Minister Marlon Millner of PCPJ, Philadelphia, PA, writes:
I want to commend Sojourners on its recent "A New Confession of Christ" [SojoMail 10/20/2004]. It may mark new ground for the group. The new ground is that I hear high, ancient, and orthodox Christological language being appealed to here. This language is important because for Sojourners' work to be meaningful, the church must move beyond liberal and conservative. Of course, as an African-American Pentecostal, I come from a stereotypically conservative tradition. However, many of the folks who support Sojourners come from stereotypically liberal traditions, traditions seeking to emphasize the humanity of Jesus, accomodating modernity's disbelief in his divinity. Here, by invoking resistance to heresy and appealing to doxological language about Christ, we almost sound faithful - then again that is what the confession seeks to be. In that sense it is not new, but renews the church's claim to bring everything under Christ. No appeal to Jesus can have any ethical meaning if ones who call themselves Christians backpeddle or double-talk on the original claim that God has made this same Jesus who (was) crucified, both Lord and Christ.
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