A Church Wide Enough for Everyone: A Novel About Mainline Churches, Reformed Theology, and the Emerging Church

By Steven H. Propp

Robert Schaeffer and Douglas West are best friends living in Oklahoma in 1963when they discover that they both sense a calling to become ministers in a mainline Christian denomination. But from seminary and their early years in ministry to their golden years looking back on what it takes to lead a congregation, a stimulating, sometimes puzzling, yet often inspirational world of theological controversies and congregational concerns would unfold for these two men of God.

A Church Wide Enough for Everyone follows these two men on their journey to demonstrate the continuing relevance of the Christian faith in a postmodern world. After moving to Berkeley, California, to attend college and seminary, they have little time to ponder the vast social changes taking place before they immediately enter into intensive critical study of the Bible and Christian theology. And as Robert is then thrust into the ordained ministry with his wife, Faye, both men must in their own ways face the political, cultural, and ideological pressures of each passing decade, responding to challenges from both within the church and from outsiders.

Are mainline churchesand Christian theologydead? Or might they be revitalized in the current century? A Church Wide Enough for Everyone and the inspired journeys of two ministers offers a window into how this revitalization and new understanding is possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532040375

Steven H. Propp

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steve Propp lives and works in Sacramento, California, and graduated from CSU Sacramento. He has written many novels with spiritual or philosophical themes including Three Brothers (2007), Saved By Philosophy (2007), Josué: Prisoner At Shalem (2005), A Multicultural Christmas (2005), Utopia on the 6th Floor (2004), Beyond Heaven and Earth (2003), Tattered Pilgrims (2001), and Work, Death & Taxes (2000), as well as the nonfiction book Inquiries: Philosophical (2002). He welcomes E-mail from readers at: [e-mail]

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Copyright © 2018 Steven H. Propp.

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[Scripture quotations are]from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-4038-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-4039-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-4037-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018932717

iUniverse rev. date: 02/02/2018

CONTENTS

Prologue: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Part One: College/Seminary Years

Chapter 1     In the Big City

Chapter 2     Introduction to the Bible

Chapter 3     The Documentary Hypothesis

Chapter 4     The Book of Daniel

Chapter 5     The Gospels

Chapter 6     Modern Theology, Part One

Chapter 7     Modern Theology, Part Two

Chapter 8     Modern Theology, Part Three

Chapter 9     Changing Times

Part Two: Early Years In The Ministry

Chapter 10   A Beginning

Chapter 11   The Radical Young Preacher

Chapter 12   You Wouldn’t Understand

Chapter 13   Reading the Bible Afresh

Chapter 14   Current Events

Chapter 15   The End of the ‘80s

Chapter 16   When One Door Closes…

Part Three: Mature Years In The Ministry

Chapter 17   Another Door Opens

Chapter 18   New Neighbors

Chapter 19   The Odium Theologicum

Chapter 20   Becoming Truly Gender-Inclusive

Chapter 21   Stretching Muscles

Chapter 22   Exploring Other Perspectives

Chapter 23   Making Things More Complicated

Chapter 24   A Postmodern Farewell

Part Four: The Golden Years

Chapter 25   Are You a Christian?

Chapter 26   Some Truths Emerging

Chapter 27   The Future of Faith

Chapter 28   Looking Back, and Looking Forward

Bibliography

DEDICATION

To all kinds of Christians: Mainline Protestants, Conservative Reformed, Evangelicals, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and all other varieties and sects.

And to Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Bahá’ís, Taoists, Jains, Zoroastrians, Confucians, Shintoists, New Agers, Wiccans, Neo-Pagans, and all other followers of spiritual paths.

And to all those who are unsure, or in-between… but who are still seeking…

For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

[Matthew 7:8, Revised Standard Version]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As always, I offer this book, with all its flaws (finding time to write these busy days can be a real challenge!), with deep love and continuing gratitude for the help, encouragement, and support of:

My friends and readers everywhere;

Our six wonderful grandkids: Devonte, Joseph, Dominic, Kayla, Mariah, and Brea;

Joe, Keri, Danielle, and Michael—the parents and role models;

My brother-in-law Darrel Buzynski, and my fantastic and irreplaceable big sister Susan;

My niece Jennifer and her husband Brade, and their adorable daughters Madison and Leila;

My favorite nephew Jason;

All the rest of our diverse, evolving, and always loving family;

But most of all, to my beautiful, wonderful wife Nancy; whose loving heart sustains and inspires all of us—and without whom I would never make it through a single day…

And a very special thanks to Ms. Holly MillerShank, Minister and Team Leader of the Ministerial Excellence, Support and Authorization (MESA) Ministry Team of the United Church of Christ (UCC); and to Ms. Edith Guffey, Conference Minister in the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC), for their most helpful and timely answers to some questions I had about UCC matters. None of my mistakes, misinterpretations, or other errors can be attributed in any part or sense to them, of course; but their assistance was invaluable, and much appreciated—as well as a shining example of Christian agape!

PROLOGUE

Tulsa, Oklahoma

(September 1963)

Two young men (both short-haired and clean-shaven), Robert Schaeffer and Douglas West, had just gotten out of Douglas’s car, which was parked on an open, grassy field. Some cows are grazing contentedly a short distance away. It is a warm, dry, lazy Sunday afternoon; the two sat down on the grass with their backs against the driver’s side of the car, where they were partially shaded from the hot sun.

Douglas pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket, and offers one to his companion.

Thanks, Robert replies, pulling a cigarette out of the pack, and sticking it in his mouth.

Douglas takes out a cigarette for himself, then uses his lighter to light both their cigarettes, and places both his lighter and his cigarette pack back into his shirt pocket. They both draw on their cigarettes, and exhale the smoke slowly, watching it dissipate into the warm air.

So we’re seniors now, Douglas observes.

Yup, Robert agrees. He flicks the ash off his cigarette, and says, And we need to start deciding what to do with our lives.

Douglas nods, and asks, So you’re not going out for the basketball team this year? Coach Filson asked me when I ran into him in the hall on Tuesday.

