Church Polity
Kevin blogs on the problem of congregational church polity. As someone who has always been in a congregationalist polity-based church, I have somewhat of a tendency to disagree that that it is really a bad idea. But, I don't think it is a good idea either, mind you.
On the positive side, a congregational model is ideal for insuring against the larger bureaucracy of a domination destroying the life of an individual church. Consider what is presently going on here in St. Louis with St. Stanislaus Kostka Polish Catholic Church; they are one of the few (only?) parishes that owns its own land and therefore has something like a congregational system; the board members have received interdicts from the Archbishop and the priests have been revoked. Supposedly this is so that the church will agree to act like an normal Catholic church, but the fact that the archdiocese has been selling a lot of propertie,s and St. Stans has $9 million in property, makes me wonder of Archbishop Burke has an ulterior motive for reversing a 120-year old church polity arrangement. This type of problem can occur in any non-democratic form of church polity, unless the church is independent. When considering non-denominational, non-democratic churches, on the other hand, we face a problem wherein those types of churches often move towards “personality cults” focused on the charisma of the founding pastor/benevolent dictator.
Another good example of the benefits of the congregational method is that of my own church. I've talked about this before. Our denomination was headed far away from Biblical principles, so we were able to jump ship. This is a uniquely congregational benefit; with congregational churches, the churches are in something more like a federation than a unified organization, and therefore Biblically based churches are far less likely to be sunk by heretical denominational trends. Had we been in a denomination with a different type of polity, this could not have happened.
On the other hand, I see problems with the congregational system as well. First off, I'm not aware of any one who actually uses a pure form of it. Typically, congregational churches don't have the congregation vote on everything, but have representatives on a church council or similar. This lowers accountability, since there aren't any strong oversight bodies above the church level and the congregation typically does not have a true vote on even the representatives chosen. Moreover, true congregationalism can't last, since the individuals must either create a higher level organization to keep the denomination together or the member churches will diverge too far from each other.
If you can guess, however, I'm not a big fan of episcopal polity, especially. Its not that I have anything against churches that use it, but personally, I think leads to the most corruption. Now, then, what is the ideal form of polity, in my opinion? I don't think I know of an ideal form, but I've come to the conclusion that presbyterian polity is the best mix. Despite John Milton's accusation that the “episcopal arts bud again” when presbyterianism was implemented in England during Cromwell's rule, I think it makes the most sense. Incidentally, it also mirrors our government's system of representation too.
I think the idea of having a body that is a mix of clergy and church representatives on various levels, from the session to the presbytery to the general assembly, is a wise arrangement. As with our own secular government, it makes sense to recognize that pure democracy doesn't work, but a republic works as a balance against the greater corruption of totalitarian systems.
Hallelujahs
The pulse of life within my wristConsidering all that God does for me, and especially what He did for me this week almost 2,000 years ago, that song ought to be my song every night.
A fallen snow, a rising mist
There is no higher praise than this
And my soul wells up
O my soul wells up
Yes my soul wells up with hallelujahs
Oh praise Him all His mighty works
There is no language where you can't be heard
Your song goes out to all the Earth
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!
Seeking God's Direction
Okay, so I'm dense. One problem I have in seeking God's direction is that God often seems to open up a door, but I don't know where to go once I'm in that door. Today was one of those days. Two different things I have prayed about what to do on started to be resolved today (within a few hours of each other, in fact!). But, I emphasize they started to be resolved. Going back to how I mentioned I'm somewhat dense at times, I haven't figured out if this means I should try to jump in with both feet and move forward or if I'm suppose to take a more passive role and watch what happens. I'd lean toward the former, but first I think I need to consider what's happening a bit more.
For now, I won't worry about that, though. I know I have been seeing God at work and I'm just thankful to see what He has done today. Presuming it is His will for things to move forward, I hope to be able to post about both events in detail soon. If not, I'm still sure I will in do time, because while I may question this later, while the experiences are fresh, I know these were not just coincidences.
To Stay or To Leave
Mark asks an interesting question in one of his recent posts. If the U.S. government made Christianity illegal, would you leave the country? Where would you go?
