Churches, Division & Sex

on September 1, 2014

Here’s a review by my friend Robert Benne, a distinguished Lutheran theologian and ethicist at Roanoke College:

The Morally Divided Body: Ethical Disagreement and the Disunity of the Church
Pro Ecclesia Series
Editors: Michael Root and James J. Buckley
Eugene Oregon: Cascade Books, 2012, p. 145.

At a recent conference attended by Lutheran theologians and ethicists of three Lutheran churches—ELCA, LCMS, and NALC—a professor from one of the ELCA colleges told me she uses a book or two of mine in her classes even though she disagrees with me on several major ethical issues, one of which was no doubt my commitment to the traditional Lutheran notion of marriage. But, she said, our disagreement was on “second-order issues,” which ought not be church-dividing. We agree on justification, she offered, and that was sufficient. That opinion was often marshaled as an argument to keep the ELCA together precisely by those who wanted to change its teaching and practice on important ethical matters.

Since she was being gracious to me, I was not churlish enough to argue with her even though I disagreed strongly with her remark. I thanked her for increasing the royalties from my books and laughed. The authors of this volume, whose essays were first heard as lectures at The Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology’s annual summer conference in 2010, could not duck the issue so easily. They were charged to address the topic of the conference itself—whether some ethical issues have been and ought to be church-dividing.

As to the empirical question of whether churches have divided over ethical questions, several authors catalogue the historical instances in which such division has taken place. Beth Barton Shweiger, in the book’s second essay, examines how slavery and race were church-dividing issues for the churches before, during, and after the Civil War. Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists experienced painful division in that period. (She mistakenly claims that Lutherans avoided such a split (16), but in fact the United Synod of the South split from the northern Lutheran churches in the Civil War and didn’t enter the United Lutheran Church until 1918.) Indeed, she observes that for the churches of that time division over the ethical issue of slavery was “as natural and necessary as division along doctrinal lines.” (20)

The last two chapters of the book also survey historical examples of organizations and churches probing the question of whether doctrinal agreement and communion can be sustained without ethical consensus. James Buckley argues that the proceedings of Evangelicals and Catholics Together (the organization put together by Richard John Neuhaus and Charles Colson in 1984) can serve as a model for learning how to be morally divided, though he admits that the representatives of the Catholic and evangelical traditions involved in those discussions reached a good deal of consensus on both doctrine and morals. He notes how their sixth statement in 2006 comes to the conclusion that “support for a culture of life is an integral part of Christian faith and therefore a morally unavoidable imperative of Christian discipleship.” (107) The lingering ethical disagreements between the leaders of the ECT initiative were infinitesimal compared to those that have emerged in the mainline Protestant churches.

The last essay by Michael Root traces ecumenical dialogues on ethical issues by many different denominations, but focuses on those of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, which grappled in the 1990s with both general ethical principles and more specific moral issues. He notes that there seemed to be agreement on general principles among the Anglican and Catholic participants, but the closer they got to specific issues, the more disagreement emerged. Disagreement over the latter prevented any further move toward union. This leads Root to the conclusion that “Ecclesial communion requires not only a common vision of the Christian life, but a common recognition that the rules and practices of the churches adequately embody that vision and sufficient unity in those rules and practices to permit common pursuit of that life.” (133) In short, unity within and among churches cannot avoid those questions we call ethical.

I have termed those three essays “empirical” or “historical.” They analyze historical precedents and come to the conclusion that some ethical disagreements are so serious that they certainly cannot be termed “second-order.” Disagreements about them are indeed church-dividing. The rest of the essays are more normative in character, i.e., they argue that theological and ethical matters ought to be powerfully connected.

Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt challenges the 60s theme that “doctrine divides; service unites.” On the contrary, he argues, knowing and doing are mutually interdependent in the Catholic tradition, but also in the Protestant. He notes that Barth presents “a unified treatment of doctrine and ethics” in the Church Dogmatics. (31) He gives a number of examples in the history of the church of breaks in unity on account of ethical disagreement. Toward the end of his essay he brings up the issue of homosexual conduct that vexes so many denominations. He contends that we cannot slough that issue off as “second-order” because “our views on homosexuality imply and should be informed by our convictions concerning theological anthropology, or the nature of the authority of Scripture, or whether we believe there is a natural law and how we understand it in relation to culture.” (41)