Nope, Robert replied, taking another draw from his cigarette, and adding, "I don’t see much point in it; I’m not even a starter, and I’m not going to still be playing ball after I graduate from high school next June. So, I think this is the time for me to start focusing on academics, not taking jump shots. I need to start getting ready for college."

That makes sense, Douglas replied. He smoked thoughtfully for a moment, then said, I think I’ll quit the team, too; I’m getting tired of all those drills, anyway. He snorted, and added, Besides, our team only won two games last year.

Robert chuckled, and pointed out, "Plus, it’s the football team, not the basketball team, that gets all the attention from the girls!" and they both laughed, then took another puff of their cigarettes.

Robert looked over at his friend, and asked, So did you decide yet where you want to go for college?

Douglas replied, I’ve applied for Oklahoma State, but I’m not sure if that’s really where I want to go. He shrugged, and added, My Dad’s just opened up another store, and he’s making plenty of money, so he said he’ll pay for me to go anyplace I want.

Mine, too, Robert said. With a slight smile, he added, That’s one of the benefits of being an only child, and they both laughed easily. He thought for a moment, then said, But I don’t really think I want to go to college here; I kind of think I’d rather… well, go away somewhere; kind of ‘stretch my wings’ a little.

I know what you mean, Douglas agreed. He flicked ashes from his cigarette, then observed, My Dad wants me to major in business, so I can help him run his grocery stores after I graduate, but… I don’t know. That just isn’t what I’m really interested in. You know: making money, promoting yourself all the time, dealing with customers—all that stuff.

Robert nodded, then said, Well, we’re both straight-A students, and scored in the top 5% on our SAT; so we both can probably go wherever we want to.

Depending on what we decide we want to do, Douglas commented. He looked over at his friend, and asked, "So what’s your ‘career ambition’? What do you want to be when you grow up, in other words?" He grinned, but Robert was apparently taking the question very seriously.

After a long moment of silence, Robert said, You remember what Reverend Edwin said in his sermon this morning? When he quoted Jesus in Matthew 22 saying, ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.’

Sure, Douglas said, looking over at his friend with curiosity.

Robert took a deep breath, then said, I want to be a minister. He looked over at his friend with uncertainty, as if dreading his reaction.

Douglas looked flabbergasted, remaining silent for few seconds, before finally blurting out, So do I! Both friends sputtered, trying to express their amazement.

Douglas finally managed to ask, So when did you…

Last summer, Robert replied immediately. "It was after that summer youth camp, which really got me thinking about what was God’s will for my life. I’ve been thinking and praying about it all this past year, and now I’m sure. He asked his friend eagerly, What about you?"

Douglas admitted, I’ve never really had a particular ‘moment’ of conversion; but it’s just a deep conviction that’s been growing inside me ever since I was a kid. He smiled, then added, So now, whenever I listen to Reverend Edwin’s sermons, I kind of take ‘mental notes,’ like, ‘Oh, that was a good point’; or, ‘I need to write down that Scripture.’ He looked over at Robert, and asked, "So what kind of a minister do you want to be?"

Robert took a quick drag on his cigarette, then blew the smoke out impatiently, as he replied, "What kind? Our kind of church, obviously!" They both laughed heartily.

Robert said, Even though our church’s name is ‘Congregational,’ it’s now actually part of the larger ‘United Church of Christ’ denomination. He shook his head firmly, saying, "I would never want to be a minister in the fundamentalist ‘Church of Christ’ that I was raised in. He looked over at Douglas, and said with sincerity, I am so thankful that you invited me to visit your church back when we were in 9th grade; I was so tired of the smug attitudes and pride of all the ministers and guest evangelists, and their constant arguments over fine points of doctrine—that no one my age even cared about—that I was ready to drop out of church entirely!"

Douglas smiled slightly, then said, "Yeah; when you told me about that after basketball practice one day, I figured that my church might have been more to your liking!"

And it was, Robert said, nodding, as he took another drag of his cigarette. He said, People at school think we’re crazy, driving ten miles every Sunday to get to church, when we’ve got a zillion Baptist churches right down the street from where we live—but most Baptist churches are just as fundamentalist as the Church of Christ! He shook his head, and added, "I just can’t go to science class at school and learn that universe and our planet are billions of years old, and that we evolved from lower forms of life—but then go to church on Sunday mornings, and be told that the universe is only six thousand years old, and that there was no such thing as death until Adam and Eve ate a piece of fruit!"

Douglas nodded, and said with a smile, "I have trouble believing that all of the fossils were just put there to ‘test our faith’; or that the light from distant stars was created in transit, with an ‘appearance of age’! and they both laughed. Douglas turned serious, and said softly, But knowing science has actually only made the Bible even more important to me, and to my own faith. He shook his head, and stated, Science is a discipline without any real values; all that Darwinism can tell us is the ‘Survival of the Fittest’—but Jesus told us that this life, and this world, aren’t the real goal: our true destiny is in Heaven!"

Richard nodded, and said, Jesus said, ‘lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven’ [Mt 6:20], and ‘seek first his kingdom and his righteousness’ [Mt 6:33]. He asked enthusiastically, How much of the Bible have you read? I’ve read the New Testament twice, and I’m about halfway through the Old Testament.

Douglas said proudly, I’ve read the entire Bible straight through three times!

Robert whistled respectfully, then complimented, "You’ve got me beat, then! He took a last drag on his cigarette, then ground it out on the dirt, and said, I’m trying to work my way through the two books of Chronicles, right now."

Douglas chuckled, then put out his own cigarette and said, "Chronicles is kind of tough; but hang in there—the Psalms will be coming up soon; they’re one of my favorite parts of the Bible. He looked over at Robert, then asked, But that brings up something that I’ve been wondering about for a while: how do you become a Congregational minister? I mean, I assume that you have to go to some kind of school or college, right?"

