c. 2006 Religion News Service
Clerics Accuse Parsley of Twisting Religion
CLEVELAND (RNS) An Ohio religious alliance opposed to mixing politics and faith has called on conservative evangelist Rod Parsley to stop “manipulating religion for political gain.”
The Columbus, Ohio, pastor, an ally of Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, has told other clergy that he wants to lend his megachurch’s resources to fellow pastors and “work together in unity to win this state for Jesus Christ!”
“The message of Reformation Ohio remains the same as it did nearly a year ago when I took to the steps of the State Capitol _ to bring spiritual transformation to the Buckeye State,” Parsley said Monday (Sept. 18) in a written statement.
Parsley is affiliated with the World Harvest Church, the Center for Moral Clarity, the World Harvest Church Ministerial Fellowship, and Reformation Ohio.
The most political thing on the agenda, Parsley said, will be to hand out information packets encouraging pastors to perform nonpartisan voter registration efforts.
But members of We Believe Ohio, created to counter the religious right’s political influence, sees the meeting as a way to clandestinely stump for an ideology at the cost of other faiths.
In its letter to Parsley, the groups said Parsley crosses the line separating church and state “which has allowed religion to flourish in our state and nation.”
It is signed by local Muslim, Sikh, Jewish and Christian clergy members.
“End your campaign of manipulating religion for political gain, and end your rhetoric that separates Ohioans from one another,” the letter says.
_ Chris Seper
Pastors Concerned Over Divisions in Christian Reformed Church
BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (RNS) A small but vocal group of Christian Reformed pastors says they fear their denomination has lost its Scriptural footing, with divisions over the ordination of women and other issues.
“Look, we don’t have to go back 30 years _ we have to go back 3,000 years,” said Joel Nederhood, former head of the Back to God Hour who spoke Monday (Sept. 18) at a meeting of concerned pastors. “We are in bondage to the Scripture, and we have to listen carefully to it.”
A crowd of several hundred people gathered at First Christian Reformed Church of Byron Center for the meeting, arranged by pastors looking to reassert the authority of Scripture in a church they said is “now compromised by a failure to live in obedience to the biblical message.”
The Rev. Chad Steenwyk, pastor of Central Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Holland, Mich., said the group does not want to break away from the denomination but instead wants to bring about renewal and ensure that discussion on divisive topics is rooted in the Bible.
“It’s less the issues themselves than how they’re handled,” Steenwyk said. “When it comes down to brass tacks, we’re not falling on Scripture.
“We want to drive the denomination back to God’s word. The thing that unites us together is God’s word.”
The Rev. Gerard Dykstra, the CRC’s new executive director, joined Nederhood in a question-and-answer session. He called the meeting a pro-active discussion that emphasized commitment to Scripture in the face of modern dilemmas such as the ordination of women.
The CRC Synod this year, for example, removed the word “male” as a qualification for ministers, although many conservatives opposed the move as unbiblical. Other denominations, such as the Reformed Church in America and the Episcopal Church, have struggled with how to treat homosexuals.
“We are going to face some tough issues ahead,” Dykstra said. “All of those voices deserve to be heard. The sad part is when people choose to leave. Christ wants a unified church.”
The Rev. George Vander Weit, pastor of Fuller Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, said it’s unfair to label the church unbiblical because of changing interpretations of Scriptures. Those changes often are the result of faithful Bible study, he said.
“These guys keep beating the women-in-office drum and use that as sort of the litmus test,” he said. “Is (the ordination of women) a slippage away from Scripture? Or a slippage away from how we understood Scripture?
_ Matt Vande Bunte
Zimbabwe Churches Share Blame for Crisis Conditions
(RNS) A coalition of church leaders in Zimbabwe now claims partial responsibility for the deteriorating social and economic health of the nation.
“We have often not been the salt and the light that the Gospel calls us to be. We, therefore, confess our failure and ask God’s forgiveness,” the coalition said in a report, “The Zimbabwe We Want,” issued on Sept. 15.
The Catholic, Protestant and evangelical groups spent months detailing the crisis that has thrown the majority of the southern African nation’s 12 million inhabitants into poverty.
According to Catholic Information Service for Africa, the coalition plans to focus on correcting the key problem areas: lack of a shared national vision, political intolerance, escalating corruption, drying up of foreign investments and the collapse of tourism.
