RevRASawtelle - The GOD Who RELATES

Rev. Roger A. Sawtelle and Mrs. Ann J. Sawtelle

Presiding Elder [!?] Roger A. Sawtelle, A Man for All Seasons

and a Seasoned Educator

[Article from the Christian Recorder, September 22, pp. 6, 10]

The Rev. Roger A. Sawtelle recently completed his 22^nd year as Church School Superintendent of the New England Conference of the AME Church. Looking back on this still incomplete career the veteran Christian educator can see where he has left his mark on many aspects of the church. He is most pleased to be part of a push for excellence in the understanding of the Christian faith and the teaching of our faith.

After serving six years as pastor of Bethel AME Church in historic Lowell, Mass Rev. Sawtelle was first appointed a Conference Church School Superintendent by Bishop Frank C. Cummings. He immediately began to modernize the position by establishing a budget and yearly schedule of visits. In the New England the Conference Superintendent makes the visits to the 27 churches and missions, scattered over the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island to teach, preach, and supervise.

After organizing the Church Schools in New England he noted that the AMEC Sunday School literature needed to be upgraded. To this end in 1992 the Rev. Roger A. Sawtelle ran for the office of the Editor of Religious Literature. This was the General Officer that was responsible for the preparation and editing of the AME Church School lessons.

He enjoyed the opportunity to visit churches outside the First Episcopal District and promised that if he were elected, the AME lessons would be “second to none.” He was not elected in Orlando, because that was the year that the position was abolished with its duties given to the Secretary of the Christian Education Dept. Still he endeavored to do what he could to keep his promise that our literature would be “second to none.”

In this regard the Rev. Sawtelle was a founding member of the AMEC Writers Guild in 1992 and wrote Sunday School Quarterlies usually for the Junior Class on a regular basis until 2006. For 14 years he was very active as an AME member of the Committee for Uniform Series, which is the ecumenical group that plans the Church School curriculum and provides the outline for the Church School Lessons for our denomination and most Sunday Schools worldwide.

In this manner Rev. Sawtelle had the unique position of being directly involved in the planning of the church school lessons, the writing of the sunday school lessons, the supervision of church school classes, and the teaching of the lessons whenever he had the opportunity. Almost every week fall, summer, and spring, he was making a church school visit in his own conference or wherever he might be attending church.

Another area that needed upgrading was the First Episcopal Church School, which at that time was not recognized, was not organized, and was not meeting. Through the initiative of Rev. Sawtelle and the other Conference Superintendents they initiated the First Episcopal District Annual Church School Seminar and Annual Day in 1993, which provides a full day of inspiration, training, encouragement, and fellowship for teachers, and superintendents throughout the northeast.

Rev. Sawtelle was blessed with an excellent education, and sought to share the insights gathered though this education with all who care to listen and read. He was the product of a fine public school system of Wyoming, Ohio. He chose to attend college at Indiana U. in Bloomington, IN, which had the benefits of a fine large state university and the atmosphere of a small college town. He made full advantage of all the cultural and scholarly opportunities at IU.

He also spent two years at graduate school there studying Russian language, culture, and history in order to understand the conflict between the US and the USSR. Part of this education was a cultural exchange trip to the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Poland during the summer of 1961, the summer of the building of the Berlin Wall.

Rev. Sawtelle was also blessed with an excellent education at Harvard Divinity School. With the conflict over civil rights in full swing and the War in Viet Nam on the horizon, he answered the call to the ministry and entered seminary. During the summers he worked in the South doing civil rights work and working with Rev. James M. Lawson at Centenary UM Church in Memphis.

Upon graduation from Harvard Divinity Rev. Sawtelle served as pastor of North Kingstown UM Church, the Wareham and Marion, MA UM Parish, and the Brayton and Quarry St. UM Parish in Fall River, MA. He made the decision to leave the United Methodist Ministry and found employment working as a Social Worker for the Department of Public Welfare in New Bedford, MA, and later as a training officer and supervisor.

In 1977 Rev. Sawtelle attended Bethel AME Church in Fall River one Sunday morning and never returned to the United Methodist Church. Soon he heard a renewed call to the ministry and was admitted to the New England Annual Conference in 1978. He was ordained deacon in 1979 and itinerant elder in 1981. He is the son and grandson of Sunday School Teachers and Superintendents. In 1999 he married the lovely Ann B. Jasper at Bethel AME Church in Bloomfield, CT.

We all know that education is the way forward in today’s world. Secular education needs to be linked with Christian education so our faith keeps pace with our mind. There is nothing wrong with the AME Church. Yes, she has weaknesses as do all churches, but her strengths and possibilities far outweigh the problems. We need to trust in the Holy Spirit to lead us to doing our part to strengthen our faith, our church, and the universal Christian Community.

The AME Church has a special calling and mission to the African American community in the United States and around the world. That is true and incontrovertible. However, she cannot serve the Black community without addressing the needs of the greater community. Both Black and White communities need to understand and address this real situation. Rev. Sawtelle has served as president of the Merrimack Valley Branch NAACP.

