Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Home at Plett Foundation
Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Home at Plett Foundation
Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Home at Plett Foundation
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“In fact, Scofield devised a clever<br />
scheme to circumvent such a<br />
teaching, by dispensing entirely<br />
with the Gospels....”<br />
ethos or standard of behaviour. (According to<br />
some historians this may reflect the influence of<br />
Renaissance thinkers such as Erasmus).<br />
To say th<strong>at</strong> Mennonites and Evangelicals<br />
differ in terms of their understanding of history<br />
would be an under st<strong>at</strong>ement, they are <strong>at</strong><br />
opposite ends of the spectrum. Mennonites<br />
see history “as the study of God” while Evangelicals<br />
are inherently uncomfortable with the<br />
idea of history which they find inconsistent<br />
with their concept of God’s revel<strong>at</strong>ion for man<br />
being more fully revealed in each succeeding<br />
gener<strong>at</strong>ion.<br />
Allow me to explain: each new gener<strong>at</strong>ion<br />
of Revivalists, Fundamentalists and Evangelicals<br />
believe they possess not only the fullest<br />
revel<strong>at</strong>ion of Christian truth, but, indeed, the<br />
only valid revel<strong>at</strong>ion. Each succeeding gener<strong>at</strong>ion<br />
seems to add another layer of legalistic<br />
requirements to th<strong>at</strong> of its precursor. I think<br />
some Pentecostals are already up to the third<br />
and fourth baptism, and, no doubt there’s<br />
more coming. Wh<strong>at</strong> this means, though, is<br />
th<strong>at</strong> each new gener<strong>at</strong>ion looks down <strong>at</strong> the<br />
old--or better said, tries to avoid looking back<br />
<strong>at</strong> the old--sadly recognizing th<strong>at</strong> their parents<br />
and/or antecedents in faith did not have the full<br />
truth, given th<strong>at</strong> all the previous millennialist<br />
scenarios had in the meantime turned out false,<br />
Deuteronomy 18:22.<br />
The emotional internalized paradigm of<br />
Fundamentalist religious culture was well suited<br />
to dovetail precisely with the lowest common<br />
denomin<strong>at</strong>or in the spiritual expect<strong>at</strong>ions<br />
of the <strong>No</strong>rth American religious consumer. This<br />
also resulted in a lower literacy and intellectual<br />
level compared to other confessions.<br />
To be Evangelical and Mennonite <strong>at</strong> the<br />
same time is an oxymoron, a logical impossibility.<br />
The two religious cultures are fundamentally<br />
and inherently incomp<strong>at</strong>ible and in<br />
conflict with each other. They are diametrically<br />
opposed to each other in terms of their very<br />
concept of wh<strong>at</strong> it means to be Christian.<br />
To be a Mennonite, to be a Christian, is to<br />
accept the centrality of Christ and the Gospels<br />
within scripture, the idea of discipleship.<br />
By comparison, Fundamentalists and l<strong>at</strong>er<br />
Evangelicals, went to gre<strong>at</strong> lengths to avoid the<br />
teachings of Christ. In fact, Scofield devised<br />
a scheme to circumvent such a teaching, by<br />
dispensing entirely with the Gospels through<br />
dispens<strong>at</strong>ional hermeneutics whereby the<br />
teaching and work of Christ was postponed to<br />
a future age! In short, to the Evangelical, to<br />
be a Christian was to meet and come within<br />
the parameters of certain prescribed threshold<br />
criteria, such as “conversion experience”, “assurance<br />
of salv<strong>at</strong>ion”, “a certain form of immersion<br />
baptism”, etc. Successful Christianity<br />
was measured by the achievement of a certain<br />
“One of the hallmarks of Revivalist,<br />
Fundamentalist and Evangelical<br />
religious culture has been<br />
extreme intolerance.”<br />
feeling of inward euphoria. By this logic the<br />
more you jumped and shouted, the more saved<br />
you were. By the same reasoning, people suffering<br />
from depression evidently would be<br />
under a horrible curse!<br />
The “isms” of the 20th century--fascism,<br />
communism, n<strong>at</strong>ionalism, maoism, fundamentalism--all<br />
shared the desire to eradic<strong>at</strong>e<br />
traditional cultures which they viewed as<br />
inherently in conflict with their demands of<br />
undivided loyalty and absolute commitment.<br />
The 20th century could also be called the century<br />
of euphemisms, where a word was used<br />
to describe a social movement but meaning the<br />
opposite of its common usage. For example,<br />
Communists claimed to represent the will of<br />
the people, to hold all things in common, but<br />
inflicted the tyranny of a cynical elite upon a<br />
terror-stricken popul<strong>at</strong>ion.<br />
Fundamentalists claimed to be evangelical,<br />
but specifically took the Gospels out of<br />
the Bible, out of their faith. In this sense they<br />
(the proto-Evangelicals of the 1920s and 30s)<br />
were not evangelical <strong>at</strong> all, and could only be<br />
considered Christians in the most general sense<br />
of the word. Since Scofield taught it was a sin<br />
to follow the teachings of Christ, how could his<br />
adherents be considered Christians?<br />
The sad reality is th<strong>at</strong> if so-called Evangelicals<br />
should ever be successful (and may God<br />
forbid) in their enunci<strong>at</strong>ed program for world<br />
