Pee-wee and the Rodomites

"It seems the departing BIsectual ministers are having trouble squeezing their oversize egos into a coherent programme. Could the shiny new vehicle have stalled at ignition. Oh dear, oh dear..."

Thus wrote I back on January 12, commenting on the breakaway (The Father's Call) from the breakaway (CoGaic) from the breakaway (UCG) that broke away from the Worldwide Church of God. No particular insight was necessary. This is simply the nature of the beast.

Now we learn, courtesy of Gary Leonard's most informative blog, that the revolution has fizzled with absolutely everybody seemingly miffed. David Hulme, the Dear Leader, has had his fiefdom radically downsized, Brian Orchard has been left in a corner weeping, and Peter Nathan has skived off to hide behind Rod Meredith's skirts.

That Pee-wee (along with a couple of other leading 'Hulmerous' refugees) has fled to the LCG is, well, interesting. Clearly he rejected that option at least once before but, alas, necessity is the mother of compromise. Better Rod than Brian, it seems.

Pee-wee has the distinction of being probably the least-loved former boss of the Kiwi WCG. Graeme Marshall and Bob Morton, for all their fallibilities, were at least well regarded by some in the church. I've yet to meet anyone who felt the same way about Peter. Indeed, when Raymond McNair replaced him, there were many who breathed a long sigh of relief. The problem seems to have been his use of the "Rehoboam strategy" (1 Kings 12). "Ambassador quality" for the elite, and rigorous tithing demands for the hoi polloi.

As for Rod "Spanky" Meredith, he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to being a judge of ministerial character. Remember when he tried cuddling up to Dave Pack?

LCG is heading full throttle towards its own final crisis when the ageing Presiding Evangelist goes on to his eternal reward. His current lieutenants are somewhat lacking in the charisma department, and you just know it'll all end in tears. A nice opportunity for a clued-up outsider to ride in on a white horse, presenting a fresh face and an injection of intellectual grunt.

Is that a course that's open to Peter? It doesn't seem likely. Charisma and intellect are hardly words most of us associate with "Pee-wee the Kiwi". You know it, I know it...

But does Peter know it? 

It's all great entertainment - both comedy and drama intertwined; the Andy Griffiths Show crossed with Hannibal Lecter. But the final outcome is in no doubt, no matter which way you look at it. The legacy of Herbert W. Armstrong is heading for utter extinction. Sooner rather than later.

Can any Good Thing come out of the Missouri Synod?

The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod is in my view a rather unpleasant body, but with a membership of 2.3 million there have to be good people working away quietly to ameliorate its worst sectarian excesses. Such a voice - and a scholarly one - is found in The Daystar Journal.

"Sometimes the LCMS itself has seemed a rather dark place. Too often compassion and decency have been absent in the synod, where chauvinism has frequently been confused for synodical loyalty and meanness of spirit has been mistaken for contending for the faith."

If any church body needs a prophetic voice, it is the LCMS. Many of the articles on the Daystar site won't make much sense outside the confessional Lutheran milieu, but for those in thrall to the narrowness of this body, here is a small ray of hope for the future.

James McGrath gets Canucked

Good lord, the quality of North American talk radio...

Dr James McGrath of Exploring Our Matrix recently discussed the Nye/Ham event on air with a blogger in the Ham camp - hosted by some Ontario smart arse. My Blogger spell-checker, which only knows American English, doesn't recognise the word arse, which is kind of sad. But then, as the smart arse in question, host Drew Marshall, (who seemed to do most of the yacking), pointed out in his introductory remarks, Americans pronounce McGrath as McGrath with the 'th' sound, whereas in the Queen's English it's McGrarr. Two peoples separated by a common language. For the record, brethren, an ass is a donkey.

Anyway this is, according to the PR, "Canada's Most Listened To Spiritual Talk Show." To which it's tempting to reply, God help the spiritual state of Canada. It wasn't really a discussion, let alone a debate... more a monologue with occasional interruptions permitted from the guests. You could listen in here, or simply hope James holds out next time for a spot on an NPR affiliate, where hopefully the host doesn't sound like he glugged seven cans of Red Bull before hitting the airwaves. Not that McGrath doesn't squeeze in one or two goodly points, but there's an awful lot of Motor-mouth Marshall's sludge to shovel through to get to them.

