Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 19, 1994                   TAG: 9411220005
SECTION: RELIGION                    PAGE: B9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PROFESSOR CHALLENGES BELIEVERS TO CHANGE THE WORLD

He told an audience of about 100 religion professionals in Antrim Chapel that he refuses to be labeled for his religious beliefs. As an academic - he's professor of theological ethics - the United Methodist teacher said he "can make the church uncomfortable" because he does not have to contend with keeping his members happy while presenting uncomfortable truths.

Then with a laugh that was almost a cackle he said, "The riskiest thing I do is remain a United Methodist. My spouse is a pastor. ... Yes, I think being United Methodists represents a risk for our souls."

Hauerwas reflected that he also had risked his son, who was educated in public schools. The father said he regrets that now since he regards their atmosphere as too reflective of a conforming and materialistic culture.

His 90-minute lecture was entitled "What Would It Mean for the Church to be the Body of Christ?" The professor took his stand for a brand of radical Christianity - challenging believers to change the world, not be accommodated to it - that was popular in many mainline pulpits 25 years ago when some ministers were trying to change the minds of their congregations about war and civil rights.

When the Vietnam war was going on, for instance, he once told his son to call President Nixon "a murderer" when the subject came up in his public-school class.

The church as a place of comfort and sentiment does not fare well in Hauerwas' estimation.

Yet he was as hard on liberal Protestant Christians as on fundamentalists. Only the Holy Spirit, not consciousness-raising, can motivate church people, he said. He also accused liberal Protestants of having "idolized the nation over God."

As for fundamentalists, whom some probably expected him to criticize, Hauerwas appeared more optimistic than frightened.

He called it "amazing" and "wonderful" that some Roman Catholics and ultra-conservative Baptists are making friends with each other, in large part because of their shared opposition to abortion. They'll teach each other, Hauerwas thinks, with both churches becoming the better for it.

It's a paradox that Christians gain in the church when they give up to God, Hauerwas said.

"We do not give gifts. We are gifts."

Being obligated to God is uncomfortable but it is an essential quality of humility, Hauerwas said.

The power of the Holy Spirit, bringing believers together in unexpected ways, offers continuing hope for both Christians and Jews, he asserted, excited enough at the end of his lecture to pound his lectern and shout as loud as an evangelical preacher: "God matters! Tell them! Go to it!"