Episcopal Presiding Bishop Spins Church and Its Future

The following interview with Katharine Jefferts Schori took place on Lutheran Public Radio with Issues, Etc. hosted by Todd Wilkens
By David W. Virtue
January 10, 2012

Audio

Excerpt:
WILKEN: What do you see the central message of Scripture is, Bishop?

JEFFERTS SCHORI: Love God and love your neighbor.

VOL: One wonders if that applies to Archbishops Bob Duncan, Rowan Williams or Nicholas Okoh. Talk is cheap.

WILKEN: I think that the central message is: of man's sin ...his fallen condition - alienation from God, thereby loss of the image of God, thereby... And it's complete restoration in the Incarnation ... the perfect life -- sinless life ... death and resurrection ... the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And I think that is the central thread of Scripture. Am I wrong?

JEFFERTS SCHORI: I think that is a piece of it. But clearly God is at work communities and contexts beyond the Christian one. If you see that as the primary thrust of the Jewish Scripture I think that is a misreading. Certainly the Jews are understood as "Chosen People" in our Biblical texts. God is clearly at work in all of creation and part of our task as Christians is to discern and affirm at where we find God at work beyond our comfortable places.

VOL: In other words Christianity is not exclusively the way to the Father there are other pathways - Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu. The Presiding Bishop is on record saying she would never seek to convert a Muslim to Christ as their pathway to God is just as valid as her pathway, which, presumably, is still Christian. She also publicly denied the need for personal salvation.

WILKEN: The passage that I guess I go to repeatedly in taking that position is to Jesus, Himself, where He says: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6] Jesus is claiming to be the ONLY revelation of God; the ONLY revelation of the sacred in His Incarnation; and most certainly, the ONLY way to the True God. What are your thoughts there?

JEFFERTS SCHORI: He also says in another place [John 10:16] that He has flocks, that He is called to care for flocks - sheep that aren't already in a particular fold, and that He has words of truth for them as well.

WILKEN: So what do you think He is referring to there, specifically?

JEFFERTS SCHORI: I think He is referring to people beyond our comfort zone.

WILKEN: Beyond Christianity?

JEFFERTS SCHORI: Could be...

WILKEN: Well, do you think it is beyond Christianity?

JEFFERTS SCHORI: I think the work of Jesus has changed reality for all human beings whether they acknowledge themselves Christians or not.

Full transcript and commentary at Virtueonline