Methodist Reformer Optimistic Despite Feeble Gospel Message in Some Churches
by Jim Brown
November 30, 2005
(AgapePress) - - A conservative United Methodist pastor is reacting to Hollywood actor Richard Gere's comments about his upbringing in the United Methodist Church. The actor stated recently why he turned from that mainline Protestant denomination to the eastern religion of Buddhism.Gere, who plays a religion professor in the new movie Bee Season, said the Methodist church he was raised in did not answer his questions about life, so he turned to Tibetan Buddhism. The actor went on to say that his church did not teach that Jesus is the only way to God, so he does not believe that is an essential part of Christianity. He also stated that while he believes in goodness and wisdom, he does not believe in God.
Thomas Lambrecht is a Methodist pastor from Wisconsin who serves as chairman of the board of Good News, a renewal ministry in the denomination. Lambrecht says he is saddened by such stories.
"Some United Methodist churches around the country have basically given up teaching the orthodox Christian faith and ... have turned their back on the Bible and gone in different directions theologically," Lambrecht shares. "There are a fair number of pastors who cannot affirm the basics of Christianity, unfortunately."
In addition to that, he admits that religious pluralism is a problem in the denomination. "We've heard of several congregations who invite Buddhists and people of other faiths to participate on an equal basis in kind of a smorgasbord approach to Christianity or to religion in general, I guess you'd say," he says. "But I don't think that's a very widespread phenomenon."
Still, although he says many Methodist churches do not preach a biblical gospel, Lambrecht says the denomination as a whole is orthodox and "headed for reform and renewal."
In a 1996 PBS interview [parental caution on link], Gere stated that one day he hopes he will "be able to clear myself and expand myself and become everything I want to be -- become a Buddha." In that interview he relates how his search beyond his Methodist upbringing began with transcendental meditation, then Zen, and then finally to a personal relationship with the current Dalai Lama.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
