This week the Episcopal Church in America is having their nationalconvention. The presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori opened with anaddress that is causing a great deal of conversation.She said, "the great Western heresy – is that we can be saved as individuals,that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It's caricatured in some quarters by insisting thatsalvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. Thatindividualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in theplace that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground ofbeing. That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention."
Now her statement is being interpreted by the backlash as ifshe were saying that we will be saved by the Church or by our social advocacy. I don't see that there. I see her saying thatGod is in the center, that God is the deliverer of salvation (as well asreconciliation, redemption and re-creation) and that we cannot do anythingexcept to choose, or not, to open our heart to God's saving grace in ourlives.

What the speech does is raise issue with some of theemphasis that we have seen in, what we have come to call, a more 'evangelistic'approach. So let us wade into the discussion and let's start with the questionso often asked by this personal approach. "Do you accept Jesus as your personalLord and Savior?"

If this question intends to encourage folks to make a verypersonal, deeply centered decision to trust in the Love of God, then, this is agood question to be asked and answered. If this question means, that therelationship is a personal one only and has nothing to do with the world andsociety than I must agree with the presiding bishop it represents aheresy. For those of us who are Christians,we have too often been invited to stand at the foot of the cross to see howmuch Jesus loves us, but we are far too rarely asked to look around and see whoelse is standing there, realizing we are in this together. We have far toooften been led to ignore the other crosses on the hill. If we ignore the crosses of the world we areignoring the ones God loves. We are far too rarely asked to note the others whoare choosing to embrace that God's love is for everyone, even those who aren'tstanding at the foot of the cross.

I understand the bishop to be saying that:

if we think, we Christians, that we are in this alone,

if we think we can ignore the demand of God's love that wealso love others,

if we think that love can just be between me and God,

if we think that what we have is a personal religion that asnothing to do with how we treat each other in the world,

if we think that God's love doesn't extend to our communityethics,

if we think that love is some internal personal emotion andnot an ethical direction signal for all of our interactions, includinggovernment,

Then that isheretical thinking.