The Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-05-29, Page 30pI5EoUP1TS
Page 813—Crossroads—May 29, 1985
H. GORDON
GREEN
Back in 1968 when the
United Church selected Er.
Bob McClure as its mod-
erator, it must have antici-
• pated, reverberations, be-
cause McClure wa$n't ,a
clergyman but a doctor who
had spent much, of his life in
China. He was, I think, the
first layman ever appointed
to lead this church.
Nor ,was McClure a par-
ticularly pious kind off lay-
man. He admitted without
apology that • he had doubts
about the° resurrection and
that he certainly didn't be-
lieve in Hell.
Such skepticism isn't, of
course, unique. Even some
of the 'devout 'people have
_..,grave doubts about the
reality of Heaven and Hell,
but the tendency of the
devout is to kelp such doubts
secret. And for a high church
official to openly adnlit them
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was a bit of a shock, to say
the least.
Strangely enough how -
vier, the most scathing criti-
°-eism about McCluee's ap-
pointment as Moderator
didn't come from within the
United Church, but from the
more evangelically minded
churches who, of course,
were absolutely horrjfied,
and who asked, "Well, if
there is no Heaven and no
Hell, why have a church at
all?"
Inferringthereby, it seems
to me, that the only good rea-
son for religion is to give us a
chance at a harp in the Gold-
en City City instead of 'land-
ing us in hellfire and ever-
lasting darkness. And if you
care to wander back inth the
history of the early church,
you will find that this was ac-
cepted as its one true mis-
sion.
Never mind about the suf-
fering of the, here and now,
the poor man's hunger, or
the slave's chains. The
-church was interested solely
in the life beyond, pie in the
sky as the unpious called it.
This earth was after all, but
a fleeting thing, and its only
real importance was that it
was sort of testing ground to
see what soUls would be
willing to strive for a crown
in Glory and what: souls
would let themselves be
sucked into the tar -sands of
sin.
Just why such a testing
ground would be required
however by a God who knows
the end from the beginning
anyhow, has. never been too
clear to any but the most
scholarly of theologians but
for millions of fundamen-
talists the belief still per-
sists.
To some of ol-r more
courageous thinkers how-
• ever, such a doctrine is
merely a convenient way to
scare the poor and the ignor-
ant and the superstitious into
obedience and resignation.
And come to think of it
soberly, if one is good just for
the sake of reaping a reward,
of what value is that good-
ness?
Well, •a reply was given
over two hundred years ago
by a certain gentleman
named Anthony Ashley
Cooper, the third Earl of
Shaftsbury,, who shocked' the
God people of his day be de-
claring that a person who re-
frains 'from evil merely be-
cause he dreads punishment
• has no more true piety than a
tigettrongly chained or a
monkey under the disipline
of the whip.
Perhaps we should give
that idea a quiet thought or
'two before we begin joining
those who are raising their
hands in holy horror because
we now tolerate churchmen
who admit that they do not
believe in immortality.
Personally I am delighted
to know that Dr. Bob
McClure, who at 85, is still
one of 'the giants of his
church, is a man who likes to
do good simply for goodness'
sake and not for the sake of
laying' up gold bullion in
Heaven. I find that wonder-
fully refreshing somehow.
And Christian.
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