The Presbyterian Joseph Small, though recognizing that the differences in his church over ordination and marriage of partnered gays are and should be church-dividing, hopes against hope that a confessing movement within the PCUSA will bring the church back to the classical doctrines and practices on these matters from which it is currently straying. Susan Wood argues that unity in sacramental life implies unity in the moral life. She cites the substantial portion of Colossians that lists the ethical requirements of the baptismal life, which include a rather strict governance of sexual life along with other imperatives. (73)

Two Lutherans round out my account of the essayists. Robert Jenson is clear that disagreement on some serious moral issues ought to be church-dividing. “I will argue that the unbroken unity in Christ of baptized believers divided in moral discipline or public moral witness obtains at the same level as does the unity of baptized believers divided in doctrine.” (2) He grapples with two further questions: which moral issues are that serious and what should we do about it?

He answers the first by arguing that the emerging differences in the churches over the nature of Christian marriage, to which the debate over homosexual conduct has quickly morphed, are very serious. Differences on this matter will compromise church unity deeply because “disagreement about the ontological status of what was once called marriage is simultaneously an ethical and a doctrinal disagreement: it is a disagreement about a fundamental structure of human being as Scripture describes it, a structure established in Christ’s relation to the church.” (8)

Jenson is less clear about what defenders of classical teaching and practice should do when their churches go astray. Though they cannot countenance what their churches have done, “need they immediately depart from a body they deem morally heretical at this point? The call is even trickier.” (11)

David Yeago is on the same page as Jenson. The title of his essay pretty much summarizes his argument and the overarching argument of the whole volume: “Grace and the Good Life—Why the God of the Gospel Cares How We Live.” (77) In his essay he agrees with Jenson that “we cannot agree about Christ if we disagree about substantial matters of moral teaching.” (78) He then fleshes out his argument by pointing to the crucial importance of divine law in creation, the imago dei (our creation in the image and likeness of God), and in the Christian life. “Substantial agreement about Christ must involve substantial agreement about the law,” and in his view the ELCA has departed from authentic teaching of the law, and, therefore, of Christ.

He follows Jenson on another matter—his uncertainty about whether adherents of traditional Christian moral teaching should break unity with a revisionist church. When he wrote this essay he called the situation in the ELCA one of “impaired communion,” and counseled that dissenters should protest within the denomination, much as Small recommends to his fellow Presbyterians. However, nothing clears up uncertainty about staying or leaving more quickly than being dismissed from one’s job at an ELCA seminary in spite of being the most distinguished systematic theologian in its seminaries. Yeago is no longer in impaired communion in the ELCA. He is the NALC’s systematic theologian in its new seminary that is in cooperation with the Anglican Church of North America’s Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.

All the authors in this volume agree on the general principle that Christian doctrine and central moral teachings and practices cannot be divided into “first-order” and “second-order” issues. What would one expect of an organization that is aiming at being orthodox, evangelical, and catholic? A majority of the authors take the next step and argue that the Christian doctrine of marriage is one of those central moral teachings that cannot be altered without threatening the unity of the church.

They are right. Each mainline denomination is in the process of dividing precisely over differences in Christian teaching on the nature of marriage, though that was not where the debate began. In each denomination the difference initially seemed to focus on the legitimation of homosexual conduct, but in a flash, expected by neither revisionists nor traditionalists, the debate was quickly transmuted into one about the nature of marriage. For the ELCA the practice of homosexual marriage has dictated a change in the Christian doctrine of marriage. The ELCA has a male Bishop “married” to another man, and it is highly unlikely that his actions will be criticized for violating classical Christian teaching, mainly because the ELCA has de facto departed from that teaching. Indeed, the former Presiding Bishop of the ELCA promised that the gay Bishop would never again be “rebuked.”

Marriage practice in the ELCA is no longer guided by the theological conviction that marriage is a permanent “one-flesh union” made up of two complementary beings who together constitute the image of God, and which is oriented toward procreation. It has departed from the Great Tradition on a central Christian theological and ethical teaching and has provoked schism, it being the schismatic party.

  1. Comment by Sandra K Jenner on September 1, 2014 at 9:11 pm

    We used to attend an Episcopal church which was Christian, and part of the church budget went to the Trinity School for Ministry, back before the ACNA even existed. I wish the ACNA the best, they are the true Anglicans, the Episcopalians are a post-Christian body.

  2. Comment by virginiagentleman on September 2, 2014 at 10:42 am

    At just over 4.0M members, the ELCA is still a credible denomination as opposed to the PCUSA and TEC, both of which are now below 2.0M members. I’m sure the leadership of these latter two denominations will fully embrace their description as a post-Christian body.

