Apostate Christianity: A First Hand Encounter, Part 2

Yesterday I began a short critique of a nearby Congregationalist church. I picked up a few printouts of their pastor’s sermons last Tuesday and I read over them. One need not read in much detail to see how vapid, hollow, insipid and vacuous these sermons are. I cannot even imagine how dreadfully dull it must be to sit under this kind of teaching week after week.

I noticed that on the sermon dated September 26, 2010 that among the texts for the message was a passage from the Qur’an. I’m not about citing the Qur’an, but if I read it from the pulpit, it will be to demonstrate the evil nature of the religion it purveys. But how does New England Congregational use the citation from the Qur’an? The title of the sermon says it all: So, What Does New England Congregational Believe, Anyway? The Biblical passages were both from Ephesians. Mind you, there is no exposition of these passages; they are merely quoted at the beginning of the message. On the face of it, it would appear that the pastor is comfortable with putting the Qur’an side by side with Sacred Scripture.

Lest you think I am jumping to unwarranted conclusions, I must hasten to add that I checked several of the sermon print-outs, and in every case, there was a quotation from the Qur’an. So this was not an isolated incident.

Well, let’s ask the burning question: What does this church believe, anyway? Remember, these are their words, not mine. In fact, the pastor actually remarks that many members of the congregation were surprised that the church even had a statement of its beliefs! He says, “Consensus on theological beliefs cannot be easily found here because of the wide spectrum of belief about the nature of God, the person of Jesus, or a ghost that is holy.” I submit to you that that is blasphemy.

So, “tongue in cheek,” by their own admission, here is what they believe:

1. We believe in an interpretation of faith that allows us to encounter God in any way God chooses to come to us.

2. We believe that by being theologically liberal we are best able to respect individual differences in faith and pilgrimage, worship God, honor the bible, and follow Christ’s teaching. (The lower case “b” in bible is not a typo on my part; that is exactly how it appears in their print-out. Surely this says something about their view of the Bible.)

3. We believe in the teaching of the Gospel variously interpreted in an environment that does not require strict adherence to a creed.

4. We believe that being inclusive of all people is fundamental to our faith community.

If you do not find this heretical in the extreme, you have cause to question your profession of Christianity. This is an apostasy worthy of Rome. A Christianity with no doctrinal content, a Christianity whose beliefs cannot be codified in a creed is a Christianity not worth having! God save us from such “Christianity.”