Which leaves me with only one burning question. Do Canadians know how to spell arse?

Kiwi WCG renamed

It's old news for the remnant of New Zealand's Worldwide Church of God, but the denominational name here finally changed in July last year to Grace Communion International (the US church took that step in 2009). The web address is now www.gci.org.nz.

Bad Dude - Good Theologian?

John Howard Yoder was a powerful writer and thinker, specifically in his advocacy for Christian pacificism. There wouldn't be too many people who've "done" theology in the past few decades who hadn't read something by Yoder, even if it was just a reading in a course book.

I've still got Yoder sitting on my bookshelf. The man was articulate and widely respected. He took the Mennonite perspective on peace and gave it enhanced credibility in the wider Christian community. For what it's worth, I believe personally that the Mennonites basically have it right: the mainline "Just War" position is discredited beyond possible redemption.

Now the word is out that this peace-loving man and much quoted 'ethicist' was a serial sex abuser, accused of violent behaviour against female students. His church did a lot less than it should have to address the problem. Yoder died in 1997, with barely a tarnish on his reputation.

And thus the question, posed in the New York Times: Can a bad person be a good theologian.

I remember a certain high profile leader in the church I belonged to in my salad days being accused of preying on young, female college students. The official response for the pew potatoes (i.e. people like me) was to condemn gossip. Indeed, you could end up in the Lake of Fire on those grounds alone, and James 3: 1-12 was much cited. Even the gentleman concerned - who was, as it turned out, as guilty as sin - penned articles condemning gossip in the wake of the resulting publicity.

How interesting that the same strategy cropped up over the Yoder affair.

“I don't listen to gossip” was for years a repeated litany in response to the growing evidence against Yoder—and no doubt against other abusive churchmen. The dismissal had a sneaky gendered component as well given the way the word “gossip” is feminized.

Then follows this extraordinary comment which, as a mere bloke, had never occurred to me before.

“Gossip” was how women protected themselves from Yoder when their institutions failed them.

The whole sad story is detailed in a post by Stephanie Krehbiel at Religion Dispatches.

It's not that any of us should expect religious leaders and theologians to be perfect human beings. But surely they must be at least well intended and, more importantly, accountable.

So was Yoder "a good theologian"? I do know that good people can be terrible theologians, but I'm not at all sure the sentiment is reversible.

A Year Without God

Ryan Bell is an interesting guy.

First, he's a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. Or he was. You know; Ellen G. White, the Third Angel's Message, Sabbath services, the Mark of the Beast, Textured Vegetable Protein and Corn Flakes...

Then came a crisis of faith:

I couldn't affirm the teaching that the Seventh-day Adventist Church was the “remnant church” — God’s chosen people to prepare the world for the last days. If fact, there was a lot about the church’s beliefs concerning the last days (and the more proximate days) that troubled me. 

In March, I stood my ground on these issues and was asked to resign. I didn’t want to resign but I finally agreed. My family and my health had suffered over the past several years but my faith had suffered most of all. 

 Crises like these can lead in unplanned directions. Bell's next step was pretty radical:

So, I'm making it official and embarking on a new journey. I will “try on” atheism for a year. 

And, this being 2014, Ryan Bell is blogging his way through the twelve months so we can all share in his journey.

In short, I will do whatever I can to enter the world of atheism and live, for a year, as an atheist. It’s important to make the distinction that I am not an atheist. At least not yet. I am not sure what I am. That’s part of what this year is about.

You can follow Ryan Bell's blog here. The quotes above come from his December 31 post, which also appeared on the Huffington Post.

Jesus: Man or Myth?

Bob Price often gets a hard time from the academic blogging community. There's a knee-jerk reaction that regards mythicism - the idea that Jesus of Nazareth may never have existed as a historical figure - as so totally outlandish that it deserves little more than contempt. Bart Ehrman has elected to become the poster boy of this disdain, but he's certainly not out on a limb.

So it's interesting to see a thoughtful response that doesn't just go ballistic. Steve Wiggins has read Price's The Christ Myth Theory and its Problems, and posted a short response. It's worth clicking across to read.