Jeffrey Miller

A reader sent me this story about Bishop David Choby once again guarding his sheep.

Citing conflict with Church teaching, the local Catholic Diocese has for the second time in six months rescinded an invitation—made by one of it own Catholic clergy members—to a local interfaith group to meet in one of its churches.

Father Patrick Kibby invited a group hosting a four-week discussion about the intersection of religion and politics, jointly sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance of Middle Tennessee and the Tennessee Alliance for Progress, to use facilities at the Cathedral of the Incarnation for this week’s meeting. Instead, the group—whose series is titled “Doing Justly: Integrating Our Deepest Spiritual Beliefs Into Our Professional Lives”—received word late last week that Diocesan Bishop David Choby objected to the positions of the Interfaith Alliance on abortion and same-sex marriage and that, therefore, the group would not be allowed to gather on church grounds. It will meet instead at Belmont United Methodist Church.

The Diocese doesn’t dispute that characterization of the situation and appears more than happy to sit out this citywide discussion among religious people of various backgrounds.

“We encourage people to rely on their faith as they play an active role as citizens in our society,” Diocese communications director Rick Musacchio says in a statement issued to the Scene. “However, serious confusion is likely to arise in the minds of many when political groups hold events on church grounds. We have asked the sponsors…to find another venue for their event after it became clear that one of the primary sponsors is an avowedly political group endorsing many positions that are in conflict with Catholic teaching.” When asked which sponsor the Diocese considers “avowedly political,” Musacchio cites the Interfaith Alliance, a diverse group with members of many faiths and whose local members include several Catholic priests.

Rev. Dan Rosemergy, board chairman of the Interfaith Alliance and an eternal optimist, tells the Scene he’s aware of Choby’s reasons for changing the venue and has scheduled a meeting with him this week to discuss the situation. He feels reasonably hopeful that Choby will come around.

I don’t think congregationalist pastor Dan Rosemergy should hold his breath on this one.

Sadly, the shrinking tent mentality within the Diocese isn’t an isolated occurrence. Back in May, Father James Mallett of Christ the King Church was forced to deliver the news to published theologian Dan Maguire that he would not be welcome after all to speak at his parish about justice and the poor. A group of local Catholics invited the Marquette University instructor here, only to see Bishop Choby weigh in against the plans, putting the priest in an embarrassing situation and forcing the group to find an alternative location.

I love the editorializing here about the "shrinking tent mentality" and casting dissident theologian Dan Maguire as a "published theologian" as if having a book published makes you right. Funny how it is the Bishop that put the priest in an embarrassing position and not the fact that it was the priest’s action that caused the problem. I think it is rather embarrassing to invite anybody to your parish who you say you are totally unfamiliar with, especially with someone like Maguire who has done his best through the media to make everybody familiar with him.

“I am unfamiliar with most of your work, but I did not hesitate to agree to host the event,” Mallett wrote in an email to Maguire at the time. “I am also quite familiar with a number of the group…who invited you. I am at a total loss to explain the tide of vitriol and stupidity that has followed in the wake of our publicity of this event.”

I also have never been much of a fan of the tent analogy in the first place, especially the idea of a big tent only goes so far. Truth has defined edges like a tent does, but often what is imaged is an idea of a tent so big that it essentially has no border. Like the Hotel California you can enter it but never leave. A tent so big that it encompasses everybody stops being a tent and instead becomes a giant cover blocking the sun, and in this case the truth itself by elevating opinion as truth. A real tent has tent pegs to hold it down the same way truth is held down by dogma. Pull up the pegs and the boundaries of the tent do get bigger to the point that it ceases being a tent.

The author of this article also previously covered the first instance that the good bishop took action. She quoted Maguire as saying "They are locked into what I call the pelvic orthodoxy.” I bet Maguire has used this little phrase a lot Of course if there is such a thing as pelvic orthodoxy there would be also pelvic heterodoxy. But sin is of the will and his little turn of phrase does not diminish the fact that outside of marriage that sex is sinful or that lust in all circumstances in sinful. As a theologian Maguire does not explain Jesus’ words, he explains away Jesus’ words.

Update: Carl Olson also weighs in on this article.

Southern California actress Laurel Kelsh Jones brought Martin Luther’s wife, “Katie” to life in the sanctuary of Napa Valley Lutheran Church on the afternoon of Oct. 8.

Clothed in Renaissance dress, Jones declared to the 30 mostly elderly attendees, “This is the day the Lord has made! Not bad for 507 years old, is it?”

She colorfully described incidents in Katie’s life, such as her time in a convent, saying, “I’ll tell you how I got into the habit” and “we prayed and we prayed and we prayed.” Katie told of secretly reading Martin Luther’s pamphlets in her cell and being smuggled out of the convent on Easter eve in empty herring barrels.

