Over at The Corner, Mark Steyn points out an article at National Post.
There is a Bible on a pedestal in Gretta Vosper’s West Hill United Church in Toronto. She would prefer it did not have a special place, she said, because it is just a book among other books. In a similar way, the cross that is high above the altar has no special meaning, but there are a few older congregants for whom the Bible and the cross are still nice symbols so there they remain.
Though an ordained minister, she does not like the title of reverend. It is one of those symbols that hold the church back from breaking into the future — to a time “when the label Christian won’t even exist” and the Church will be freed of the burdens of the past. To balance out those symbols of the past inside West Hill, there is a giant, non-religious rainbow tapestry just behind the altar and multi-coloured streamers hang from the ceiling.
I would think the occupation of minister would be an odd choice for someone who doesn’t think the Bible is special. But then, her thoughts on Christ’s place in Christianity are a bit odd, too.
“The central story of Christianity will fade away,” she explained. “The story about Jesus as the symbol of everything that Christianity is will fade away.”
…
Ms. Vosper does not believe in the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the miracles and the sacrament of baptism. Nor does she believe in the creeds, the presence of Christ in communion or that Jesus was the Son of God.
In With or Without God, her book that was formally launched this week, she writes that Jesus was a “Middle Eastern peasant with a few charismatic gifts and a great posthumous marketing team.”
The Bible is used in her services, but it gets rewritten to be more contemporary and speak to more people. Even the Lord’s Prayer — also known as the Our Father — does not make the cut because it creates an image of a God who intervenes in human existence. And then there is the “Father” part that is not inclusive language and carries with it the notion of an overbearing tyrant who condemns people to hell.
Hmm… and she’s a Christian minister, because? I really don’t get it. It sounds like what might happen if I worked with Code Pink. I don’t believe in anything they do, but hey, they need me to spout their party line in a less than enthusiastic manner. 
She envisions a time when there is no religious divisions and everyone shares in their common values and their only differences are cultural. Still, she said there is no conflict with this and being in the church.
“The church is extremely important because it can be a transformative element in individuals’ lives and communities,” she said. “And that was the root of what the Christian Church was about: transforming the way people see themselves in relation
to the communities around them and in relation to each other and about living that in community. Christianity took over that story and manipulated it into a very different story.”
Wow… and here I thought the root of Christianity was Christ. Boy, do I feel foolish now.
Filed under: Canada, Christianity, Good Grief, Idiocy, Religion | Tagged: Bible, Canada, Christianity, Gretta Vosper, Religion, Toronto, West Hill United Church
I’m quite fond of that gap between “in relation” and “to the communities” in the original article. I think that reading on the assumption that typography signifies would make that the center of gravity of the whole article–the disrupted relation-to as the “center” of the disclaimed relation-of the community.
of course, I’d be remiss not to link back to some high-speed historical criticism of Madame at Conservative Intelligencer. Yeah, I’m like that.
I thought the big gap was perfect. It just seemed to belong in the article.
And I got no problems sending some love CI’s way.