Imam JOHARI ABDUL-MALIK (From the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center): If she’s saying that she believes that there’s only one god and she believes in all of the prophets…
[Chana] JOFFE-WALT: Check, she does.
Imam ABDUL-MALIK: And if she believes that Jesus is not God, then that makes a Muslim.
JOFFE-WALT: Jesus not God? Actually, yeah, she believes that too. Redding sees Jesus as an exceptional human model of how we should all be close to God, but not as God himself. So wait, if you take the Christ out of Christianity, are you really still a Christian?…
JOFFE-WALT: Okay. So back to the Bayview Retirement Center, where we started. Redding has preached on Isaiah, hymns have been sung, and the community is slowly, very slowly, filing out of the chapel.
Unidentified Woman: We appreciated your message very much tonight.
[The] Rev. [Ann Holmes] REDDING: Well, thank you. Thank you.
Unidentified Woman: Very nice to have you with us.
Rev. REDDING: It’s good to be here.
JOFFE-WALT: No one here appears angry at Redding’s claims. Some are confused, some are curious to know more, but mostly people just shrug like, Arzel Smith(ph).
Ms. ARZEL SMITH: Well, it’s all right with me if it’s all right with her. Yeah. I don’t have any qualms about it.
–From the story “Moved by Islam, Priest Embraces Two Faiths” on NPR’s Day to Day Program, September 12, 2007; An audio link and a previous discussion may be found here
Well it’s not all right if you claim to be a creedal Christian. It’s also not all right in Ms. Readdings case because she took vows to that effect. If she wants to renounce her orders than that’s different.
As I listened to Ms Redding again, for me the interview reveals much more than the confusion of the good hearted people in the nursing home. It reveals the ultimate emptiness of the post-modern, progressive theology the Ms Redding was trained in and mastered, getting her doctorate.
We hear that after her mother’s death, she was [blockquote]”so deep in grief that she was paralyzed. Even with all she knew as a priest (not enough, apparently), she could not let God help her.”[/blockquote]
Being able to deconstruct the Bible, turning the cross and resurrection into myth and hallucination, and most significantly, reducing Jesus to simply ‘an exceptional human model of how we should all be close to God, but not as God himself’–she had nothing to help her deal with a real tragedy like the death of her mother.
To be honest, I feel badly for her. She was deceived by her so called ‘teachers’ at General (my alma mater) and elsewhere. Instead of receiving ‘strength to help in time of need’, she received smooth words and intellectual cotton candy.
I guess it is no surprise that she would look to Islam to find what she–and other fellow travelers–will never find in the Christianity affirmed by KJS and others–the way, the truth and the life.
I wonder if Episcopalians will ever notice a couple of important things about Redding. First, the action of her bishop simply means she is a layman for a year. It seems to have done nothing to her status as a layman, and she is continuing to practice Islam (does this make her, I wonder, in Episcopalian terms, a Continuing Muslim?). Hence it is OK unless otherwise noted, to be a layman in the Episcopal Church, and Muslim. All her bishop has done is to state you can’t be a priest and a Muslim. Second, the only known formula for making a clergyman starts with a layman. It’s too bad Episcopalians have concentrated so heavily on what their *bishops* are like, when the illness obviously starts with a complete lack of belief and understanding by the laity. Of course; who is there to teach them? You couldn’t have the flake Bishop Spong unless you started with the flake *layman* John Spong. Ignore the one and you get the other. If someone had educated Redding as a layman maybe this particular worldwide headline wouldn’t be there. This assumes Episcopalians actually think she’s wrong. Evidence for that is surprisingly lacking. Hence, the “Questioning Christian” is very much bishop material.
You couldn’t make this stuff up. Wow.
Just the beginning folks……..
So wait, if you take the Christ out of Christianity, are you really still a Christian?…
No. You are not. Once you renounce the Trinity you are in a different religion. Period. End of story. This really isn’t a matter of opinion, it is an accepted fact. Unitarians and Mormons have tried to pass themselves off as Christian for decades. It just is not true. The intellectual dishonesty is really disheartening. And they play on the ignorance of the theologically uneducated by making these false claims.
And yes, it is Brian, I just get annoyed by people like this…
Brian, it’s nice to agree with you about something. 🙂 I’ve been thinking for awhile now that a lot of the problems within the church spring from a lack of regular, and thorough, Christian education. I don’t see how you could get to the priesthood renouncing the trinity, but maybe, too, we aren’t doing a very thorough job of letting Episcopalians know what being a Christian means when they join the church. Admittedly, much of that seems to be up in the air these days, but I wonder if that, too, isn’t partly because of a lack of education.
“Even with all she knew as a priest…” – self-knowledge avails us nothing, it has been said elsewhere. Here’s your proof. This priest is just a phony; prevaracating her way through life. This is a shameful and embarassing example of a priest at best. Is she ‘episcopal-trained?’
Have you all seen the reaction of Richard John Neuhaus in this month’s FIRST THING to Ms. Redding? It is screamingly funny in his usual dry way.
Can you give us a link?
I was just at the FIRST THINGS web site and did a search for the word REDDING. The most recent article I could find was two months ago and it wasn’t by Neuhaus. Faith, can you give us the link?
Why is she preaching? Even lay preachers need to be licensed by a bishop.
Libraryjim,
First Things free access web pages run a month or more behind the printed version. I haven’t had time yet to read my “Public Square” but rest assured I will before too long.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
#12:
Is that a requirement? If so, I didn’t know it, and it’s not universally enforced — I’ve preached at my parish a handful of times, and the only person I had to get an OK from was my priest.
Ross, the Rector controls his pulpit. Licensing lay preachers is different. I assume you were allowed to preach because you are in seminary and are seeking ordination. In such a case it is routine for seminarians to be allowed to preach.
I suspect Ross thought he was preaching but he was really giving an address, which with the rector’s permission, he is allowed to do by the canons. When I was a seminarian my father, the rector, allowed me to speak several times, though he required me to write out my text and he reviewed it.
Tom Rightmyer in Asheville, NC
Actually, while I am in seminary working towards an M.Div., I’m not seeking ordination. That confuses a lot of people around here, too 🙂
My priest did not ask to review my text before I preached; although in one case he approached me afterwards, told me that plagiarism was the sincerest form of flattery, and asked if he could steal parts of it.
Ross, nevertheless your case is not unusual. A licensed lay preacher is one who is licensed to preach regularly in the absence of ordained clergy. Regardless, it is an awesome undertaking because you are presuming to preach the word of God under the authority of the Church.
Sorry y’all. I was working at home today and didn’t have access to FT. When I get to the office tomorrow, if someone hasn’t found it by then, I will send it.
#18 Br. Michael:
Thanks for the clarification re: licensed lay preachers — I was not aware that role existed.
And amen to the responsibility — it’s scary to get up there and know that if you say the wrong thing, it has the force of the pulpit behind it. At least it scared the heck out of me.
Our Lord was quoted as saying ” You cannot serve two masters; God and Mammon. You will love one and hate the other.”