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The Virgin Mary: Left-wing liberationist?

Like most other Protestants, United Methodists honor but do not typically pray to the Virgin Mary. But an official with the United Methodist lobby office in Washington, D.C. apparently makes an exception for the “sassy sister savior” when she is redefined to embody the Religious Left’s political ideals: a Mary socialist.

Neal Christie, the Assistant General Secretary of the United Methodist Board of Church & Society, offered up his Marian liberationist prayer as part of his agency’s holiday message. Christie began:

“Sassy sister-savior/ You bear in your body our cathedral/ dust of the earth, promise of new birth/ One who will choose to live water borne and water boarded. Pacing the perimeter of Manger Square/ and lock-down, ramshackle refugee camps everywhere/ you sigh as the global North grows dim with its seasonal addiction to desire/ you laugh at our myth of self-isolation/ the lie that where your life ends mine begins.”

Christie’s prayer continues:

“So when today’s bloated Herods run wild like malaria/ hunkered down behind a poverty of overabundance/ offering backdoor escape for predatory lenders and backroom invaders/ financing Empire’s client-state dictators…”

Now Christie seems to liken the infanticidal puppet of Rome more broadly to America as global hegemon: corrupt, predatory, and militaristic. The litany of his prayer went on:

“When Herod makes the White House and Congress a backroom playhouse/  when a prosperity gospel gives up nothing and ordinary folk give up their lives to war/ and domestic lynching passes as state-sanctioned torture/ when the growing poor are siphoned through waste management systems/ and a generation of children is withheld access to healthcare/ when backstabbing of immigrants becomes national sport/ and today’s Herods retreat in glee/ You come again to sandpaper our hearts to sensitivity/ and bear the first fruit of the Spirit.”

Who knew that the Virgin Mary was so very politically outspoken? Her recorded words in Scripture are largely confined to thanking God for her role in the Incarnation. Millions of Christians frequently recite her words of praise towards the Almighty:

“My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”

The Virgin Mary of Scripture and history, who witnessed her son’s unjust execution by the state, could indeed have issued a searing political critique of the rulers of her day. Instead, she was more concerned about the transcendent and the eternal, joining with her son’s disciples to perpetuate a gospel of salvation and holiness.

In vivid contrast, the Religious Left always strains to reduce Christianity down to a lobby campaign for the domestic statist causes du jour. And its “prophetic” international stances routinely condemn America and its allies, but almost never cite genuine perpetrators and oppression. Maybe the Religious Left should ponder Mary’s authentic words:

“He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.”

By Mark D. Tooley, director of the United Methodist committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

 

Good News calls UM Church to prayer
and presents Riley Case with renewal award

At their most recent gathering, the Good News board of directors took action affirming a National Call to Prayer for United Methodist Renewal, beginning on Ash Wednesday and continuing on beyond the 2008 General Conference. 

“In all of our venues—the magazine, our monthly letters, and our web site—Good News will be calling upon United Methodists to make time to pray for renewal and revival in our denomination,” said Good News board chair, the Rev. Tom Lambrecht, senior pastor of Faith Community United Methodist Church in Greenville, Wisconsin. “We especially need prayer for the upcoming General Conference and the election of episcopal leaders at this summer’s jurisdictional conferences.”

“We are urging folks to pray for a time each morning, between 5 and 7 a.m. if possible or whatever hours work best in their schedule. We are also encouraging folks across the church to begin weekly noon-time prayer corporately, joining with as many others as might be willing to gather and pray at mid-day,” Lambrecht added.

The Good News board of directors were inspired after hearing the story of  Jeremiah Lanphier, a layman, who decided to start a Wednesday noon prayer meeting in New York City in 1857. His effort began slowly with only a handful of persons praying, but the numbers grew across the city and soon they began meeting daily. The movement spread throughout the nation and even around the world. That grass-roots prayer effort led to more than a million Americans coming to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Renewal Award. The Good News board also pre-sented the seventh annual Edmund W. Robb, Jr. United Methodist Renewal Award to the Rev. Dr. Riley Case, a long-time member of the Good News board.

Case, now a retired elder in the North Indiana Annual Conference, was an evangelical leader in that conference throughout his years of ministry. He was responsible for starting the North Indiana Evangelical Fellowship (NIEF) in the 1970s, served effectively in numerous pastoral appointments in North Indiana, and also as a District Superintendent of the Marion District.

Case was elected five times as a delegate to the United Methodist General Conference, the church’s top legislative body. He is the author of numerous books, including his important work, Evangelical and Methodist: A Popular History, published by Abingdon Press in 2004. He was elected as a Lifetime Honorary member of the Good News board in 2002.

“Riley’s life and ministry have had an extraordinary impact on both the North Indiana Conference as well as the entire United Methodist Church,” said the Rev. Dr. James V. Heidinger II, President and Publisher of Good News. “Riley has been responsible for writing numerous petitions that brought significant changes and improvements to the Book of Discipline,” said Heidinger. “He’s really the Will Rogers of Methodism. His theological maturity and broad grasp of Methodist history have combined to make Riley an effective evangelical leader who is respected by persons on both sides of the theological aisle,” added Heidinger. The Robb Award is given annually to a person (or persons) who have made a significant contribution to renewal within the United Methodist Church.

General Conference. The board also heard about Good News’ plans for the 2008 General Conference, as part of the efforts of the 2008 Renewal and Reform Coalition. A major part of the effort will be briefing breakfasts for delegates, set for 7 a.m. on nine mornings of the conference, in the ballroom of the Fort Worth Hilton Hotel just across the street from the Convention Center, the site of General Conference.

The Renewal Coalition includes the Confessing Movement, Good News, the RENEW Network for Women, Lifewatch, Transforming Congregations, and UMAction. The Rev. Tom Lambrecht, chair of the Good News board, is serving as chair of the Coalition.

—Good News Media Service.   



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