Finally, she passionately spoke of her courtship and marriage to Martin Luther. She said, “He was 42, I was 26. He was an ex-monk; I was an ex-nun. … We had six kids in eight years.”

When Jones ended the performance, she said, “You’ve had a Martin Luther in your life. Think about your Martin Luther, who loves you unconditionally. … I know it’s not cool to be Lutheran. Shouldn’t you go to the non-denominational church? Luther transformed the foundation of all Christianity. … God put you here for a reason. God chose you, is that not wonderful?”

The audience applauded enthusiastically. Afterwards, at the pie social, Jones answered questions and passed out “Reformation red” pencils.

Jones has played Katie Luther for a decade, performing at nearly 30 churches a year. Originally, her pastor asked her to do a 15-minute sermon called “The Reformation according to Katie.” Now, she has sold 650 recordings of her hour long, one-woman show.

In an interview, she said, “God is working through me. … Incredible things have happened in my life because of Katie. Blessings continue to unfold. What (Martin and Katherine Luther) did for the Christian Church is astounding.”

Jones described the Luthers’ marriage, saying, “Katie felt there was something she needed to do; something was missing. She had too many unanswered questions. How she and Martin came together could only be God-inspired because they didn’t start as lovers, but with respect. Martin and Katie had a marriage of our day; they enjoyed sexual relations, they desperately loved their children, they were a working father and working mother, they taught their children at home.” She said they were “partners in the Gospel and in life.”

On the Reformation, she observed, “Martin wasn’t out to destroy the Church, but restore the Church and go back to basics. In the Catholic Church, Mother Mary still has a prominent position, you have to go through the saints; in Protestantism, you go directly to Jesus. (In the Catholic Church) there are certain prayers, using Rosary beads, and following specific liturgies; it’s more formulated and scripted. Every Protestant church is different, more free. Everybody wants freedom, that’s what we have with God.”

You would think that she would know of Martin Luther’s devotion to Mary such as one of his sermons when he preached "[She is the] highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ . . . She is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. Still honor and praise must be given to her in such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the Scriptures." Martin Luther also believed in the Communion of Saints. The Mass Luther celebrated in the church he created was essentially the Mass with some changes. I wonder if she knows about the growing number of Protestants and especially Lutherans who pray the Rosary?

What I find interesting is the thought of how every church being different is seen as a good thing. That what the doctrine one church holds is dismissed by another. Or even the doctrines two churches might share will have radically different interpretations. Jesus prayed that they may be one, not that they may be divided. On my way into the Church it was my introduction to the variance of Protestant theology and how on Protestant radio I listened to the doctrines changed from hour to hour depending on who was preaching. Not that the message preached from those in the Church is always consistent, but it isn’t hard to discover whether they preached what the Church taught or not. I can easily understand a Lutheran defending Lutheranism and the Reformation, just not a defense of all of the splits and calling them freedom.

Strange kerfuffle over at Jimmy Akin’s site with letters from Bill Moyer’s lawyers threatening him about a story he posted on his site previously. Amazing how things go right to a lawyer when a simple email to Jimmy Akin would have been sufficient in the first place.

The offending post contained a statement by Dr. Beisner relating to Bill Moyers.

"..he very candidly told me that he is a liberal Democrat and intended for the documentary to influence the November elections to bring control of Congress back to the Democrats. "

A statement of which Bill Moyers denies ever making. I remember seeing that quote before and at the time and questioning its accuracy. Now I am in no way a Bill Moyers’ apologist and I have fisked him thoroughly in the past. The reason I doubted him saying this is that I have heard him questioned about media bias before. I have little doubt that he truly believes that he sees himself as totally unbiased and as an independent so I think it is totally out of character for him to admit that he isn’t. I do think that he is totally delusional when it comes to this since his fragrant bias permeates everything he does. But like most in the media they truly don’t believe this about themselves.

Jimmy’s lawyer Stephen Dillard of the blog Southern Appeal replied to Moyer’s lawyer’s pointing out that this didn’t rise to defamation and that a simple request would have solicited Jimmy to post Moyer’s denial of the quote.

What I find ironic is that this all takes place within the context of a series Moyers is doing on the environment which covers in part evangelicals. Last year Moyer’s published an editorial claiming that religious right is deliberately trying to despoil the environment and using as evidence the Left Behind novels. In it he claimed that James Watt who was President Reagan’s first secretary of the interior said:

…that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."

What Watt actually said was "we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations."

So now Bill Moyers’ is so worried about his "integrity as a journalist" without ever recanting his own defamation. A lie that was subsequently used by other media outlets as being true, though some have issued a correction.