At Lunch with Bill Carter:
It's his Bible, too
By Lesli Bales-Sherrod
Bill Carter has found the missing link. "All this time, fundamentalists have been talking about all the things you have to do to be a Christian, but they didn't even mention love, and it's the most fundamental," he said over a "guiltless" chicken platter at Chili's. "But if you don't have love, nothing else matters."
It might sound like a good start to a sermon, but this retired Holston pastor from Johnson City, Tenn., instead makes it the start of his new book, "It's Our Bible, Too: A Fresh Look at the New Testament by a Mainline Christian."
The Rev. Carter, 77, said he wrote the book after his Bible study on women in the ministry got rave reviews at Jubilation and at the 2004 Holston Annual Conference. Asked to get it published, Carter added a brief history of the church and five other Bible studies he had taught in the past. The end result was published in March.
"I think there is a threat to Protestant faith by some people who are trying to change it to suit their own needs," Carter explained, cutting the kernels off his corn on the cob. "Since they've claimed their positions based on the Bible, this book takes some of those positions from the Bible and looks at them from a different perspective."
The book covers women in the ministry, religion in public schools, prayer and miracles, homosexuality and the end times. But other than homosexuality, Carter said the issues addressed are not new to the church. "What brought these to the forefront were the Supreme Court decisions to integrate the schools and that the Bible could not be taught in public schools as a book of faith," he noted. "Those decisions caused the rise of the religious right. It incensed them."
Now the "religious right" is focusing on homosexuality, he said.
"It is suddenly important because these folks have lost on all the other (issues)," Carter reasoned.
One of those issues missing from the book is abortion.
"I didn't mention abortion in the book because it is not mentioned in the Bible," Carter said simply, sipping his ice water - no lemon. "Not a single church denomination has a policy that permits unrestricted abortion, but people are still mad about that."
Even though his book tackles some controversial subjects, Carter is quick to say it is not meant to be inflammatory.
"The main people who are attacking Protestants are not (from) other denominations," he stressed. "It is radio preachers and special agencies like Focus on the Family, and (the book) is directed at those media religions." Carter said the country is the "worst split it's ever been" on religious issues, but that the Holston Conference has not addressed these subjects recently, if at all.
"We really haven't expressed ourselves strongly," he said. "We decided it would blow over, and it may."
But Carter added it "may be a good thing" that the church doesn't make many pronouncements anymore.
"The church should not become so much of an advocate that it arouses other people's anger," he said.
After all, Carter said, "Christian unity" is the most important issue the church is facing today.
"We're either going to have to learn to love one another, or we're going to have to give it up because it says in the Bible that if we don't love one another, we're not the church," he said. "We need to support one another, even if we don't believe the same thing."
Lesli Bales-Sherrod is county government reporter for The (Maryville) Daily Times. She is married to the Rev. Jimmy Sherrod, pastor of the French Broad Circuit in Knoxville District. Carter's book is available at Cokesbury Bookstores in Knoxville and Johnson City.
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