Without Substance

The National Post ran an interesting piece on Gretta Vosper. She just launched a book called With or Without God last week.

Vosper had a number of things to say about Christianity. She foresees a future where the label Christian will not exist. Her view is that the central story of Christianity will fade away and the story of Jesus as the symbol of everything that Christianity is will also fade away. Vosper does not believe in the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, miracles or that Jesus was the Son of God.

According to the article in the National Post, Vosper believes that Jesus was a middle eastern peasant with a few charismatic gifts and a great posthumous marketing team.

And what is Gretta Vosper”™s calling? She is a minister. At West Hill United Church. She chairs a group called the Canadian Centre For Progressive Christianity. Their mandate seems to be focused on challenging the church to do a complete overhaul of the beliefs it has been carrying for the last several hundred years. The gospel, it appears, needs revision. From the Progressive Christianity website:

Thinking ourselves forward to a sustainable future for all life on the planet (and isn’t that something we should be working toward?) requires that we allow our beliefs–all our beliefs–to be examined in the light of critical contemporary scholarship and understanding and, if they are found to be destructive, divisive, or simply unhelpful, to work toward opening ourselves to new ideas and the possibility of new beliefs.

The article in the Post was a full page with photo in the front section of the week-end paper. Likely a marketing move by the book publisher.

When I read the article, I reflected on the complete and utter lack of integrity being demonstrated by this person. I wondered how she reconciled her ministry in the United Church of Canada when she rejected several of their core tenets of faith. And I could not help but think that the Unitarians would be a better fit for her ministry.