Commentary by Robin G. Jordan
The New Testament tells that the Holy Spirit warns that in later times some will depart from the faith (1 Timothy 4:1). But can the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding be thought of having departed from the faith since it does not appear that she really was a believer in the first place? It is evident from her statements in the Seattle Times and Olympia Voice articles that Redding had not completely embraced the Christian faith even though she had been an Episcopal priest for more than 20 years.
Having converted to Islam, Redding certainly should not be serving as an Episcopal priest. In The Principles of Theology: An Introduction to The Thirty Nine Articles (Philadelphia: Pa.: Classical Anglican Press, 1996), W. H. Griffith Thomas identifies the main purpose of the Christian ministry.
“The Work of the Ministry is two-fold, Evangelisation and Edification (Eph. iv. 11, Greek). The New Testament is quite clear on this point. The minister, in the words of the Ordinal, is to “seek for Christ’s sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for His children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ for ever.” This includes the winning and the watching of souls, the bringing them into the Kingdom, and the building of them up in their most holy faith. It is impossible to read the New Testament without seeing that the minister is beyond everything a preacher and a teacher of the Gospel. The various titles connected with the ministry show the paramount importance placed on the ministry of the Word.” (pp. 315-316)
In a footnote Dr. Griffith Thomas points to the attention of his readers:
“Thus, the minister is a ‘herald,’ an ‘evangelist,’ a ‘witness,’ an ‘ambassador,’ a ‘servant,’ a ‘shepherd,’ a ‘teacher.’ The various verbs used to express the work of the ministry point in the same direction: to ‘evangelise,’ to ‘announce,’ to ‘herald,’ to ‘reason,’ to ‘teach,’ to ‘testify.’” (p. 316)
One cannot be a follower of the prophet Mohammed and be a minister of the Gospel. As Jesus himself observed, no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other (Matt. 6:24). Redding is not being intellectually honest with herself or others if she claims to see no conflict between being a Muslim and a Christian. As Albert Mohler draws to our attention (Clueless in Seattle -- Can You Be Both a Christian and a Muslim?), the postmodern mind may refuse to see the contradiction. However, the true disciple of Jesus will.
Redding cannot do the work of the ministry for which she was set apart with laying on of hands and prayer. She has embraced another faith. She does not affirm central tenets of Christianity. While she may have attended a seminary, she lacks the essential qualifications to evangelize the spiritually disconnected and unchurched and to build up the faithful. She does not truly believe in Jesus Christ or fully accept Him as her Savior and Lord. I cannot imagine a Muslim congregation recognizing as an imam, a teacher of the faithful, an individual who is not a wholehearted follower of the prophet. Should a Christian church expect anything less than its ministers should be devoted Christians, fully committed to proclaiming Christ?
The case of the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding points to a number of problems that beset the Episcopal Church.
In view of her doubts Redding should have never been ordained a priest, much less hired as the director of faith formation for St. Michael’s Episcopal Cathedral. The ordained ministry is not the place for seekers and recent converts (1 Tim. 3:6). The fault lies with dioceses that ordain ministerial candidates that do not meet the New Testament moral and spiritual qualifications for the ordained ministry.
In The Principles of Theology: An Introduction to The Thirty Nine Articles Griffin Thomas also draws to our attention what is the source of ministry:
“Concentrating attention on the time following the Day of Pentecost we observe that ministry comes from the Divine gift (Eph. iv. 11,12). Christians were first disciples (John i. 37), and then more specifically ‘ministers’ (Mark iii. 14). All true ministry starts here.” (p. 314)
He goes on to write:
“…the New Testament conception of ministry is first of all that of a gift, and only afterwards of an office. Spiritual qualification comes first and ecclesiastical commission follows. If the second is emphasized apart from the first the result will be spiritual disaster; if the first is emphasized without the second there will be ecclesiastical disorder. The normal idea of New Testament ministry is the exercise of the spiritual gift in the ecclesiastical office. “ (p. 315)
In ignoring the New Testament moral and spiritual qualifications for ordained ministry, dioceses are ordaining ministerial candidates who do not have the spiritual gift for being a minister of the Gospel. The result has indeed been spiritual disaster.
In the contemporary Episcopal Church we find a great deal of confusion over the role of the priest in the church. We see the convergence of two different traditions – one tradition with its roots in Anglo-Catholicism sees the role of the priest as a dispenser of sacramental grace. The other tradition which shows the influence of Eastern philosophy and the New Age movement sees the role of the priest as a guru. The priest officiates over the rituals of the church through which the people believe that they encounter the divine. She also offers guidance and direction to the people as they pursue their individual spiritual journeys without urging them to take a particular path. Neither view of the priest’s role, however, is affirmed by the New Testament.
