| Friday, October 07, 2005 |
| In Need of a Movement |
Finally, one of our own has hit it big time. By "one of our own," I mean a member of a Restoration Movement church and by "hit it big time," I'm referring to Harriet Miers being nominated for the Supreme Court. Ms Miers is a member at Valley View Christian Church in Dallas where former Cincinnati Christian University President Barry McCarty is now preaching.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the Restoration Movement is a group of churches that dating back to the early 19th century, spawned by Thomas and Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone. We're the un-denomination, as we have no denominational hierarchy and congregational autonomy. I've identified with the group my whole life, and probably will until the day I die. Echo Church will be a part of this movement. I love it because no one can say who's in or who's out.
What's fascinating about us is that it's nearly impossible to nail down Restoration Movement theology down. There are both conservative and liberal extremes in our churches. This explains why the national media is having problems with Judge Miers: they're unfamiliar with our Restoration theology and they're not sure exactly where she stands on the controversial issues. This article has already identified her as a evangelical, but many in our movement would want nothing to do with such a label.
Yes, the media is confused but so are we. This Harriet Miers nomination is going to leave many leaders in our movement in a quandary. Many want some national legitimacy for our churches so they'll lift up Miers as one of their own. At the same time, as Miers is apparently getting support from homosexual advocacy groups, many in our movement will want nothing to do with her; they'll most likely try to distance themselves from her, claiming she never was "one of us" in the first place.
As for me, I'll just sit back and laugh because I don't care either way. Sure I'd love to see her approved, but because of her "liberal leaning" it could be the conservative Christian lobby that does her in. How ironic: the religious right finally gets the conservative justices they've always wanted, but assault them for not being conservative enough. Christians can be funny like that.
Wonder if I'll see Harriet at the North American next year . . . |
yet another musing of steve-o @ 4:01:00 PM  |
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