Why does „conservative“ seem to really mean „bullheadedly offensive“ ?

Word of warning: I'm using conservative in this post in a strictly theological sense.

 

You know, I'm a relatively conservative theologian. I moved away from fundamentalism, sure, and I hold a lot of opinions unpopular in the church I grew up in, but really, there are some folks out there who make all of conservative Christianity look bad without even being super-fundamentalist!

 

There's a "movement", if you can call it that, to "re-start" the reformation here in Germany. A certain guy in Heidelberg, Sebastian Heck, has gotten support from the PCA to plant new churches over here as there's "no church or denomination today in Germany that can claim to legitimately be an heir of the Reformation" and "Germany is a thoroughly secular nation." I saw this video on the Heidelblog (http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/a-great-god-and-a-great-goal-reformation2germany/) which, although I read, is not on my blogroll because I have to take him with a huge grain of salt. Now, I have comments about this idea, but first, as if this idea isn't enough, take a look at some of the response to it (http://cyberbrethren.com/2010/08/28/the-reformed-are-aiming-at-planting-the-calvinist-faith-back-in-germany/) (Yeah, I don't read that one at all)

 

Egad. So working backwards:

 

Firstly, the SELK is NOT an heir of the Reformation, because they hold to the idea of a special status for the ordained. It's a 2-class system, just not as strong as what Luther had an issue with (of course, I'l make this argument, slightly changed, for several US denominations that deny women ordination in today's cultural situation, but here I mean even among men).

 

Secondly, the idea of exporting American evangelicalism over here even offends me! The assertions made by Herr Heck and his supporting Americans are puerile and unfounded, and I would doubt if those "statistics" even hold true in the former east. (Übrigens, meine deutschsprächige LeserInnen, ich habe mal versucht den Herrn Heck zur Rede zu stellen, und überraschenderweise hatte er keine Lust mit mir über Theologie zu reden, oder sogar zu erklären warum er meinte solch ein Programm erforderlich sei. Ich vermute, es wäre wohl schwerer zu behaupten daß man von amerkianischen Gemeinden Geld bekommen soll zu jemandem der kennt sich aus mit der Theologie wie sie heute in Deutschland ist...). There's a spectrum in the member churches of the EKD, but the fact that this spectrum exists hardly means that they are not heirs of the Reformation. No, there's not a repressive shouting down of any idea less than 100 years old, but I'm proud to be a member of an EKD member church. See four.

 

Thirdly, the R2G assertion is entirely too simplified. Yes, the EKD is an umbrella organization, and yes, the Reformed and Lutheran churches have communion with each other, as well as some theological bleed-over. But even if he wants to say there's no Reformed church, due to the EKD, he can only do so by ignoring the Reformierte Kirche that are part of the EKD (as well as the independent ones). Hey, I'm pretty sure my advisor is a member of the Reformierte Kirche in Bayern and not the Evangelische Lutherische Kirche in Bayern (well, he dedicated a book to the newest congregation here in München). Not to mention the fact that the church in Baden-Württemburg is so influenced by the Reformed side of things that going to church one Sunday in BW and another in Bayern is enough to make you wonder if they agree on ANYthing.

 

Fourthly, I talk to pastors, theologians, and those who will be pastors in EKD member churches nearly every day. In general, both here and in the States, I find the ur-conservative bogeyman, the overplayed, stereotyped "flaming liberal" to be a straw man. The big fight was years ago, when we saw Machen and Bultmann and others going nuts. When Barth tried to walk a middle ground. I've got news, folks – none of those theologians wanted to do anything but love and serve Christ as best as possible, and a lot of the excesses on both sides (or all three) have balanced out – except in those denominations that checked out of the dialogue because they couldn't handle someone having a different opinion.

You know, you folks embarrass me for your lack of understanding and willingness to dialogue as much as the backwoods fundamentalists embarrass me for the characterizations they've caused (and yes, being an American Christian in Europe means you get immediately compared with them if you don't distance yourself).

 

I could rant a lot longer on this, and connected topics, but I'll stop for now, it's probably healthier.