Philip McPherson Rudisill
215 Piedmont Avenue, No. 304
Atlanta, GA 30308 USA
Tels. 404/351-9794 (Day) and 404/523-0970 (Evening); Fax 404/351-1491
pmr@mindspring.com - www.mindspring.com/~kantwesley
10/26/00
Letter to the Editor, via FAX 770/465-0685
Our UM church is floundering in a contentious confusion, but for which a remedy is readily at hand in Romans 14. (The reader should also to be mindful of Matthew 7:12, Romans 13:8-10, Acts 15, and Galatians).
The early church contained two diverse elements: the Gentile Christians, protegees of Paul, found sin only in violations of the Golden Rule, while the Jewish Christians, who agreed in the importance of this Rule, insisted that it be supplemented by additional regulations which could not be derived from the Golden Rule, e.g., meat could not be eaten until the blood had been drained.
This division has resurfaced today. The Gentile Christian means anyone bound only by the Golden Rule. The Jewish Christian is any Christian who accepts any externally imposed law (be it through scripture, church, or personal and direct revelation), e.g., it is a sin to engage in a homosexual act.
The reconciliation is simple, namely holy living is to be considered as conduct in accordance with the Golden Rule, and clean living will be conduct in accordance with any supplemental regulations. While all Christians, Jewish and Gentile, are to seek to be holy, only the Jewish Christian need be clean. But the Gentile Christians are not to flout their freedom by doing in front of Jewish Christians that which the latter hold to be unclean.
Our Discipline must be amended to reflect this scriptural solution. We should not encourage the Jewish United Methodists to sin through committing an act unclean in their eyes, nor force the Gentile United Methodists to surrender their freedom in Christ.
Sincerely,
/s/ Philip McPherson Rudisill
To contact the author, please e-mail: pmr**kantwesley.com (note: the ** must be replaced by @)