Mark Tooley
Posted on 04/17/2003 2:30:22 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
(AgapePress) - Several officials of the United Methodist Church (UMC) are calling one of their fellow Methodists to repentance. While that, in and of itself, may not be unusual, it is noteworthy that the call appeared in a full-page magazine ad -- and the person called to repentance is President George W. Bush.
The April 5 edition of Christian Century magazine contains a full-page ad titled "A Prophetic Epistle from United Methodists Calling Our Brother George W. Bush to Repent." The ad, signed by several United Methodist bishops and the head of the denomination's lobby office in Washington, D.C., denounces the president for contributing to "spiritual forces of wickedness" and calls for him to "repent from domestic and foreign policies that are incompatible with the teaching and example of Christ."
Among those signing the ad are UM Bishops Joseph Sprague and Melvin Talbert, and Board of Church and Society general secretary Jim Winkler. The officials accuse President Bush of "threaten[ing] the very earth and all its inhabitants with open discussion of the use of nuclear weapons," and promoting "redemptive violence" in his policy towards the "sovereign nation of Iraq."
In addition, it claims that the president's domestic policy is "incongruent with Jesus' teaching" and falls short of the compassion of which Jesus spoke, despite Bush's claim to be a "compassionate conservative."
The ad concludes with the statement: "May our call to repentance speak to your conscience."
Mark Tooley heads the United Methodist committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. He says that first of all, the signers of the ad "are hardly symbols of strong, mainstream" United Methodist beliefs. He points out that Bishop Sprague denies that Jesus Christ is eternally divine, Bishop Talbert has endorsed same-sex "marriage," and Winkler is a pacifist.
Mark Tooley |
According to Tooley, the UMC affirms Christ's full deity, opposes same-sex unions, and is not pacifist. "Yet these church officials claim it is President Bush who is violating his own church's teachings," he says.
"These [church] officials are effectively telling the president he is not a good Christian because his policies do not match their own left-wing beliefs," Tooley continues in a printed release.
"Bush is supposedly a bad Christian and a bad Methodist because, like most Methodists, he does not agree with these church officials in their equation of compassion with a large federal welfare state and in their opposition to a strong military defense for America."
Tooley says it is "nonsense" for the UMC officials to "equate their brand of politics with Christianity, and assume that political disagreement is a sign of spiritual apostasy."
Anti-War Academics
Religious leaders are not the only anti-war faction in the news these days. It can also be found in the world of academia.
Anti-war demonstrators are composed primarily of college-age students, both in America and in Europe. Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation says that is because anti-American feelings permeate the world of academia -- and always will.
"The academics identify with academics abroad," Weyrich says, "and of course, the academic community [abroad] is very anti-American and believes that George Bush is a greater problem than Saddam Hussein or anybody else you can name."
Weyrich says that anti-American attitude is transferred to the students on a daily basis. "They believe that they need to expose the student community to the anti-American point of view; hence, the kind of people that they are really featuring in their various programs."
Weyrich says that is why students are on the front line of various types of anti-American demonstrations.
Betrayal of the Church: Apostasy and Renewal in the Mainnline Denominations
by Edmund W. Robb, Julia Robb
Availability: Usually ships within 1-2 business days
Used & new from $2.50
The same thing has happened in the Presbyterian churches nationwide.... There is a HUGE movement afoot to wrest control for the soul of this denomination from the clutches of truly wacko leftists and give it back to the grassroots in the pews. The call themselves the Covenant churches within the PCUSA and publish their own newspaper, The Presbyterian Layman, to keep the grassroots aware of the efforts to bring the denomination back to its moorings.
Many of us use the name "First Baptist Church of.....". Maybe we need to work on that pride issue...LOL
Since when did the teachings of Christ matter to the Liberal Methodist Leaders?
What a bunch of hypocrites.
True enough, these guys make the Pope look like a saint.
African Methodist Episcopal Church; African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; Alliance of Baptists; American Baptist Churches in the USA; The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; Diocese of the Armenian Church of America; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Church of the Brethren; The Coptic Orthodox Church in North America; The Episcopal Church; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Friends United Meeting; Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Hungarian Reformed Church in America; International Council of Community Churches; Korean Presbyterian Church in America; Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church; Mar Thoma Church; Moravian Church in America Northern Province and Southern Province; National Baptist Convention of America; National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.; National Missionary Baptist Convention of America; Orthodox Church in America; Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA; Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends; Polish National Catholic Church of America; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.; Reformed Church in America; Serbian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. and Canada; The Swedenborgian Church; Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch; Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America; United Church of Christ; The United Methodist Church
Hebrews 10:25
Not forsaking the assembling of ouselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
