Claremont School of Theology Interfaith University Project

On Wednesday, the seminary I graduated from, Claremont School of Theology, announced in a press conference that it is officially becoming a university that will train ministers from various faiths, in addition to being a United Methodist seminary.  The reactions have been, well, predictable!  The liberals love the idea and the conservatives are not really surprised and see this as the official failure of liberal mainline Christianity.  Al Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was kind enough to take time on his radio show to discuss the announcement with Mark Tooley, who is the president of the ultra right-wing Institute for Religion and Democracy.  They do an awesome job at bashing Claremont, liberal Christianity, John Cobb, and the National Council of Churches.  If you hate liberal Christians then this radio interview is for you.  I suppose the most random part of the interview was when they took time to bash process theology and John Cobb, which is pretty easy to do when you oversimplify the tenants of process thought and Dr. Cobb is unable to defend himself.  This got me thinking:  what if we could get John Cobb, David Ray Griffin, and Marjorie Suhocki in the same room as Al Mohler and Mark Tooley for a formal theological debate?  Maybe we could get Philip Clayton and and Dan Dennett to moderate?  Anyway, if you have spent more than about thirty seconds with any of those process theologians you would find yourself in the presence of not only brilliant minds, but deeply committed Christians (unless you’re a conservative evangelical, then they may be smart people but they are still going to hell, but you would never say that to their faces because statements like that should be reserved for radio shows).

Anyway, lets get back to the primary subject here.  Usually if I want to draw laughter, criticism, or a “oh I’m sorry to hear that,” from a pastor I just met, I just need to tell them I went to Claremont School of Theology for seminary.  With the recent announcement of the interfaith project I fear that this is not going to get any better anytime soon.  I must say, though, that at this point I am really excited about the project and I think it’s a great move for Claremont.  I had an excellent education at Claremont that equipped me with the critical thinking tools to continue to evolve as a pastor and theologian throughout my ministry.  What I appreciated most is that Claremont did not force me into a box or indoctrinate me into a specific type of theology.  My classmates included theological liberals and conservatives whom upon graduation were still… liberals and conservatives.  And that’s what I think people hate about Claremont, it doesn’t fit students into a box and force them to think alike.

During the press conference President Campbell made it clear that there will still be a strong mission to train United Methodist pastors at Claremont and this is not an effort to water down each faith and create some new kind of super multi-faith religion.  What this will create is more opportunities for students of different faiths to intersect with one another.  Students will also have opportunities to take classes from the different religious schools.  Imagine the value of learning about Islam from a professor who is part of that faith and to take that class with students who are learning to become Islamic leaders.  You can’t gain that sort of knowledge and experience from reading a book about Islam.

One of the best ways in this all too divisive world to break down barriers and eliminate hatred and fear between religious and ethnic groups is to actually build relationships across those barriers.  When you actually have to sit down at a meal with, or take a class with, or have conversations with someone different than you are you end up seeing them not as the other but as another human being.  That does not mean that you take on that persons beliefs and behaviors but it helps you to understand their perspective and it makes it a heck of a lot harder to hate them or others like them.  What if projects like this helped move our religious and theological battles to the classroom and the dinner table and out of the war zones?  Again, I don’t want to take away the right of an evangelical from telling a Jew or a Muslim or liberal Christian that they are going to hell.  I would like, however, and I think Jesus would like it too, if we moved away from also shooting someone in the face after condemning them to eternal damnation.  To simply:  disagreement with someone over religious differences is great, religious violence and ethnic cleansing- not so great.

So I wonder what conservatives are so afraid of?  That we might actually find peace and understanding across religious lines?  That we finally have to face the reality that white protestants will one day no longer be the dominate demographic in America?

One of the major criticisms of liberal Christianity is that our churches are declining because of our liberal theology.  I’m not so sure I buy that.  Our churches are declining because of ineffective leadership, a failure to have creative and ambitious vision, and our satisfaction with mediocrity.  We tend to aim low so we won’t be that disappointed if we fail.  We are also the masters of self-fulfilling prophecy by repeating over and over again, “well that will never work,” when creative and risky ideas are suggested.

And let’s be honest, thriving evangelical churches, United Methodist and otherwise, are successful because they have effective leadership.  Liberals tend to almost sabotage themselves against being successful in church planting and church growth because they don’t want to be like conservatives.  It’s almost a liberal badge of honor to go down with the ship then to spend the money on a great website that won’t scare away would be visitors because we don’t want to look too much like the more conservative non-denom church across town.  We are the masters of throwing the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to conservatives.  I may not agree theologically with conservative folks but some of them have some pretty amazing ideas when it comes to church growth and organization.

So I guess what I think is so bold and creative about the new Claremont project is that it’s visionary, it’s controversial, and it’s creating a whole lot of debate and conversation that is needed to shake up progressive United Methodists.  It’s forcing us to look ourselves in the mirror and see if we have what it takes to turn around the decline of the UMC in the western US.  We have a theology rooted in the love and compassion of Jesus Christ and the early church.  We need to stop apologizing for our belief in Christ and start owning it and sharing Christ’s message with a hurting world.  The difference for us is that we believe , as followers of Christ, we can proclaim God’s love to the world while standing alongside our brothers and sisters of other faiths instead of hitting them over the head with God’s judgment.

My challenge to Claremont is that it follows through on its promise that this project will, among other things, create quality United Methodist pastors.  There is no room to falter here, the credibility of Claremont’s alumni, current students, future students, and indeed the entire institution depends on the success of this project.  I can handle the criticism of being a Claremont grad, I don’t mind having a chip on my shoulder, and I love it when people tell me I can’t do something or I’m irrelevant because of where I went to seminary.  It just motivates me to work harder, become better, and prove them wrong.  I hope Claremont can endure the criticism but I also hope it can prove everyone wrong and create not just quality and effective pastors but the best pastors through this new project.  I don’t think they can afford to settle for anything less.  Besides, I would rather people laugh at me because I was in charge of the audio/visual department  in seminary (I was a loyal soldier in the “Coogan Army”) and not because of where I went to seminary.

Enough of my opinion that probably doesn’t matter anyway.  What do you think?  A visionary project or a sign of the apocalypse?

Tagged as: Albert Mohler, Claremont School of Theology, Interfaith, John Cobb, liberal Christianity, Mark Tooley, Process Theology, progressive christianity, seminary, umc, United Methodist Church