In the macabre DVD called Renewal or Ruin, IRD is portrayed as an encroaching cancer upon the church. Chief United Methodist lobbyist Jim Winkler unsmilingly compares us to a poisonous snake whose fangs are sinking into the metaphorical throat of United Methodism. The kooky Andrew Weaver weaves his usual “well documented” conspiracist fantasies, in which tens of millions of papist dollars, flow into IRD’s corrupt coffers. Bishop Ken Carder grimly recalls a perceived slight towards him by IRD of years ago as conclusive evidence of our incapacity for integrity. And despite our ostensible control by Roman Catholics, IRD is in cahoots with the Ku Klux Klan, viewers are solemnly warned.
The background music is suitably sinister, and the interviews are interwoven with scenes of darkly gothic church spires angrily protruding into stormy skies. Or are these spires actually the towers of IRD’s own Dracula-like castle, enveloped by ominous lightning and the crackle of demonic thunder?
These talking heads of Renewal or Ruin are somber and concerned, very concerned. There is no visible cheer in this crowd. Their depression is of course understandable. What have they to be cheerful about? The liberal Protestant project that began with such high hopes in the early 20th century is imploding. Liberal Protestants once joyfully advocated broad and sweeping causes of social justice: civil rights, protections for workers, equality for women, care for the elderly, economic security for families, resistance to fascist & totalitarian causes, and global human rights.
Liberal Protestantism, having divorced itself from the orthodox Christian understanding of human sin, was always too utopian in its dreams. But at least it was once well-intentioned and often even productive. Today, it runs merely on the fumes of its accomplishments of decades past. And its once sunny causes have degenerated into marginal, narrow, and even reactionary initiatives: exaltation of exotic sexualties, justifications for killing supposedly unworthy human life, expanding the power of the state without concern for the freedoms of individuals, and apologizing for tyrannies that torment Christianity.
Is anyone within the Household of Faith actually inspired by any of this? Or has the whole liberal Protestant project simply reduced itself to anger, nihilism and identification of orthodox Christianity as the main enemy to “justice” in the world today? If today’s Religious Left has a sincerely smiling face, it is hard to find, and certainly not within Renewal or Ruin and others of IRD’s most ardent critics.
Recently, my capable young assistant Rebekah Sharpe journeyed to Charlotte, NC to attend a special seminar on the cosmic threat posed by IRD to the church. The location was one of North Carolina’s largest United Methodist churches. The organizer was none other than the producer of Renewal or Ruin himself, the Rev. Steve Martin. No doubt, a large audience of distressed United Methodists was expected. Instead, Rev. Martin had only an audience of one: young Rebekah! With no seminar to lead, he cordially invited her to join him for coffee and a polite conversation. Rebekah, rarely intimidated, gladly accepted.
The scene is humorously reminiscent of Communist Party USA cell meetings of 50 or 60 years ago, when no quorum could be achieved by the Party except for the presence of undercover agents dispatched by J. Edgar Hoover. Do many truly care about the fears and paranoia of projects like Renewal or Ruin except for their intended but still amused targets here at the IRD? And what should we say about the moral perceptions of United Methodist lobbyist Jim Winkler, who recoilingly compares IRD to a viper, but can meet with Iran’s apocalyptic chief Islamist tyrant with serene equanimity?
Most of what plagues our church, of course, is not so colorful as IRD’s angry, spear-throwing critics. For decades, United Methodism in America has been suffocated by the banal moralism of liberal clergy who lack the nerve to tell their congregations what they truly believe and disbelieve. They easily call to mind John Wesley’s warnings in his famous sermon, “A Catholic Spirit.” The homily is of course a call to Christian tolerance, forbearance and unity. But Wesley warned that tolerance and love can only survive if practiced from the foundation of sound Christian doctrine.
According to Wesley, a “catholic spirit” is not an “an indifference to all opinions.”
[T]his is the spawn of hell, not the offspring of heaven. This unsettledness of thought, this being ‘driven to and fro, and tossed about with every wind of doctrine,’ is a great curse, not a blessing, an irreconcilable enemy, not a friend, to true catholicism. A man of a truly catholic spirit does not need to seek his religion. He is as fixed as the sun in his judgment concerning the main branches of Christian doctrine. It is true, he is always ready to hear and weigh anything that can be offered against his principles, but as this does not show any wavering in his own mind so neither does it occasion any. He does not limp between two opinions, nor vainly try to blend them into one. Observe this, you who know not what spirit you are of, who call yourselves men of a catholic spirit only because you are of a muddy understanding, because your mind is all in a fog, because you have no settled, consistent principles, but are for jumbling all opinions together. Be convinced, that you have quite missed your way; you know not where you are. You think you have received the very spirit of Christ, when, in truth, you are nearer the spirit of Antichrist. Go, first, and learn the first elements of the gospel of Christ and then shall you learn to be of a truly catholic spirit.”
