Has my bishop been reading my blog posts? I could have thought that if I was paranoid (or thought way too highly of myself) after I saw her latest column in my denomination’s (ELCA) magazine. “An Ancient Creed Is Relevant” the message of Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton proclaimed (italics in the original). This after my last few blog posts have declared that the church’s ancient creeds are not only irrelevant but an obstacle to Christianity’s renewal.

This year is the 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, which bequeathed to us the first version of the Nicene Creed (somewhat modified in later years). Bishop Eaton gives us a brief and very idealized history of this event. As she says, for the church’s first two centuries, different factions held a variety of views about the Trinity and the nature of Jesus Christ (man, God, God-man, etc.). This had produced some amount of bickering but it hadn’t prevented Christianity from prospering.

Then along came the new emperor, Constantine the Great. For reasons that will never be clear, Constantine decided that Christianity should replace paganism as the empire’s nominal “official” religion. (The sincerity of Constantine’s own conversion is highly debated.) The new emperor had reached his position after a contentious and often brutal conflict with other rivals. It was Constantine’s goal to reunite and rejuvenate the empire. Apparently, he believed that, in addition to building a new capital (which he named after himself), Christianity could provide a new spiritual glue for this endeavor.

For this to happen, however, Constantine believed the church had to get its own act together and adopt a single understanding about its principal beliefs. For this purpose, he called for a gathering of bishops at Nicaea (in modern day Turkey), and they knew what they had to do. The different beliefs were debated, a statement was prepared which resolved them to a degree, which was then voted on. The statement was adopted, but it was not unanimous.

This continued at other councils over the next couple centuries, as the church tried to get ever more precise, and unified, about its beliefs. The results weren’t always pretty. People don’t change their beliefs because they’re told to. The “losing” bishops went home unpersuaded. Many of them were subsequently excommunicated. Churches were closed and “heretical” books burned. (This led to book collections being hidden and buried to save them. The most famous example is the Nag Hammadi library, discovered in 1945, which gave us the so-called Gnostic gospels, including the Gospel of Thomas.)

I don’t want to spend more time on this long, complicated story. What I don’t understand is why Eaton chose to write about it. She’s too smart to not know that what she wrote is a whitewash. She’s a Harvard grad! Furthermore, since the magazine has reduced its number of issues, she now gets only four chances a year to write a message to the general membership of the denomination. Why waste it writing about the Nicene Creed?? If even 10% of church members know anything about this chapter of church history, I’d be surprised, (And Eaton never does say why the creed is relevant.)

Eaton’s column is a “laugh or cry” instance for me. Laugh, with its appearance after my recent blog posts. Or cry, for demonstrating a bishop hopelessly out-of-touch with the church she is leading. But I don’t want to dump on Eaton, for my impression of other bishops, and most clergy, is that they are largely in the same boat. Many years ago, a fellow pastor said to me, “The church majors in minors.” Unfortunately, my subsequent experience has only supported his judgment.

The story is told that after a disastrous series of games, legendary Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, called a team meeting. He stood in front of his players, held out his hand, and began by saying, “Gentlemen, this is a footfall.” Lombardi knew his team could only be salvaged by refocusing on the basics of the game. The church is desperately in need of its own “this is a football” moment.

If you appreciate these posts, remember to “Like”, share, and subscribe, if you haven’t done so already. In the mystical world of search algorithms, this all helps “spread the word.” And add a comment, if you’re so moved, to be part of the conversation. Finally, thank you for your financial support (see the “DONATE” box), which covers blog expenses and helps me to keep doing this.