Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Jackleg theologies

Jackleg theologies

Last updated on: May 31, 2018 at 8:06 pm by Fred Clark

Jackleg theologies 2018-05-31T20:06:06-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

• This is an infuriating story: “Inside the Pro-Trump Effort to Keep Black Voters From the Polls.”

The reason I think Bruce Carter was so easily manipulated, and so willing to endorse and support Trump, is hinted at in two almost parenthetical items in this long piece. 1) “An alleged physical altercation over his support for the president-elect led his former girlfriend to obtain a protective order against him.” And, 2) “Carter is also working on a new political movement … a coalition of single mothers, felons, hospitality workers, and those who owe child support” (emphasis added).

The first is an obvious red flag. The second is subtler, but whenever you encounter a man who is aggrieved about the child-support system, run the other way.

• Mark Silk on “Why the Catholic Church Lost in Ireland.”

What seems to have turned a narrow margin into a landslide was the case of Savita Halappanavar, the dentist who in the midst of a miscarriage died of sepsis because she could not be given an abortion while there was still a fetal heartbeat. Halappanavar became the emblem of the movement to strike down the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution, which insisted, like the Catholic Church, that the unborn’s right to life is equal to the mother’s.

That position conflicts with the visceral human understanding that an early-term miscarriage is not the death of a person; that the mother’s life and health are more valuable than the life of the unborn; that a woman who becomes pregnant by rape or incest should not be required to carry to term.

The Church has always opposed abortion, but there was a time when its doctrine reflected that visceral understanding.

The personhood-begins-at-conception doctrine is a recent innovation. It’s also wrong — factually, biblically, morally. The consequences of that immoral new doctrine are immense and unjust. And that’s not even counting the more corrosive consequence of the toxic, sanctimonious self-righteousness and pride this sinful ideology has injected wherever Christians have embraced it.

The ideology of pro-liferism is not an example of moral values. It is a grievous, deadly sin that urgently needs to be repented of.

• I have just learned a new and delightful work thanks to its skillful and precise deployment by Baptist theologian Molly T. Marshall — who was purged in the Southern Baptist’s so-called “conservative resurgence.” Here is Marshall writing about “The peril of selective inerrancy“:

Ossified theology has been the hallmark of the conservative resurgence, and Paige Patterson stands as chief exemplar of this tradition. Destructive in its application, this theology has fostered cruel outcomes. While I eschew the proposition of inerrancy, believing that it claims for Scripture something it does not claim for itself, Patterson’s selective inerrancy has been pursued out of self interest and fear of the power of women. Better to control them with jackleg complementarian theology, he concluded.

“Jackleg.” Lovely, evocative … useful. That’s a keeper. Use it three times and it will be yours for life.

• The substance of Marshall’s post is also important. For an example of what she describes as “selective inerrancy,” take a look at this news from here in Philly: “Employees quit American Bible Society over sex and marriage rules.”

One of the oldest nonprofit organizations dedicated to distributing Bibles around the world will soon require all employees to adhere to orthodox Christian beliefs and heed a conservative code of sexual ethics.

Employees are resigning in protest of the new policy, which will effectively prohibit sexually active LGBT people and couples in cohabitating relationships from working for the American Bible Society. But the organization stands by it as a measure intended to bring “unity and clarity.”

… The affirmation is just the latest sign that the organization has shifted away from its ecumenical roots toward a more narrow evangelical identity. That shift began in the 1990s when the American Bible Society changed its constitution to make it a ministry that undertakes “Scripture engagement.” Previously it published Bibles “without note or comment.”

That avoidance of “note or comment” wasn’t an attempt to evade doctrinal quarrels. It was, rather, an assertion and expression of doctrine. It was a product of the idea that the Bible is “perspicuous” — that it’s meaning is simple, plain and obvious, and can be easily determined without interpretation. The perspicuity of scripture meant that the Bible required no “note or comment.”

What this belief in the Bible’s “perspicuity” always means, in practice, is the assertion that anyone who reads the Bible in good faith must be compelled to interpret it exactly as we do. Therefore, when others disagree with us about the meaning of the Bible or its priorities, those others have proved that they are not reading the Bible in good faith, but rather are twisting it in support of some dubious agenda. (“They” have an “agenda.” “We” do not. “We” are naive blank slates who approach the scripture, and all of life, with absolutely no agenda other than humble submission to its perspicuous dictates.)

What always happens, then, is what has happened here. The perspicuity of the scripture winds up needing to be fortified and explicated, revised and extended with note and comment. Statements of Faith must be written and endlessly expanded. The clarity of the Bible must be perpetually clarified.

Perspicuity is a jackleg game. That’s my first note and comment.

Previous Post

May 30, 2018

It DID happen here

Next Post

June 1, 2018 LBCF, No. 187: 'Accumulated radiation'

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What city was the capital of Israel before Jerusalem?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Bethel Jericho Shechem Hebron