The real divide

THE REAL DIVIDE: Perhaps it is too late to reclaim the word "liberal," says Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge. Too bad, for the spirit of liberalism surely belongs to the gospel, which is generous, open-handed, "freeing and bountiful. Conversely, "conservative" can suggest being narrow, pinched, fearful and retrograde.

Still, she believes that theological liberals can rightly be accused of theological sentimentalism. She notes, for instance, her own denomination's slogan in the '90s, "No outcasts." Nobody could argue with it, yet it lacked theological grounding and connection with the biblical story. Mainline denominations won't split because they disagree over homosexuality, but because some are recognizing that the new teaching about sexuality lacks theological foundation, and "the scriptures are not being interpreted with the sort of reverent searching that believers would like to see from their leaders" (in Losing God with Our Minds: The Pastor as Theologian, edited by Michael Welker and Cynthia A. Jarvis [Eerdmans]).

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