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Classic Ichabod - McGavran Still the Theologian of the Synodical Conference

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Donald McGavran, Theologian of the Synodical Conference

Donald McGavran, liberal Disciples of Christ minister, sociologist, founder of the Church Growth Movement



Quotations from McGavran and About McGavran

From MEGATRON, the Database

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

"Donald A. McGavran, who has been called the father of the modern church growth movement, states in Understanding Church Growth, 'Men and women do like to become Christians without crossing barriers' (p. 227). This experienced scholar and missionary states many examples of the homogeneous principle working in his research throughout the world."
Dr. Paul Y. Cho (with R. Whitney Manzano), More Than Numbers, Waco: Word Books, 1984, p. 46.

"There is no doubt the Body rightly understood, reverently discerned, and scientifically described assists Christian leaders in being better stewards of the grace of God and effective communicators of the gospel of Christ."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 110. 1 Corinthians 10.

"To acquire more expertise in Church Growth thinking, I visited the School of World Mission and Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary. When I inquired concering resources and materials for American Church Growth, I found that Dr. Donald McGavran and C. Peter Wagner were team-teaching a course applying world principles of Church Growth to the American scene. I immediately became a part of that group. As I listened and learned, I realized here was the effective approach to evangelism for which I had been searching. In those hours, I experienced my third birth--'conversion' to Church Growth thinking." [Winfield C. Arn]
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 12.

"For the Love of Pete,"...presents "The Master's Plan for Making Disciples"...."Planned Parenthood for Churches"...Church growth principles are communicated with warmth and humor.
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 132.

"A Church Growth principle is a universal truth which, when properly interpreted and applied, contributes significantly to the growth of churches and denominations. It is a truth of God which leads his church to spread his Good News, plant church after church, and increase his Body."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 15.

"Discover new ways of thinking about your church and community, develop Church Growth eyes that see more accurately the various parts, the homogeneous units, the responsive segments of the community which can be won."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 17.

Church Growth Eyes Blinded Me with Science
"As we begin developing Church Growth eyes and see the possibilities, as we discover methods that prove effective and discard methods that are clearly ineffective, we will find ourselves in a new age."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 19.

"As Christians refine their methods, develop Church Growth eyes, feel church growth responsibility, communicate the Gospel, and educate those who are won until they become responsible Christians, the church as a whole will receive the abundant blessing God wants to give."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 21f.

"God wants his church to grow!"
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 22.

"They must not only believe in Jesus Christ but must become responsible members of his church The Bible requires that. If we take the Bible seriously, we cannot hold any other viewpoint."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 30.

"If a person claiming to be Spirit-filled is not evangelizing, one must doubt how full he or she is and wonder what kind of spirit he or she is full of."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 58.

"As we consider various factors and principles relating to Church Growth we need abundant, accurate information about the members of our churches. This basic principle of Church Growth is called Discerning the Body [in italics]. Pastors and lay people need to discern the Body in the congregation in which they are serving. For this, Church Growth eyes are essential."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 61. 1 Corinthians 10.

Fuller Will Give Y'all CG Eyes
"Discerning the Body begins with Church Growth eyes. Unfortunately, this is what many leaders, many Christians, do not have."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 63. 1 Corinthians 10.

"I was thinking some hard thoughts about my Presbyterian friends when the Lord said to me, 'Donald, you sat on the executive committee of the Indian Mission of the Disciples of Christ for twenty-five years, didn't you?' I said, 'Yes, Sir.' He said, 'How much time did you spend describing the growth or nongrowth of your church?'"
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 65.

"How can my congregation develop Church Growth eyes?"
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 72. 1 Corinthians 10.

"Churches grow as they reproduce themselves through planned parenthood." [Title of chapter 8]
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 93.

"Winning the winnable while they are winnable seems sound procedure."
Donald A. McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1980, p. 291.

[McGavran became a professor of missions in Indianapolis in 1957, at the College of Missions, where he got his M.A. in 1923. He began teaching at Northwest Christian College in Oregon in 1961. McGavran was invited to move his Institute of Church Growth to Fuller and become the founding dean of Fuller's School of World Mission.]
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 10f.

"The bulletin to which I refer is the Global Church Growth Bulletin, which McGavran began in 1964...One should not confuse McGavran's Global Church Growth Bulletin with Church Growth: America, a magazine edited by W Charles Arn and published by the Institute for American Church Growth."
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 11.

