United States, on June 18 of this year. The next day, her election was confirmed by the house of delegates, which consists of priests and lay members of the church. So, she was elected to her position first by the bishops she now serves as Presiding Bishop, and second, by a convention of priests and lay persons.
Presumably her views were well known to both the bishops and the deputies, and as far as I know, there is no suggestion in the church that her views were unknown, or that she misled anyone.
I've heard a lot of Episcopal priests preach over the years, and I've certainly never heard one say that Christianity was the only doorway to heaven, and can't imagine that many believe that. It is not within the ecumenical spirit of the Episcopal Church or the Anglican communion, of which it is a member.
Caleb: Thank you so much for new insight on a different religion. My only source sad to say has been an old --I do mean old -King James version of the Bible, Halley's handbook, and now the computer. I got to say I keep my pastors toes on the ground-I truly think he gets upset with me sometimes-but anyways I am gonna ask you and Jack since you both seem to have different perspectives of the Bible to read Romans 1:22-32 and sometime down the road maybe we can have a meaningful blog of opinions, thanks
Caleb, I'm an Episcopalian, and I love the church, but there are tons of African American Methodists and Baptists. Tons. I'm almost certain that they both have higher A-A proportions than we do.
Mr. Powers may not have ever heard an Episcopal priest preach that "Christianity was the only doorway to Heaven," but did they ever read "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but by me."? No religion saves, including Christianity. Only faith in Jesus Christ, and acceptance of His perfect sacrifice, saves.
Tyler, I said that the Episcopal Church was the only "mainstream" church with any great percentage of black membership. "Mainstream" churches are generally defined as the Disciples of Christ, Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans, and one or two assorted smaller churches. Sometimes the American Baptists (northern baptists) are included, but the Southern Baptists are generally not.
Nearly all black baptists are members of one of the African-American baptist organizations, and most black Methodists are members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is separate from the United Methodists.
The largest white baptist organization, the Southern Baptists, traditionally rejected blacks as members, and even since their "integration" haven't attracted many black followers.
The humor of some of what the baptists went through to preserve their lily white domain is interesting. A lawyer who graduated from our own Georgetown College told me once that he was a student there when the first black student was enrolled there. Apparently the black student had been a student at a mission school in Africa, and came to do his undergraduate work at Georgetown.
The student naturally also wanted to attend one of the Baptist churches in Georgetown affiliated with the school, which then (the '60s) generally didn't allow blacks to attend. They apparently all agonized over the problem of denying one of their own students access to the church and finally decided that he could attend church there if he wore his tribal robes from Africa, presumably to distinguish himself from more homegrown blacks.
And folks, that wasn't that long ago.
I have often wondered just how people were chosen to be in some positions. Growing up in a protestant church many years ago, it was the Elders place to sit in on Sunday School lessons-a different teacher every Sunday-to make sure that those teachers were preaching the Word of God and not just something that they themselves constructed. How we in America have come to accept practices such as witchcraft, homosexuality, pornography, etc. is far beyond what my humble mind can tolerate. We in today's society have accepted things that are clearly not Biblical--as a way of life, or politically acceptable. If we would have the nerve to do as Nehemiah in Chapter 13-any version of the Holy Bible, I would suspect that their would not be an Episcopal preacher-pastor or whatever they are called in the Nation.