Woman theologian wants to replace the Cross with a...
(Woman) by nature (that is, by the ordinary law of God) is formed to obey; for the government of women has always been regarded by all wise persons as a monstrous thing..." (John Calvin)
(Tim, w/thanks to Jeff M.) It's worth noting how southern Presbyterianism's Union Theological Seminary has left the faith of her fathers for the heresies of her mothers.
Back when I was a minister in the mainline Presbyterian Church (USA), I noted how "out there" the woman pastors were compared to the men pastors. Whether the issue was political, ecclesiastical, or theological, they brought a whole new level of error into the church that even apostate men hadn't given themselves to.
Eve is vulnerable. Can I get an "Amen" from a man who loves his mother, sisters, daughters, and wife?
Have you heard a sermon, lately, on the wife being "someone weaker, since she is a woman" (1Peter 3:7)? That it was not Adam, but Eve who was deceived (1Timothy 2:14)? On the Holy Spirit's delineation of "worldly fables fit only for old women" (1Timothy 4:7)? (The English Standard Version removes this text from Scripture.) Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, His Bride, and gave Himself up for Her.
Today, women who have been deceived are themselves deceiving. With the woman preachers of Trinity Broadcasting Network and Union (Presbyterian) Seminary, faithful shepherds must declare not simply that the doctrine is heretical, but that those deceived and deceiving are women. It's pertinent. This is one more indication of the truth of God's Word, that woman is not to teach or exercise authority over man.
This spawned by the news that Union Theological Seminary's 2010 Sprunt Lectures are to be given by Margaret R. Miles, emerita professor of Historical Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkley, California. Being a woman, Professor Miles has written:
"Although theologians may have claimed that crucifixion scenes exhibited the extremity of God’s love for humans, it was scenes of the child sucking at the breast that spoke to people on the basis of their earliest experience." Prof. Miles tells us the breast was replaced by the cross when patriarchal Western Europeans “secularized the breast.” She doesn't like the cross because “it presents a violent act as salvific."
“The equation of love with heroic violence and suffering is typically a male-centered perspective (and) the value of the nursing breast as a symbol of God’s provision might need to be reconsidered in our own time … In societies in which violence is rampant on the street and in the media, the nursing virgin can perhaps communicate God’s love to people in a way that a violent image, the image of one more sacrificial victim, cannot.”
Clearnote Churches
Clearnote Fellowship
Christ the Word
Monthly archive
- May 2013 (21)
- April 2013 (33)
- March 2013 (43)
- February 2013 (28)
- January 2013 (41)
- December 2012 (31)
- November 2012 (37)
- October 2012 (38)
- September 2012 (21)
- August 2012 (28)
- July 2012 (46)
- June 2012 (50)
Popular Posts
Tags
Recent Comments
- David J. Wegener on Some pics for your enjoyment...
- Emily Burlingham on Why move to Bloomington?
- Robert Woodyard on Some pics for your enjoyment...
- Tim Bayly on Some pics for your enjoyment...
- Christopher Lee on Some pics for your enjoyment...
Comments
Hey...what say we skip images of the nursing virgin (since Dr. Miles, I'd bet, doesn't really believe she was a virgin, anyway) and go straight back to the Venus of Willendorf?
Woman theologian wants to replace the Cross with a...
[I found the answer!]
Woman theologian wants to replace the Cross with a...
"child sucking at the breast." [Margaret R. Miles]
"Prof. Miles tells us the breast was replaced by the cross when patriarchal Western Europeans “secularized the breast.”"
WHAAAA...AAAAAT??
Are you freaking kidding me????
This has got to be one of the most jaw-dropping (pun not intended) statements that I've ever read on this blog.
On a side note, what does it even mean to secularize a breast? Does it mean that breasts were holy and sacred before, but now those rotten patriarchal Western Europeans have profaned breasts by secularizing them?
What is going on in the world?
Tim,
I don't know why Eve's vulnerability hit me in this way before! Those denominations, associations and local bodies that have given themselves over to the leadership of women have been led by those same women, supposedly gited and called to the pastorate, faster and faster down the handcart to . . . well, need I say it?
Romans 1:21 comes to mind here.
Kamilla
Oddly, in the bios I could find online, no mention is made of a husband or children.
Why am I not surprised?
Kamilla
While I could go on and on about how wrong/loathsome this replacing the Cross with a breast is (the word "vomit" comes to mind) why not make the next "logical" step in this thought process. Don't get ahead of me now.
While the breast is a lovely picture, friendly, non-violent, non-masculine, painless, no judgement etc,...there is one other thing that has it topped; that's right: let's replace the Cross with the (you know what). I mean really, think of the sermons one could preach! "It gives life, it births this spiritual thing, that spiritual thing, it's non-confrontational blah, blah , blah. The "life lessons and applications" are endless and no masculine issues to deal with too!