"Church Growth Eyes Sometimes the term is used in conjunction with the phrase, 'discerning the body.' Professor McGavran uses the terms almost synonymously. Both phrases are examples of how church growth science appropriates the medical model to express itself. Church growth eyes are 'a characteristic of Christians who have achieved an ability to see the possibilities for growth, and to apply appropriate strategies to gain maximum results for Christ and His Church.'" [McGavran and Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, p. 127.]
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 51.

Where WELS/LCMS Got MBO
"Church growth theorists are not opposed to applying Management by Objectives (MBO) in their work. McGavran is bold to advocate planning as much as fifty years in advance."
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 79.

Cloaca Magna of CG
"The fountainhead and headwaters of the church growth river are to be found in a man, an institute, a bulletin, a school, and a book." [But see C. Peter Wagner, "Church Growth, More Than a Man, a Magazine, a School, a Book," Christianity Today, December 7, 1973, pp. 11ff.]

"The man is Donald Anderson McGavran, the son of missionary parents, born in India on December 15, 1897, who was himself a third-generation missionary in India for more than thirty years under appointment of the United Christian Missionary Society (Disciples of Christ). He has a Ph. D. in education from Columbia University."
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 9f.

Olson (WELS): Our Hearts Beat as One
"Donald C. McGavran died at home home in Altadena, California, on July 10, 1990. He was 92 years old. Dr. McGavran is widely recognized as the founder of the church growth movement, a movement which has sought to put the social sciences at the service of theology in order to foster the growth of the church. In August of 1989 I borrowed a bicycle and pedaled several miles uphill up from Pasadena to Altadena. I found Dr. McGavran in his front yard with a hose in hand, watering flowers."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church,"EVANGELISM, February, 1991, Professor, Martin Luther College (WELS), p. 1.

"McGavran leaned toward me and said, 'The fields are white unto harvest. But you can't harvest a field of wheat with a penknife--you need a sickle, you need a scythe. Harvest intelligently."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church,"EVANGELISM, February, 1991, Parish Consultant for the WELS Board of Parish Services and his district's Coordinator of Evangelism. p. 2.

"But perhaps church growth's greatest challenge in North America comes from research that shows that more than 80 per cent of all the growth taking place comes through transfer, not conversion. The statistic strikes at the heart of McGavran's brainchild, now come of age. Whether by computer or spiritual power, the church growth movement must improve on those numbers. For if it does not, it will stand to lose the credibility and acceptance it has worked so long to gain."
Ken Sidey, "Church Growth Fine Tunes Its Formulas," Christianity Today, June 24, 1991, p. 47.

"In 1963 he [McGavran] planned to add to the Institute of Church Growth at Eugene an American Division headed by an American minister of church growth convictions, but the plan did not mature. In 1967 the annual Church Growth Seminar at Winona Lake, Indiana, drew in about 20 American ministers and heads of Home Missions Departments."
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books, 1976, p. 14.

How Norm Berg Got Fullerized
"The conscious attempt to apply church growth philosophy to America was stimulated in the fall of 1972 by Pastor Charles Miller, then a staff member of Pasadena's Lake Avenue Congregational Church. At Miller's urging, I organized and asked McGavran to team-teach with me a pilot course in church growth designed specifically for American church leaders. We did it only as an experiment, but the results were remarkable: One of the students, Win Arn, left his position with the Evangelical Covenant Church and founded the influential Institute for American Church Growth."
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books 1976, p. 15.

"The basic responsibility for the seminar is mine, but I am also assisted by Donald McGavran, Win Arn and John Wimber of the Fuller Evangelistic Association." [Two week Doctor of Ministry seminar every winter at Fuller School of Theology, on church growth]
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books, 1976, p. 15.

"I know these questions are real because I was asking them myself when I first came, during my second missionary furlough from Bolivia, to study at Fuller under McGavran. Frankly, I entered his program in 1967 as a skeptic. But I emerged an enlightened person."
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books, 1976, p. 35.

