GRETTA VOSPER’S GOD-LESS CHRISTIANITY

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Two days ago I wrote a piece entitled, The United Church of Canada and One Atheist Minister , concerning Rev. Gretta Vosper, a pastor who is at the time of writing, pastoring an Ontario church. This has been no secret for many years, but now her qualifications are under review by an the UC Executive and an ecclesiastical court. She does not want to be bound by a belief in God, but she refuses to step away from her church or the denomination of which the church is a member congregation. She acknowledges that she has moved toward humanism.

Ms. Vosper's personal website, records occasional blog entries, and some links, personal opinions and positions. Some readers will question why she continues to speak from within a Christian framework. If you wonder about that then your understanding may be assisted by reading her references to progressive Christianity and Christianity for the inquiring mind. She commends the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity. She favours distilling salient points out of the Christian tradition but to do that one must cast away assumptions, one of which is god called God. She chooses to filter everything with the question,  “Is this text, symbol, person, ritual, or tradition going to help us in the important work of building right relationships with ourselves, one another, the planet, and the seventh generation?” If it cannot help, then she says it is not worth using to pave her tomorrows, her heart or her church home.

Gretta Vosper has books of poems and prayers entitled 'Holy Breath' and 'Another Breath,' as invitations to explore new ways to love ourselves, those around us, and the rest of the planet and those who share it with us. They are procured by contacting retail@progressivechristianity.ca.  She is also the author of 'With or Without God,' and you buy this book on Amazon, which is Gretta's case for a post-Christian Church.

Readers may still question why bother with the 'christian' trappings? I don't have an answer for you or for Gretta, although I am confidant book sales are up when controversy is stirred enough to get people like me drawing attention to her. I do so only because some Christians I know are developing liberal theological leanings, or let's call them hesitations about biblical truths and concepts. My caution is obvious. Ask questions certainly, study scripture. Consult respected Christian apologists, not Gretta. Gretta leads you to humanism, which appears as freedom and progress but bonds with non-theistic secularism human agency. Her Christ-less, godless views cannot pave my tomorrows, my life, or anything about my faith expression.

CHRISTIANS DON’T HAVE TO VOTE FOR CHRISTIAN CANDIDATES

 Last night, August 6th, 2015, I watched a portion of the first debate between declared Republican candidates for the Presidency of the United States of American. Republicans should be embarrassed by the performance and the opinions of some of the candidates, fortified by others. Republicans must have realized last night that the election will be an arduous challenge. Conservatism on all issues was unmistakable. So was the Christian orientation evident with more candidates than I had expected. But here is where the electorate must be judicious. Voters must be discerning. That a candidate is a professing Christian does not mean that he should receive your vote. It is a mistake to weight shared faith beliefs so heavily that your vote goes to the professing Christian almost by default. Some of the largest wingnuts are religious people. Neither conservatism nor Christian profession cannot routinely be associated with brilliance, perspicacity, or common sense. Consider Fox News, some of whose news journalists are the maddest group of people on television. Vote by listening to candidates speaking directly to the pressing issues of the day. Vote on the basis of openly declared party positions on all that matters to you and your country.

In Canada we face a Federal election this year after the longest campaign in our history. I have a sense that most Christians feel it obligatory to vote Conservative because after all, aren't Christians, people with conservative convictions? Listen prudently to what the Liberals, the New Democrats, the Green Party and the Conservatives are saying. Watch to learn which candidates are most believable, trustworthy, inspiring, unselfish, honourable. Be wise. Vote for the best candidate.

THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA AND ONE ATHEIST PASTOR

Colin Perkel/The Canadian Press

She is one of their own. They don't want her anymore. She is Rev. Gretta Vosper. The United Church ordained Rev. Vosper in 1993. We assume that she was approved because in good faith she agreed with the tenets of faith of the United Church which includes a faith in God, which is stated with astonishing theological liberality. Among the belief statements of the United Church of Canada, is the following statement entitled 'Multi-faith Relations', with its deliberate non-discrimination that submits Christianity as merely one of the many ways by which humans find their way to God.

"The United Church of Canada views the religious practice of all people of goodwill with respect and gratitude. We believe the Spirit of God is at work in many different faith communities.For Christians, Jesus is the way we know God. Our understanding is nonetheless limited by human imagination. God is greater still and works in our world by a mysterious Spirit that knows no distinction at the doorway of a Christian chapel; Buddhist, Hindu, or Sikh temple; Aboriginal sweat lodge, Muslim mosque, or Jewish synagogue.
We work together with other Christian churches whenever possible, and among people of other religions in Canada and throughout the world on matters of justice, peace, and human dignity.
Today, difference is everywhere around us and, we believe, a great cause for celebration.”

The United Church's doctrinal broad-mindedness afforded Ms. Vosper a vast expanse of theological possibilities that unpredictably brought her to the conclusion that she no longer believes in God and she went public with this in 2001. This incongruence has been quiet but unresolved for over a decade but now the United Church of Canada Executive is questioning her fitness to serve as a minister. Colin Perkel's article in the Globe and Mail quotes Ms. Vosper saying, “I don’t believe in...the god called God….Using the word gets in the way of sharing what I want to share…. Is the Bible really the word of God? Was Jesus a person?... It’s mythology. We build a faith tradition upon it which shifted to find belief more important than how we lived.”

