Dr.
Clinton Bennett is joining the
faculty of the Unification
Theological Seminary as Associate
Professor of Ministry and Director
of Field Education. A Baptist
minister, Dr. Bennett was the
Executive Secretary for Interfaith
Relations of the British Council of
Churches and has served as a
missionary to Bangladesh. He has
taught at Oxford and at Baylor
University, with special focus on
Islam and Christian-Muslim
relations. We at UTS are honored and
proud to welcome him to our faculty.
When Dr.
Bennett arrived at Barrytown, he
inquired about serving in a local
Baptist congregation, but was
rebuffed when the Baptist official
he contacted learned that he was
teaching at UTS. This letter is by
way of reply.
Jesus
said, “beware of false prophets… you
recognize them by the fruits they
bear… a good tree always yields good
fruit.”
This
passage has been applied by
Christians to Muhammad (PBUH), to
Joseph Smith (the Mormon prophet)
and by some to Sun Myung Moon,
founder of the Unification Movement
and of the Seminary that employs
me. Shortly after starting to work
at UTS, I contacted an official of
the American Baptist Churches to ask
how, as an ordained Baptist, I might
contribute to Baptist life in the
area. The official wrote back
saying that his heart had sank when
he realized that I was ‘with the
Moonies’, and that he would not help
me ‘infiltrate our churches with
this cult’. I was hurt by this
response. Later, he wrote that he
could not understand how, if I was a
Christian, I could work for the
Moonies, and that he had had bad
experiences of Moonies claiming
endorsement for their views from
well-respected Christians who had
merely attended one of their
meetings out of curiosity or to find
out for themselves what was being
said. He could not work for someone
who claims to be superior to Jesus,
and could not understand how I could
if I am a Christian, although he
would give me the benefit of the
doubt. He would need to learn what
is in my heart before he decides.
It seems
to me that there are a number of
issues here that require addressing,
and I make no apology for doing so
in defense of my own Christian
integrity. First, are the ‘Moonies’
a cult? All sorts of religious
groups have been regarded as cults
(even we Baptist were called a sect
when we began) and quite a few of
them are now regarded as
respectable, although not
necessarily as mainstream. One
example is the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Days Saints, the
Mormons, founded by Joseph Smith
(1805-1844) who – arguably the Rev.
Sun Myung Moon claims something
similar – saw himself as having done
more than Jesus to keep his Church
together, yet there are now almost
as many Saints in the world as Jews,
including 15 members of the US
Congress. And these Saints are
renowned for their high moral
standards, family values, for
community service and for caring for
each other. Doesn’t it say
somewhere, “they will know we are
Christians by our love”? (See John
13:35).
Christians
from the start saw Muhammad (PBUH)
as a false prophet. They still
accuse him of immoral conduct,
especially of sexual misconduct but
almost one third of humanity reveres
Muhammad as the Last Prophet. Yet
Jerry Vines could call Muhammad a
“demon-possessed pedophile” at the
Southern Baptist Convention in June
2002. Muslims also believe, as does
Moon, that Jesus did not complete
his mission. Smith and Moon, too,
like Muhammad, have been accused of
sexual misconduct. Smith himself
told his followers that he never
claimed to be perfect, but that
there was “no error in the
revelations which I have taught.”
So, are
Moonies a cult? If they are, they
are an odd cult. I know members who
have left, some who have been asked
to leave. Usually, although there
is no generally accepted definition,
a cult is thought to exercise total
control over its members, to prevent
them from leaving. They are said to
have top-down, authoritarian
leadership. Incidentally, if the
Unificationists have really mastered
the technique of brain-washing, they
would have every secret service and
intelligence agency lining up for
the secret of their success, and the
Seminary would be able to increase
all our salaries! The Moonies I know
(and my contact with the movement
goes back to 1986) are caring,
compassionate, humane,
family-centered people who do not
drink alcohol, smoke, or advocate
free-sex but who believe in the
unity of the human race, in an end
to war and injustice. That is Rev.
Moon’s goal, a unified world of
peace, which is the hope of all
ages. ‘Cult’ for Christians also
implies doctrinal deviancy yet, as I
shall argue below, my Baptist
principles have no place for any
type of theological litmus test.
