{"id":957,"date":"2010-10-01T17:09:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T17:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/10\/victor-or-wrecker\/"},"modified":"2010-10-01T17:09:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T17:09:00","slug":"victor-or-wrecker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/10\/victor-or-wrecker.html","title":{"rendered":"Victor or Wrecker?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When I was an Anglican priest I had the cure of souls in two country parishes. In one I was the Vicar. In the other I was the Rector. When first appointed they asked which I should be called and I said, \u201cI think we will combine the two titles into one and I shall be called \u2018Victor\u2019.\u201d At which a quick witted parishioner replied, \u201cThey might combine the two and call you Wrecker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our local Rector in the combox has given a long response to my plea for an Anglican model for unity and ended up by asking: \u201cDo we better demonstrate Christian unity by seeking to bring Christ himself, visible in his followers, into the lives of those who do not know him, or by squabbling over who is a \u2018real\u2019 Christian and who isn\u2019t?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

These are fine sentiments, but I must say they do remind me of the sweet Methodist lady who, on hearing that I was converting to Catholicism said with tears welling up, \u201cBut Vicar, surely all that matters is how much we love Jesus!!\u201d While her sentiments and the Rector\u2019s noble words about sharing Christ seem to make someone like me seem hard hearted, they do beg several very large questions. It is very fine to say that we must \u2018bring Christ into the lives of those who do not know him,\u2019 and it is moving to cry, \u201cSurely all that matters is how much we love Jesus!\u201d but how do we know that it is Christ we are bringing to people and that it is Jesus we are loving?<\/p>\n

This is where some definitions and dogma are required. Who is the Jesus the Methodist lady loves and who is the Christ the Anglican Rector is sharing? It should seem obvious to any thinking Christian that such definitions must be required at some point along the way for all sorts of people claim to \u2018love Jesus\u2019 or that they are \u2018sharing Christ\u2019 while many other followers of Christ would be alarmed to think that such people are Christians and they would reject them from the fellowship.<\/p>\n

The Rector wishes us to focus on \u2018sharing Christ\u2019 as a way to demonstrate Christian unity\u2019 but where are the Rector\u2019s boundaries? This is where living in the United States begins to make \u2018Christian unity\u2019 seem not only an elusive dream but a crazy nightmare. Just\u00a0 \u2018shares Christ\u2019 alongside us to \u2018demonstrate Christian unity\u2019 and how do I determine just who is \u2018loving Jesus\u2019 and \u2018sharing Christ\u2019. Here in the USA where Christianity takes increasingly wild and wonderful expressions the question is live.<\/p>\n

For sake of argument we may accept that the Catholic and the Anglican and the Methodist and the Presbyterian all \u2018love Jesus\u2019 and \u2018share Christ\u2019 and that they all enjoy a certain kind of \u2018Christian unity\u2019 but shall we include the Baptists? If we do, shall we include just the Southern Baptists who are quite sensible, or may we invite the independent Bible fundamentalist Baptists? If they \u2018love Jesus\u2019 and \u2018share Christ\u2019 may we include the snake handling, rootin\u2019 tootin\u2019 poison drinking Baptists? If not, why not?<\/p>\n

Let us go further. The Seventh Day Adventists claim to \u2018love Jesus\u2019 and \u2018share Christ\u2019. Shall we admit them to Christian Unity and overlook their heresies as mere eccentricities or \u2018differences of opinion\u2019? If the Seventh Day Adventists, then surely the Worldwide Church of God and the Christian Scientists, and if the Christian Scientists and Worldwide Church of God, then why not the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, for they too claim with all sincerity and seriousness that they \u2018love Jesus\u2019 and \u2018share Christ.\u2019 For that matter, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints claim to \u2018love Jesus\u2019 and \u2018share Christ\u2019, and if the Mormons<\/a>, then why not the Moonies, for the members of the Unification Church who follow Reverend Moon also claim to \u2018love Jesus\u2019 and \u2018share Christ\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Rector and my Methodist lady friend are guilty of sentimentalism. They have put lofty and sweet emotions above the need for real definitions and dogma. It is complained that \u2018dogma divides\u2019. Indeed it does\u2013just as any declaration of truth does. In fact, Catholics, who point out the need for definitions and delineations are simply doing what all Christians do, for even the most bland and liberal of Anglicans will turn up his nose at the Mormons and Jehovah\u2019s Witness and Snake Handlers and attempt to exclude them from being \u2018real Christians\u2019\u2013and he is right to do so for they are not \u2018real Christians\u2019 and they are not because they are heretics. That is to say, they have held to some truths to the exclusion of others or they have distorted truths by the addition of falsehoods.<\/p>\n

This is why I am a Catholic\u2013because definitions are necessary and if definitions are necessary, then one must have an infallible authority to make the definitions\u2013otherwise one drifts into individualism.\u00a0 sentimentalism, and the rampant sectarianism that Protestantism has become. The Catholic Church draws boundaries and says, \u201cHere is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Join us if you like, but don\u2019t complain when you choose not to join us and then we point out to you that you are not one with us. Don\u2019t come to us and say, \u2018Oh we really are Catholic you know\u2026\u2019 Why do you want to be \u2018Catholic\u2019 but you don\u2019t become Catholic, and why do you protest when we simply point out the fact that you are not actually Catholic when that has been your clear choice?\u201d<\/p>\n

Catholics are also accused of being black and white and saying that everyone else isn\u2019t \u2018a real Christian\u2019. Not so. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that all who are baptized and have faith in Christ are truly our brothers and sisters in Christ, and are to be treated as brothers and sisters. However, we can go on to explain a hierarchy of relationship to the Catholic Church which illustrates how some of the separated brethren are close to full communion with the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church than others, and why this is so.<\/p>\n

I will attempt to post more on this later.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was an Anglican priest I had the cure of souls in two country parishes. In one I was the Vicar. In the other I was the Rector. When first appointed they asked which I should be called and I said, \u201cI think we will combine the two titles into one and I shall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nVictor or Wrecker?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When I was an Anglican priest I had the cure of souls in two country parishes. In one I was the Vicar. In the other I was the Rector. 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