beaconchurches

I am tired of liberal religionists pointing the finger questioning the ethics of "fill in the blank". How can we have ethics without an authentic, biblical world view? Imagine a church governing body claiming "it is unethical to pull from a denomination". Imagine those same leaders smoking a peacepipe at the communion table with Baal worshipers. Imagine those new denominational Baal worshiping priests telling the local church groups what to do or how to think (ethical standards). That's what national religious pundits are doing to local churches and their associations. There is a gap between theological stances and moral ethics. The PSW and San Joaquin break-offs reflect that. That word "Ethics" gets bandied about too often by progressives. W&A gurus' theological stances mute their outcry for ethical standards. Theology, Christ, the Bible, and all that stuff is the glue holding us masses of people together--the church. Take that away and our organization crumbles. Unrestrained freedom and power can be either a blessing or a burden. During the Nazi era great medical advances came from inhumane experimentation. We questioned whether those ends justified the means. We should do the same with theology/ethics. Even if some good ethical codes come from counter-biblical theologies, we must question the theology (how we view God) before ethics (how we relate to each other). If we have only good social ethics without good theology, then we should just put on fez caps because we are nothing but do-gooder Shriners. We are more than a kind social organization doing good deeds, we are the Church; praise God!

When W&A leaders dangle an ethical concern in front of you, check their theologies first: if they don't believe the Bible you can't trust their ethics based on situations and not Scripture. The problem is, you as a Bible carrier will be subjected to both their codified agreement and the spirit of the Bible. They will judge you according to both. Different, they will justify their own behaviors according to the situation's highest need with little consideration to the Bible. (They rarely apologize for breaching ethical agreements unless they are totally busted, and even then, good luck!). The ABC and the Episcopal church are still in quite a dilemma. Getting local church groups and their associations to not use their Bibles for theology and ethical standards will be a great trick. Liberal seminaries and bloglodytes are making great progress in this area.

Your theology effects your ethics, and how you hold to those ethics, and with what standards you hold others to ethics. Often, the more clergy garb and religious bling-bling (at least in Baptist circles), the more situation ethics apply--just personal observation. I have no scientific evidence to prove that. Maybe Barna can do a study on it.
I'll take a spirit-filled fisherman's ethics any day!