Like Sue, I found this article to be more strident than I was comfortable with. But I want to comment on one small quote:
At 08:40 PM 22/08/03 +1000, Margaret Ralph wrote:
The Crisis Facing the United Methodist Church
Yes, the United Methodist Church is in trouble. There are three groups- The Good News group, The Confessing Movement, and the Institute of Religion and Democracy that want to **return** our church to fundamentalism and biblical literalism. (empasis added by LB)
It seems to me that it is a revision of history to regard fundamentalism and biblical literalism as the traditional or orthodox view, and that liberal theologies are a recent phenomenon, representing a departure from tradition. From what I understand, literalism as a theological system can be traced quite accurately to the early part of the 20th century (or thereabouts).
Perhaps in our current conflict it would be more conciliatory (though not perhaps fully accurate) to regard liberal theologies and literalist theologies as having developed as parallel traditions over the last 100 years or so. But again, we should be wary of allowing only 2 camps - I'm sure there is a whole spectrum of views out there.
Kind regards, Lindsay Brash.
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