Robert nodded, then explained, I’ve spoken with Reverend Edwin about it; he said that you first need to get a four-year bachelor’s degree—you can major in any one of several subjects, so you have some latitude there—but then you need to go to a seminary that’s affiliated with the United Church of Christ and get a Master’s degree; which takes about three years, if you’re going full-time.

I get it, Douglas said, nodding his head as he absorbed this information. So where is this seminary or seminaries located? I don’t suppose they have any around here?

Robert snorted again, and observed, "You’ve got to be kidding: there are hardly even any UCC churches here in Oklahoma! and they both laughed. He said, Reverend Edwin said that there are seven seminaries that are affiliated with the UCC; the closest ones are in Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois; but there are also ones in Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Maine."

Douglas looked uncertain, then asked, "Well, what do you think? I’d probably want to go to the same one you’re going to… that way, at least I’ll know somebody there!"

With a slight smile, Robert said, "Well, personally, I kind of want to get out of the Midwest and the Southwest; I mean, I’ve lived here all my life, and the people are all very nice, but this is just too much in the ‘Bible Belt’ for me! I’m a Christian, and I love the Bible, but the literalistic, fundamentalist reading of it that most churches around here follow just doesn’t work for me. Our religion needs to work in harmony with science and modern scholars, not against them."

I agree 100%, Douglas affirmed, adding with disdain, I’m tired of local ministers giving my Dad a bad time because his stores sell beer and wine on Sundays. With a thoughtful expression on his face, he asked, "So where would we go? I’ve heard that Minnesota is really cold in the winter, and …"

Suppressing a smile, Robert said, Well, if you don’t like the cold, there’s one more seminary that I haven’t mentioned yet… and he allowed his voice to trail off, dramatically.

After waiting several seconds, Douglas finally playfully punched Robert in the shoulder, and said, Come on, buddy: out with it! Where’s this other seminary?

With a confident smile, Robert revealed, It’s in sunny California! In Berkeley, to be exact.

California? Douglas replied, genuinely surprised. I’ve never heard of Berkeley; where is it?

It’s right across the bay from San Francisco, Robert explained. So it’s not hot and dry, like it is here all summer; the temperature is real moderate, and there’s no snow, either.

That sounds good; I wouldn’t miss these long hot summers, not to mention the risk of tornados, Douglas admitted. He frowned, then added, But we’d need to go to a college first, right, before we went to seminary? Where would we…

We could go to the University of California at Berkeley, Robert replied without hesitation. It’s one of the finest institutions on the west coast. And that way, we’d have both college and seminary in the same city!

That would make sense, Douglas acknowledged. But how would we apply to get into that school, and…

I’ve already got an application, that I was just about to mail in, Robert explained. "But now that I know you’re interested, we can send our applications in at the same time!"

That would be great! Douglas said, with real enthusiasm. But he suddenly looked downcast, and said, "I just wonder how my Dad will respond to this; I mean, I’ve kind of hinted around to him before that I was interested in studying for the ministry—but I think he’s kind of hoping that I’ll ‘come to my senses’ and just go to work in his stores, after four years of college. But he and Mom have both been members of our church for a long time—it’s where they met, in fact—so I can’t see how he could really be opposed to my becoming a minister in the same denomination as his own church."

Robert said, Well, both my parents have quit going to church entirely—I think that once I stopped going to the local Church of Christ with them, they saw no reason to bother. But my Dad will definitely spring for four years of college for me. Uncertainty came into his voice, and he added, "Graduate school might be another matter; I might have to get a part-time job or apply for a student loan, if he doesn’t want to support me for another three years."

I might be in the same boat, Douglas admitted. "It’s nothing ‘financial’ for my Dad; he’s raking in money with his stores, so he can easily afford it. It’s just that, since I’m his ‘only child’ and all, he probably feels like he won’t be leaving a legacy behind, if his son doesn’t pick up and carry on the business that he started. He shrugged his shoulders, and added, I can only hope that someday, he’ll realize that making money just isn’t my ‘calling’ in life; he can hire lots of capable managers to run the stores, who’ll have a much better ‘head for business’ than I have."

Robert said, "So I guess we’ll both be ‘stepping out in faith,’ right?"

Right, Douglas agreed. He jumped up, and said, "Well, then, in the tradition of Gideon in Judges 6—putting out a fleece to test whether something was God’s will or not—why don’t you show me what I need to do to apply to go to that university in Berkeley? And if they don’t accept me, then maybe that’s God’s sign that I’m meant to attend the University of Oklahoma, and then go to work with my Dad."

Robert was also on his feet, and he added, "Personally, I’m expected that the fleece will be quite wet, and that you and I will be accepted right away—indicating God’s enthusiastic approval of our life goals, and that you and I are on our way to becoming ministers of the gospel!"

They both shook hands, and then got back into the car, to drive off.

PART ONE

College/Seminary Years

Berkeley, California

(1968-1971)

CHAPTER ONE

In the Big City

(Late August 1968)

Robert and Douglas each laid down a heavy box on the floor of the small upstairs rooms that Robert and his wife Faye were renting. (Both young men now had hair covering their ears and their collars, as well as long sideburns and drooping mustaches.)

Whew! Robert said, taking a seat on the well-worn couch nearby, and wiping sweat from his head with a handkerchief. Thank God—that’s everything from the van.

Douglas had taken a seat in the one large chair, and began fanning himself with a magazine he had taken from a nearby box. He said, Man; I didn’t think we were going to be able to get the couch around that narrow corner at the bottom of the stairwell. He sat up, pointed his finger at Robert, and said, "If Purgatory existed, you would have earned yourself an extra thousand years in torment, for arranging it so that I was at the bottom, and carrying all the weight of your couch!"

Sorry about that, Robert admitted. "But believe me: being at the top, and trying to steer the stupid thing through the stairwell and our front door, was no picnic, either!"

My heart bleeds for you, Douglas said, standing up and saying, Come on, you owe me lunch; I’m starving.

Robert looked around hesitantly at the haphazard mess of boxes in the living room and adjoining kitchen, but then shrugged, and said, Aww, screw it. Faye won’t be home from work until 5:20; we’ve still got time to arrange things a little before she gets here. But I really want to get the place looking halfway presentable before she comes in and sees it.