This United Church statement acknowledges God as an entity who is accessible by way of Jesus, but not exclusively so, since God's Spirit works to make God known to Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, First Nations, Muslims and Jews. In our obsessively politically and religiously correct culture this is a commendably acceptable. But is it acceptable to God? Doesn't the concept of Jesus as eternal God, incarnated briefly for the purpose of dying a substitutionary, atoning death for sinners, define God to the exclusion of every other religious alternative? Well you can hear where I am coming from. Yet, Rev. Vosper insists that she should not be bound by a belief in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, even though that was basic to her ordination vows. Vosper believes that her movement to humanism should be embraced by her church as she explores new ways to express spirituality and values. An ecclesiastical court will decide this autumn 2015 whether she has gone too far.

CLOVERDALE BAPTIST CHURCH 2015

I read many Facebook respondents in the last few days express sadness at the demolition of the forty-something year old building that housed the Cloverdale Baptist Church. I acknowledge my own melancholic sentiments as the giant arm of the shovel pushed through sanctuary walls and reduced them to rubble. I am permitted the feelings since I served as lead pastor for ten years from 1991-2001. I was daily inside the facility and officiated countless meetings and services, weddings and baptisms. My two children were each married to their sweethearts in that sanctuary into which sun blasted through the gaping wound this week before the walls disappeared. 

Now they must remain as memories and that is fine since next to the demolition site now stands a newly completed building with twice as much seating and classroom space and state of the art equipment. This observation stands as a metaphor for a theme on which I have been hammering for a little while. What has been constructed is not a church although that is how we commonly employ the term. Nor would it be true to say that the church was reduced to debris. Church was the collective people inside the older structure and Church continues to be that group of people and whoever also joins them inside the new design. It's difficult for us to move away from language that by weight of habit associates church with physical structure, but we should make the effort. We do not go to church. We are church. We don't attend church. We live as church. Does it make any difference? I believe it does. Otherwise, like a fantasy we could say, if we build it (the church), they (people) will come. What we should say is, if we are it (the church) they (the people) will come. It is not where we go but who we are that is important. If we live as church, God's family, Christ's bride, a ransomed flock with a divine shepherd, then by exposure to us, others whom the LORD wants to call will hear his voice. 

THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE

THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE

A malaise in today's church, disabling
Faintness, mood swings, low resistance
The condition warrants her attention,
She disregards the diagnosis.

I told you there was something wrong.
The bride lives in an aberrant world,
Enticements streaming to disrupt her
Faithfulness is on the line.

From what's known to what is not
Analogy speaks to her of marriage
She has been violating vows
And he says softly "I'm your husband."

The resource ignored far too often,
God's Spirit resident within her
Can make her all that she should be
The noble bride he came to save.

© Ron Unruh, July 3, 2015

I'M NOT DONE WITH THE DONES

People leave the organized and institutional church every week, people who once were active and supportive participants. Some sociologists and researchers have dubbed them the 'Dones.' These formerly involved church members are 'done' with church.

Brandon A. Cox is a church planting pastor and a blogger and a fine young and sincere gentleman. He confessed that he too considered leaving the church but he changed his mind. Now he is all in. He wants to persuade 'Almost Dones' to stay. He wrote 'Ten Terrible Reasons to be Done with Church'. If you are serious about understanding the heart-wrenching thoughts of departing church members, Cox's reasons won't cut it. At least no 'Dones' I know use these. The church is so judgmental. The church is full of hypocrites. The church is too institutional. The church is too political. The church complicates my life. The church is too dogmatic. The church just wants my money. The church doesn't care about issues that matter. The church seems irrelevant to my life. The church let me down.

To Cox's credit, he acknowledges the validity of the reasons he states and the church's responsibility for generating them, and his appeal is for people not to bail but to stay and to work out issues to be part of the solution. He thinks this is game-changing. However, the reasons cited by spiritual, honourable, thoughtful people whom I know, are multifaceted and arrived at through painstaking reflection. Cox's simple appeal has been considered and it is ineffectual for them.

Regrettably, Cox tops it off with the stock 'biggest' reason you can't leave the church. "Jesus died for her. The church, as imperfect as she is, is the love of Jesus' life … You need his people and you need to be humble enough to see the church as 'us' and not 'them.'"  The 'Dones' I know are part of the church that Jesus loves even outside the walls and the authority of the local church. They are not done. They don’t call themselves by that name. They are committed to Christ's church. They seek new ways to make disciples, to heal broken people, to feed the hungry, to make a difference in their communities and to bring people to his church. They are convinced this can be done effectively independent of organized church. I personally am not done talking about the “Dones” nor am I done with the Dones.

THE TRINITY CAN INFORM THE CHURCH

Many people today are stating or behaving as though they want spirituality but they do not have a desire for involvement in organized religion. Granted, 'spirituality' can mean anything from Spa music to Buddhism to born again enthusiasm. I do want to narrow my comments to those who hold to a Christian faith that esteems Jesus as son of the Father God, redeemer, and King. Even among this focus group there are some who love Jesus but the church - not so much. Much of the disenchantment with church results from those within who have power and who misuse it. Top-down organizations have fallen out of favour. Let's recover something important. We cite the Genesis One quotation of God's statement, "let us make man in our image according to our likeness." Perhaps the plurality inherent in that quotation speaks of three persons essential to God who should also now inform our ecclesiology. After pastoring churches for 40 years, and having time to assess church during the past 7 years, I conclude that we need to promote a leadership model that is interdependent, relational, participatory, self-giving, communal and self-surrendering.