Kuske's Agenda for CG Institute in Columbus
"Church growth is that science which investigates the planting, multiplication, function and health of Christian churches as they relate specifically to the effective implementation of God's-commission to 'make disciples of all nations' (Matt. 28:19-20 RSV). Church growth strives to combine the eternal theological principles of God's Word concerning the expansion of the church with the best insights of contemporary social and behavioral sciences, employing as its initial frame of reference, the foundational work done by Donald McGavran." [Constitution, Academy for American Church Growth]
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, p. 75.

"In 1980 the Church Growth Movement celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. The historical even now regarded as the beginning of the movement was Donald McGavran's publication of The Bridges of God in 1955."
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, p. x.

WELS/ELCA Both Loved Lyle Schaller, not John Schaller
"Lyle Schaller, for example, now characterizes the emergence of the Church Growth Movement as 'the most influential development of the 1970's on the American religious scene." [In the Foreword to Donald McGavran and George G. Hunter III, Church Growth Strategies that Work (Nashville: Abingdon, 1980) p. 7.]
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, p. xi.

"Donald McGavran is the founder of the Church Growth Movement. See chapter 1, 'A Tribute to the Founder.'"
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 248.

"C. Peter Wagner is the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Missions in Pasadena, California. The School of World Mission became a part of Fuller Seminary in 1965 when Donald McGavran, father of the Church Growth Movement, moved his nonacademinc Institute of Church Growth to Pasadena from Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon. Since that time, Fuller Seminary has been the institutional base for the Church Growth Movement, first in its global expression and later in its North American expression."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271.

"C. Peter Wagner is the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Missions in Pasadena, California. The School of World Mission became a part of Fuller Seminary in 1965 when Donald McGavran, father of the Church Growth Movement, moved his nonacademinc Institute of Church Growth to Pasadena from Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon. Since that time, Fuller Seminary has been the institutional base for the Church Growth Movement, first in its global expression and later in its North American expression."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271.

"Wagner invited McGavran to team teach with him, and the course was a success. Among its students was Win Arn, who almost immediately stepped out in faith and established the Institute for American Church Grwoth, also located in Pasadena. Both Wagner and McGavran were members of the founding board of directors. Arn has given brilliant leadership to the Institute for American Church Growth and ranks as the premier communicator of the Church Growth Movement in North America."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271f.

"Wagner was instrumental in the organization of the North American Society for Church Growth, and became its founding president in 1984. In the same year he was honored by Fuller Seminary with the Donald A. McGavran Chair of Church Growth."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 273.

Acknowledgments to: Donald McGavran, Win Arn, John Wimber, Paul Benjamin, Dennis Oliver, Harold Lindsell...Jack Hyles...Robert Schuller....
C. Peter Wagner, Study Questions by John Wimber, Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: Regal Books, 1976, p. 9.

"There are other church growth programs which have been developed along more conservative lines. Here we are thinking of adaptations of McGavran's principles such as developed by Waldo J. Werning of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. In his study entitled "Vision and Strategy for Church Growth" Werning has modified some of McGavran's extreme positions. Using some of his own adaptations Werning has conducted many seminars and workshops in applying church growth principles to a local congregational setting in America." [Werning is Who's Who in Church Growth]
Ernst H. Wendland, "Church Growth Theology," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, April, 1981, 78, p. 117.

Wendland (WELS) Helped Soften Resistance to CG
"Dr. Donald McGavran, Dean Emeritus and Senior Professor of Mission at the Institute of Church Growth, Pasadena, California, is very much concerned about the Two Billion. He severely censures the leaders of the World Council of Churches as having 'betrayed the Two Billion.'
Ernst H. Wendland, "Missiology--and the Two Billion," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, January, 1974 71, p. 9.

CG Eyes Werning Worked with WELS/ELS/LCMS
"Donald McGavran offered us the following essay on 'The Unique and Radical Nature of the Church Growth Movement.'"
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 159.

"Dr. McGavran offers the following 'Ten Prominent Emphases in the Church Growth School of Thought.'" [Six and one half pages of direct quotes from McGavran follow.]
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 160.

"Dr. McGavran offers the following 'Ten Prominent Emphases in the Church Growth School of Thought.'" [Six and one half pages of direct quotes from McGavran follow.]
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 160.