At first, it seems like a no-brainer, but would any place else be freer if that dreadful time should come? As I wrote in a comment on Mark's site:I'd leave if I had to, but I'm not sure where I'd go. My guess would be that if the U.S. outlawed Christianity, countries such as Canada, the U.K. and Australia would already have done so as well.
Presuming South America didn't follow suit, I guess I would go there as well [as Mark says he would]. Perhaps Eastern Europe [I'm thinking Romania or Poland, perhaps] might be a good choice as well… If I found a country with a good Calvinist-Reformed Church tradition, so much the better, but I'd live with whatever I had to, so long as there was some kind of Christian church there that would either agree with my views or be willing to allow me to dissent on non-essentials.
It is interesting (and disturbing) to think about this. Where would I go? I could just stay here and practice faith in private and that might be almost a better option. If the U.S. ever outlawed Christianity or religion in general, I just can't imagine it being before many other countries (particularly the ones I might fit into the best). If I was a Catholic, it'd probably be a bit easier too — there's a whole lot more Catholics internationally than Protestants…
Update (2005.03.23): Mark pointed out to me that he said Portugal. For some reason I read Paraguay. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure, but clearly I had a Freudian slip.
Faster than a Speeding Heretic
As I noted the other day, I ordered The Collect'd Writings of St. Hereticus and the Hereticus Papers, two satirical books, off Amazon at the recommendation of a professor/friend of mine. I ordered them Thursday night, and to my surprise, both showed up at my door today. Keep in mind, these were used books, so it was individual sellers, not Amazon.com, doing the order fulfillment. I'm impressed!
I haven't opened the latter one yet, but the first book is in very good condition. Better yet, it is really funny. If the rest of the book is as good as the first chapter, it should be a book my readers ought to seek out a copy of. The humor comes from the fact that in it presents its satire so perfectly like something a real religion scholar would have written… only it is absurd when you really think about what it is saying (just like the Tillichian Lord's Prayer I quoted from an online excerpt of the Hereticus Papers).
How Very Tempting
I went over to 1&1 today to take care of some domain business (I've been using them for awhile, since their registration fee is just $6/year), and happened to look at their present deals for dedicated servers. Their deals are really getting sweet. For $89 you get a P4 2.4 GHz system (or better) with the ability to reimage the server if anything goes wrong, a serial console in case the network interface goes down, enough NAS backup space to backup the entire 80 gig hard disk, Plesk 7 Reloaded, an SSL cert and external firewall protection.
I'll tell you, it is tempting to contemplate moving over there from ServerMatrix/The Planet. I'm paying much more than that for a slower machine with fewer features. I'm not going to, because the Planet has serious support, provides some management services and a very clear way of specifying what to do in case of server failure. I also get RHEL out of the deal, which means the system has enterprise grade stable updates, rather than bleeding edge ones (1&1 uses Fedora Core 2).
I could lower my hosting prices if I went with this, and perhaps even turn a profit on hosting rather than breaking even, but it isn't worth it. When I had a shared hosting account, I opted for a more expensive provider that was better backed, and I hope to provide the same thing to my clients (and of course, myself). That's not to say I went with the most expensive provider, I've just always been suspicious of the deep-discounting hosts.
Still, if anyone signs up for a 1&1 server, I'd love to hear about your experiences.
A Sea of Troubles
On the Terri Schiavo Case
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream…—Hamlet
An astute observer of this blog might notice that while I usually opine on any major news going on, I've never blogged on Terri Schiavo, despite that case being in the headlines for several years now. I'm not sure if anyone noticed this, but if you did, I figured it is finally time to explain why.
On this case, I just don't know the right answer. I lean toward saying she should be kept on the feeding tube, but with major caveats I shall now explain.
I'm sure most of you know I'm a pro-life fellow. I oppose abortion and I oppose euthanasia; I wish that both were illegal in all parts of these United States. The problem is that I have always seen life support as a different issue from those. I support the right of a family to pull a loved one off life support, if that person's wishes were not to be kept alive artificially. My health directive says as much about myself.
What if I was in Terri Schiavo's position? Would I want to live like that? No. Would I want someone to kill me? No. Would I want someone to artificially keep me alive? No. There is no paradox here; I don't want someone to cause me to die, but nor would I want to live only because a machine was feeding a vegetative remnant of my former self. Now, Michael Schiavo claims that Terri expressed the same sentiments I just have. Unfortunately, she did not write them down or blog them. Can I believe that this happened? Sure, most people in their 20's and 30's don't think a lot about death (by that I do not mean that I do either, but I've been forced to watch it more than I would have liked due to the loss of ten or so close family and friends over the past nine years).
