by ardell | July 17th, 2009
I was driving through town yesterday doing some errands when I hear a sound clip from the Episcopal General Conference currently being held in California. The clip was from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s opening speech at the conference during which she described the “great Western heresy” that was taking over the church.
At first, I figured she would talk about Gnosticism or the separation of “spiritual” and “non-spiritual” activities – but she didn’t talk about either one of those. Instead she defined the greatest heresy in church today is the notion “that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.”
Yelp. Those are her words.[@more@]
It seems that Bishop Schori had defined the Kingdom of God as the “church” and as such, one can only be “saved” if you are a member of the “church” (defined in this case as the Episcopal Church). Individuals no longer matter as it all about the ‘church’.
Wow.
Understandable I have some major disagreements with Bishop Schori comments. Shoot – read the Gospels. Jesus came and declared everyone who lived had an individual decision make: to throw themselves at the foot of the cross, or to walk away and live in darkness.
Salvation was NEVER based upon ones standing in a group. The prophets of old declared to Israel that they must not rely on their blood line to grant them favor with God. They must seek good and not evil; they must individually uphold the ethics of the Lord
14 Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.
15 Hate evil, love good;
maintain justice in the courts.
Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy
on the remnant of Joseph. (Amos 5)
John the Baptist echoed the prophets when he declared:
9And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3)
While we are not to be "Long Ranger" Christians, we also not to rely on the past. God is the God of the Present. He is alive and active TODAY.
We must all seek out our salvation with fear and trembling.
wow, an old teaching that I thought was long dead. Like your verse for refuting it.
He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
To add more punch to your case, it is singular
What do you think about the idea that western Christianity has placed too much emphasis on individualism?
Emphasis on Individualism
I would agree that a large portion of Western Christianity has swung too far to the side of individualism at the cost of forgetting that the Church is a body.
However, this is not to say one can be “saved” via the faith of a community or blood line.