The greater community is facing three vital challenges. The first is intellectual issues in the Christian faith and the Western tradition caused by recent scientific and philosophical developments. The second is the spiritual attack on our faith by Islam. And the third is the intellectual attack on our faith by scientism and materialism.

Rev. Sawtelle as part of his education ministry has written two ground breaking books addressing these crucial issues: The GOD Who RELATES; African-American Trinitarian Theology, The Complex ONE and The Simple ONE; Relational Christianity and Absolute Islam in Today’s World. He is currently working on a third book: Beyond Evolution; Christianity, Science, and Philosophy Today. These ground breaking books step into the vacuum created by the sterile debate between fundamentalism, liberalism, and materialism to demonstrate the real power of relational Christianity to meet the needs of today’s world. They can be purchased through Amazon.com or his website, rightrelates.org

Letter to the Editor of the Boston Globe

Editor of the Boston Globe

letter@globe.com

Dear Editor:

I must take firm exception to Jeff Jacoby’s criticism of President Obama’s speech in Cairo(OpEd, June 7.)

What we did not need is a confrontational lecture against radical Islamism ala President’s Reagan speech in 1987. In anything Jacoby’s point of view demonstrates the danger of meeting today’s challenges with yesterday’s tactics. The Cold War is over and done.

What President Obama did was present our policies in a clear, positive, and reasonable manner. We champion the right of the sovereign nation that grew out of the Holocaust, Israel, to exist, while at the same time seeking to bring a Palestinian nation into existence. The United States chooses to exercise its right to self defense by fighting Al Qaida and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks.

In addition we continue to support and advocate for human rights, including women’s rights and freedom of religion, throughout the world. What we need not do is try to impose our ideals on other countries and cultures. Whether this was intended or not this is what seemed to happen in Iraq and this is why the United States needs to withdraw from Iraq a quickly and gracefully as possible. Sadaam was no angel, but he was Iraq’s problem, not ours.

I am not sure the President Reagan’s speech was important to the liberation of eastern Europe, but it didn’t hurt. President Obama’s speech made clear that the U.S. is not the problem in the Middle East. I am sure that the people who live there can determine for themselves who is. Confrontation with Muslims is not the answer. Cooperation is. Our president has closed the door on one and opened the door to the other.

Sincerely yours,

Rev. Roger A. Sawtelle

46 PARK STREET #20 • LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS • 01852

PHONE: 978-452-8577

RELATES7@EARTHLINK.NET

The Islamic Puzzle

Osama bin Laden has written a fatwa (formal Muslim legal ruling) in which he in the name of Islam declared war on the West. Whereas many Muslims disagree with this document and its author, I am unaware of any fatwa specifically condemning the attacks on September 11, 2001 and those who perpetuated them.

The focus of this article is not to determine if Islam is a violent religion or if democracy and Islam are compatible, but what are, if any, the essential differences between Islam and Christianity. I do not mean obvious differences such as different scriptures and different leaders. I mean fundamental systematic differences. Many people believe that all faiths are basically the same, that is, they only differ in the details. This article will explore these two faiths to determine if this is true.

Can God lie?

Judaism and Christianity have always maintained that God does not lie. If God is in control of history and the universe, God would have no reason to lie and indeed could not lie, because that would contradict Himself. However, according to the Qur'an Allah perpetuated a grand deception on humanity when He falsified the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In the Qur'an Allah revealed that the Jesus did not die on the cross, but He only appeared to die.

"And for their [Jews’] saying: 'We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary,' the messenger of Allah, and they killed him not, nor did they cause his death on the cross, but he was made to resemble another to them as such." (emphasis added) Surah 4:157

Based on this statement Muslims believe that Allah caused the person of Jesus to be replaced by someone else, maybe Judas Iscariot, and that person’s features to be changed so that he appeared to be Jesus. In any case according to the Quran (which the Muslims believe was dictated by Allah to Muhammad though the angel Gabriel) Allah did something to make it appear that Jesus died on the Cross when He did not.

Then the Qur'an goes on to say, “And the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] will believe in this [the death of Jesus] before his death; and on the day of Resurrection he [Jesus] will be a witness against them.” Surah 4:159. From what the Qur'an says Allah deceived Jews and Christians and then will call upon Jesus on the Day of Judgment to testify against those who believed the lie that Allah created.

Can God fail?

Judaism and Christianity have always maintained that God being almighty cannot fail, but the Quran has a different view in that God failed not once but twice. The Qur'an says that Allah abandoned the Jews because they failed to keep His covenant. He also abandoned the Christians because they also failed to keep His covenant. It appears that the Qur'an holds Jews and Christians accountable for these failures, but is God so powerless and lacking in wisdom that His covenants are failures?