I was
raised believing that the Roman
Catholic Church, with its top-down
leadership and extra-biblical
doctrines, was a cult. I still have
a copy of J. Oswald Saunders’
Cults and Isms, in which the
Catholic Church is described as a
cult alongside the Mormons,
Christian Science, the
Christadelphians and others but with
the privilege of being the first
entry in the book!
I do not agree with every aspect of
Roman Catholic doctrine, but I have
worked with Catholics throughout my
ministry. I do not agree with every
aspect of what Rev. Sun Myung Moon
believes, nor has anyone ever asked
me to. I think it extraordinary
that anyone could advocate that an
employee has to agree with
everything that the founder of his
institution believes. I used to
work for a metropolitan city
council, but I did not believe in
all the council’s policies. Were I
to work for a Roman Catholic
college, I would not be expected to
accept all the doctrines of the
Roman Catholic Church.
I am aware
that, in the past, out of enthusiasm
for their project of bringing about
the unity of the church, and beyond
that of all humanity,
Unificationists did attend other
churches with the hope of spreading
this message. This was interpreted
as devious. I am not persuaded.
Were I to attend a church that was
hostile or indifferent towards the
ecumenical movement (in which I have
been employed, and for which I
continue to work) I would not stay
silent. We are not required to
leave our convictions behind us when
we walk through the doors of a
church. I am convinced that church
unity is God’s will, and I would
speak in favor of that in any church
I attended.
In the
end, it is not me but God who will
judge whether anyone who claims to
have a message from God, Muhammad or
Smith or Moon, is a true and
faithful servant, or a charlatan.
However, through the words of Jesus
God has given us some pragmatic
advice on how we might proceed – we
can judge people by their fruits.
Jesus also said, in Luke 6:46, “why
do you call me Lord, Lord and not do
the things I say.” It is not
soundness or correctness of doctrine
that redeems us. It is not moral
conduct that redeems us, neither are
any of us perfect. We are all
sinners in the process of being
redeemed. Paul said that the good
he wanted to do he didn’t do but
instead he did the wrong he did not
want to do (Romans 7:14f). “Sin,”
said St. Paul, “lodges in me.” This
is true of all of us, but God is
able to work through us despite our
failings. Smith himself (accused of
writing the Book of Mormon, as
Muhammad is of writing the Qur’an)
reasoned that the Book of Mormon was
of God because “all things which are
good cometh of Christ,” and the
devil “persuadeth no man to do good,
no, not one; neither do his angels;
neither do they who subject
themselves unto him.”
The Rev.
Sun Myung Moon says that he is the
Messiah. This is a matter of deep
concern for many Christians. Is
this why I should not teach at the
State-chartered, Middle States
Association accredited Seminary he
founded? Were I offered a job at a
Muslim college, as a life-long
scholar of Islam I would jump at the
opportunity yet Muslims do not
believe that Jesus died on the Cross
and rose again to redeem all
humanity, or anything that
Christians believe about him even
though they do call him Messiah. In
fact, the majority of New Testament
scholars are skeptical whether Jesus
actually thought that he was the
Messiah, seeing this as an honor and
title bestowed on him by the early
church. I do not know whether Jesus
did or did not see himself as the
Messiah but I do know that there was
no single job description around at
the time for which he or any one
else could apply.
The most
commonly held view today among Jews
is that the Messiah will liberate
Jerusalem, rebuild the Temple,
re-establish the Sanhedrin (Isa.
1:26) and reign over universal peace
and justice. This has not yet
happened. There is still war in the
world, and injustice. Jesus has
come but world peace still eludes
us. The great Moses Maimonides
(1135-1204) thought that the coming
of the Messiah would bring justice
to the Jews but would not otherwise
impact on the order of the world.
Things would carry on much as
before. Many reform or progressive
Jews do not believe in the Messiah
as a person but in the Messianic age
that is to come, and towards which
we are called to work. The reform
Rabbis gathering in Ohio in 1937
expressed it like this, “We regard
it as our historic task to
co-operate with all men in the
establishment of the Kingdom of God,
of universal brotherhood, justice,
truth and peace on earth. This,”
they said, “is our messianic goal.”