"Waldo Werning has made an outstanding contribution to the church growth movement in America with Vision and Strategy for Church Growth...Working out of the models established by Donald McGavran and the School of World Mission at Fuller Seminary, Waldo Werning breaks new ground in developing ways that church growth principles can be applied directly to American churches." [Foreword by C. Peter Wagner]
Waldo J. Werning, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, Second Edition, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p. 5.

Classic Ichabod - WELS Keeping Up with Feminists in ELCA and Yale Divinity

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

WELS Working To Keep Up with ELCA, Yale Divinity School

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

May 31, 2011

Constance Parvey, pioneer, ELCA pastor, ecumenical leader, dies


     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Dr. Constance F. Parvey, a retired pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and one of the first women ordained in the Lutheran Church in North America, died May 21 at her home in Cambridge, Mass. after an illness.

     Parvey, 80, was also one of the first women admitted to the Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge. She authored a well-known 1983 report on the ordination of women, "The Community of Women and Men in the Church: The Sheffield Report," for the World Council of Churches.

     A service of thanksgiving for Parvey's life is planned for June 28 at University Lutheran Church, Cambridge.

     The Rev. Jessica R. Crist, bishop of the ELCA Montana Synod, Great Falls, said Parvey was a mentor, colleague and friend. "Connie Parvey was an extraordinary woman whose life touched the lives of many. For many people she was the first ordained woman they had ever seen or heard. She set a gold standard for those who followed," Crist said.

     Crist herself attended Harvard Divinity School beginning in 1975, while Parvey was at University Lutheran Church and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Crist spent two years working with her in the ecumenical campus ministry and followed Parvey into the ordained ministry.

     "Connie was a dedicated Lutheran theologian with a heart for ecumenism.  Throughout her life she refused to be put into a box," she said.

     Parvey was one of the few role models for female seminarians in the 1970s, said her bishop, the Rev. Margaret G. Payne of the ELCA New England Synod, Worcester, Mass. "I was one of them, and when other people were telling me that women couldn't be pastors, Connie assured me personally, and in no uncertain terms, that they were wrong," she said.

     Parvey's love for the church, courage and passion for embodying the gospel continued through her life, she added.

     The Rev. Joanne E. Engquist, pastor of University Lutheran Church, had known Parvey since 1989. Parvey should also be remembered for her work with college students, she said.

     "Connie's legacy is at least as important in campus ministry as it was with the wider ministry of the church," Engquist said. "Her commitment to young adults and the bringing together of academic rigor and deep passionate search for faith and trust in God really became for me more central."

     Parvey was born in Aberdeen, S.D.  She earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and psychology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1963 from Harvard Divinity School. The University of the Redlands (Calif.) awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1977.

     Parvey worked in many roles after Harvard Divinity School. She was on the Lutheran campus ministry staff at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; executive producer of a series of television programs on urban life in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., editor of the Harvard Divinity Bulletin; consultant; researcher and writer on ethical and moral issues; and a research associate with the Harvard Divinity School.

     Parvey was ordained in 1972 by the Lutheran Church in America, an ELCA predecessor church body. She served five years as associate pastor at University Lutheran Church and Lutheran chaplain at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1978 she began work with the World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland.

     Parvey was professor of religion at Bryn Mawr (Pa.) College and pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Jericho, Vt. She returned as chaplain for the Lutheran-Episcopal ministry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1996 until she retired in 2001.

***

GJ - WELS FICKLE magazine has an all-woman staff. The Wisconsin sect is now organizing women's ministry conferences, with the blessing of SP Schroeder. WELS has several women pastors, not formally ordained yet, because "WELS isn't ready for it yet," as Brug says.

Yale Divinity had a thick, boring issue of their alumni magazine out today. The entire issue was devoted to women's ministry and loaded with pretentious articles by women about themselves. To be fair, two eunuchs opened and closed the issue with their brief manly comments, like parentheses.

Update PS - Most have forgotten that female pastors were not accepted in the liberal LCA at first. Women's ordination came from the top down in the LCA and ALC. The first women ordained were chaplains at colleges or in institutions. Years after approval, only a few women were congregational pastors.

Quotas gave the newly ordained LCA women instant access to power through committee appointments (just like the Church and Change quotas). ELCA took that another step with quotas for homosexual and lesbian pastors.

In 2009, 22 years after ELCA began, the convention approved gay ordination and marriage. 

Lenski: "Resist the beginnings."

