Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:52:44 -0500
To: forum@hobd.org
From: Tobias - bsg@earthlink.net
Subject: Tanzanian Families
Message-ID: <3FB40B3C.7070602@earthlink.net>

In an astounding theological statement today the Church of Tanzania,
speaking through its Primate, asserted the following:

"The Anglican Church of Tanzania remains obedient to the Word of God,
that only a lawful union between a man and a woman constitutes marriage.
This is the basis of the human family."

However, as I survey the Word of God, most particularly in the New
Testament, I find precious few examples of human families that would
stand this litmus test, while there are many other "human families" that
don't fit this mold at all.

We should start, of course, with the Holy Family itself, which fails the
stringency of the Tanzanian Rule because Mary and Joseph did not
consummate their "union" until after the birth of Christ. . . if then
(for if one accepts the official Roman Catholic teaching on Mary's
perpetual virginity the marriage was never consummated as a "union" – a
difficulty the scholastic theologians were hard put to explain.). This
embarrassing fact dogged Jesus for the rest of his earthly life. (John
8:41) What was God trying to tell us by coming to us in this
embarrassing way?

Then there is the peculiar family at Bethany: two "sisters" and one
"brother" and not a spouse in sight. A very unusual Palestinian
household in that day and age, but one in which Jesus was more than
comfortable, and in and for which he worked his greatest miracle.

Then there's Timothy and his blessed mom and grandmom. You remember Lois
and Eunice. I wonder did poor Tim suffer the "absent father syndrome"
growing up in such a "feminized" household? Perhaps it wasn't only his
youth that led people not to take him seriously.

As to the other married couple we know of from the New Testament, Prisca
and Aquila — why are no children mentioned? Were they childless? There
is mention of their "household" but that, as we've seen, can mean many
different kinds of gatherings. Certainly they got around fairly easily
and worked hard for the Lord, but no issue is mentioned. Similarly, we
know Peter had a mother-in-law but know nothing of his wife or any children.

Finally of course we have the metaphorical family which is the church,
all siblings but only one Father in heaven. Specifics give us quibbling
church sisters like Euodia and Syntyche, and Chloe and her household and
Stephanas and his, and many others too, but nothing in the way of
traditional families.

Yes, of course we have Paul's advice to husbands and wives, and bishops
(!) most of which is now ignored with little protest from Tanzania or
elsewhere. But in any case these are all general instructions: where, it
must be asked (if they are so important to the Christian faith and
life), are the shining actual examples of the nuclear family?

Finally, I have to note that even the bare word "family," where it
appears in our modern versions, does not refer to anything like what the
Tanzanian church imagines to be so basic. It is applied to "households,"
"relatives," "tribes," the "brethren" of the church, and so on. Stated
most bluntly, the nuclear / biological family is essentially invisible
in and irrelevant to the concerns of the New Testament. It is
domesticity, not marriage, that lies at the heart of the human family
described there. Or have I missed something? It seems to me that human
society finds many families on which to build itself.

I'm afraid the Tanzanians (and others) have missed the rich language of
adoption, of hospitality, of domesticity, of householding: the Gospel
tradition and truth that not just human society but the church is built,
not by blood or by the will of man, but by God and his grace.

Repent and believe the Gospel. It is not too late to pull back from the
Donatist chasm.

I realize, as I reviewed the post, that I neglected Elizabeth and
Zechariah and their son John. Not quite the normal family, as it would
be hard to see human society structured on miraculous births to aged
couples.
Tobias
- posted by Bob @ 6:57 AM