“The nation is desperately in need of a physician, and that physician is none other than us, the people of Zimbabwe,” the report says.
Leaders of the coalition _ including the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference, Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe _ hope their combined voices, as well as talks with President Robert Mugabe, will effect political change.
Mugabe has led the nation with an increasingly iron fist since independence from Britain in 1980 and has sustained blistering international criticism for decay in a country that was once a model of sound government and economic responsibility.
Now, with inflation topping 1,000 percent, many Zimbabweans have resorted to bartering and selling goods on the nation’s thriving black market.
Last month, another religious coalition _ Solidarity Peace Trust, made up of church leaders from southern Africa _ issued a scathing attack on the Zimbabwean government for doing “virtually nothing” to help the 700,000 people it displaced during “Operation Drive Out Trash,” a ruthless effort to demolish urban slum areas throughout the nation in 2005.
Many of the white landowners and investors fled Zimbabwe after Mugabe began to seize their farms and redistribute them to blacks. It is a situation the United Nations calls “not just a crisis but a meltdown.”
The religious organizations behind `The Zimbabwe We Want’ say they “failed the nation because we have not been able to speak with one voice” about such issues, but insist their new path will help create more stability.
“Our vision is that of a sovereign and democratic nation characterized by good governance … with a leadership that puts the people of Zimbabwe above all personal gains.”
_ Jason Kane
Calvin Seminary’s First Female Professor Charges Sex Bias
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Six years after making history, the first full-time female professor at Calvin Theological Seminary has resigned, alleging sex discrimination at the Christian Reformed Church school for ministers.
Ruth Tucker did not return when classes began this month, charging she was “excluded and sidelined” by seminary administrators.
“I was being held to a different standard than my male colleagues,” Tucker, 61, said. “I do not believe that, had I been an insider and a man, that this ever would have happened to me.”
In a lengthy, hard-hitting account on her Web site, Tucker, who taught missions and church history, calls her experience a “nightmare” and accuses administrators of covering up her appeals of a demotion three years ago.
“I hope that by telling my story no one else will ever have to endure such a painful ordeal as I have and that positive changes will come to the school,” Tucker writes at http://www.ruthtucker.net.
Though unwilling to go into details, seminary officials deny Tucker was discriminated against at the seminary.
“I believe that Professor Tucker as our first woman faculty member was really important to Calvin Theological Seminary, and we continue to be intent on using the gifts of women,” said the Rev. Cornelius Plantinga Jr., president of the 300-student seminary.
But the Rev. Ruth Hofman, secretary for the seminary’s board of trustees and the first woman ordained a minister in the denomination, sympathized with Tucker’s complaints. “Dr. Ruth Tucker’s grievances are real, and I understand them instinctively,” Hofman said in an e-mail.
Tucker was appointed in 2000 by the denomination’s synod as part of an effort to diversify the all-male faculty after the denomination opened some church pulpits to women. Since her hiring, one other woman has been added to the 28 full-time faculty and two women teach part time.
Tucker said on the Web site that she did well among the “tightly knit cadre of Dutch men” until Plantinga became president in 2002. She charges he and other top administrators showed a “total lack of gender consciousness.”
Tucker says she was blindsided by a 2003 evaluation demoting her from a tenure-track associate professor to a one-year terminal appointment.
After challenging the decision, Tucker says she was accused of “ungodly conduct,” including shouting in a meeting prior to the evaluation. She denies it happened.
Plantinga said seminary officials are unable to fully respond to Tucker’s allegations because of confidentiality rules.
“A former employee on her blog can say whatever she wants without fear of refutation because it’s inappropriate for Calvin Theological Seminary to comment publicly on confidential personnel matters,” he said.
_ Charles Honey
Quote of the Day: Jack Kenny, Creator of Canceled “Book of Daniel”
(RNS) “You might get “7th Heaven.” You might get “Touched By An Angel.” But you won’t get any real people dealing with real problems.”
_ Jack Kenny, creator of the canceled NBC show “Book of Daniel,” which sparked controversy for its depiction of an Episcopal priest and his dysfunctional family and was harshly criticized by the American Family Association. Speaking at the annual conference of the Religion Newswriters Association in Salt Lake City, Kenny predicted a show like his wouldn’t be on television for a decade.
KRE/JL END RNS
