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Letters to the Editor - May/June 2007
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RESPONSE TO JUNE 24 ISSUE
'Are You Kidding?'
(posted 6-27-07)
I simply cannot believe that this article (“God 1, County 0” by Wayne Laugesen) was even published. Are you kidding? Or was this serious? I'll say this in the nicest way possible to the Rocky Mountain Christian Church: Get over it already. If their justification for needing more space is so that children can “dance and groove to contemporary Christian tunes,” then I agree with the commissioners.
These people are not being persecuted for their faith. They are not being tortured and commanded to recant their faith. This article is a fine example of the sort of stupidity that is raging in megachurches: A sort of “we are a megachurch and what right do you have to tell us what to do?” sort of mentality.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for them? My God, those people need to get a grip on reality and look around at Christians who worship elsewhere with no building at all, who are being killed and beaten for their faith, who are being systematically wiped out in some places in the world. This article is nothing more than American entitlement gone wild.
Dancing and grooving? Is this supposed to pass as theology? Is this helping people have a biblical foundation, a biblical theology, a narrow path, a kingdom perspective, a holy life, a Christ focus, an awe and reverence for almighty God?
It sounds like a bunch of crying about nothing to me. Tell them they need to get back to worshiping God. I think this article set the CHRISTIAN STANDARD into the pile of irrelevancy. And that church's problem makes them appear as whiners. Do they really think they are fighting a battle for God? Is that really what the cross was all about?
What do religious pacifists opting out of war have to do with a megachurch wanting to build a bigger building to “facilitate more people in their beliefs”? That is a red herring and a straw man all at the same time. If this article were published in a secular paper the author has completely embarrassed himself. There is no nice way to say that this article is probably, without doubt, the worst thing I have ever read in the STANDARD.
Did he really use the term “useful idiots” to describe people opposed to this plan of the church?
I am aghast at this maneuvering. I think your magazine has become far too much about the “mega” and not nearly enough about Christ.
—Jerry Hillyer
Madison, Ohio
'We Need to Be Extremely Careful'
(posted 8-27-07)
In response to George Faull’s letter attacking Eleanor Daniel (below), I would ask him if he interprets Acts 15:20, 21 the same way he interprets Paul’s restrictions of women in 1 Timothy. I am sure that Mr. Faull, with his credentials, is aware that the verse I mention was an attempt of the early church to answer the question, “What must a Gentile do to become a Christian” and the church decided to tell the Gentile Christians to avoid sexual immorality and meat of animals that still has blood in it. If one would want to take this text by itself and treat it as literally and as binding today as when it was written, then one would conclude that any Christians should probably never eat a rare steak again! Clearly Acts 15:20, 21 served a purpose, but it is not the final answer for how Gentiles are to become Christians!
Likewise, the passages in 1 Timothy were certainly written for a purpose, but we need to be extremely careful when we interpret them today. This is especially true in light of verses like “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). But Mr. Faull would apparently just throw out Galatians because it was written first!
In Matthew, Jesus condemns the Pharisees for straining at gnats while ignoring the important matters, and this is just what Mr. Faull has done in his letter.
I applaud the STANDARD for publishing Ms. Daniel’s controversial opinions, and I applaud Ms. Daniel for her well-thought-out arguments. By contrast, I am disappointed that a man with Mr. Faull’s credentials would simply resort to saying that arguments for women’s leadership roles have been “refuted again and again” without offering any well-thought-out arguments as to why women should not be in leadership roles! Instead of offering any arguments to support his position that women shouldn’t be leaders, he has resorted to argumentum ad nauseum.
I would have Mr. Faull know that I know of several women in leadership roles in the church, and that they have done excellent work for the kingdom. Souls have been saved as a result of these women. But Mr. Faull would rather keep them from doing anything based on his narrow interpretation of a small portion of Scripture. And in doing so he would cripple the church by preventing 50 percent of church members from doing anything!
If Mr. Faull disagrees with someone, let him state out his objections to their arguments in a well-thought-out argument instead of simply personally attacking someone.
Finally, I would ask Mr. Faull. Was the Great Commission given just to men?
—Jamie Weiss
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The Opposing View
(posted 6-22-07)
I think now it would be in order for Brad Dupray to interview someone with the opposite view of Ms. Eleanor Daniel (“CHRISTIAN STANDARD Interview,” June 24).
Perhaps he should have asked her, “Please tell us the names and just what the leadership role of the women in Romans 16 were?” “What did they do?” They are called servants, helpers, and had churches in the house where they and their husbands’ lived. “Can you prove they were leaders or is that just your prejudice coming through?”
“Does Galatians really say what she says it says and does it obliterate what is said in Timothy?” Is she aware that the Timothy passage was written eight years after the Galatians passage? If she does, why did she use the argument? Is she ignorant or is she biased or is she deceitful?
Does she read anyone in our own churches that do not agree with her or is she too busy reading those denominationalists that are allowing women to do all that she says they are allowing them to do?
Does local autonomy allow disobedience to God? Can churches who practice exactly the opposite the things which Paul says “are the commands of the Lord” be shunned for their high-handed presumption? What does Paul mean when he says they are to acknowledge what he says about women are the commandments of the Lord and if one rejects this he is to be rejected or if he does not receive this he himself will not be received? (See the new translations.)
Is it possible that this article’s title was supposed to have the title of the article that followed it—namely, “Beyond Reason and Logic”?
I was very sorry to see this article because I think that STANDARD has improved for the last few months. I tire of these worn-out assumptions about women in leadership roles. If they have been refuted over and over, why have them repeated as if they were some new fresh material?
—George L. Faull
RESPONSE TO JUNE 17 ISSUE
Another Example
(posted 6-22-07)
Being an executive director of a church-planting organization that covers North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Manitoba, I can resonate with Paul Williams’s column on depression (“Fit for Ministry,” June 17). In reading the book Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose, I learned that Merriwether Lewis, one of the great explorers for the territory where I now live and strive to plant churches, suffered greatly from depression. Using your quote, Paul, “He showed millions you could suffer serious bouts of melancholy and still make a difference.” I believe Lewis and Clark made a historical difference for this country! Thanks for addressing this topic!
—Mike Sojka
Executive Director, Northern Plains Evangelistic Association
Huron, South Dakota
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