The following post is offered by Pastor John Meunier, who serves as a United Methodist part-time local pastor of two Indiana congregations and also teaches at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. This post originally appeared on his personal blog.
UMVoices is a forum for different voices within the United Methodist Church on pressing issues of denominational concern. IRD/UMAction does not necessarily endorse every view expressed by UMVoices contributors, nor do UMVoices contributors necessarily endorse every view expressed by IRD.
It was one of those articles I had to check to see if it was on a satire web site.
An ordained United Church of Canada minister who believes in neither God nor Bible said Wednesday she is prepared to fight an unprecedented attempt to boot her from the pulpit for her beliefs.
Unprecedented? Is there a history of the United Church of Canada applauding its atheist pastors? No. It turns out the church had never investigated a minister for fitness to be a minister. Never. How is that possible?
Here is some of what stirred the hierarchy into action:
“I don’t believe in…the god called God,” Vosper said. “Using the word gets in the way of sharing what I want to share.”
Vosper, 57, who was ordained in 1993 and joined her east-end church in 1997, said the idea of an interventionist, supernatural being on which so much church doctrine is based belongs to an outdated world view.
What’s important, she says, is that her views hearken to Christianity’s beginnings, before the focus shifted from how one lived to doctrinal belief in God, Jesus and the Bible.
“Is the Bible really the word of God? Was Jesus a person?” she said.
“It’s mythology. We build a faith tradition upon it which shifted to find belief more important than how we lived.”
Vosper made her views clear as far back as a Sunday sermon in 2001 but her congregation stood behind her until a decision to do away with the Lord’s Prayer in 2008 prompted about 100 of the 150 members to leave. The rest backed her.
Things came to a head this year after she wrote an open letter to the church’s spiritual leader pointing out that belief in God can motivate bad things — a reference to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.
So the story ends with the United Church of Canada convening a process to examine whether this pastor has broken her ordination vows, which include expressing belief in God shockingly enough. But the pastor is appealing the process because, and I quote from the story here: “it puts any minister at risk of being judged and found wanting.”
So she is appealing an investigation of her fitness to be a minister because it may discover that she is not fit to be a minister. The church leaders admit that is a bit worrisome to them as well.
You should read the story yourself. It is not long and gets comical near the end.
I had a few thoughts while reading that — or maybe three.
First, John Wesley must be horrifying for people in this church to contemplate.
Second, thank you, Jesus, that we in the United Methodist Church are not here yet. We aren’t, are we?
Third, maybe instead of all this commissioning paperwork and evaluation I’m doing this year, I should just head up to Toronto.
Comment by Mike Ward on August 14, 2015 at 9:11 am
There have been no complaints…but two-thirds of her congregation left! I think actions speak louder than words.
Comment by the_enemy_hates_clarity on August 14, 2015 at 9:45 am
I think each pastor (and each District Superintendent and Bishop) should give a written statement of his/her beliefs to the congregation each year. And probably members should do the same.
In Christ,
the enemy hates clarity
Comment by Eternity Matters on August 14, 2015 at 12:05 pm
That’s no surprise. Atheists and the “Christian” Left have remarkably similar worldviews. The atheists are just more honest.
The “Christian” Left believes the opposite of what Christians do on the essentials of the faith and much more. Not just a little different, but the opposite. So do atheists.
Churchgoers who support “same-sex marriage” have nearly identical views to the world. It shows who their real father is. https://1eternitymatters.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/atheists-the-christian-left-birds-of-a-feather/
1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
Jude 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Both atheists and the “Christian” Left are pro-abortion, though to the atheists’ credit they are less extreme*.
Both deny the divinity of Jesus.
Both deny that Jesus is the only way to salvation.
Both mock the word of God.
Both support the LGBTQX extremist agenda.
Both want to petition Caesar to take from neighbor A by force to give — oops, I mean redistribute — to neighbor B and to call it generosity on their part.
Both deny miracles.
Both trust in Darwinian evolution, with the “Christian” Left often worshiping Darwin over Jesus.
And so on. Don’t be fooled by the wolves of the “Christian” Left.
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*The “Christian” Left is far more extreme in their pro-abortion agenda than the average pro-choice person. They insist that life begins at the first breath and insist that Jesus is fine with killing unwanted children until that point. I realize how ridiculous their views sound and how many people must think I’m making a straw-man argument. But that is just because their own words are so clear and extreme: “According to the bible, a fetus is not a living person with a soul until after drawing its first breath.” More here about how to respond, with full, in-context quotes from them.
Comment by Mike Ward on August 14, 2015 at 12:25 pm
Ia agree with you about the Christian left being extreme. Evangelicals get a bad rep in the press but there are lots of moderate and conservative Evangelicals. Progressive Christianity is dominated by the extremists. I think their inability to tolarete even moderates is part if why the lose members. Except for the Methodist which have seems to have had both Liberals, moderates, and conservatives all under one tent (and not imploded like other mainlines), but now they seem headed for split.
Comment by Eternity Matters on August 14, 2015 at 1:36 pm
Good points. We were in the Methodist church for 16 years and so all those camps in the same church. Lots of the Christians in the UMC have no idea what the national extremists do.