Douglas kidded, Otherwise, she’s liable to divorce you, and move back in with her folks.

She can’t divorce me, Robert replied, with a straight face. Infidelity and desertion are the only grounds for divorce in the New Testament. He put a record album on the turntable, turned it on, then moved the needle to the desired track.

Douglas said impatiently, Hey, come on, man, I’m hungry; we can listen to music after lunch.

Robert replied, I just want to make sure I’ve got the stereo working; that’s essential. The Simon & Garfunkel song Fakin’ It began playing; Robert turned down the volume slightly, then pressed the button to turn off the turntable. He said, Okay; let’s hit the streets.

At last! Douglas said, and they both headed for the door.

As he turned around and watched Robert fiddle with the key to lock the front door, Douglas observed, That flimsy lock wouldn’t keep anybody out who really wanted to get in.

Robert shrugged, and said, "Well, what do you expect? Our landlord is basically a slumlord; you can’t count on him to do anything to fix the place up. But I’ll put on a chain lock, when I get a chance." They both quickly hopped down the stairs, toward the entrance to the building.

Before Robert could open the door, they heard a key rattling in it; the door opened, to reveal a black man in his early 30s standing there.

Hey, Mel; what’s happening, brother? Robert said cheerily, greeting his downstairs neighbor with a soul handshake. He asked, You get off work late?

The black man nodded wearily, and said, We got an extra-large shipment in, so we had to work O.T. to get everything in the damn warehouse. He nodded at Douglas, then moved to open the door to his downstairs home.

Robert said apologetically, Say, Mel; we’re going to get some lunch now, but then we’re coming back, and we’ll be unpacking things for a couple of hours, so we’ll probably be pretty noisy. I hope we don’t disturb you while you’re sleeping, or…

Mel smiled, and said, Don’t sweat it, man; if I can sleep while my five kids are runnin’ through the house, you two dudes ain’t gonna bother me none. He asked Robert, Did Joy leave already?

Robert replied, Yeah; she said she was taking the kids to do some shopping at Goodwill, then was gonna let them run off some energy at the park for a while.

Cool, Mel observed. So maybe I’ll get a couple hours sleep. He held up his clenched fist and said to the two men, Later, guys; power to the people!

Right on! Robert replied, making the same sign with his fist. He and Douglas went out the front door, and Robert locked it behind them.

They went down the sidewalk, and out to the street, where Robert’s VW van was parked. Douglas stopped at the passenger door, but Robert waved to him, and said, Come on, man, let’s just walk; Telegraph Avenue is only a few blocks away, and there’s no place to park at this time of day. Besides, I want to start to get to know my new neighborhood.

Fine, Douglas said, and the two men both began walking, lighting cigarettes as they did so.

Douglas read aloud the warning label on his pack of cigarettes: Warning: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health. He took a long drag on his cigarette, then said, "So I guess the question is, why are we still smoking?"

Because we’re addicted, Robert acknowledged. Just as much as a junkie, who has to rip people off to get his daily fix. The people who manufacture these deadly things are definitely not practicing that Buddhist principle of ‘Right Livelihood’! Exhaling a lungful of smoke, he admitted, "But hey: smoking is a big part of our culture! It seems like everybody smokes these days: Paul McCartney smokes, both Simon and Garfunkel smoke, the Rolling Stones all smoke; shoot, even Donovan smokes!"

Douglas asked, Didn’t Faye say that she was going to make you quit once you moved into the new place?

She’s given up on that, Robert replied. "She won’t let me smoke around her, or in the kitchen or our bedroom; but when I’m studying late at night, and reading all these turgid theological texts, she realizes that I really need my nicotine ‘fix,’ to help me focus."

Douglas said sardonically, So what you’re doing right now is ‘studying’?

Oh, shut up, man, Robert said with a smile, flicking ashes from his cigarette, and taking another quick puff. I’ve already got Faye knocking me about all my bad habits; I don’t need my best friend to chime in with her. He pointed to the cigarette in Douglas’s hand, and said, Besides, remember the gospel: ‘Judge not, that you be not judged.’

Guilty as charged, Douglas said genially, as he took another drag, then adding, "But at least I’m planning to quit: I’m stopping as soon as our classes at Pacifica Rim Seminary start in a week; after all, a seminary student is supposed to be holy. ‘Touch no unclean thing,’ as Paul said in Second Corinthians 6:17."

Yeah, yeah, Robert said sarcastically. "If I had a dollar for every time in the last four years you told me you were ‘planning’ on quitting, Faye and I could buy a house."

Not in Berkeley, you couldn’t, Douglas noted. The housing situation here is atrocious. I’d like to find a smaller and cheaper place now that you’ve moved out of our apartment—those big chain stores are moving into the smaller markets like Tulsa, which is putting a lot of pressure on independent stores like my Dad’s, so things are getting a lot tighter for him, financially—but there’s just nothing available in the city that we can afford.

"You’ve got that right; that’s why we all need to show up at the City Council meetings and keep bringing up the need for rent control, Robert suggested. Faye and I were incredibly lucky to find a place that’s within walking distance of PRS for me, so she can drive our van to her job at City Hall."

"You’re the lucky one, having found a wife like Faye, Douglas observed, taking another drag from his cigarette, then observing, As it says in Proverbs 31:10, ‘A good wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.’"

No argument from me there; to me, Faye is as good a proof of ‘Divine Providence’ as I’m ever personally going to have, he said fervently. "There had to be some reason why that ‘Social Problems’ class I really wanted to take was full, so I had to take an ‘Intro to Sociology’ class instead—and I ‘just happened’ to find myself sitting right next to a beautiful and intelligent Sociology major."

"And one who works, too, Douglas added. Turning serious, he asked, So is she eventually going to try and get a job in her field?"

