Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: tblake@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Thomas Blake) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Sexism in the church?? Message-ID: Date: 17 Apr 91 06:52:31 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: State University of New York at Binghamton Lines: 48 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: >2) A couple of weeks ago I read a book on the Ku Klux Klan. (Apparently > "Ku Klux" comes from "kuklos -- a circle", and it was founded in an > area of Scottish/Irish settlement.) I found to my amazement that in > the early part of this century the KKK was supported by a lot of > "Christian" clergymen. This included Methodists and Lutherans. > Do you suppose that any of those clergymen doubted their call? > Do you suppose that any of them would have said "yes, I could refuse > my calling?" > Do you suppose that the KKK wanted them because they were incompetent > preachers, or because they were competent preachers? A very good point. Indeed, the question of slavery split the Methodist church asunder. Both sides took strong "Biblical" stands. The "United" Methodist Church represents a re-uniting of some of the factions of the "Methodist Church" but not all unfortunately. >I wouldn't rely on the strength of anyone's belief in their call as >evidence that their call was from God, whether man, woman, or angel. >Friends of mine who've heard him tell me that the most spell-binding >preacher they've ever heard is a certain man who denies the virgin >birth, the resurrection, and the divinity, even the _calling_ of Jesus, >a man who, preaching in Christian churches, affirms less about Jesus >than the Muslims do. So "hear me preach" is not entirely reliable >either. (Then of course there's the story of the 19th century minister >whose wife was so impressed by his sermons that she said "James, why >don't you put your sermons in a book?" to which he answers "because >that's where I got them".) In the UMC, when a person feels called, they must have their call affirmed by the "Pastor Parish Relations Committee" of their local church. (They are required to have been a member of that church for at least one year). They must also go before the "Board of Ordained Ministry" of their district, and the "Board of Ordained Ministry" of their conference. Each candidate for ordination goes through quite a series of examinations. Feeling that you are called, and being able to preach a good sermon are not enough to get you ordained in the UMC. In the case of my friend, I feel it important to point out that she did not claim that her preaching *proved* her calling. However, for someone to claim that her calling was not genuine without even so much as hearing her preach does seem a bit unreasonable. She might say, live and worship with me for a year and then we'll discuss my calling, but coming to hear her preach I think is a reasonable request. Tom Blake SUNY-Binghamton