We also find considerable openness to heretical, non-Christian, and pagan ideas and practices in today’s Episcopal Church. The bookstore at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco sells books on Wicca and witchcraft. Buddhist and Wiccan ceremonies have been conducted in the cathedral. The cathedral has promoted labyrinth walking – a purported form of Medieval Christian meditation – in the Episcopal Church and other denominations. The labyrinth is the great icon of the Goddess and the cross at the center of the labyrinth is really the labyris – the two-headed ax of the Goddess. Chartres Cathedral where this practice was supposedly originated is located in an area of France that has a long connection with the cult of the Goddess. Pagan rituals have also been conducted in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The Episcopal Church has at least one bishop who advocates synecreticism. Within this environment it is not surprising to hear that an Episcopal priest on the West Coast is a practicing Muslim anymore than it is to hear that two Episcopal priests in Pennsylvania are Druid priests or that the new Presiding Bishop asserts in so many words that persons will be saved no matter what belief they hold or what sect they belong to, provided they sincerely lead their lives according to those beliefs and to the light of nature. Is it surprising then that seven orthodox global South primates refused to celebrate the Eucharist with her when Article 18 of the Thirty-Nine Articles, which has normative authority in their provinces, condemns as false teachers those who make such assertions? Article 18 is the only article of the Thirty-Nine Articles that declares anyone “anathema,” or accursed by God.
The Episcopal Church has also not placed much emphasis upon personal faith and conversion. If an individual is baptized and confirmed, he or she is presumed to be a Christian. The result has been that the Episcopal Church contains a large number of people who are not converted. They may have been converted to the church but they have not been converted to Christ. They, like former Presiding Bishop John Allin, have come to love the ethos of the church more than they have its Lord.
One does not need to become a Muslim to prostrate one’s self before God, to pray five times a day, or to chant or sing one’s prayers. This points to a neglect of the various forms of authentic Christian spirituality in the Episcopal Church. Instead of helping Episcopalians to explore the riches of the Anglican tradition and other Christian traditions, the Episcopal Church’s spiritual leaders are directing them away from the Christian faith – to Sufism, to the Eastern religions, to Wicca and other forms of paganism.
What we are seeing here is the influence of the increasingly postmodern culture in which we live. In Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic Is Transforming America (San Francisco, Ca.: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005) Christine Wicker puts her finger on what is happening:
“Even within the churches, emotional, mystical, visionary experience, not doctrine or Scripture, is rapidly becoming the most important element in religious conviction.” (p. 54)
A misplaced trust in feelings and an unbiblical understanding of how the Holy Spirit works is leading people to make decisions like Redding’s. Anglicans have historically recognized that the Holy Spirit is not going to lead us to do anything that is contrary to the clear teaching of the Bible. The Bible helps us to discern whether a leading that we are experiencing is truly from the Holy Spirit. So-called “progressive” Episcopalians reject the authority and inspiration of the Bible and rely on their own subjective feelings as their guide. Yet emotions are notoriously untrustworthy. Not more than 3 months ago two teenage girls in Australia murdered another girl at a slumber party. When questioned why they had murdered the girl, their response was that “it felt right.” They displayed no remorse for having killed their friend. As the prophet Jeremiah reminds us, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17.9)
Someone with a biblical understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit could not believe, as Redding does, that Jesus guided her into Islam. The New Testament teach us that the Holy Spirit points to Christ, to his divinity, and to his uniqueness (1 Cor. 12:3).
Redding became a Muslim after her mother died. Major crises and transitions in a individual’s life such as the loss of a parent or other loved one, forced retirement, the birth of a child, divorce, or a move to a new community can open the individual to the message of the Gospel. It can also leave that individual vulnerable to overtures from cults and other religions. In the present environment of the Episcopal Church, in a liberal diocese like Olympia, one must wonder what kind of help Redding received from her fellow Episcopalians. How others react can strengthen an individual’s faith or weaken it. In my own experience liberal theology does not equip clergy and lay persons to deal very well with these crises and transitions. Their own weak or non-existent faith becomes a liability.
Right now Redding is experiencing the fervor of a new convert. Her experience of Islam is limited to one group. Moderate Westernized Islam in the United States is not representative of the more conservative forms of Islam outside of this country. She has not experienced the oppression that Muslim women experience in many parts of the Muslim world. No women imams teach the faithful. No women ascend the minaret of the mosque to call the faithful to prayer. Women are segregated from men in the mosque. She may in time come to regret her decision.
What troubles me most is that for every Redding, there are dozens more like her in the Episcopal Church whose stories are not being told.
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