That’s what the plan is, Robert admitted. "But she knows that the job market for Soc majors is… well, nearly non-existent today, now that the ‘Great Society’ days are behind us—apparently no one cares anymore about trying to find the cause of urban unrest—so we decided that it would be better for me to go ahead and finish up, and get a full-time parish somewhere; and then, she can start searching for jobs."

Unless you decide to have a family, first, Douglas suggested.

"Definitely not at this point in our lives, Robert said, shaking his head firmly, and adding, What modern couples would do without the birth control pill, is beyond me. He shrugged, then said, The Pope must have been nuts, to have apparently ignored the advice of all his own theological advisers, and written that encyclical, Humanae Vitae, prohibiting birth control. He took another drag of his cigarette, and added, Which is why it’s a good time in history to be a progressive Protestant, and not a Roman Catholic! But then he noted, But chances are that most Roman Catholics will just ignore the encyclical; in this country, at least."

Douglas looked over at his friend, and wondered, How can they just ‘ignore’ a papal encyclical? Roman Catholics are all under the authority of the Pope!

Robert smiled, and observed, In this country, they’re apparently Americans first, and Roman Catholics second; just think of JFK.

They arrived at Telegraph Avenue, which was bustling with activity. Besides the usual noontime crowds at stores, there were probably hundreds of young people: creatively and colorfully dressed, the men with long hair and beards, and the women often wearing long Granny Dresses with flowers in their hair; who were casually walking the streets.

Robert looked around, and asked, Lunch is on me; what are you in the mood for?

Douglas shrugged, then pointed to a nearby hot dog street vendor, and said, "Let’s just get a hot dog; and maybe a beer to wash it down with."

They walked over to the vendor, whose cart had the words "Peace Dogs" painted on its side; the long-haired vendor (whose eyes were red from smoking marijuana) was wearing a tie-dyed shirt with a silkscreen image of Jesus on it.

The vendor immediately recognized the two young men, and he said agreeably, Hey, it’s the two preachers-in-training! Whatcha want? He held up the One Way index finger to them.

Two dogs, with everything, Robert replied, handing the vendor some money.

The vendor removed two hot dogs from his cart, placed them inside two buns, and proceeded to generously spoon catsup, mustard, relish, and onions on them. He handed the finished products to the two customers.

He started to hand some change to Robert, who waved it off; Naw, keep it.

The vendor smiled as he put the change into his pocket, and said, Thanks, brothers; peace!

Robert made the Peace sign back at him, and the two men took their hot dogs, and headed to a nearby small grocery store; once inside, they headed to the refrigerated case holding beer.

They each picked out a 16-ounce can, then walked over to the elderly Asian man at the cash register, who rang up their purchases, took Robert’s money, and efficiently placed their cans into individual paper bags, before handing them back to the two young men, who headed to the exit.

Walking outside, they found a nearby brick planter filled with green bushes and flowers, and sat down on the edge of it, then began eating their meal; they watched the colorful procession of people passing by them, as they opened their beers, and ate and drank.

Douglas observed, This city has really changed over the past four years.

Robert smiled, and said, "It’s been great to have such a ‘front-row seat’ for it! We were direct witnesses to what they called the ‘Summer of Love,’ that took place right across the San Francisco Bay just last year!"

Douglas thought for a moment, then suggested, "Well, while I would say that it’s been ‘culturally interesting,’ I don’t think that ‘great’ is quite the term that I would use to describe how it’s been."

Are you kidding? Robert shot back, exasperated. "The country is being changed for the better—and we’ve just spent four years as students at UC Berkeley, while Cal has practically been the epicenter of change! On the west coast, at least. Think of it: Civil rights legislation has finally been passed, segregation in the south is virtually dead, and blacks are demanding and getting their full rights as U.S. citizens! He shook his head in wonder, and observed, We’re living in an era that we’ll be proud to tell our children about, someday!"

It’s also been an era that’s witnessed the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy in this year alone, and JFK and Malcolm X before that, Douglas pointed out. Before Robert could reply, he quickly added, "LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ programs are dying or dead, but there are still plenty of poor people in this country; blacks are rioting in Detroit, North Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and lots of other cities; the war in Vietnam is still going strong, as the Tet offensive last January proved; and even the original peaceful ‘Free Speech’ protests at Cal have since degenerated into some pretty ugly riots—both here, and in Oakland!"

Robert was taken aback, and he stammered, Well… that’s true, of course, but…

Douglas said caustically, "We wouldn’t even have gotten our degrees in Religious Studies if all of those rioting radicals—most of whom weren’t even students at Cal—had succeeded in shutting down the University!"

Robert said dismissively, "Oh, come on; it wasn’t that bad! We all knew where to walk on campus, to avoid the protesters and cops…"

Douglas interjected passionately, "Robert, the radicals were firebombing buildings on campus! I’m no big fan of the ROTC program, but there’s no excuse for such blatant lawlessness!"

Defensively, Robert countered, "Doug, the main reason for the protests is the draft, which is supporting this damnable war in Vietnam! How can you and I understand the situation of the young men who are protesting? Since you and I are in college, we’ve got deferments from the draft; and once we start school at PRS, we’ll have IV-D deferments as ‘divinity students’—so it’s impossible for us to really appreciate the moral dilemma facing young men who can be conscripted into the Army, and sent off to Vietnam to kill people, in a completely immoral war! He took a big gulp from his can of beer, and added, To tell the truth, if I received a draft notice, and didn’t think I could qualify as a ‘conscientious objector,’ I’d probably be running off to Canada, like tens of thousands of our peers are doing!"

Douglas just shook his head, and said, "This whole country is getting completely out of control! Didn’t you watch the news about the Democratic convention in Chicago, where police are having to forcibly suppress all the violent student protesters? Apparently, we can’t even have a political convention anymore, without it starting a riot!"

Robert said in a fiery tone, "The violence is coming from Mayor Daley’s cops and the National Guardsmen, who were often filmed as they attacked peaceful protesters who had broken no law, and sometimes even clubbed people who were just passing by!"

Douglas waved him off, and said dismissively, Let’s just forget it; we’re never going to agree on this issue. He took a long swallow of his beer, and then accidentally burped.

