Church's ability to influence the culture

Mr. Utchen's letter, "Religious beliefs do change with times," criticized Kathleen Parker's column, challenging Hillary Clinton's remark that, "deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed." He presents evidence he supposes supports his claim that church beliefs do evolve.

Citing the Episcopal Church as now being presided by a female bishop he seeks to nullify, 1 Timothy 2:11-12 prohibits women from teaching men about church doctrine. Mr. Utchen, wishing to dismiss this passage, does so by also eliminating verses 2:13 - 15, which provides the world view support for the statement, a world view not yet abandoned by core, Bible-believing churches.

In giving this example, Mr. Utchen bolsters Parker, because the Episcopal Church and some others have become so very liberal, that Ms. Parker's question, "if we change our religious beliefs what else will we have?" is answered by the word, "Irrelevance." During the early Catholic Church period, counsels formed to deal with heresies of the time. They resulted in the clarification of already understood doctrine. After the Reformation, denominations formed in response to differences of minor interpretations or, in some cases, the perception that a previously formed denomination had become apostate The goal was, and still is to keep established doctrine from being eroded by malleable culture.

Mr. Utchen claims we now violate keeping the Sabbath day and the Old Testament directive to execute homosexuals. Thank Christ for this, as the New Testament modified our understanding of the Old Testament, hence, "Christianity," instead of, "Judaism."

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells us the church is the salt of the earth, meaning the church is to influence the flavor of culture. He also says that salt that loses its ability to do this is worthless, and I suspect Mr. Utchen knows this.

Brian Van Dine

Glendale Heights