Classic Ichabod - The DNA of Your NIV. Lesbian Atheist Activist Mollencott Was Advisor for the Original NIV

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Yes, WELS, There Is a Virginia,
And She Helped Translate Your Yummy New Bible.
Criticizing This Debacle Will Destroy Baby Blue Eye's Faith

 

 

Kate Bornstein's Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws

Yes, Santa Claus, there is a Virginia.

Virginia Ramey Mollenkott celebrated her 75th birthday a few days ago. You may or may not know Virginia, but the odds are if you're reading this blog, your life has been touched by her work.
In 1978, Virginia Mollenkott co-authored (with Letha Dawson Scanzoni) the book Is         the Homosexual My Neighbor? A Postive Christisan Response. God alone knows how many queer lives she saved with that book, which is still on the shelves, revised and re-isued, after 19 years. Yow!
I first ran into this handsome butch spiritual lesbian about ten years ago when we met at the now defunct A Different Light LGBT bookstore in New York City. Virginia has written 13 books, but my favorite remains Omnigender: A Trans-Religious Approach, in which she debunks the myth of religious "truth" of two and two only genders, and she does this religion by religion. It's amazing work.


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 Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Ph.D.

Web Site:  www.virginiamollenkott.com

Collection:  Mollenkott, Virginia Ramey Papers

Oral History:  Virginia Mollenkott

In the mid-1970's, while still closeted personally, Mollenkott began to advocate at church conferences in behalf of lesbian and gay Christians. In l978, with Letha Dawson Scanzoni, she published Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, which became the spearhead volume of Harper San Francisco's collection of LGBT texts. The book, which won an Integrity award for "extraordinary support of the gay Christian movement," was revised and vastly expanded in 1994.

Mollenkott served as Stylistic Consultant for the New International Version of the Bible, and as a member of the National Council of Churches' Inclusive Language Lectionary Committee, coming out to the NCC convention in support of the Metropolitan Community Church's application for membership. She has guest lectured at hundreds of universities, church conferences and seminaries, and testified on behalf of the New Jersey anti-discrimination law, receiving a l992 Achievement Award from the NJ Lesbian and Gay Coalition. In 1999, SAGE (Senior Action in a Gay Environment) presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her work of combating heterosexism in religion.

Mollenkott has served as Board Member for various GLBT-friendly organizations, including Evangelicals Concerned, The Center for Sexuality and Religion, and Kirkridge Retreat Center, where for many years has led several GLBT events annually. She is a founding member of the GLBT-inclusive Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus.

Among her twelve books, the most explicitly lesbian is Sensuous Spirituality: Out From Fundamentalism, although lesbians have also enjoyed The Divine Feminine: Biblical Imagery of God as Female. Her most recent and most radical work, Omnigender: A TransReligious Approach, won the 2002 Lambda Literary Award in the bisexual/transgender category.

(This biographical statement provided by Virginia Mollenkott.)



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Honoring Virginia Ramey Mollenkott

Remarks I wrote and delivered in New York City at the Union Theological Seminary on Friday, September 19th, 2008—on the occasion of the publication of the new edition of her book, Sensuous Spirituality, and the acceptance of Virginia Ramey Mollenkott's archives at The Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies in Religion & Ministry at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California.
******************************
One of the major blocks to going through with my gender change was my fear of God's wrath. It makes sense—I'm a Jew, and we believe that God can be mighty wrathful when He wants to be—no matter that wrath is a deadly sin.
I left religion behind me, and embraced atheism as a spiritual path.

Many transgender people do that: when our religious leaders tell us how angry God is going to be with us for messing with our God-given genders, we turn away from God. And we eventually reach a point of unbearable loneliness and inconsolable grief, with no God to comfort us. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott is the first person to address our spiritual conundrum. She is the first person to return us to God's comfort and wisdom.

Over the recent history of the movement for transgender freedom—the 1990's and the late 1980's—trannies fell into one of two camps: either we were academics, who taught the neither/nor beliefs of postmodern theory, or we were political activists who fought for transgender civil liberties. For nearly a decade, Virginia Mollenkott has stood alone as a spiritual leader, a beacon to every transgender person who came across her work.

In her ground-breaking book, Omnigender, a trans-religious approach, Virginia teaches that the origin of trans oppression found in Deuteronomy comes down to the old Jewish love of binaries, and their abhorrence of incompatibility.

