In this case, silence doesn't give consent
I've opted out of the discussion on Bunnie's blog of whether or not cremation is a sin. Far more heat than light is being generated by it (believe me, no pun is intended)- and I find the nature of the disagreement there to be sufficiently disturbing that my normal tendency to rush in, mouth (or keyboard) blazing, where angels fear to tread could do damage I really don't want to do.
As I've pointed out there, the discussion isn't really about cremation at all. It's about some of the most fundamental theological principles of the Lutheran Reformation, which seem to me to be getting thoroughly trashed in that conversation.
Suffice it to say that considerable confusion seems to exist among some in that discussion about Luther's distinction between the magisterial as opposed to the ministerial use of reason (deduction from what Scripture clearly asserts is one thing; reasoning chiefly dependent on human logic which does not necessarily follow from Scripture, on the other hand, is quite another!), Article XV of the Augsburg Confession and its implications, and some pretty basic distinctions between the way Lutherans, on one hand, and both Roman Catholics and Reformed Protestants, on the other, do moral theology. A few Bible passages with a tenuous connection to the subject at hand have been cited, but no reasonable, logical connection has been adduced between those passages and the conclusion that cremation per se, in any and all circumstances, is not merely a theologically dubious practice or a bad witness to one's Christian beliefs, but an actual sin. The case has rested pretty much entirely on Holy Tradition, the very kind of human philosophical reasoning which characterized Western theology before the Reformation, and mistaken Reformed exegetical principles like the confusion of the descriptive with the prescriptive in Scripture.
This is a serious business. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod may very well be at least in its death throes as a confessional Lutheran church body- if it hasn't succumbed already- because it's begun doing theology like the Pietists and the Reformed "Evangelicals." And the legalistic, Pietist tendency has never been wholly absent from the Missouri Synod despite its combative commitment to the theology of the Lutheran Reformation. It never ceases to demoralize me to find those who share my disgust at the degeneration of the LCMS nevertheless engaging in the very kind of thinking which helped bring it about.
This tendency is one of the things which first sent me on my ill-considered journey into The ALC, the ***A, and the world of pseudo-Lutheranism years ago, and it's a very sensitive subject with me. There are capable people who sense the danger who are able to carry on the debate at Bunnie's blog. But this is at least one subject on which I had better fall silent. My feelings on the subject of evangelical (in the Reformation sense) vs. Pietist ethics are just too strong for this kid to safely continue what is becoming a rather heated discussion.
As I've pointed out there, the discussion isn't really about cremation at all. It's about some of the most fundamental theological principles of the Lutheran Reformation, which seem to me to be getting thoroughly trashed in that conversation.
Suffice it to say that considerable confusion seems to exist among some in that discussion about Luther's distinction between the magisterial as opposed to the ministerial use of reason (deduction from what Scripture clearly asserts is one thing; reasoning chiefly dependent on human logic which does not necessarily follow from Scripture, on the other hand, is quite another!), Article XV of the Augsburg Confession and its implications, and some pretty basic distinctions between the way Lutherans, on one hand, and both Roman Catholics and Reformed Protestants, on the other, do moral theology. A few Bible passages with a tenuous connection to the subject at hand have been cited, but no reasonable, logical connection has been adduced between those passages and the conclusion that cremation per se, in any and all circumstances, is not merely a theologically dubious practice or a bad witness to one's Christian beliefs, but an actual sin. The case has rested pretty much entirely on Holy Tradition, the very kind of human philosophical reasoning which characterized Western theology before the Reformation, and mistaken Reformed exegetical principles like the confusion of the descriptive with the prescriptive in Scripture.
This is a serious business. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod may very well be at least in its death throes as a confessional Lutheran church body- if it hasn't succumbed already- because it's begun doing theology like the Pietists and the Reformed "Evangelicals." And the legalistic, Pietist tendency has never been wholly absent from the Missouri Synod despite its combative commitment to the theology of the Lutheran Reformation. It never ceases to demoralize me to find those who share my disgust at the degeneration of the LCMS nevertheless engaging in the very kind of thinking which helped bring it about.
This tendency is one of the things which first sent me on my ill-considered journey into The ALC, the ***A, and the world of pseudo-Lutheranism years ago, and it's a very sensitive subject with me. There are capable people who sense the danger who are able to carry on the debate at Bunnie's blog. But this is at least one subject on which I had better fall silent. My feelings on the subject of evangelical (in the Reformation sense) vs. Pietist ethics are just too strong for this kid to safely continue what is becoming a rather heated discussion.
Comments
Unfortunately, I have to agree. And I don't think they're gonna listen, either.