[Dialogue] Spong on the Anglican church US/Africa rift

[KroegerD@aol.com]

 Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
Martha Jo Chalmers from Albany, CA, asks:  
I have been thinking a lot about the schism currently involving the African  
Church and our Episcopalians in this country. I remembered when I was in  
seminary, we were always collecting old theological texts and shipping them off  
to Africa. We should have burned those books and bought brand new texts and 
sent  those instead. We are now getting back what we sent to Africa - outdated 
19th  century theology.  
Dear Martha:  
Your idea has far more credibility than many people think. There is nothing  
quite so dead as a dated theological book. At the Lambeth Conference of 
Anglican  Bishops in 1998, I did a radio interview with an African bishop who told 
me that  the "Library" for his theological training consisted of about 50 
books, all of  them published in the 1930s. He was totally unfamiliar with the 
names that have  shaped the theological enterprise in the last half of the 20th 
century in both  Protestant and Catholic circles. When you add to this the fact 
that those  motivated to become foreign missionaries tend to be "theologically 
certain,"  that is, they believe fervently that they possess the saving truth 
that if not  shared with the people of the world "who know not Christ," those 
peoples'  "lostness" will be forever a burden that their missionary 
consciences will have  to bear, then you can understand another dimension of the 
present dilemma.  
In my small study group at this same Lambeth conference was a Nigerian bishop 
 who made Jerry Falwell look like both a flaming liberal and a scholar. This 
is  not to denigrate this particular gentleman, whose sincerity and devotion 
were  both exemplary; but it is to say that education is not equal the world 
over and  inevitably those, who do not know the larger picture, are crippled 
because they  also do not know that they do not know. That is the most profound 
ignorance of  all and it deeply affects the fundamentalists of this world.  
However, one caveat that needs to be added is that we must not think of  
Africa or anywhere else as monolithic in the way its people think. The three  
strongest voices for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people, heard at this  
conference, were all African Anglicans. They were: the Archbishop of Central  
Africa Khotsu Mkullu, the Archbishop of Capetown Njongonkulu Ndungane and the  
retired Archbishop of Capetown, Desmond Tutu.  
--John Shelby Spong