Men do one thing, women do another. They can't be mixed up. According to old Jewish ways of thinking, when you add femaleness to maleness, you pollute maleness and confuse the accepted bipolar gender system. That’s a double bind: first, it implies that femaleness is polluting, and second, it plays on the fact that Jews despise confusion. It’s why we’re always think-think-thinking!

Virginia's answer to the paranoia of Deuteronomy is this, from Omnigender:

“Any sincerely religious person who believes that women and men are equally created in God's image should think twice before invoking biblical prohibitions against cross-dressing and same-sex love. Because these prohibitions are associated with the attitude that femaleness is a pollutant, they have no place within a democratic and fair-minded society, let alone in a contemporary church, synagogue, or mosque.”

Virginia taught us that God—like gender—has many faces, and that none of His true faces are wrathful or transphobic. By painstakingly tracing the roots of trans prohibition in religions, Virginia has built us a bridge that connects postmodern theory and political activism with spirituality. That's never been done before.

Today, touring around to colleges and universities, I'm seeing more and more young trans students who are majoring in Religious Studies. Each and very one of them I spoke told me that Virginia Mollenkott was a major inspiration for their wish to make spirituality and religion a more integral and accessible part of the transgender experience.



Why might Dr. Mollenkott be so successful at reaching out to trannies? Well, one reason Virginia's work is so popular amongst trannies is that Virginia makes it okay to be religious and sexy at the same time. I mean, just look at this sexy, handsome woman (who just happens to be one of the finest flirts I know!)Thanks to Virginia Mollenkott, religion hasn't been this sexy or this much fun since the days of temple prostitutes!

In closing—before coming to this gathering this evening, I posted on Twitter that I was writing my talking points on Virginia's impact on the trans world. Within minutes of my post, I received this response from Natasha:
"Thank you for introducing me to Virginia Mollenkott. Ya gotta love anyone who can get the theocrats panties in a twist!"

She’s right. We do love you, Virginia Mollenkott. We do love you.

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http://inmylifetime.typepad.com/bkhipsher/2008/06/a-place-at-the.html



My friend Virginia Ramey Mollenkott was speaking as was Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, Moderator and spiritual leader of Metropolitan Community Church, my ministry home. I was privileged to spend some time with my friend and mentor Virginia and her partner. And I was able to enjoy Nancy and her assistant Connie's company as well.  Great lectures, wonderful music including a concert by folk singer Carrie Newcomer, a closing worship service that really grounded me in a way that was very helpful.


I've been slow to join EEWC (EEWC Website) and slower to attend their conferences and read their GREAT newsletter Christian Feminism Today.  So learn from my mistakes whether you're male or female identified and join this great organization.  These people, women and men, have something special going on. You won't find me missing from one of their conferences again!

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Wikipedia Article. More at the link.


Virginia Ramey Mollenkott spent her 44 year professional career teaching college level English literature and language, but developed specializations in feminist theology and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendertheology during the second half of that career.

She was born in Philadelphia's Temple University Hospital on January 28, 1932; married Frederick H. Mollenkott on June 17, 1954; had a son, Paul F. Mollenkott, on July 3, 1958; and was divorced in July of 1973. She earned her B.A. from fundamentalist Bob Jones University in 1953; her M.A. at Temple University in 1955; her Ph.D. at New York University in 1964; and received an honorary Doctorate in Ministries from Samaritan College in 1989. She chaired the English Department at Shelton College, Ringwood, New Jersey, from 1955-1963 and at Nyack College, Nyack, New York, from 1963-1967. She then taught at William Paterson Universityin Wayne, New Jersey from 1967 to 1997, chairing the English Department from 1972-1976 and since 1997 holding the position of Professor of English Emeritus.

Dr. Mollenkott served as an assistant editor of Seventeenth Century News from 1965-1975; as a stylistic consultant for the New International Version of the Bible for the American Bible Society from 1970-1978; as a member of the translation committee for An Inclusive Language Lectionary for the National Council of Churches from 1980-1988; on the Board of Pacem in Terris, Warwick, New York, from 1980-1990; on the Board of the Upper Room AIDS Ministry, Harlem, New York, from 1989-1994; on the Board of Kirkridge Retreat and Conference Center, Bangor, PA, from 1980-1991; on the Advisory Board of the Program on Gender and Society at the Rochester (New York) Divinity School from 1993-1996; as a manuscript evaluator for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion from 1994 to the present; as a contributing editor to The Witness from 1994 to 2000; and as a contributing editor to The Other Side from 2003-2007. She has delivered hundreds of guest lectures on feminist and LGBT theologies at churches, conferences, universities and seminaries throughout the United States.

