God at war* In their attempt to rehabilitate Israel’s warrior-God [“When God Declares War,” Oct. 28], Daniel Reid and Tremper Longman offer a curious apology: “the destruction of one’s enemies for the sake of a deity was not an exclusively Israelite notion.” In other words, Yahweh demanded human sacrifice, but so did the other deities.
This is theodicy—all the gods are doing it? This aspect of Israel’s God: the rage, the caprice, the violence—in earlier years I defended it; in recent years I dismissed it. I now appropriate it in an ironic temper: as a rebuke to myself or to any person or cause that first deifies itself and then destroys its enemies in God’s name. The authors’ attempt to link Jesus’ messianic mission, especially his crucifixion, to Israel’s holy wars is preposterous. His death in fact repudiated that program, a program, which, we may recall, belonged not to Jesus but to Judas.
-Rev. Michael E. Anderson Holy Nativity Episcopal Church Clarendon Hills, Ill.
Provocative, profitable Bible study * I was delighted to read David Neff’s account of the Genesis discussion project [“Bill Moyers’s National Bible Study,” Oct. 28]. This fall I am coteaching a course, “Liberal-Evangelical Dialogue,” with a theology professor at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, a seminary decidedly more liberal than Bethel, an evangelical institution. Each week, 28 of us—half from each school—meet to discuss the nature of biblical authority, God, sin, salvation, and other themes (including ethical topics) central to Christian faith. As students and professors, we strive to understand and learn from one another, but we also freely disagree with and challenge one another. Both “sides” are finding the course not only provocative but also profitable. After reading Neff, I now want to do the same with Muslims, Jews, and representatives of other religions!
-Prof. Robert V. Rakestraw Bethel Theological Seminary St. Paul, Minn.
I have some reservations regarding the value of Bill Moyers’s national Bible study. Genesis 3:15 refers to the coming Messiah; in fact, much of the O.T. refers to his coming. The Bible says it was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, [so] how can you have a meaningful Bible study among groups of different beliefs, and some with none at all—at least with any confidence in the future?
-Paul J. Evans Rockford, Ill.
Neff replies: Evangelicals who hold Bible studies with those of other faiths have to rely on the power of the Word itself: It never returns to God void. Helping unbelievers expose themselves to God’s self-disclosing Word is a form of evangelism that respects and relies on God’s sovereignty.
Public opinion holds no hopeIn the Colson/Pearcey column “Why Not Gay Marriage?” [Oct. 28], I certainly agree that we as Christians should be willing and able to defend our faith (including our view of marriage) in the public arena; however, there are at least two concepts that the authors ought to rethink: (1) Simply quoting the Bible in a post-Christian culture doesn’t cut any ice; and (2) the only real hope for deterring (gay marriage legislation) is through public opinion. God uses his Word with supernatural might that not only can cut ice, but can cut even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. If public opinion is our only real hope for anything, then God help us all.
-Rev. Lanny Penwell Platteville, Wis.
Colson’s article could have as logically been written in 1950 against interracial marriages. His “complementarity model” argument would have fit well in 1930 against married couples who practiced birth control. Interfaith marriages and marriages of divorcees would have threatened his concept of “public good” in 1950 society.
Is Colson saying that the only kind of wedded life the state should allow must be the type he believes proper? With no help, heterosexuals have done a rather good job in the “disintegration of marriage.” If given the opportunity, the disenfranchised just might appreciate the institution of wedded bliss more than those who now hold the fort.
Last month, Miss Doreen Lioy married Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker currently on death row. Doreen has been in love with her man for two years. I have been in love with my man much longer. Doreen has given up family, church, home, employment, and friends to marry the love of her life, but so have I. The government allowed and assisted Ramirez, convicted of 13 torturous, sadistic murders, to legally marry in prison while he awaits death. My man and I have never had so much as a traffic ticket, yet Lioy and Ramirez get to marry, but we can’t. Our only crime is that we are gay.
-Rev. P. R. Johnson Pomona, Calif.
“Why Not Gay Marriage?” asked Charles Colson’s October 28 essay. To the many prohibitions in Scripture, and Colson’s reasoned logic, perhaps we should add these nuggets of common sense:
Physically, gay marriage is anatomically incorrect. Etymologically, the term “same-sex marriage” is an oxymoron. ‘Nough said.
-Peter Kushkowski Haddam, Conn.
A moral and spiritual crisisI was gratified to read your serious and sober critique of consumerism [“Why the Devil Takes Visa,” Oct. 7]. For years I have believed that the issues you raise represent the central moral and spiritual crisis facing Christians in this culture.
