Day 685 - Who is Viola Larson and Why Is She Attacking Mercy Junction, 1001 Worshipping Communities of the PC(USA) and the Presbytery of East Tennessee? Part III

August 25, 2014, Viola Larson and Advice on a Way Forward

As described in Part II, the writings and recent reactions of Viola Larson seems to embrace the dark side of Calvin, e. g., his penal attitude that used the consistories and State to drag people off to jail feeding them on bread and water for missing worship or forgetting the sermon title (see footnote 4), and who preferred hanging or the sword for heretics rather than burning them at the stake (Servetus). 

Earlier she voiced a conciliatory attitude towards those who desire to go their own way in the denomination, but she seems lost when the denomination itself begins to ask itself, “What is the more effect way to achieve the charge to be Christ’s ministers to the world?”

 I conclude Ms. Larson is willing to provide forbearance only to those she judges to be right in her view of Christian faith. Her criteria of “right” is that they must adhere to the literal voice of the early confessions and an inerrant, literal scripture, all frozen in a prescientific time gone by. Discernment seems persona non grata.

The Dilemma of Reformed Protestantism

Reformed Protestants believe that all the historical confessions speak from and to a time and place expressing the current place of the church in the world. We believe the confessions are our limited way to state our contextual view of reformed Christian theology. However, we also believe the confessions are subordinate to scripture and the ultimate interpreter of scripture is individual conscience tempered by the body of the church. We are always in the dilemma as to whether the institution or individual conscience is more "orthodox."

That is why there are multiple confessions that place reformed Christian duty in the context of current reality. For example the attempt of Hitler to control the German Lutheran Church led to the Barmen Confession, and the racial and antiwar circumstances in the United States in the mid-20th century to the Confession of 1967. That is why we do not subscribe today to the parochial language of the older confessions that differentiate the status and role of men and women in the congregation and assail the Catholic Church as evil. 

Viola Larson would have us cling to these older confessions quite literally, as well as to a literal inerrancy of Scripture not subject to interpretation guided by spiritual discernment - tempered by the church or not. She does not admit the possibility that our role as Christians may need to take into account present circumstances to define the context of faith and action, regardless of how distressing the circumstances may be. There appears to be no place for vigorous debate or faithful compromise  on current critical issues. What was good in the 1500’s is good for the present time.

In many places across Europe and the USA today, the poor state of the congregations of the mainline denominations comes from holding onto old "orthodox" unthinking(institutional) ways, and old dogma. That state testifies to denominations that have so tightly closed their doors to those seeking faith and forgiveness in a threatening culture that the people have wandered away.  (Karl Barth might be held responsible  to a great degree for this state of affairs of neo-conservative orthodoxy.) 

People who stake claim to this self-labeled neo-conservative orthodoxy should be free and comfortable to pursue it if it enhances their sense of worship and spirituality. I welcome it. 

The same people should also acknowledge that by insisting on absolute, universal conformity to their view they may be refusing to feed and turning away the hungry sheep passing by their door seeking grace. As Viola Larson says, “I don't think it is right when those staying malign those leaving… (I) believe the most important aspect of upholding each other is seeing the other and relationship to Jesus Christ. I cannot call the other person (for) upholding the fate of the church universal whether standing or journey." 

Should I Assail Viola Larson to Defend Mercy Junction and other 1001 New Worshipping Congregations, the Presbytery of East Tennessee ?

I wondered at the outset, should I defend Mercy Junction, other 1001 New Worshipping Congregations, and the Presbytery of East Tennessee by assailing Viola, as she has done PC(USA) and those honorable, faithful people struggling to find an effective way to witness to the world such?

I think not. It would make me a bigger hypocrite than I am already. To the extent I believe these groups are part of the universal congregation of believers, I understand that neither God, Christ or his Church needs my defense. I actually feel a great deal of compassion towards her for the worry and stress the changes in the world and church create for her. 

Rather the proper course is to remind her and those other neo-orthodox reformed believers who seem to bury their heads in the sand in the face of a church being reduced to insignificance of her own early words quoted previously about the charity of forbearance among Christians (minus the judgment). Therefore, I leave us all with the words of James 4:11-12, 16-17,5:9-11, 19-20 that I quote here (from NRSV):

 11“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor? … 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin….5:9 Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors!  As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. ....19   My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” This is the Word of the Lord.

I believe Mercy Junction, First Creek of our Presbytery of East Tennessee, 1001 Worshipping Communities of PC(USA) are listening to these words of James and in their own way seeking to follow them laboring on under the burden of human uncertainty assuaged by the Holy Spirit. I welcome Viola Larson to join a common effort to bring lost sheep back into the fold. I invite her to step into the deep water, to get out of the boat.

I can only pray that Viola Larson will understand none of us are in a position to judge another’s faith and that she will perceive the meaning of her own earlier words, that people who hold to true Christian belief should not be driven out of the church because they struggle under the duress of both the present world and their brothers and sisters in Christ to find effective ways to bring the sheep back into the fold.  We know there is a home.

Grace and Peace
Henry

Source Documents, continued

4. The Registers of the Consistory of Geneva at the Time of Calvin: Volume 1: 1542-1544 , edited by Isabella M. Watt, Robert M. Kingdon, Thomas A. Lambert, Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (2000) (English translation of original French book published in 1996). This is a hard copy version of the link in text.