Mollenkott's books include Adamant and Stone Chips, 1967; In Search of Balance, 1969; Women, Men and the Bible, 1977 (revised and updated in 1988; Korean translation in 1981); Speech, Silence Action, 1980; Is the Homosexual My Neighbor: A Positive Christian Response, 1978 (with Letha Dawson Scanzoni; revised and updated in 1994; won the Integrity Award, 1979); The Divine Feminine: Biblical Imagery of God as Female, 1983 (published in German, 1985; in French, 1990; and in Italian, 1993); Views from the Intersection, 1984 (with Catherine Barry); Godding; Human Responsibility and the Bible, 1987; Sensuous Spirituality: Out from Fundamentalism, 1982 (revised and expanded, 2008); Omnigender: A Trans-Religious Approach, 2001 (revised and updated, 2007; won the Lambda Literary Award, 2002; and the Ben Franklin Award, 2002); andTransgender Journeys, 2003 (with Vanessa Sheridan).

Dr. Mollenkott also edited a book of spiritual poems, Adam Among the Television Trees, 1971; and a volume of inter-religious dialogue, Women of Faith in Dialogue, 1987. Since 1997 she has served on the editorial board of Studies in Theology and Sexuality, based in the United Kingdom.

In 1992 Dr. Mollenkott received the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Achievement Award, and in 1999 was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from SAGE (Senior Action in a Gay Environment).
She has been a lifetime member of the Modern Language Association, where she served on the Executive Committee of Religion and Literature from 1976-1980; and a lifetime member of the Milton Society of America, serving on the executive committee from 1974-1976. She has published dozens of articles in scholarly and literary journals as well as church-related publications, and is an active founding member of the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus, better known as Christian Feminism Today.

A Democrat and trans-religious Christian, Dr. Mollenkott lives with her domestic partner Judith Suzannah Tilton at Cedar Crest Retirement Village; together they co-grandmother Virginia's three granddaughters. Dr. Mollenkott's archives are available at The Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies at the Pacific School of Religion.

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Welcome to Virginia's Official Website

 Virginia Ramey Mollenkott is the author or co-author of 13 books, including several on women and religion. She is a winner of the Lambda Literary Award and has published numerous essays on literary topics.

• Important Links

  EEWC - Christian Feminism Today
  LGBT Religious Archives Network
  Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies in Religion and Ministry TransFaith On-Line
  Christian Lesbians OUT
  WATER

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Sodomy and the NIV 


The following readings compare the KJB and the NIV in several areas where sodomy or homosexual behavior is mentioned. Going over these, it is easy to see that sodomy was never considered as a viable concept in the NIV and homosexuality was presented from Dr. Mollenkott's viewpoint. The comments of Dr. Mollenkott are from her book, Is The Homosexual My Neighbor? (abbreviated as ITHMN)

Upload a gay video to YouTube -
what a great promotional idea for Martin Luther College, WELS.

Genesis 19:5 - The sin of Sodom

KJB - And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, where are the men which came into thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
NIV - They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out so that we can have sex with them."
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 57 - "... the Sodom story seems to be focusing on two specific evils: (1) violent gang rape and (2) inhospitality to the stranger."

Leviticus 18:22 - Sodomy

KJB - Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.
NIV - Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman: that is detestable.
(Author's note: There is quite a degree of difference between the meaning of the words, abomination and detestable.) 

Leviticus 20:13 - Sodomy

KJB - If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death: their blood shall be upon them.
NIV - If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them has done what is detestable. They must be put to death: their blood will be on their own heads.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Pages 110 through 121 - "Dr. Mollenkott argues that this is part of the ceremonial laws, and as such, are to be disregarded by the Christian. She places this act on the same level as wearing clothes of two different materials."

Deuteronomy 23:17 - Sodomite

KJB - There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
NIV - No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.

