Prince Caspian
There is a plot element in Prince Caspian that is a fascinating look at faith and living in a community of faith when the majority do not see things the way you do. There is a moment when Lucy, the youngest of the four siblings is seeing Aslan and no one else is. In fact, Aslan is not only appearing to Lucy and none of the others, but he is showing her that they need to be doing things differently than what they are currently doing. When the others are faced with this change of plans, they vote on whether to follow what Lucy says Aslan wants, or to go with the current plan.
One of the challenges of being a part of a church or another community of faith is that faith is usually a very personal, sometimes mystical, journey and we are not always on the same page. In democratic bodies, where a majority make decisions, or even Presbyterian bodies where leadership does, the choices made are not always the right ones. Numbers 13 is a well-known example of this.
What is a person of faith to do, when they feel their group is headed in a misguided direction? Evangelical tendency is to cut loose and form yet another group. Should they instead stay with the group having voiced their concerns? Lucy fails to convince the group, and Aslan’s desires are delayed. In the end she is told to convince the group.
All too true! We were faced with just this type of delima this week. The united methodist general confrence was meeting in Ft Worth this week. This is a mtg. of united methodists from all over the world that meets every four years and sets the doctrine and practice of the church. This year the liberal agenda was well represented and there were several proposals that included acceptance of gay/homosexual rights. We prayed hard and had to begin asking ourselves what we would do if the votes went in favor of the liberals which it seemed it was going too. Fortunately the african delegation which represented close to onethirdof the votes and stands to have another 10-20% added next confrence in 2012 are very evangelical and conservative. They jointly kept it from passing ending the liberal advances of the past 12 years. None the less we were faced with weather to jump ship or stay and try to bring change.
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