Robert laughed, and said, "You’re obviously still an Okie!"

Douglas chuckled, "So what? I’m proud of my heritage! He poked Robert playfully in the ribs, and said, Unlike you—who’s been working so hard to get rid of your southwestern accent for the last four years!"

Robert laughed again, and said proudly, "And I’ve done it well; Faye says that she can hardly tell I have an accent, any more—although I can still bring it back, when I go home to visit my folks during the summer!"

Only half-joking, Douglas asked, "So what’s the deal? Are you ashamed of your Oklahoma heritage?"

Seriously, Robert replied, "No, not at all; although I’m not unmindful that there are still some Californians who have a definite antipathy against ‘Okies’; remember Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, and the movie that was based on it? And remember that, in our first year here, a lot of people at Cal looked at us almost like we were foreign exchange students!" and they both laughed at the recollection.

That’s true, Douglas admitted, and he took the last bite of his hot dog, then brushed his hands off. He added with a smile, "But when we go back to Oklahoma to start our own ministries, you’ll be the one looked at as an ‘outsider’!"

Quietly, Robert replied, "So what makes you think that I’m going back to Oklahoma to be a minister?"

Douglas was genuinely surprised, and he said, You’re not? I… just assumed…

Robert shook his head firmly, and said, "And you shouldn’t, either. Turning to face Douglas directly, he said reasonably, Let’s face it, Doug; where would we find a UCC church to pastor in Oklahoma? Reverend Edwin is in his 40s, so he’s not going to retire any time soon; and there’s probably not more than a dozen UCC churches in all of Oklahoma—while there’s got to be at least ten times that many Baptist churches, in Tulsa alone!"

Douglas admitted, That’s true, too. He frowned, and asked, So where are you planning to go, after you graduate?

Robert smiled, and said, I’m staying right here in California; four years of living here have turned me into a confirmed ‘California Boy’—just like my wife is a born-and-bred ‘California Girl.’ He looked directly into Douglas’s eyes, and asserted, And you should do the same; Oklahoma is no place for any modern-thinking Christians!

Douglas remained silent for a long moment, then finally said, I’d never really thought of it that way.

Robert finished his beer, stood up and tossed it and his napkin into a nearby trash can, then said, Come on, let’s go for a walk. Douglas quickly finished his own can of beer, tossed it into the trash, then followed along with Robert.

Smiling broadly as he observed the diverse crowds of mostly young people crowding the streets, Robert observed, "What I love most about California is that there’s such a real spiritual hunger among the people! Where in Oklahoma could you ever find a street hot dog vendor wearing a Jesus t-shirt?"

"Where in Oklahoma would you find a street vendor of any kind? The local sheriff would lock people like that up, for vagrancy! Douglas replied sarcastically. He added, And in the case of that particular vendor, he reeks of marijuana! So he’s obviously not just getting ‘high on Jesus’!"

We each just chugged down a 16-ounce can of beer, Robert pointed out. So what’s the difference?

"Beer is legal," Douglas countered.

Robert shrugged, and said, "You’re missing my point. I obviously don’t agree with the fundamentalist theology of the so-called ‘Jesus People’; but it’s amazing to see that Christianity has suddenly become ‘in’ with a lot of young people! Remember that when we started college, so many people our age were saying that ‘Christianity is passé,’ and ‘the Bible is just a lot of superstitious nonsense.’ But now, religion and spirituality are a major concern of practically all the young people in this country!"

Douglas pointed out, "But what kind of religion are they attracted to? Timothy Leary is telling thousands of young people in Golden Gate Park to take LSD and ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out’! I don’t know what these people are seeing when they’re stoned on LSD, but it’s certainly not the real God! And the kind of ‘spirituality’ they’re studying is a confused mish-mash of Alan Watts, Zen Buddhism, Vedanta, and the Bhagavad Gita! They’re just about as far away from Christianity as you can be!"

Robert noted, "Remember how the apostle Paul was standing in the Areopagus, and said to them, ‘Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious… What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.’ And the author of Acts added that ‘some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite.’ [Acts 17] So Paul began by acknowledging where they were at, religiously. He shrugged, and added, I’m not claiming that all of these young people are going to find their way to Jesus; but at least now they’re moving closer in that direction, than they were in the high point of secularism of the '50s and early '60s!"

As they passed a young woman who was selling jewelry with astrological signs, Douglas observed, "Well, you can interpret this ‘Age of Aquarius’ as something ‘positive’ if you want to; but for my part, I think it’s a return to paganism—and these kids need a strong dose of real Christianity to snap them out of it! He added, And most of the student and other radicals that I’ve seen up close are just as atheistic and secular as were the dogmatic Marxists who were in our classes."

Robert interjected, "But that’s because the modern Christian church just seems irrelevant to the social and political situation in this country! He added passionately, Look around us, Doug: hundreds of thousands of young people are marching to protest against the War, to oppose our materialistic society, and to object to our modern political process! And just what is the Christian church seemingly offering them? They can go to a typical church on Sunday and listen to a couple of boring hymns, maybe wash down a tiny piece of white bread with a miniature cup of watered-down grape juice, and this is all followed by an inane sermon making some incomprehensible point about some far-distant ‘Kingdom of God’!"

Douglas shot back, I’m not defending what goes on in most churches on Sunday, Robert; that’s why I want to become a minister, remember? But the answer isn’t just to start playing Pop music instead of classic hymns, or to base sermons on the revolutionary rhetoric of Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman instead of on biblical texts; the true and actual Gospel of Jesus is far more ‘radical’ than anything that Tom Hayden is shouting on the streets of Chicago!

"But we’ve got to translate the Gospel of Jesus into words that the current generation understands!" Robert argued. "Sure, you can put the New Testament into modern English, like the Good News for Modern Man version did such a fantastic job of; but it’s music that’s speaking to this current generation, not the Bible! As Simon and Garfunkel sang in The Sounds of Silence, ‘the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls’! And the Beatles just released a single called Revolution, in which John Lennon criticizes those people in the movement who ‘talk about destruction,’ and he tells them that ‘you can count me out,’ and suggests ‘you’d better free your mind instead.’ That’s the kind of thing that young people are listening to, today!"