Come now; do we REALLY want to preach punishment/judgement/suffering/violence/the Cross? Don't you know people are looking for an escape when they go to church?
While this may seem over the top and extreme, I can easily see this being preached soon. If it hasn't been already.
(but only if it hasn't been "secularized")(what?!)
Scott Hatkow: "let's replace the Cross with the vagina."
Ai-yi-yi.
I can see it now: "The Vagina Monologues" coming to a Liberal Protestant church near you.
The whole thing is disgusting--such a shame that seminaries are teaching and allowing such heresy.
Your comment that the ESV removes 1 Timothy 4:7 from scripture piqued my curiosity, so I looked it up in the ESV and NIV and KJV. The latter two include the phrase 'old wives' tales', but the UBS and NA-27 both have 'graodeis muthous' (sorry for the terrible transliteration). How can the ESV remove a verse from scripture--or in this case a phrase--that isn't in the original?
Thanks for blogging--it always makes for some interesting reading!
>>the UBS and NA-27 both have 'graodeis muthous'
The Greek text is 'graodes.'
A proper translation is "old wives" tales, but the ESV leaves out the "old wives" part.
Even the mainline feminist Bible, the NRSV, gets it right: "old wives' tales."
Almost every Bible gets it right, including the NLT, NASB, ASV, KJV, NKJV. Also, both the sort-of-evangelical feminist versions get it right--the NLT and the TNIV.
Some years back, I corresponded with one of the main scholars who worked on the ESV, asking him about this error. He said it was an import from the RSV that was apparently overlooked. Interestingly, other words in this verse were updated from the RSV to the ESV--just not this embarrassing statement.
RSV: Have nothing to do with godless and silly myths. Train yourself in godliness;
Updated RSV (called the ESV): Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;
Love,
http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/graodes.html
>> "The Vagina Monologues" coming to a Liberal Protestant church near you.
Already been done.
Scott - That's actually where I thought the original post was going, so I'm glad we haven't gotten there yet.
I am with you, TUAD, I'd be very interested to hear the professor's research to come up with that jaw-dropping statement.
Her reduction of Christ to "one more sacrificial victim" says it all.
The verse "Take up your cross daily.." will be replaced by "Take up your breast and nurse daily."
There is a bitter irony in that I'd have to bet that the very church where this woman preaches the soteriology of the nursing mother is also one where the "sacrament" of prenatal infanticide is preached, and the wonders of Biblical marriage are denigrated. I'm all for nursing mothers, and I've enjoyed the beauty of my wife as she fed our babies, but for some reason the image of the nursing mother seems to correlate pretty well to churches where the Cross is preached.
And on the light side, it looks like Dabney left Union just in time!
">> "The Vagina Monologues" coming to a Liberal Protestant church near you.
Already been done."
Are you serious, Benjamin Glaser??
I was just joking. Have they really done the show "The Vagina Monologues" in a Liberal Protestant church?
Most abhorrent theological statement I've heard in a along time. Unfortunately, if you'd visit almost any Episcopalian seminary you'd probably hear other heresies from both men and women faculty.
>>Have they really done the show "The Vagina Monologues" in a Liberal Protestant church?
They've done it at Notre Dame.
They have had the Vagina Monologues at both San Francisco and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminaries.
They have had worse at East Liberty and 6th Presbyterian Churches here in Pittsburgh.
(Shakes head slowly in disgust and dismay).
I knew the LibProt churches and seminaries were going bad, I mean, I knew it was really bad, but I didn't know it was THIS bad.
There's three terrible things: One, heresy. Two, apostasy. Three, blasphemy.
This Professor Miles' article and this "Vagina Monologues" in LibProt churches and seminaries is all three terrible things.
It is worth noting that the Roman Catholic church's marian veneration (Intercessor Mater) replaced the cross with the breast a long long time ago.
Jesus answers all such heresies well in Luke 11:
"While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, 'Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.' But He said, 'On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.'"
Thanks, Pastor Bayly, for the clarification...This was a valuable lesson for me to remember that computer programs are not infallible. Accordance Bible has as the gloss for 'graodeis' (inflected form as it appears in the text) "foolish, silly". Had I but done the next obvious step (duh!) and looked up the word in BDAG, it would have shown me the exact thing you said.
It's interesting that there have been revisions made to the ESV, but this correction was overlooked...
Blessings,
Jezebel, in Church of Thyatira, convinced some in that church that they should be more like the culture around them and Christ had some pretty pointed words for them (aka: us) Revelation 2:18 ff.
We lived in apartments at UTS in Manhattan for a month while at MTW Pre-Field Training in 2008. It was a very strange place. There was a resident 6'5" tall man who I saw many days going about his UTS business in his little black dress and pumps. Once, when I was exploring the halls I found a picture of Bonhoeffer on the wall. The contrast between the man in the dress and the martyred pastor grieved me. There were several other disturbing things about the place, but this post explains the gist well enough.
Add new comment