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Sunday morning, after church, my husband and I stood drinking coffee with a friend we have known for years.  When we first met she was a nurse working with Nurse’s Christian Fellowship, part of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. That was many years ago. Now we are all Presbyterians attending the same church.  We were discussing her nursing career and the changes that have occurred over the years in her field. She mentioned a decision she made and one that affects her career. Because she is a Christian and desires to be faithful to the Lord she has made a decision not to join the California Nurses Association because of their stance on abortion and gay/lesbian rights. Because of this she is unable to belong to the American Nurses Association although they do accept some members at large. Her decision has forced her out of important places of authority in the nursing world. With the same kind of focus but with a different point of view, the Presbyterian Women’s magazine Horizons for July/August, 2004, ponders choices: how to make them, the effects and consequences they cause as well as the human values that under gird them. 

Kikanza Nuri Robins lays the foundation with her article, “Living an Authentic Life.” Her intent is to provide a formula for making value-based decisions, with the understanding that many people fail to reflect “on the principle that shapes or frames our understanding of the situation (5).” Along this line, “Dispatch from Forbearance Presbyterian Church,” is a fictional story about one woman making a decision to move beyond her empty nest feelings. Other articles are very personal dealing with painful decisions made by real women. “The Journey of Infertility: A Personal Letter,” is one such story. Rachel Whaley Doll writes about her and her husband’s attempts to have a child. The story is very moving and gives helpful information on infertility and various medical methods of overcoming the problem. One important part of this story is Doll’s advise to those who know women who are experiencing this problem. She advises just listen when they want to talk. Don’t try to solve the problem. Doll writes, “You talk about your pain so you won’t be alone in it. So you won’t drown in it. You tell others about your pain hoping they will understand and hold you while you cry (24).” This is good advice when trying to comfort any grieving person. The article is excellent.

Two new departments in Horizons, are, “Working for Justice and Peace,” and “Supporting Mission.” Both departments in this issue offer stories about women who made decisions to start health and educational programs as ministry. Other articles are information pieces that inform the reader about (MRTI), Mission Responsibility Through Investment, and the recipients of the “Thank Offering” chosen by the Creative Ministries Offering Committee. One helpful and informative article is “Sweat Free Me.” Pat Plant wrote about loving to shop but learning to do it in a more responsible way. That is, she now shops with an eye toward avoiding goods produced in sweatshops whose laborers are paid unfair wages or those produced by un-environmentally sound methods. I concur with Plant’s advice, efforts and information since I have tried, over the last few years, to not buy items produced in China, a nation who uses slave labor, much of it done by imprisoned Christians. 

It is because of images of the suffering Christians of China and other places that I believe this issue of Horizons has not truthfully addressed true authentic Christian discipleship. Nuri Robins starts her article on “Living an Authentic Life,” by telling a story of her son’s reaction to the torture implements of the inquisition, and affirming the historical knowledge that at that time, “affirming one’s beliefs was torture and death—for oneself and possibly for one’s family (4).” However, most articles in this particular Horizon narrow down to only those homegrown politically correct issues that are of concern to the Presbyterian Women in the United States. The problem begins, I believe, with Nuri Robins’ article. First, she never makes a distinction between values and truth. Sometimes, one has values that are contrary to truth. While Nuri Robins does mention the authority of scripture she fails to make a distinction between the choices that may be made in differing ways without transgressing God’s word and those that must always be strictly shaped by God’s word. For instance, God generally gives us freedom to choose our mate but only within the biblical mandate of a woman for a man and a man for a woman. God’s truth allows us the right to choose the material goods we need but not a materialism that ignores the needs of the poor. 

Second Nuri Robins states that, “most of us won’t ever have to face the prospect of either medieval or modern torture,” clearly narrowing her readers to a few million Presbyterian women, rather than speaking to the whole church. When the scripture is seen as more than value laden material and is understood as God’s revelation and is embraced as such, our eyes are also opened to accept, with understanding, the whole universal church that belongs to Jesus Christ. That is, we will perceive the unity of the church and grasp an understanding of the church as those who have followed Jesus Christ as Lord through the centuries and those who now in other countries as well as our own follow the Lord. Our causes and decisions will then be made in the light of the whole church, and the suffering and hardship of Christians in the past as well as those in other countries will be embraced as ours. Our decisions will not leave out the poor in places like Haiti and the Appalachia, our actions will not ignore nor destroy the unborn, our words will speak about, pray and advocate for those persecuted by any government or entity including China and radical Moslem states. Decisions to proclaim the gospel, the biblical revelation that Jesus Christ died to save from sin and that he is Lord of all, will be held precious, even though that decision may cause our own and other’s walk to be hard, even causing “torture and death—for oneself and possibly for one’s family.”

In the two beautiful poems by Ann Weems there are prayers offered at the end of each. In the first, the poet writes, “In the midst of our barren wandering, O God, provide land and heir and blessing, a blessing for all the nations of the earth, a blessing of peace.” The second poem ends with a plea for Miriam and Deborah to pray for mercy and peace. It ends with words, reflecting two beautiful Christmas carols, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your hearts and sing! Sing, Miriam! Shout, Deborah! O little Town of Bethlehem, where are your tambourines?” And yes, it is with the Incarnation, Jesus Christ, fully God, fully human, that God has answered, and the true peace, the true heir, the blessing for all the nations of the earth is the work of redemption brought by Jesus Christ the Lord of heaven and earth.