A correspondent writes to ask what the laity are to do when when ruling elders and ministers refuse to address a situation. May a lay member of a URCNA congregation address a matter herself? Yes, indeed, a lay person may indeed address a matter herself even if the local elders or ministers refuse. As I explained, the various NAPARC denominations and federations each have books of church order. Let us consider the church order of my own federation, the United Reformed Churches in North America.
By spiritual abuse I mean: the malevolent, ungracious use of the authority or processes of the church to lord it over the laity or other officers in the church for personal gain, emotional or psychological manipulation, or for the exercise of ungodly or undue control over others, which infringes upon Christian liberty and that violates the second table of the moral law of God.
The church is to care for orphans and widows (James 1:27). An abuser has essentially orphaned his children and abandoned his wife. He has turned his vocation as a caregiver and protector on its head and corrupted it. Where the husband is meant to be a source of strength and safety, he has become weak and a source of fear and violence. If so, the church must step up and step in. Wives and children of abusers must be able to see in the church a refuge, a place of safety and help. Abused church members are the most vulnerable of all of Christ’s lambs and to them we owe a duty of special care and protection.
Concupiscence is among our choicest words to be recovered. Because of the great influence of Augustine, it has traditionally been associated closely with sexual desire, even within marriage. Its range of meaning, however, is broader.
Is the criticism true, however, that the claim that a persistent, immutable homosexual orientation is inherently sinful and corrupt, contrary to nature, and therefore disqualifying for pastoral ministry, is the product of the Higher Life movement and not authentic Reformed theology?
Sam Allberry, Pastor in St Mary’s Church, Maidenhead, UK since 2008, has written a provocative book that addresses these questions in a biblical, thoughtful, and pastoral way. He visited campus recently to talk with our students about these issues.
One neglected aspect of the story of Modernity has been the loss of a Christian anthropology. Along with its exile of God, Modernity has also been busily re-defining humanity with unhappy consequences.
“Recently two orthodox, confessional, female, Christian authors have published books addressing male-female relations within the church. I have read neither of these books so I am not commenting on them. I have noticed, however, that in some of the responses to these two books there have been appeals to ontology. This is a philosophical category. […]
The question before us is this: are there ontological differences between men and women? Is there is a hierarchy of being among men and women?