Douglas frowned, and said with obvious distaste, John Lennon is also the one who said that the Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus now,’ and ‘I don’t know which will go first: rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity’!

Robert shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I hated that comment of his, too; but still, there’s also a certain degree of sociological truth to what he said: to a lot of young people these days, the Beatles do mean more to them than Christianity! He looked over at Douglas and said fervently, That’s why it’s so important that people from our generation make the gospel relevant to our contemporaries!"

Douglas said sarcastically, And just how do you propose that we make Jesus ‘relevant’ to the LSD generation? He’s already got long hair and a beard…

"By explaining how the Gospel relates to the issues that are tearing out country apart, right now! Robert interrupted emphatically. He shook his head, and added, It should be a source of real shame to us Protestants that it’s the Roman Catholics, like Philip and Daniel Berrigan, who are at the forefront of religious protests against the war, and it was a Unitarian Universalist minister, James Reeb, who was murdered during Dr. King’s marches from Selma to Montgomery!"

Douglas said sardonically, "You’re welcome to go to Chicago and get beaten up by Daley’s cops, if you’ve got some sort of a ‘martyrdom complex.’ But for me, I’m just eager to get started with studying for my ordination, so that I can legitimately preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this generation, and to our troubled world!"

I’m with you on that, brother, Robert agreed, and the two men shook hands. Robert looked at his watch, and said, We’d better head back; I need to get the place into some semblance of order before Faye gets home.

Good idea, Douglas said. "You need to keep that ‘good wife’ of Proverbs 31 happy!"

CHAPTER TWO

Introduction to the Bible

(September 1968)

Professor William Ryder finished taking the roll, then looked out over the class (which included Robert and Douglas) and said warmly, "Good morning, gentlemen; and lady. Welcome to the first session of this class, ‘Introduction to the Bible.’ Although many or most of you are here to study for the ministry, and presumably have read, and perhaps even taught—in Sunday School or elsewhere—the Bible; I hope that I will be able to share some things with you this year that will deepen and expand your knowledge of the Bible. And I also sincerely hope that this increased knowledge about the Bible will increase your love and respect for the Bible. I say this as someone who has been reading the Bible for nearly all of my life, and has devoted most of my last thirty years to studying it intensively."

He looked with curiosity over his sixteen students, then observed, "I see that a number of you have brought your own Bibles to class. That’s a very good idea. Although I will often read aloud passages of the Bible that we are studying, you may want to look up the passages we are discussing—or perhaps even look up other passages, to compare them with what I am saying. And I warmly invite you to do that; and you are also very welcome to question or even challenge any and all statements and opinions that I present in this class. Our purpose here is not one of indoctrination; it is one of education. I want to share with you some of the fruits of modern biblical scholarship that have come down to us: from over the entire history of the Judeo-Christian tradition, to be sure; but more particularly, from the past one hundred years—beginning with the rise of serious, historical, and scholarly study of the Bible."

He picked up a Bible that was resting on the table next to the lectern from which he was speaking, and opened it. He said, "The cover page of this book reads, ‘The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments.’ Just what does that statement mean? Well, the word ‘Bible’ is simply an English equivalent of the Greek word biblia, meaning ‘books,’ in the plural; and in fact, the Bible isn’t just a single book, but is actually a collection of sixty-six separate books—in Protestant Bibles, at least—which were written by a variety of authors, over a period of hundreds of years. And of course, the Bible never uses the term ‘Bible’ to refer to itself. This term biblia is somewhat of an anachronism, because we think of a ‘book’ as being the kind of printed, bound, mass-produced volume such as I have here. The second letter of Paul to Timothy, in chapter 4, verse 13, refers to the ‘books,’ and the ‘parchments.’ But those weren’t the kind of ‘book’ that I am now holding; what the writers of the Bible had were texts, which were typically scrolls of papyrus.

"You have probably heard in news magazines and newspapers of the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls,’ which were a tremendously important archaeological find for modern biblical studies. The manuscripts that were found in that Jewish community near the Dead Sea in Israel were individual papyri, which are documents written on thick material made from the papyrus plant. Many such papyri may be joined together, and rolled up into a scroll, for safe keeping and storage. These are the kinds of manuscripts from which our modern Bibles derive. And of course, such manuscripts had to be laboriously copied by hand; the ‘scribes’ to whom Jesus often referred included such copyists of the Old Testament. And during Medieval times, the task of copying Bibles was generally carried out by Catholic monks. You may have heard lurid stories about Bibles being ‘locked up’ or placed in ‘chains’ in Catholic churches during the Middle Ages, and this is sometimes true; but when it occurred, this was done because these hand-copied manuscripts were very valuable, and were the product of hundreds of hours of labor. And if someone stole a church’s copy of the Bible, they couldn’t just hop on down to the nearest shopping mall, and buy another copy!" and the students laughed.

He went on, "The kinds of printed and bound Bibles that we are familiar with began with the German blacksmith Johannes Gutenberg, who had the brilliant idea of using movable metal type to be able to mass-produce pages of text, and ultimately books, such as our Bibles. The famous ‘Gutenberg Bible’ wasn’t actually the very first thing Gutenberg printed with this new technique—his first project was a German poem—but with this new technique he was able to print 180 copies of the Vulgate Bible, the Vulgate being the Bible written in Latin that was used in the medieval Catholic church. And now, with the advent of the printing press, I’m sure you know that the Bible is not only by far the world’s bestselling book, but is also the most widely distributed book of all time. Tens of millions of copies of it are sold or given away, every year—and it has been, or is currently being, translated into the languages of most people living on earth."

