from
the
forum
chairman
mw
EDITORIAL
Are
Qur
Teachers
Fit
to
Teach?
|.
cies
sce
hen
a
misfit
who
flirts
with
suicide
joins
herself
with
two
orphan
nieces,
you
sense
again
the
wonder—
and
fragility—of
families.
Sylvie,
who
returns
to
her
lakeside
town
from
a
life
of
transience
and
freight
trains,
begins
to
see
that
she
mat-
ters.
Although
one
niece
never
reconciles
fully
with
her
strange
presence,
and
finally
leaves,
the
other,
Ruthie,
sticks
with
Sylvie
through
all
the
disappointments
and
scary
shadows
that
complicate
their
need
for
one
another.
One
day
the
townsfolk
notice
the
two
of
them
have
returned
from
some
excursion
in
a
freight
car.
After
that,
the
tall,
fat
sheriff
comes
around,
and
so
do
well-meaning
ladies
with
casseroles
and
prying
questions.
The
courts
are
about
to
ask
whether
Sylvie
can
keep
Ruthie.
Sylvie
tells
the
ladies
that
families
“should
stay
together,”
and
also
embarks
upon
a
frenzy
of
housekeeping.
At
this,
Ruthie,
also
alarmed,
grasps
a
slender
hope:
perhaps
her
aunt's
“eagerness
to
save
our
household”
will
convince
the
authorities
that
it
“should
not
be
violated.”
All
this
is
from
Housekeeping
by
the
Pulitzer-
Prize-winning
Marilynne
Robinson.
Because
it's
“I
set
in
North
Idaho,
where
[
have
myself
enjoyed
the
HOUSE-
KEEPING:
A
NOVEL
lakes
and
woods
and
huckleberries,
|
do
not
so
much
imagine
as
remem-
Hl
ber
the
milieu.
But
bigger
|
reasons
for
loving
the
|
book
are
the
authors
lyri-
cism,
her
attunement
to
human
feeling,
the
Christian
passion
that
drives
and
shapes
her
imagination.
Not
for
a
minute
would
I
doubt
her
conviction
that
the
church
is
itself
a
household,
and
that
this
household,
too,
should
by
no
means
“be
violated.”
Work
such
as
that
of
John
McVay
and
John
Brunt
on
biblical
metaphors
underscores
the
New
Testament
belief
that
those
who
share
the
life
of
faith
constitute
a
“household”
or
Objectors
see
the
process
“family.”
Both
these
scholars
have
also
been
pastors,
and
|
like
to
imagine,
therefore,
that
they
have
a
profounder-than-average
feeling
as
an
effort,
for
the
nuance
of
the
metaphors.
They
have
in
any
case
kept
before
us
such
passages
as
this
.
one
from
Ephesians
2:
“So
then
you
are
no
from
outside
longer
strangers
and
aliens,
but
you
are
.
.
.
members
of
the
household
of
God,
built
upon
colleges
and
the
foundation
of
the
apostles
and
prophets,
with
Christ
Jesus
himself
as
the
cornerstone.”
And
this
pertains,
as
we
dare
not
overlook,
to
universities
current
controversy
over
the
“endorsement”
ini-
tiative
high-level
church
administrators
believe
necessary
to
assure
the
fitness
of
Adventist
reli-
themselves,
to
gion
teachers
for
their
jobs
(see
news
article
on
page
8).
When
implemented,
this
initiative
control
thought
would,
through
action
culminating
at
division-
level
Boards
for
Ministerial
and
Theological
Education,
or
BMTE's,
certify
that
teachers
are
teaching
the
church's
Statement
of
Twenty-
on
Adventist
Eight
Fundamental
Beliefs.
Said
by
administra-
tors
to
be
unwieldly,
and
by
many
educators
campuses.
(especially
in
the
church's
older
sectors)
to
be
unwarranted
and
dangerous,
the
initiative
is
now
undergoing
refinement
by
a
special
Revi-
sion
Task
Force.
The
Task
Force
is
consider-
ing
objections,
but
focusing
on
operational
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