One might assume that Christians would regard God’s covenant with the Jews a failure since it has been replaced by the new covenant of Jesus. However that is not true because the covenant of Jesus was made possible by the covenant of Moses. The success or fulfillment of the Old Testament is the New Testament. It would seem that the covenant of Jesus should be considered a success because it introduced the Abrahamic tradition of one God to billions of people, but the Qur'an does not agree.

The Qur'an says that Jesus did not come as the Messiah to save the world from sin and death. The Qur'an says that Jesus came as the final Messenger to the Jews to tell them to repent and turn back to Allah. When the Jews rejected Jesus, they were rejected by Allah. The Qur'an says that the Christians also broke their covenant with Allah, although it is not clear what that covenant was. What is clear is that Allah through the Quran rejects any claim that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for the sins of the world. To justify the establishment of a new faith, the Qur'an attempted to discredit both Judaism and Christianity through the death of Jesus.

God’s Plan of Salvation

The Bible clearly outlines God’s plan of salvation from sin and death in the Old Testament based on the keeping of the covenant and atoning sacrifices and the New Testament based on the atoning death of Jesus Christ and faith in Him. The Qur'an has a very different view of salvation, because it has a very different view of sin.

The Qur'an has a version of the story of Adam and Eve, but it is very different from that found in Genesis. For one thing the story is not told in any kind of chronological order, so it has been interpreted as not a historical event, but a mythological truth that applies to everyone.

In Genesis God completed His creation by creating animals and birds for possible companions for Adam and having Adam give names to all the living creatures (Gen 2:19-20). In Genesis Adam discovered or created the names of the creatures, which are accepted by God. This part of the story affirms that God gave humankind an active role in the creation of the universe and power over the universe.

In the Qur'an, it says, “And He (Allah) taught Adam all the names, then presented them to the angels;….” Surah 2:31. According to the Quran all the names are given to human beings by Allah. The significance of these names is much more than words, it is knowledge concerning all aspects of reality including salvation.

In Genesis Adam is an active partner with God in discovering and completing the Creation. In the Qur'an people are more passive, being taught by Allah the secrets of life and the universe. For Muslims knowledge is remembering what Allah has already imprinted on their mind and revealed through the Qur'an. “Salvation” also is remembering the right way of Allah, not discovering it through revelation and experience.

Sin for the Christian is a condition of self-centeredness that causes people to disregard the needs of others and their dependence on God. This self-centeredness causes people to act in such a way that others are injured and God’s will is not carried out. We believe that people are born self-centered or selfish. The only way that they can overcome sin is to be born of the Holy Spirit by trusting Jesus Christ as Lord of their life and accepting the gift of forgiveness of our sin.

Salvation is the reorientation of our lives away from ourselves toward God. This can only be done by the power of God. God the Father set the stage by created humans in God’s image, thus giving people the freedom and ability to make decisions and to love others. The Father also sent the Son Who reveals to us the true nature of sin and salvation as an internal condition of the spirit. Jesus Christ reveals the Way to God by trust in Him and love for all people, who are created in His image. The Holy Spirit empowers born again believers by giving them God’s love, joy, and peace.

Sin according to the Qur'an is forgetfulness, and the most basic and serious kind of sin is forgetting the true nature of Allah. According to the Qur'an Allah is One, but not the type of oneness that Christians believe in. The Qur'an clearly and explicitly says that Jesus is not the Son of Allah and the Trinity is an affront to Allah. Sin for the Qur'an is not a condition, but a lapse. Islam believes in cheap grace, when people confess their sins, but not if they hold on their false beliefs about Allah.

Christians believe that God is one, but also complex, just as individuals are both one and also complex. Similarly we believe the universe is unified and complex as we try to understand its unity and diversity. Muslims generally accept the world as simple based on the rules of their faith.

Salvation for the Christian is based on grace that we receive through faith. Good works are not the cause or precondition of salvation, but flow from salvation, so they cannot be separated from it. For the Quran salvation is decided only on the Day of Judgment and is based on right belief and good works based on the Sharia or divine Law, but good works as we know them are secondary. Allah is very merciful toward believers in Him.

Conclusion

The problem with Islam is that it is too easy. It does not challenge the mind or the body or the spirit. People believe it because they want to believe it. People believe it because they are not encouraged to think critically and are afraid to think differently. Also it does provide external structure that some want and others are dependent upon. It does not provide the internal structure that we all need.

I was asked if I thought the gulf that separates Christianity and Islam could be bridged, and I did not give a definite answer. As you can see from this short and incomplete paper, I do not think that this is likely, but I do not think that it is up to me to decide the outcome before the confrontation takes place.

I believe that Christians are called to tell the truth (in love), especially when it comes to speaking about God, and let Him take care of the consequences. Ignoring the problem and the issues surely will not solve them and this we must try to do for all concerned. The only problem is that the conflict will probably become greater before resolution and reconciliation can take place. For this reason it is best to use this knowledge very wisely and cautiously.

For more information about Christianity and Islam, purchase The Complex ONE and The Simple ONE through amazon.com.