When the
Rev. Sun Myung Moon speaks of
himself as Messiah, as he did in
Seoul, on January 27, 2004, it is
not as a boast or as a claim for
homage but within the context of a
huge task that all humanity needs
must shoulder. “Your mission and
that of heaven,” he tells his
followers, “is to join hands with us
in building a peaceful Kingdom of
Heaven on this earth.” Rev. Sun
Myung Moon teaches, “The will of
Heaven resides in human peace
grounded in true families, not in
the progress of any particular
church or religion” but in pure love
between all peoples. We should all
live for the sake of others, he
says. This may be ambitious, but if
good people stand by and do nothing,
evil will surely triumph (as Edmund
Burke put it). Sometimes, thinking
big is just what God wants of us.
David brought down Goliath. A man in
a loin-cloth asked Britain to quit
India, and Britain did. In South
Africa, a prisoner became a
President. Do we or do we not
believe that peace will defeat war,
good evil, generosity greed,
selflessness selfishness?
Did Jesus
claim to have completed his work?
Yes, in that there is in him all
that is needed for salvation, his
words on the Cross, “It is
finished,” signify the completeness
of his work (John 19:30). Faith in
him is all that is needed (sola
fides), and that is God’s free
gift. Justification is by faith
alone, “And that I may be found in
Him, not having a righteousness of
my own derived from the law, but
that which is through faith in
Christ, the righteousness which
comes from God on the basis of
faith” (Phil 3:9). But I also
believe that faith without works is
dead (James 2:14). As the present
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan
Williams, paraphrasing Blaise Pascal
(1623-1662) has put it, “Jesus will
be in agony until the end of the
world,” since the kingdom of heaven
started with Jesus but it has not
yet been consummated or perfected.
Jesus is
not dead but alive and continues to
work through his church and through
the Holy Spirit, and that Spirit is
not confined to the institutional
church but has the freedom of the
wind to blow where it wills (John
3:8). Jesus did not teach us all
that he could when he was alive,
rather the Spirit will guide us – in
the future – “into all the truth”
(John 16: 13). Dr. Williams is
restating what St Irenaeus (died end
of 2nd/start of 3rd century CE)
believed, that Jesus is the one who
recapitulates all that God has done
on our behalf until the final
consummation, which means that in
Christ this recapitulation continues
in the world. We, the body of
Christ, through the Spirit, will
turn out to be "the finished” and so
continue Christ’s mission. It has
been put like this, “it is finished,
but it is not over.” Thus, we are
called to “work out our salvation”
(Phil. 2:12). Nor do I believe that
God remained silent after Jesus,
which is why I am open to the
possibility that he also speaks to
us through the Qur’an that Muhammad
received, and through Mahatma
Gandhi, who was not a Christian
although he acknowledged the
influence of the Sermon on the Mount
and had a reverence for Jesus. It
was, he said, Christians that put
him off Christianity!
Meanwhile,
as a Christian committed to trying
to do what Jesus did, that is, to
continue with his mandate as
announced after his baptism, “to
proclaim good news to the poor,
release for the prisoners and
recovery of sight for the blind”
(Luke 4:18f), and as elaborated in
Matthew 25, “to feed the hungry,
clothe the naked and visit the
imprisoned,” I look for friends and
allies in the task. I do not agree
with everything that a Muslim
believes, or with everything that a
Roman Catholic believes, or
everything that a Moonie believes,
but I judge them by the fruits of
what they do. If they break down
walls that separate person from
person merely because of skin color
or creed, then they are with me. If
they stand up for oppression against
the oppressors, they are with me.
If they work for that day when
swords will be beaten into
ploughshares, then they are with
me. If they believe in the equality
and dignity and rights of all
people, regardless of gender or
color or race or creed, then they
are with me. If they are with me in
this struggle to establish kingdom
of God values in society and in the
world, then they are not against my
Lord (Matthew 12: 30).
I first
became a friend of the Unification
movement during the legal case
against them in the United Kingdom
in the mid 1980’s when the Attorney
General was enquiring whether the
Holy Spirit Association for the
Unification of World Christianity
should retain its charitable
status. This enables it to operate,
as do most churches and other
religious bodies, as a
not-for-profit legal entity in the
UK. Had it lost its registration,
it would have had no corporate legal
existence in the UK, making it
impossible to hold bank accounts or
to function effectively. The
investigation began after the
Unification Church lost a libel case
in 1981 against The Daily Mail,
which had accused the Church of
splitting up families. The argument
was that if the Church splits up
families, it cannot be in the public
interest. A charity must be for the
public good; hence the HSA-UWC could
not be charitable.
