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view on this seemingly obvious and legitimate anxiety.
This alternate point of view is that there is no evidence that a change toward
a more inclusive ordination policy has a positive effect on church membership,
neither with young people nor anyone else. If anything, the evidence shows
that churches that have made this change have suffered dramatic declines in
membership, declines that are all the more striking when compared with the
lack of such dramatic declines in most denominations that have maintained
the policy of restricting ordination to men.
There may be other factors in the decline of churches, but it does seem
clear that ordaining women is not a positive factor in church growth, since
few denominations that ordain women are growing. And it also seems clear
that the failure to ordain women does not cause churches to decline, since
few of the denominations that do not ordain women have suffered the same
dramatic declines that have affected so many Protestant churches.
I am concerned that the Board seems to take seriously the fear that many
people will leave the Church because of our policy. Why do they take this fear
seriously when the opposite seems to be demonstrably more likely?
The Rev. Jeremy F. Simons
Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania
Choosing Our As-of-Self
To The Editors:
I have been puzzled over something the Writings say and I think others have
been also. The Writings say that we – all of us – are nothing but evil “as of self ”
and that we are born into evils. This is a bit confusing because the Lord gave
us our as-of-self.
The answer is that we have two as-of-selfs – one good, the other evil. The
good one, which the Lord gave us, says: without the Lord I am nothing; I have
no life, no power, to act, think or love. But the Lord is constantly flowing into
me with His life so that I can think, love and act, and choose between good
and evil.
The bad one says: I do not need God; I have life and power within myself.
This is stealing from God. It is nothing but evil.
It seems as if the Writings are always talking about the bad as-of-self. But
they also tell us we have the good as-of-self as we lead our lives.
The Writings seem to say even that babies are somewhat evil. But they
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