domin<strong>at</strong>ion and conquest, the level of piety<br />
and good works in the world would likely not<br />
change by one wit, the number of wars would<br />
not lessen by one iota, and there would still be<br />
just as many people starving in Africa.<br />
Admittedly Evangelicalism has revitalized<br />
many lives with its message of hope and<br />
personal renewal. But the same can be said for<br />
practically every social and religious movement<br />
of the 20th century, including Farrakhan’s<br />
Moslem pride movement.<br />
Evangelicals have done compassion<strong>at</strong>e<br />
acts of charity for others in need and for this<br />
all should be gr<strong>at</strong>eful. But wh<strong>at</strong> segreg<strong>at</strong>es<br />
Evangelicals from other Christians, Christians<br />
of the Mother Theresa variety, is th<strong>at</strong> these acts<br />
of charity are invariably preformed as part of an<br />
agenda--if you (poor slob in Africa) come to my<br />
denomin<strong>at</strong>ion, I will accept you as a brother/<br />
sister--or, if you (destitute person in Russia)<br />
accept my religious culture, I will accept you<br />
as “saved”. A real Christian, in my estim<strong>at</strong>ion,<br />
sees a need and fills it. If the life and conduct<br />
of the giver is such th<strong>at</strong> the recipient is moved<br />
to change his or her lifestyle or faith, so be it.<br />
True charity—Christ-imaged charity--does not<br />
come with an agenda.<br />
I make the forgoing st<strong>at</strong>ements with all<br />
due respect to many friends who are good<br />
Christians notwithstanding they subscribe<br />
to Evangelical dogma, and its language and<br />
culture. Those who bomb abortion clinics and<br />
spread virulent h<strong>at</strong>e liter<strong>at</strong>ure against gays and<br />
lesbians are certainly only a small minority.<br />
<strong>No</strong>t nearly all Evangelicals are viper-baiting<br />
Neanderthals who refuse medical tre<strong>at</strong>ment for<br />
their children: “Faith or Healing?” Time, Aug<br />
31, 1998, Vol. 152, <strong>No</strong>. 9, pages 48-49.<br />
One of the hallmarks of Revivalist, Fundamentalist<br />
and Evangelical religious culture has<br />
been extreme intolerance. John Calvin, the 16th<br />
century Reformer who was the direct spiritual<br />
antecedent of modern-day Evangelicals, simply<br />
executed and extermin<strong>at</strong>ed those who disagreed<br />
with him. It was a good thing for Evangelicals<br />
th<strong>at</strong> Di Brandt and P<strong>at</strong> Friesen were not born<br />
Pentecostals or Baptists, as they would have<br />
been REALLY upset <strong>at</strong> a religious culture th<strong>at</strong><br />
tre<strong>at</strong>ed its non-conformists so mean.<br />
In decades past many American Fundamentalists<br />
followed the spirit of the Salem<br />
witch trials and exercised discipline and<br />
shunning so fiercely and tyrannically as to<br />
make traditional Mennonites look p<strong>at</strong>hetic<br />
by comparison. Similar practices evidently<br />
were adopted by Mennonite denomin<strong>at</strong>ions<br />
articul<strong>at</strong>ed by Separ<strong>at</strong>ist-Pietist and American<br />
Revivalist teachings, as seen in the book “Peace<br />
Shall Destroy Many” by Rudy Wiebe. For<br />
traditional Mennonite communities, discipline<br />
was a carefully measured response to admitted<br />
and confessed offences, such as wife abuse, or<br />
dereliction of moral oblig<strong>at</strong>ions to neighbours<br />
in socio-economic m<strong>at</strong>ters implemented only<br />
after due process and democr<strong>at</strong>ic deb<strong>at</strong>e before<br />
the membership. This was a procedure th<strong>at</strong> had<br />
nothing in common with the psychological terror<br />
used by many Fundamentalists and some<br />
Evangelicals to establish total mind control<br />
over adherents.<br />
Such a divergence in interpret<strong>at</strong>ion was<br />
to be expected since Calvinist triumphalism<br />
focused on the Pauline Epistles, whereas<br />
Mennonite theology was focused in the life<br />
and work of Christ as set forth in the Gospels.<br />
Shunning, h<strong>at</strong>red of gays and subjug<strong>at</strong>ion of<br />
women, for example, are ideas derived from<br />
the teachings of Paul and not Jesus.<br />
This points to the real problem th<strong>at</strong> Calvinist<br />
reformers never fully completed “their”<br />
Reform<strong>at</strong>ion. They never found their way back<br />
to Christ and the Apostolic church, choosing<br />
instead the more tempting option of consolid<strong>at</strong>ing<br />
p<strong>at</strong>riarchal power within a theocracy.<br />
For this reason they also required a multitude<br />
of add-on doctrines to assure themselves, th<strong>at</strong><br />
“yes”, they really were “saved”. Had Calvin<br />
completed the Reform<strong>at</strong>ion according to Biblical<br />
authority all these fancy teachings wouldn’t<br />
be necessary, would they?<br />
Certainly there are millions of Evangelicals<br />
who don’t run around with psychotic <strong>at</strong>titudes<br />
disparaging all others. There has been considerable<br />
moder<strong>at</strong>ion in the legalism, intolerance<br />
and egocentric arrogance within the Evangelical<br />
movement in the past several decades.<br />
Perhaps, in time, so-called Evangelicals may<br />
surpass their Calvinist roots and embrace other<br />
Christian cultures and tre<strong>at</strong> them as brothers<br />
14 - <strong>Preservings</strong> <strong>No</strong>. <strong>25</strong>, <strong>December</strong> <strong>2005</strong>