He looked at the Bible he held, appearing to consider it afresh, then said, "This book is called the ‘Holy’ Bible; by this statement, the people who produced our Bibles are stating that is not just another collection of books; this particular collection is holy—meaning ‘divine,’ and ‘venerated.’ It is also known as ‘Scripture,’ an English word derived from the Latin term meaning ‘the act or product of writing.’ Various world religions—such as Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism—have their own ‘scriptures,’ such as the Bhagavad Gita in Hinduism, the Quran for Islam, or the Lotus Sutra for Buddhism. For a Christian to call the Bible ‘Sacred Scripture’ is to identify it as a body of writings which are considered authoritative, and respected, for religious purposes.

Jesus habitually referred to the Bible that he knew as ‘scripture’; for example, in Matthew 21:42, Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures: The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the LORD’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."’ Similarly, the Apostle Paul said in Second Timothy 3:16, ‘All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.’ Now, please notice that Paul’s reference in the preceding verse to the ‘sacred writings’ with which Timothy had been acquainted ‘from childhood,’ makes it clear that Paul was referring only to what we know as the Old Testament, rather than to our complete modern Bibles.

"As you know, the primary structural division of the Bible is between what are known as the ‘Old Testament,’ and the ‘New Testament.’ A ‘testament’ is just the English word referring to a document that is being sworn to, or submitted in defense or support of something; an elderly person may write a ‘Last Will and Testament,’ for example. It’s interesting to note that, although the term ‘scripture’ is used throughout the New Testament, this term is not found in what we know as the Old Testament. The English word ‘scripture’ is used once in translating Daniel 10:21, but this verse is simply referring to a visionary description, and not to the collected writings we now call the Old Testament. So, this perhaps suggests that what we call the ‘Old Testament’ was not known as a specific, and fixed collection of writings, until sometime much closer to the time of Jesus."

He opened his Bible to one of several pages he had marked, and said, "Turning to the New Testament, let’s ask ourselves, why is it called the ‘New Testament’? This usage derives from the book of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah, who, in the 31st chapter of his book wrote, ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’ [v. 31-33] The first verse of this passage from Jeremiah was actually quoted in the New Testament, by the author of the book of ‘Hebrews’—whose author was not the Apostle Paul, by the way; no know knows for sure who wrote this book—and the book of Hebrews adds that God, ‘In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.’

"Now, a ‘covenant’ is a contract; a law, or legal agreement, a promise—to either perform some actions, or to refrain from performing some other actions. This same book of Hebrews, in Chapter 9, verse 15, refers to Jesus as ‘the mediator of a new covenant.’ And this is not the only time the term ‘new covenant’ is used. The gospel of Luke in 22:20 depicts Jesus as saying during the Last Supper, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’ The Apostle Paul, describing the Communion service in First Corinthians 11:25, quoted Jesus as advising such partakers, ‘In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ So, the New Testament views the life and actions of Jesus as establishing a new ‘contract’ or ‘agreement,’ to replace the one which God formerly had only with the nation of Israel; it was a ‘New Deal,’ so to speak." He paused, to allow his students (who were feverishly copying down all this information) to catch up to him.

He went on, "But if the New Testament is the ‘new covenant,’ what does that make the Old Testament? Well, in Second Corinthians 3:14, the Apostle Paul wrote, ‘But their minds were hardened; for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.’ In the 8th chapter of the book of Hebrews, it says that ‘Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.’" He paused after reading this, to allow these statements to be considered by his audience.

He asked rhetorically, So is the ‘Old Testament’ obsolete? Should it even be part of our modern Bibles? He shrugged, then observed, "It would certainly make our Bibles lighter, if we got rid of the Old Testament—since about three-fourths of our modern Bibles consists of the Old Testament," and his students laughed again.

He turned serious, and said, "Well, I think it would be well for us to remember that this ‘Old Testament’ is the only ‘Bible’ that Jesus ever had; and, while a very late New Testament book such as Second Peter may include the letters of Paul along with ‘the other scriptures,’ in general, when the New Testament writers refer to ‘scripture,’ they simply mean the Old Testament. And if we didn’t have the Old Testament, most of the New Testament would make no sense at all to us. Where would we learn about key figures such as Abraham, Moses, and David? Where would we go to find the religious history of the Jewish people, and of the nation of Israel? We wouldn’t have the Ten Commandments. How would we understand the Sabbath, or festivals and celebrations such as Passover? He shook his head, then concluded, No; we definitely need both the Old Testament and the New Testaments in our modern Bibles." His students nodded or murmured their agreement with this sentiment.

He stated, "But we should also acknowledge that these terms, ‘Old Testament’ and ‘New Testament’ are clearly Christian terms. A Jewish person certainly doesn’t refer to his own sacred Scriptures as the ‘Old Testament’; he simply calls them ‘the Bible.’ And he certainly doesn’t view his Bible as being ‘obsolete’! So, in order to avoid confusing the Bible of the Jewish people with the Christian Bible, for the remainder of this course, I will normally use the term ‘Hebrew Bible’ to refer to the Jewish Scriptures that Christians call the ‘Old Testament’—since nearly all of them are written in the Hebrew language—and I will use the term ‘New Testament’ to refer to the specifically Christian sacred writings; and I will use the term ‘Bible’ to mean the entire Bible of Christians, which includes both Testaments. Understood?" The class nodded and murmured their agreement.

He continued, "Now I just said that ‘nearly all’ of the Jewish Bible is written in Hebrew: a language that had practically died out by the 4th century A.D., except for its use in the liturgy in Jewish synagogues, and in some Jewish literature; but Hebrew was revived as both a spoken and written language in the 19th century—particularly because of the influence of the Zionist movement—and is now one of the two official languages of the modern State of Israel; Arabic being the other language. The only exception to this writing of the Jewish Bible in Hebrew is that a few parts of the books of Ezra [Ch. 4, 6, and 7]; Daniel [Ch. 2]; and the single verse of Jeremiah 10:11 were written in Aramaic—that is, in the language that was formerly known as ‘Chaldee,’ referring to the form of Aramaic spoken and written in the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonia. Aramaic was the official language of the Persian empire, and much of the Near East. So the term ‘Hebrew Bible’ is really the most accurate term to use for