Sider: Collectivist in Politics, Collectivist in Church Polity
Our old friend Socialist Sider seems to be at it again. I suppose he’s always at it, but let’s just say the reports are out once again. You can find it in "Evangelical Scandal" from Christianity Today interview posted on 4/13/05.
Perhaps you have heard Ron Sider, or others on his behalf, claim that he is not a socialist. Since some of the critiques of his first edition of Rich Christians In An Age of Hunger have begun to soak in, Sider has often claimed that he now advocates a "free market" economy. While it is true that he does sometimes say this, it is also true that he continues to claim that the state must intervene into the market.
While Sider admits that his understanding of economics is limited, he apparently does not understand - or doesn’t want to understand - that once the state intervenes into the market, there is no stopping point until the state controls - at least potentially - every action in the market. As you move toward that point, the market gradually disappears and "command and control" by the state takes its place.
So I am completely comfortable calling old Sider a socialist - whether he wants to admit it or not. But meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .
What Ron is harping about is the state of the church today. This is not to say that there aren’t problems in the church today. If you are interested in "restoration" - as I am - then you must think there are things lacking in the church that need to be restored.
Some of the things Ron is worried about are worth the worry. "Christians" tend to be more like the culture around us than we ought to be. But there is one particularly telling section of this interview that is worth a read, and then a re-read. First comes the interviewer’s question, and then Sider’s answer follows.
Today, when so many congregations are abandoning biblical truth, you say in the book that all congregations need to be connected to a denomination. Are you serious?
Absolutely. It's simply wrong for a local congregation to have no accountability to a larger body. Now I'm not saying it has to be one of the current denominations. There can be new structures of accountability. Any congregations that feel they must break away from older denominations that are no longer faithful theologically or in terms of moral practice should be a part of some new denominational, organizational structure so they're not isolated lone rangers. They need to have a larger structure of accountability. It is flatly unbiblical and heretical for an individual congregation to say, "We'll just be by ourselves and not be accountable to anybody."
Perhaps all you independent Christian churches (or even reasonable facsimiles thereof) out there, did not realize that you are "wrong . . . unbiblical and heretical." Clearly, you have not properly meditated upon the teaching found in First Sider 6:66, "You must have accountability to a larger body." You apparently do not understand the "scripture," or the power of the "Lord" Sider!
This conclusion from Ron Sider should surprise no one. Sider would have the state oversee your every decision as a participant in the economy. He carries that collectivist attitude over into his ecclesiology, where he wants a larger, bureaucratic body to oversee the decisions of the local congregation.
We are all accountable to God. Sometimes that accountability can be mediated, but not necessarily. If a congregation must be accountable to a larger body, why doesn't a denomination need to be accountable to a larger body? And if we formed "super" denominations to provide this, would these, too, need a larger body to which to be accountable? Consistency would require it.
In this interview, Sider praises the idea of the church being "countercultural." Here is something for Ron to consider: our culture is one that admires, and even views as indispensable, top-to-bottom control structures. We are a culture of bureaucracy. If Sider wants to be countercultural, he should consider the value of independence and freedom - both for individuals and congregations.