I and
others argued that religion could
long be accused of splitting up
families, and if this was the only
crime of which the HSA-UWC was
guilty, no religion should benefit
from charity law. If, on the other
hand, any type of financial
malpractice or indeed crime against
people was being alleged, there were
plenty of laws on the statute books
that could be used to take legal
action. A modern comparison would
be the many cases of child abuse
involving Roman Catholic priests and
senior officials covering up for
their abuse, yet no one is calling
for the stripping of charitable
status from the RC Church. I was of
the opinion that the anti-cult
movement’s vocal criticism of the
Unification movement had influenced
the Attorney General’s decision to
investigate the HSA-UWC. On
February 3, 1988 the then Attorney
General dropped the case, saying
there was insufficient evidence. He
had privately been warned that the
case was really a heresy case, since
many people regarded the teachings
of the movement as heresy.
As a
Baptist, I am proud of a long
history of support for religious
liberty, which in my view must be
indivisible. It cannot be,
religious liberty for me because my
doctrines are right but not for him
because he is in error. It must be
religious liberty for all, as Thomas
Helwys (1550-1616), one of the
founding fathers of my own
then-thought sectarian denomination,
the Baptists, put it, “Let them be
heretics, Turks, Jews, or
whatsoever, it appertains not to the
earthly power to punish them in the
least measure.”
And why should the powers of state
keep their hands off of folks’
souls? Helwys was put in prison,
and died there for his heretical
beliefs. He had written his plea
for religious liberty, A Short
Declaration of the Mystery of
Iniquity, in 1612.
Who, then,
is on the Lord’s side? Who will
serve the King? Who will be His
helpers?” wrote Frances R. Havergil
(1836-1879). In my opinion, it is
those who stand for not against the
values of the Kingdom of God. I do
not know if Rev. Sun Myung Moon is
the Messiah or not, but I do know
that he is totally committed to
world peace. He is totally
committed to bringing people
together across cultural and racial
divides. He is totally committed to
reconciling enemies, as Jesus
commanded, “Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you.”
He has nothing but love for those
who have imprisoned him. I do not
know if he is perfect or sinless,
though I know full well that I am
not yet. I sincerely believe that I
am God’s servant, called and set
aside for ministry. I have met some
of Rev. Moon’s family, and they are
beautiful people. I have personally
seen some of the fruit of his
labor. I have attended conferences
at which some of the most
accomplished scholars of religion
have gathered to talk about how we
can collaborate in dialogue to end
injustice and oppression. When no
Jew was talking to a World Council
of Churches consultation on which I
served concerned with
Jewish-Christian relations, dozens
of senior and distinguished Jewish
leaders were talking to
organizations founded by Rev. Sun
Myung Moon. As a life-long
participant in Christian-Muslim
dialogue, it is through his movement
that I have met some of the most
influential Muslim thinkers in the
world. This is because Rev. Sun
Myung Moon has been prepared to put
his hand into his pocket to fund
inter-religious dialogue, when most
officially recognized church bodies
concerned with inter-religious
relations remain strapped for cash.
Who is on the Lord’s side? Who will
serve the King? We shall indeed know
them by their fruits.
I
apologize, if I must, for teaching
at the Unification Theological
Seminary and I will defend the
orthodoxy of my Christian belief to
anyone. Yet I am a Baptist because
we do not demand doctrinal
conformity or allegiance to a creed,
as the Judson Declaration says, “We,
therefore, reject all attempts to
impose a creed or creed-like
structure to be used as a litmus
test for orthodoxy.”
Therefore, I will allow no man to
condemn me because of what I
believe, I will be judged by the
Lord in whom I believe. The job at
UTS was advertised through the usual
channel, the Chronicle of Higher
Education. I had been looking
for some time to return to full-time
college teaching, so I applied for,
was interviewed and offered the job,
and it was an honor to accept.
“By
their fruits you shall know
them.”