Many Christians bemoan the fractures in societal values and the health of our families. Tragically, under the sway of opportunistic political and religious leaders, we are urged to point the finger at the wrong culprits (gays and lesbians, immigrants, poor people, liberals) without realizing that our culture’s obsession with materialism and consumerism is by far the most insidious threat to healthy values. How, for instance, can a culture that finds it perfectly reasonable to pay professional athletes tens of millions of dollars have any sane grasp of values? How can parents convey meaningful values to children who are bombarded with commercials that tell them they must have the newest, most expensive tennis shoes and fashions to be acceptable?
I hope this article is a first step in an ongoing discernment of the role of money, materialism, and consumerism in U.S. society. I hope and pray more Christians realize what a fundamental challenge these issues are to our integrity and faithfulness as people of God.
-William O’Brien, Contributing EditorThe Other SidePhiladelphia, Pa.
Clapp’s anecdote about the Coca-Cola song being chosen by a group of American Christian students as a song representative of and common to our culture brought to mind the saying “Let me make the songs of a nation and I care not who makes its laws.” I can’t help but wonder as I wander through the malls about this relentless and insatiable passion for the new. Might it not reflect an unfulfilled longing for newness of life?
-Janet Lindeblad Janzen Wichita, Kans.
I feel that one important aspect was not discussed—the arts and the role of the artist in society. At a very basic level, artists produce no product that enables survival. No dance fed a hungry child, no symphony healed a disease. Yet none of us would live in a culture without music, art, dance, poetry, or liturgy. What a dull existence that would be!
Not all art is good, honorable, or of good report. But I am willing to work the extra hours, grow the extra grain, invest for higher yield so that I might have the extra money or grain to support the artist who will enrich my soul, show the glories of God’s creation, or make my cooking pot prettier.
-David G. Troutman Austin, Tex.
With irony, consumerism provided the Pew Charitable Trust with the funds to support Rodney Clapp’s research. But perhaps they should fund a slight bit more to ensure the accuracy of quotes from John Wesley who, in addition to Clapp’s partial quote, “Get all you can, save all you can,” added “give all you can.” This eighteenth-century Oxford don lived, perhaps to Clapp’s surprise, what he taught and is hardly in the camp of those who fueled consumerism. Receiving 30 pounds sterling a year, Wesley gave away 2. Years later, when he was then earning four times that amount, he still lived on 28 pounds and gave the entire remainder away. At the end of life he bequeathed to heirs his few material possessions, consisting of a chaise, his books, a horse and—the Methodist church.
-John E. Van Valin, Publisher Light and Life Communications Indianapolis, Ind.
No exclusionMichael Cromartie’s interview brought relief from my assumption that a political and social consensus exists among evangelicals that excludes me [“One Lord, One Faith, One Voice?” Oct. 7]. There is a place for me, and there are brothers and sisters to fellowship with! Call for Renewal is an answer to prayer.
-Ken McClain Buchanan Nevada City, Calif.
The political forum involved shared observations concerning the apparent emergence of Louis Farrakhan as the major spokesman for black Americans following the Million Man March. As a black evangelical, a Baptist pastor, and a professor at an evangelical seminary, I feel the need to respond on behalf of the millions of black men and black evangelicals in the country who do not hear or see in Louis Farrakhan a message or a model that is attractive.
I publicly opposed that march, for several reasons. I objected to the conveners: Ben Chavis because of his misappropriation of NAACP funds; Farrakhan because I refuse to follow leadership that is not Christ-centered and Christ-uplifting. I also opposed the march because it had no legislative agenda to give it focus and purpose.
Be assured that the evangelical black church is alive and well. We have no leader but Christ.
-Pastor Marvin A. McMickle Ashland Theological Seminary Ashland, Ohio
As a local tax assessor and evangelical Christian, I sometimes perceive in the Religious Right’s rhetoric against big government a rhetoric against government workers that comes across as, post—Oklahoma City, a little frightening.
State and local workers in human services, corrections, and other functions across the country will bear the brunt of the front-line impact of Washington, D.C., actions. We are the people who will implement welfare reform and face the challenges of doing more with less as the federal government reallocates resources to address the deficit and our society’s changing priorities. Some of us are your Christian brothers and sisters.
As you send us fewer of your tax dollars, please reduce your irate words against us and let them be transformed into petitions to God for us. Thank you.
-Luke Walbert St. Paul, Minn.
* Thanks for the best interview-article I have read in years. It confirms that there can be spiritual unity in spite of differences in politics. Yet, on the “major” moral issues, there seems to be unity of political values. Thanks to men like Tony Campolo, Charles Colson, and Ralph Reed, the Christian community has men of intelligence and spiritual wisdom making our voice known in our government. Rev. Michael Weyeneth Waverly, Nebr.
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