Contrary to Wesley’s call for a “catholic spirit,” the more extreme forms of liberal Protestantism, unhinged from orthodoxy, have become almost totalitarian in their intolerance. Its adherents so often overreact to critiques and initiatives from orthodox Christians because, lacking their own foundations, they cannot sustain a true exchange with whom they disagree. So instead, a la Renewal or Ruin, they resort to conspiracy theories and melodramatic name-calling. What else can they say?
We should keep this in mind as we approach our next General Conference. We can prayerfully hope for and even expect one of the most evangelical-friendly gatherings in our denomination’s recent memory. Liberal Protestantism’s inability or even refusal to evangelize has—surprise, surprise—left it with dwindling numbers. They will be a decided minority in Fort Worth.
But this minority will be enraged and fearful about its receding powers. We should in no way expect this General Conference to be a peaceful and quiet stroll into Wesleyan orthodoxy. It will be contentious, infuriating, sometimes slanderous, grueling, and, as always, emotionally exhausting.
But when the smoke has cleared, our great church not only will still stand. United Methodism will have advanced a few steps closer towards its reclamation for Wesleyan, Christ-centered beliefs. Some liberals will not realize it. And even some conservatives will refuse to believe it, having grown long accustomed to decades of our own sometimes comfortable resentments and complaints.
As the false premises and vacuous theologies of the last century finally fade from view, we on the orthodox side will have to acclimate ourselves into a new majority climate that will have its own temptations and snares. And we will have to extend grace to our theological adversaries, even as we continue to insist on right doctrine, which is itself the foundation of all grace and mercy.
John Wesley movingly concluded his sermon “On a Catholic Spirit” with these words:
[The man of a catholic spirit] is steadily fixed in his religious principles in what he believes to be the truth as it is in Jesus, while he firmly adheres to that worship of God which he judges to be most acceptable in his sight, and while he is united by the most tender and closest ties to one particular congregation, his heart is enlarged toward all mankind, those he knows and those he does not. He embraces with strong and cordial affection neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies. …For love alone gives the title to this character: catholic love is a catholic spirit. If, then, we take this word in the strictest sense, a man of a catholic spirit is one who, in the manner just described, gives his hand to all whose hearts are right with his heart. He is one who knows how to value, and praise God for, all the advantages he enjoys, with regard to the knowledge of the things of God, the true scriptural manner of worshipping him, and, above all, his union with a congregation fearing God and working righteousness. He is one who retains these blessings with the strictest care, keeping them as the apple of his eye. At the same time he loves, as friends, as brothers in the Lord, as members of Christ and children of God, as joint partakers now of the present kingdom of God and fellow heirs of his eternal kingdom, all of whatever opinion or worship, or congregation, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; who love God and man, who, rejoicing to please and fearing to offend God, are careful to abstain from evil and zealous of good works. He is the man of a truly catholic spirit who bears all these continually upon his heart, who having an unspeakable tenderness for their persons and longing for their welfare, does not cease to commend them to God in prayer, as well as to plead their cause before men. He is a man who speaks comfortably to them, and labors, by all his words, to strengthen their hands in God. He assists them to the uttermost of his power in all things, spiritual and temporal. He is ready ‘to spend and be spent for them,’ even to lay down his life for their sake. O man of God, think on these things! If you are already in this way, go on. If you have missed this path before now, bless God who has brought you back! And now run the race that is set before you, in the royal way of universal love. Take heed, lest you be either wavering in your judgment, or faint of heart. But keep an even pace, rooted in the faith once delivered to the saints, and grounded in love, in true catholic love, till you are swallowed up in love for ever and ever!
Like Wesley, we who have labored long for our church’s renewal must strive for this “catholic spirit.” And like Wesley, whose public ministry spanned 7 decades, we should be patient. Even he sometimes wondered, at the end, if his crusading evangelism had failed. After all, his nation and his church were still sinful. Only from the wide advantage of history can we appreciate how Providence magnificently employed Wesley and his followers.
May history say the same of our own imperfect efforts. And may the Lord give us the discerning light so that we can truly see, even in our own lifetimes, how He has powerfully employed us in the renewal of our church and of our culture.
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