Judges 19:22 - Sodomy

KJB - Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.
NIV - While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him."
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 57 - "Violence - forcing sexual activity upon another - is the real point to this story."

I Kings 14:24 - Sodomites

KJB - And there were sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.
NIV - There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

I Kings 15:12 - Sodomites

KJB - And he took away the sodomites out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
NIV - He expelled all the shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of the idols his fathers had made.

I Kings 22:46 - Sodomites

KJB - And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.
NIV - He rid the land of the rest of the shrine prostitutes who remained there even after the reign of his father Asa.

II Kings 23:7 - Sodomites

KJB - And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
NIV - He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the temple of the Lord and where women did weaving for Asherah.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 59 & 60 - "Most scholars agree that in the fertility religions of Israel's neighbors, male cult prostitutes were employed for homosexual acts. The people who loved and served the God of Israel were strictly forbidden to have anything to do with such idolatry, and the Jewish men were commanded to never serve as temple prostitutes."
(Author's note: Clearly a male could be a shrine prostitute and not be a homosexual, but according to the dictionary a Sodomite is a homosexual.) 

Matthew 11:24 - Judgment upon Sodom

KJB - But I say unto you, That it shall be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment, than for thee.
NIV - But I tell you it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.

Luke 10:12 - Judgment upon Sodom

KJB - But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.
NIV - I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for you.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 59-"Jesus refers to Sodom, not in the context of sexual acts, but in the contents of inhospitality." And on Page 71, she expands this thought with the idea of a life long homosexual orientation or 'condition' is never mentioned in the Bible."

Romans 1:26 & 27 - Homosexuality

KJB - For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And like wise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in lust one toward another; man with men working that which is unseemingly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
NIV - Because of this, God gave him over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 62 - "The key thought here seems to be lust, 'unnaturalness,' and, in verse 28, a desire to avoid the acknowledgment of God. But although the censure fits idolatrous people with whom Paul was concerned here, it does not seem to fit the case of a sincere homosexual Christian. Such a person loves Jesus Christ and wants above all to acknowledge God in all of life, yet for some unknown reason feels drawn to someone of the same sex, for the sake of love rather than lust. Is it fair to describe that person as lustful or desirous of forgetting God's existence?"

I Corinthians 6:9 - Rejection of homosexual behavior

KJB - Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.
NIV - Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolators nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders.
A note here to point out that this is the only place in the NIV where the word "homosexual" occurs. It is not clear from the context if this means heterosexuals who abuse homosexuals or homosexuals who abuse each other. See Dr. Mollenkott's explanation in the 1st Timothy comments following.

I Timothy 1:9 & 10

KJB - Knowing this, that the law is not made for righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for manstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
NIV - We also know that law is not made for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murders, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 67 - "Interpretations of these passages depends on two Greek words used in I Cor. 6:9 which have presented a problem for translators in the King James Version, they translated 'effeminate' and 'abusers of themselves with mankind.' In the Revised Standard Version of 1952, they were combined and rendered simply 'homosexuals,' which implied that all persons whose erotic interests were oriented to the same sex were by the very fact excluded from membership in the kingdom of God. But the original intent seems to have been to single out specific kinds of same-sex practices which were deplorable."

Jude 7 - Strange flesh

KJB - Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
NIV - In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 59 - "The unnatural lust" thus could, in the context, and in view of the apocryphal texts to which Jude made allusion, refer to a desire for sexual contact between human and heavenly beings.î

It would not be fair to say that all the people involved in producing the NIV favored homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle, but it is fair to say that those who were responsible for the final wordings were at least sympathetic to Dr. Mollenkott's cause. One only has to look at the treatment of sodomy in the NIV to reach this conclusion.

While many believe practicing homosexuals can be Christian, there are many others who have a different conviction about what the Bible says about sodomy. For this group, it is hardly acceptable to call Sodomites temple prostitutes, or to think of same-sex relationships as natural. These same people would take a viewpoint that God hates the sin of homosexuality and will bring judgment on those who live this kind of lifestyle.

The information presented here is not all-inclusive, but is intended to sound an alarm. If the NIV is your Bible of choice, it would be prudent to look closely in other areas as well, for there are many other subjects handled just as loosely as sodomy. Don't take anyone's word for what God says; Check it out! After all, He'll hold you alone responsible.