Now, the problem is things get more difficult from here. If she had written out a health directive, it probably would have said that artificial measures should be used if there is hope of recovery. In this case, it would seem Michael Schiavodid not properly attempt to rehabilitate Terri.
So here is my conundrum. I don't want the State to get involved to the point where legitimate desires to remove feeding tubes will become impossible. Well, “desires” is a bad word to use — in most cases, perhaps not this one, I doubt one would desire to do so, but rather think it the right thing to do. It is already too hard, which is unfortunate, because some people may opt not to give a loved one a feeding tube at all for fear that they will never be able to remove it if treatments fail. On the other hand, in this particular case, the feeding tube probably should not be removed unless and until proper rehab measures have been given and fail to help Terri. This would be a reasonable request. The problem is that I have not seen any attempts to argue for this, but rather simply to prevent the removal of the feeding tube, period.
I hope I am never in the state Terri is in, but if I was, I am loathe to think that I could be stuck there for decades simply because the court decided that was the way things are. I certainly would want to be given every chance of recovery, but beyond that… I just have my doubts about modern medicine. I believe we should utilize it when it helps people to recover, but too often it only seems to make dying more agonizing than it would have been in the past. I have said before and will say again that I do not fear death, but I do very much fear dying; modern medicine's increasing abilities bring not only the hope of living healthy and happy for longer, but also the terror of a longer, more terrible dying process.
Thus I sit on the fence. Yesterday, when I saw that Schiavo's feeding tube was removed, I felt sick to my stomach. But legal intervention to keep it in also would have made me queasy. I just don't see this as a black and white case, especially when I consider that its outcome will impact far more scenarios than just this one.
One thing I can be clear about is that I don't agree with Michael Schiavo. If he had been the grieving, loving husband who simply seemed to want to fulfill his wife's expressed wishes, it'd be one thing. But his actions seem to indicate an entirely different story. Who knows, perhaps the speculation that he did something to her to cause this might be true. Given that he has a live-in sex partner girlfriend and children, I don't think he's been fighting so long because he loves his wife so much that he has to do her very wishes. Maybe Michael wants her to die so she doesn't ever recover and reveal what he did.
There just aren't easy answers here. The implications on either side are huge. In the end, I suspect she should be put back on a feeding tube, and given rehab. But if it takes the strong arm of the government to some how do it (if at all possible), it will be a bittersweet victory in the larger legal landscape.
Whoops!
I realized I forgot to wish y'all a happy St. Patrick's day yesterday. I hope all of you had a good one and remembered to wear green so that you wouldn't get pinched.
Myself, I enjoyed a lunch that included cabbage and potatoes, so I could not have been much happier. (Plus Thursday was a great day in general, but that's beside the point.)
The Joy of Amazon Part II
It is funny that David asked me if I buy used books in response to my last post on shopping at Amazon. As it turns out, I put my first used book order in to Amazon last night. Having been told about the St. Hereticus satires, of which I just quoted, by a friend of mine, I checked them out on Amazon, only to find book one and two selling for between $.79 and $2.50 for good condition used copies (the books are out of print). So, I ordered them — my first used book purchases over the Internet. I'll post how it turns out.
I have the twisted sense of humor that enjoys things like the Tillich satire I posted yesterday, so this should be a handy “reference” to have. Sometimes after reading the real works, it is nice to get a chuckle at the theologians expense. I never know when I could use a little humor to spice up something I am writing…
The Lord's Prayer of the Lingering Tillichian
From The Hereticus Papers by Robert Brown (borrowed from Catholic Information Network).
Ground of Being, No object among other objects,
Aahhh.
Be.
In history as well as beyond history.
Support our finite freedom,
And sustain us when our dreaming innocence
Becomes Zeitgebund.
For with you alone
Are autonomy
And heteronomy
Eternally theonomous.
You have to know Paul Tillich to get this, so if you aren't familiar with Tillich's work, don't feel bad if this makes no sense at all.
