12 October 2006<\/p>\n
Mr. Feldmeyer offered us counsel against the buffoonery of those in the persuasion of the naive \u201cbiblical literalist\u201d (WNJ, 6 Oct., 2006).<\/p>\n
I was disappointed.\u00a0 But not surprised.<\/p>\n
Mr. Feldmeyer, the Pastor of Wilmington UMC, inveighed against a \u201cbiblical literalist\u201d pastor in Watertown, New York who was attempting to apply the biblical and historically Christian doctrine (however out-of-vogue and offensive to the contemporary egalitarian ear such a doctrine may be) which postulates distinctions in sexual roles.\u00a0 Specifically, the New York pastor made \u201cthe news\u201d for committing the grave offense of removing an aged, female Sunday School teacher from her post because she was, in fact, a female.<\/p>\n
The fact that Mr. Feldmeyer criticized (Judged? Condemned?) an out-of-towner takes nothing away from this salient fact:\u00a0 Mr. Feldmeyer judged<\/i> the pastor\u2019s teachings (along with the teachings of\u00a0 many pastors in Wilmington who may hold the same views) to be false<\/i>.\u00a0 This is the rub.\u00a0 Everyone makes judgments, both those who declare that there is a God who has revealed Truth and those who say there is neither.\u00a0 There are those who judge from the Scriptures that women can be pastors and there are those who judge to the contrary.<\/p>\n
The irony here \u2013 maybe even disingenuousness \u2013 is that the hermeneutical principle (albeit a fatuous and arbitrary one) by which Mr. Feldmeyer\u00a0 \u201cinterprets\u201d Scripture is what he calls\u00a0 \u201ca lens of kindness, acceptance, generosity and love\u201d (What pray tell\u00a0does that mean?). But those who handle Scripture as the New Yorker (and Christendom down through the ages) are reckoned by him to be wrong.\u00a0 Indeed, they read the Scriptures through \u201ca lens of judgment, condemnation, and exclusion,\u201d says Mr. Feldmeyer (What, again, does that mean?).<\/p>\n
(It may not have occurred to Mr. Feldmeyer that he condemns the interpretations of the Jews and Seventh Day Adventists.\u00a0 But then, there aren\u2019t many of those folks around Wilmington to raise a ruckus.)<\/p>\n
There appears to be a big \u201clog\u201d in the eyes of those Christian denominations which approve of abortion, sodomy, and social egalitarianism and reject the biblical doctrines of the image of God in man, sexual purity, and social hierarchy.\u00a0 The United Methodists (theological “modernists” in contrast to the fathers – Wesleys et al) – declare in their Book of Discipline<\/em> that the Bible “contains<\/i> the Word of God” (my emphasis)\u2013 rejecting the orthodox and historic doctrine of Scripture, namely, that it is<\/i> the Word of God.\u00a0 And that crucial (and subtle) point is the fount of all kinds of false teachings flowing forth in the name of Christianity.<\/p>\n Perhaps this United Methodist pastor would do well to tend to his own flock and see to it that they don\u2019t imbibe such obscene doctrine coming out of his denomination before trying to help out that New York Baptist pastor with his splinter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 12 October 2006 Mr. Feldmeyer offered us counsel against the buffoonery of those in the persuasion of the naive \u201cbiblical literalist\u201d (WNJ, 6 Oct., 2006). I was disappointed.\u00a0 But not surprised. Mr. Feldmeyer, the Pastor of Wilmington UMC, inveighed against a \u201cbiblical literalist\u201d pastor in Watertown, New York who was attempting to apply the biblical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1878,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions\/1878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}