Harriet Miers a Member of the Christian Church
The controversy over George W. Bush's latest appointee to the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers, rages on. The political nail-biting is summed up well in an observation I heard a reporter make last night on the local news: "Concerning where Harriet Miers stands on issues like abortion, both Republicans and Democrats are now more confused than ever."
For those of us who would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned, the Miers appointment is a little unsettling. She has no record of pro-life activity; for that matter, she has no record whatsoever.
President Bush has tried to reassure conservatives by pointing to Ms. Miers' faith. The implication is that, since she is an evangelical Christian, she brings another pro-life mindset to the Supreme Court.
Miers is a member of the Cornerstone Christian Church in Dallas, Texas. It seems she has been associated with the Independent Christian Churches for the last 25 years. Before that time she floated between Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Catholic Churches. Historically speaking, the Christian Church and the churches of Christ are closely related. Wikipedia.org lists the two groups among five branches that trace their roots back to the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. The Independent Christian Churches, the Disciples of Christ, and the churches of Christ were one body. But in the late nineteenth century, they split into three groups over the question of instrumental music in worship and the innovation of missionary societies. Only the churches of Christ held to the New Testament pattern of a capella music. By the time of the 1906 United States religious census, the Christian Churches and churches of Christ were officially two separate bodies.
We are approaching 2006, the one hundred year anniversery of the formal division of churches of Christ and Christian Churches over instrumental music. This is significant, for as Alan Highers warns,
Some see this century-mark as the ideal time to undo the division and to put Humpty-Dumpty together again. But beware! This centennial celebration does not mean that christian Chruches propose to give up the instrument. Oh no, not that! Instead, this coming year will be yet another effort to persuade churches of Christ that the instrument is not a "fellowship" issue, that we can all be one without anyone giving up instrumental music, and that it is the churches of Christ who must compromise, capitulate, and surrender in order to have unity. In the furtherance of this goal, you certainly may expect that there will be articles, sermons, seminars, appeals, and even a few apologies for all of the poor old backward souls who considered instrumental music wrong simply because it lacked scriptural support.
"From the Woodland," The Spiritual Sword (October 2005), 41.
