IS THIS
REALLY WHAT JESUS HAD IN MIND? IS THIS
REALLY WHAT JESUS HAD IN MIND?
Young people, regardless of their sexual orientation, need to understand the institutional power of heterosexism and the injustice that it perpetuates. As the church is called to speak a truthful word about sexuality, it does so in the name of God's call to justice a call that invites gay and lesbian adolescents to explore the goodness of their sexuality within the community of God's people.This statement appeared in a 1991 document submitted for consideration by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., America's largest Presbyterian denomination. It was titled Keeping Body and Soul Together: Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice. It was submitted by the General Assembly's Special Committee on Human Sexuality. It failed to gain official approval, but its supporters had believed that it had a chance. Those who wrote it were not brought to trial for heresy. Two years later, the Presbyterian Church sent 400 women, the largest delegation, to the World Council of Churches' RE- imagining Conference, a feminist ecumenical assembly attended by several self-proclaimed witches. At that conference, attendees celebrated a communion meal in the name of the goddess Sophia. The Presbyterian Church contributed $66,000 to fund that affair. Yet when this gathering was retroactively challenged by Presbyterian conservatives as heretical, the 1994 General Assembly voted not to bring formal charges against the participants. The vote was 516 to four.
Something has obviously gone radically wrong in the Presbyterian Church. To identify what went wrong, you need to understand when it went wrong, and how. This story is unknown to virtually all Presbyterians, even members of the tiny splinter denominations that came into existence as reactions to the liberals' takeover of the mainline Presbyterian Church: what happened, how it happened, and when it happened. It did not happen randomly. It was planned.
This plan is repeatable. It has been used by liberals to take over every mainline American denomination in the twentieth century, including the Roman Catholic Church, which succumbed in 1966. No hierarchical denomination is immune. But because so few Christians are aware of the plan's features, and what its telltale signs are, defenses against it are weak or nonexistent. Because of this, it keeps working. So far, only conservative Missouri Synod Lutherans have self-consciously held it in check. Only the Southern Baptist Convention has reversed it.
Crossed Fingers is the first book to identify and discuss in detail the five points of liberalism and the rival theological positions. It is also the first published book that "follows the money" by tracing the sources of the funding of theological liberalism in twentieth-century America. One man, more than any other, was the primary source: John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Crossed Fingers serves as a handbook for the diagnosis and defeat of the same liberal forces that have captured American Christianity. How did they do it? With a vision, with a plan, and with other people's money. Crossed Fingers shows how they achieved victory in what had been the most theologically conservative large Protestant denomination on earth. It also shows what the conservative Presbyterians could have done, and still have not done, to immunize the Church.
This book serves as a handbook for the diagnosis and defeat of the liberal forces that have captured American Christianity. How did they do it? With a vision, with a plan, and with other people's money. Crossed Fingers shows how the liberals achieved victory in what had been the most theologically conservative large Protestant denomination on earth. It also shows what the conservative Presbyterians could have done, and still have not done, to immunize the Church.
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Author Last Name |
North |
Keywords |
1. Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. - History - 19th century. 2. Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. - History - 20th century. 3. Liberalism (Religion) - Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. - History - 20th century. 4. Liberalism (Religion) - United States - History -20th century. 5. Presbyterian Church - United States - History. 6. Modernist-fundamentalist controversy. 7. United States - Church history - 20th century. I. Title. Briggs, Charles Augustus (1841-1913) |
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Book Title |
Crossed Fingers |
Chapters |
14 |
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Subtitle |
How the Liberals Captured the Presbyterian Church |
Hard/Soft Bound Versions |
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Subject (Series) |
Church History |
View Cover |
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Year of Publication |
1996 |
PDF Filesize in Bytes |
4,306,947 (4.2 MB) |
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Price of Paper Format |
34.95 |
Print friendly version |
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Edition |
1st |
Browser friendly version |
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Created By: arnold on 05/17/00 at 09:43 AM
