From: Charles Schermerhorn
To: <dougking@witherspoonsociety.org>
Subject: Church & Power
Date: Monday, September 11, 2000
My grandfather, of Moody in Chicago and Park College,
preached his first sermon at the Presbyterian Church in Steeleville, IL.
the morning of Sunday, July 15, 1900, and in the evening at the
Presbyterian Church in Blair, about 8 miles away, where he held services
at both churches for 2 1/2 years before going to Billings, Montana in
1903 and establishing the first Presbyterian congregation there, and
preaching in that group before taking a church in Savage, Mt. where he
preached for three years.
He subsequently preached in churches in N. Dakota,
Helena, Mt., Albuquerque, NM, and various places in California before
retiring.
My father was a graduate of Park College, attended
Princeton Theological and graduated from San Francisco Theological. He
chose to devote his life to children as a social worker rather than
behind the pulpit, but preached on and off for most of his life, and was
a devout student of the Bible and its various commentators, from
Kierkegaard to Bonhoeffer until his death.
My first church, in 1947, was First Pres. in San
Francisco. My second, in 1949, was First Pres. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
My aunt, now 97, is a steadfast Presbyterian, still
attending services in San Diego.
But I agree with Sam Lanham.
For the past 20 years I have been a student of
"western" history - specifically from the early crusades,
through the history of the Templars, the Inquisition, the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Reformation, the Counter Reformation, into
today.
My most recent church experience began in 1973 and
ended in 1980 in what was probably the most significant religious
experience I will ever hope for. I had a genuine, unmistakable meeting
with God, and am His irrevocably 'til I die.
But I do not attend church for the very reasons that
Sam delineates in his essay.
I am currently a bookbinder and as such the bulk of my
work involves mending people's bibles, and doing so has led me to
reflect on how that book is used. My conclusion is that for women, the
bible becomes a source of comfort and poetry; for men it becomes a tool
of power, control, preaching, and domination. It has been and will
continue to be a device for persuading others that because one says
something is confirmed by the Word of the Bible, it is necessarily true.
Take, for instance, this one phrase from the several
responses to Sam's note: "All power and glory belong to Jesus
Christ." In virtually every church experience I have had I have
asked one or another how they would define a phrase like that, and so
far not a single one has succeeded. What power? What glory? And what, in
these contexts, to power and glory mean, and how does that translate
into the ubiquitous struggle for control and domination that formal
congregations inevitably descend into?
I have cited three church experiences, but there have
been more than a dozen, and I have yet to see one in which one group
does not somehow manage to maneuver the attitudes of a particular
segment of the congregation to obtain that control.
At a wedding, in an evangelical church, a couple of
years ago, the pastor was a very nice man. But the church had a small
music group - a guitar, a piano, drums, a saxophone and a woman singer
(the wife of the guitar man.) Before the service was half over it was
obvious that this woman was the real dominant force in the church's
congregation. The service proceeded when SHE was through and when SHE
decided what would be sung. The pastor was unwilling/unable to
intervene.
In my last congregation in 1974-80 leadership of the
services began to be passed to young men chosen by one of the pastor's
assistants, and one of these young men completely dominated the group
until eventually the changes virtually destroyed the original pastor's
work.
In all cases, "It is the Will of the Lord,"
that this or that be done, and under such mandates who was to question
it?
The use of God's alleged will in what Man decides is
right (for him or her) is so pervasive in church rule (as it was
throughout the Middle Ages) that wars were fought, hundreds of thousands
died in combat or persecution, and in today's "enlightened"
world, conservatives whose agendas are restrictive and punitive rather
than inclusive and loving continue the practice.
The Word of God is exclusive - in men's hearts, for
their private thought, personal counsel. To use it as justification for
what is, in reality, an old-order agenda ending in authority over others
is an ultimate corruption of what Jesus was all about, much less what
God had in mind when He started the whole thing.
Charles Schermerhorn
Lompoc, Calif
