Church debates whether to concede that Jesus is Lord

I was baptized in a denomination called the United Church here in Canada, but it is independent of the one I write about below. But though independent, they often seem headed down the same path. Before I converted to Catholicism, we had a moderator named Bill Phipps who was unwilling to accede to the divinity of Christ - he would demure and say such things as, "I believe Christ was as much of the divine as could be poured into human form."

This particular United Church, the American iteration, now faces a similar test. How much faith is it willing to have? A resolution has been put before this denomination stating in essence that Jesus is Lord. The measure is not expected to pass.

Here is a news story about it.

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Now you can believe a lot of things and be a Christian. "For now we know only in part," St. Paul tells us. And Lord knows, so many of us believe a lot of different things, which is why there are 57,000 denominations (I made that up, and I'm sure that number is too small.)

But one bit of St. Paul's writings shows what distinguishes us from other faiths, who may ignore Jesus, or may admire him, or may even regard him as a prophet (the way Islam does.) He says, "Noone can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit."

This is what it is to be Christian - the ability to say (and to believe) "Jesus is Lord." It is an astonishing and humbling thing in your faith journey to realize, a change in faith that at once wounds you (when you realize that you are not your own) and heals you (when you realize you are his.)

This at a minimum is what it is to be Christian - can you say, "Jesus is Lord?" If you can't, you're not. And that, of course, is fine. But no organized religious body should be masquerading as a Christian denomination if they find themselves unable to utter those three words...