  3. Comment by Carlos on September 2, 2014 at 1:42 pm

    The UCC, which is the avant-garde for liberalism, is now below 1 million. Apparently it got no “bounce” from being associated with Jeremiah Wright and that Obama guy.

  4. Comment by virginiagentleman on September 2, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    So now its a 3-way race to see which one can reach 500K members first: TEC, PCUSA or UCC! Great!

  5. Comment by mikeg on September 2, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    The Disciples, who are mainline, have been below a million since 1992. They’re about 650K now, so they’ll be the first to fall below half-mil – not exactly a prize to boast about. That has been bizarre to watch, considering how conservative they once were.

  6. Comment by Karmasue on September 4, 2014 at 11:36 am

    “that Obama guy” is the President of the United States.

  7. Comment by Lephteez Arfoneez on September 5, 2014 at 6:31 pm

    I know – it’s awful.

    I don’t recall hearing liberals treat Bush with respect, so….

  8. Comment by Karmasue on September 5, 2014 at 7:08 pm

    That would be your “eye for and eye” doctrine? Or is it the mote and log admonition?

    Do you not see why Christians get such a bad rap?

    Hypocrisy does not become a Christian.

  9. Comment by Namyriah on September 8, 2014 at 6:10 pm

    You have some issues with the First Amendment? It doesn’t apply to evangelicals?

  10. Comment by Karmasue on September 8, 2014 at 6:58 pm

    Do you?

    You must, since you have no issue trashing gays, gay churches, the President, people who don’t believe the same as you, or anyone else you please.

    But I wasn’t referring to the 1st Amendment, I was referring to your professed beliefs. But then, I was under the impression that evangelicals were also Christians.

  11. Comment by Namyriah on September 8, 2014 at 6:08 pm

    I know – ain’t it awful?

  12. Comment by MarcoPolo on September 5, 2014 at 12:02 pm

    As long as Social Justice issues are in jeopardy, and the compassionate conscience of America is under attack from the Religious Right, there will be just enough kind-hearted Liberals who will carry the torch for justice.
    This is not a popularity contest, it’s the test for the soul of Humanity that will determine the “winners”!
    Enough of this “My church has more members than yours!” Jeezus!

  13. Comment by virginiagentleman on September 5, 2014 at 1:37 pm

    Kind Hearted Liberals” can carry any torch they wish. I do object if they insist on imposing that torch onto others, especially when they wish to use the power of the state to force such torch carrying through redistribution of private wealth, private property and the erosion of basic rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Somehow those “kind hearted folk” always turn very repressive and even violent when they don’t get their way.

  14. Comment by MarcoPolo on September 6, 2014 at 7:41 pm

    By redistribution of wealth, do you mean asking the plutocrats to pay their fair share of taxes?
    Corporate welfare poses a much bigger problem to America’s security and fiscal health than any Liberal group’s hope for policy changes.
    Nobody’s rights are being eroded, and which group of Liberals have become violent?

  15. Comment by Namyriah on September 8, 2014 at 6:11 pm

    Thanks for putting “kind hearted liberals” in quotes. If you try to type that without the quotes, your computer will crash.

  16. Comment by M Didaskalos on September 2, 2014 at 8:21 pm

    Love Dr. Benne’s wry commentary: “However, nothing clears up uncertainty about staying or leaving more quickly than being dismissed from one’s job at an ELCA seminary in spite of being the most distinguished systematic theologian in its seminaries.”

    The 2009-vintage ELCA: “. . .this church on the basis of the bound conscience will include these different understandings and practices within its life as it seeks to live out its mission and ministry in the world.” (Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, p. 19-20)

    The 2014-vintage Ear-tickling Lutheran Church in America is now snickering up its sleeve at that pledge and at the pastors and parishioners who credulously bought it.

    [from a Reconciling Works article on the subject of how to inveigle reluctant ELCA congregations into accepting LGBT pastoral candidates whose eligibility may expire because no congregation has yet called them] “Later that day, one [ELCA] bishop told me about the challenges of placing a qualified gay candidate. Instead of giving up [i.e., honoring others’ Biblically grounded ‘bound consciences’ as the ELCA once mendaciously pledged to do], he’s getting creative, introducing this future pastor to potential churches through supply preaching.”

    No more Mr. Nice ELCA. The gloves are off. Get your mind right. Toe the sin-approving denominational line or hit the road, Mr. Pastor and Mr. Theologian.

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