Dear Union Theological Seminary,
I am a gigantic supporter of seminary education. I think our expectations of ministers who handle God’s Word should at the very least include formal training. Seminaries continue to be the place where a combination of scholarship and dialogue with world-class scholars in their field all come together. My training was fantastic! I thank God daily for it! I would walk into John Frame’s office to talk about Kuyper and then run into Simon Kistemaker and talk about Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, then pray with Mark Futato. Thank you, Reformed Theological Seminary!
You see, there is one thing that holds a good Christian institution together, and that is loyalty to their mission. If an institution is to remain faithful, she must submit to the God of all knowledge. God guides the mission of theological and biblical training. If you are to train future ministers and theologians, they must uphold the traditional and classic virtues of Christendom. However, if you choose the changing theological winds of the day, your legacy will perish.
In the early 1930s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer graced your facility. But even back then, almost 90 years ago, he was not impressed. He wrote concerning your institution:
“A seminary in which numerous students openly laugh during a public lecture because they find it amusing when a passage on sin and forgiveness from Luther’s de servo arbitrio is cited has obviously, despite its many advantages, forgotten what Christian theology in its very essence stands for.”
Congratulations! You have been a joke to many for almost a century. You have laughed at sin, and now sin openly laughs at you. It was only a few months ago that your president, Serene Jones, observed that heaven, miracles, and resurrection of Jesus as Greek mythology. Here is the truth: the idea that you still dare call your yourself a “seminary” institution is the real myth. You are no such thing. But here is where I think you are being consistent and applaud your efforts: I believe that confessing your hopes and dreams to plants is precisely what you need to do from now on. Let’s be honest: God does not hear the cries of the unrepentant wicked, so confessing anything to plants is your only refuge and strength. Once the Creator God is forsaken, the only thing for you to identify with is the created thing. May the plants guide your future!
Yours truly,
Rev. Uriesou Brito
