Wednesday, August 30, 2006

More Man-Inspired Wisdom from the Religious Left

The Presbyterian USA's Publishing House is cranking out a book by David Ray Griffin, an ordained minister from the Disciples of Christ Christian Church, titled Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11.

In it, Griffin suggests that President Bush orchestrated 9/11 in an effort to "promote the U.S. Empire on the pretext of global terror."

Griffin says that we Americans need to "supplant America's demonic regime with a system of global government."
http://www.srnnews.com/

This is the Left, folks. These are the people that have control of the Democrat Party. Conservative and Republican has come to mean wanting to preserve a self governing, national autonomy, while the Democrat Party is being pushed towards bowing to the United Nations and "a system of global government."

I know of a man in Iran who thinks he is uniquely qualified to head the global government.

Anyway, David Ray Griffin is into something called Postmodern Spirituality. He explains it this way:
There are so many different ways to describe postmodern spirituality. You can say it's pacific, it's ecological, it's a spirituality of creativity, it's a reenchantment of the universe. But perhaps the best way to get at it, as a summary term, would be pan-en-theism: the idea that the world is in God - God is something like the soul of the universe - and God is present in all things. As some mystics have said, we swim in God.
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC24/Griffin.htm

I'm convinced that David has been swimming in something, but it's not God. Anytime a minister gets through an entire paragraph about spirituality without mentioning scripture, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, he loses all credibility. But then, that's something that the religious left has been working towards for some time.

8 comments:

SkyePuppy said...

This is horrifying. I was raised in a Disciples church. My dad once told me that his mom's grandfather (the one who came from Kansas to Tacoma, Wash., in a covered wagon in the late 1800s) started the First Christian Church of Tacoma.

I knew they were more liberal than the Independent Christian Church I attend now (ordaining women), but I didn't know they condoned this kind of heresy. The guy sounds more like a Raellian than a Christian.

Christina said...

While I was in college, I was recruited by a professor to play the piano at her Disciples of Christ church. I knew nothing about that particular denomination, and being the typical needy college student, I agree to play, in part because the pay was fantastic.

I lasted less than a year there. I needed the money and the professor had a huge say in my future in the music department, but I couldn't handle the doctrine. They were pretty liberal to say the least.

Now, I heard nothing like what this Griffin man was saying, but I was told that the organist for one of the other services was a known homosexual and I noticed that a lot of the songs focused on nature and more "touchy-feely" kinds of concepts and respecting nature, that sort of thing. I also was well aware of the women in high positions of authority and the concerted effort to make each song that was sung politically correct, in particular changing masculine references to feminine.

Needless to say, I felt uncomfortable there and left, which didn't go over well with my professor, but probably pleased God.

Malott said...

Skyepuppy,

My understanding is that the disciples of Christ Christian Churches' move to the left and away from fundamental beliefs started in the mid-20th century... and many broke away at that time. A church in Greentown broke off as a matter of fact. So your great great grandfather was probably just fine.

What is a Raellian?

Christina,

Did the congregation ever sing "There's Got to Be a Morning After" and "I Believe" and any of those other inter-denominationally-friendly songs that fail to mention Jesus??

SkyePuppy said...

Chris,

Maybe I remember the Raellians better than you do, because it happened out here in So. Cal. That was the cult several years ago that thought the comet was going to take them away to the space aliens, so they did the Jim Jones Kool-Aid thing to go join the aliens on the comet.

Bryan Alexander said...

I am an active member of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) on St. Rd. 22 and Malfalfa Rd. in Kokomo. I was stewardship chairman for three years and an elder for three years. My wife is currently elder chairman. (Yes, I said chairman, not chairperson.) I know having a female elder might go against the beliefs of some, but I don't have any problem with it.

I do have a problem with the liberal acceptance of homosexuality, abortion, and other such issues that some Disciples members have. Rest assured that not all Disciples members are liberal. There are many in our congregation who are quite conservative.

The real problem that I have with the denomination is that, while they do not officially promote the things that I have mentioned, they do not take a stand against them either. For that reason, my wife and I have talked for some time about changing churches. But as I've said, we've been very involved in this church for a good while and have many friends there (mostly conservatives).

As far as the comments Chris has quoted from David Ray Griffin, I have to say that I have never heard anything like that from anyone in our church, and I would not assume that this is any representation of church doctrine just because Griffin is an ordained minister of the church.

Malott said...

Bryan,

Because of my respect for you, I would probably have written the post differently if I had known you were a member of a Disciples Church.

Obviously I used too broad a brush if the Church in question has members like you.

Bryan Alexander said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bryan Alexander said...

Chris,

Thanks. No offense was taken. As I said in my earlier comment, the denomination does not take a stand on many of the social issues that we see in society. They don’t openly condone homosexuality or abortion, but they certainly don’t speak against them either. For that reason and because I think the church leadership does tend to lean left, my wife and I have considered looking elsewhere for a church. We haven't made that decision, but it may still happen at some point.

I will say that other than their tendency to avoid or lean left on the above issues, the denomination as I know it is very Christ-centered, and the sermons in our congregation are scripturally based.

There are, as I said, many conservatives in the church, at least in our local congregation. I can't speak for other congregations, and I think it varies in different regions across the country.