Letters: June 2019

Lifting the Shadowland of the Devil

After watching news about the New Zealand shootings, I read Jay Wamsted’s article “How Racism Wins” (April 2019) and was struck by how the words of this high school teacher are in the spirit of Father Daniel Berrigan. Then I flipped the page to Rose Marie Berger’s review of The Five Quintets by Micheal O’Siadhail (“Madame Jazz vs. Madame Guillotine”), lifting the shadowland of the devil for a moment with the work of an Irish poet. Thank you, Sojourners.

Kemmer Anderson
Chattanooga, Tennessee

Beyond a Buzzword

Diana Butler Bass (“Why I Don’t Fear Schisms,” March 2019) overlooks an essential point in her reading of American church history regarding schism. Simply put, regardless of ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and gender diversity (something we once, not long ago, celebrated), the “church fights” that sell and divisions that multiply are fraught with disobedience to God and the gospel calling us to be one (John 17). The fractious church culture to which we’ve long become accustomed corrodes our witness to Christ, reduces churches to outsized institutional principalities seeking survival, and renders the mandate to love one another to a hollow, empty suggestion. Reconciliation is the latest buzzword commanding fine rhetoric and much spilling of ink, yet the ecclesial bodies bearing Christ’s name cannot demonstrate how it is done. They have no authority to preach it to a world starving for it. Time’s overdue for a truth and reconciliation commission for the churches combined.

Michael Tessman
Wakefield, Rhode Island

Dialogue and Deeper Truths

As an Episcopalian who fully supports the inclusion of LGBTQ persons, I found Diana Butler Bass’ article “Why I Don’t Fear Schisms” lacking. I do affirm and work for church unity, for it is in the active theological and faithful conversation that real decisions emerge. My more traditional friends and colleagues were not to be feared or scorned, but respected. In real dialogue, there is the seeking of the deeper truths, such as what is covenant and why it is the foundation of our actions regarding LGBTQ people. We need to avoid simplistic responses to serious theological matters. Maybe if we do, we can claim the ground we seem to have lost.

John L. Rabb
Baltimore, Maryland

Covenant Sexuality

I am disappointed in Nadia Bolz-Weber’s February 2019 article “Honor Thy Sexual Pleasure?” It amazes me that Sojourners published an article on human sexuality that is silent on marriage, as if sexual activity has no relevance to marriage, or marriage has no relevance to sexual activity. While Nadia Bolz-Weber opens a thoughtful and needed discussion about the problems created by conservative Christian legalism surrounding human sexuality, I believe that her solution is inadequate. In addition to consent, mutuality, and concern, do we also need commitment? I would love to see a discussion of covenant sexuality.

Patricia Snyder
Tulsa, Oklahoma