I finally got around to viewing the Hulme COG DVD on the apostle Paul today. David Hulme being the ex-WCG executive, ex-UCG president, currently High Poobah of his own splinter sect with an unmemorable name.
To give credit where it's due, the Lord's Anointed scrubs up well for the cameras. And he has a talent for slick PR. Hulme managed to enlist quite a lineup of experts for the program, including:
James Tabor (author of The Jesus Dynasty, former AC lecturer and a respected academic)
John Garr (spokesperson for something called the Restoration Foundation, author of several obscure books)
N.T. Wright (Anglican Bishop of Durham and British Evangelical poster-boy)
Paula Fredriksen (author of From Jesus to Christ and a very insightful commentator by anyone's standards)
John Gager (author of Reinventing Paul and a top scholar)
Craig A. Evans (another legitimate academic and author)
Amy-Jill Levine (who describes herself as a Yankee Jewish feminist, and specialises in feminist commentary on the Gospels)
Despite having all these knowledgeable people on call, along with some superb graphics, there was no disguising the fact that this was cold-COG leftovers reheated with a scholarly garnish. Hulme even trotted out the ancient Herbal chestnut about the missing decades in church history, and then the curtain rising on a new religion invented by the early church fathers (somebody should lock him in a small room with Jared Olar and a copy of Eusebius!)
It must be nice to fly around the world with a big, fat, tithe-funded media and travel budget, shooting backdrops in Antioch and posing casually in front of the Acropolis. And yes, the resulting 70-minute program looks as professional as money can buy.
There were moments of wonder. When the much maligned second century heretic Marcion was described as a Catholic bishop, for example. And when Dapper Dave stated that all adult converts to Judaism had to be circumcised (he seems to have forgotten about the 50% of the species who are female). While the experts (with the possible exception of Garr, whose credentials I'm unable to verify) said sensible things, Hulme himself was clearly on an apologetic mission for "God's law", the Sabbath and the "Church of God." Fair enough, but how on earth did he manage to convince N.T. Wright to play ball? "Excuse me Tom, but I run an exclusivist non-Trinitarian pseudo-Ebionite sect, and I'd love you to appear on a TV special I'm doing so you can make me look good..."?
Top marks for presentation, but a D for content (excepting the contributions from the scholars). Hulme is the COG leader who shows the most awareness of contemporary theology and church history, but Quest for the Real Paul amounts to little more than putting chocolate frosting on a very stale fruitcake called Armstrongism.
5 comments:
I've heard quite a few sermons from Dave Hulme. To describe them, in a word, boooorrrrring....I have no intention of viewing his video.
I have met John Garr before in 2002. A much more exciting speaker than David Hulme. He is a cross between the best of Rush Limbaugh and the best of Neil Earle. I have his book Restoring Our Lost Legacy. I found it to be a pretty sound book, nothing wacky whatsoever. If Joe Jr. would have read Dr. Garr's book, not only the church would have evolved in a different direction than the one chosen,but this nonsense of crisis after crisis would have been greatly averted but that is the story of WCG it thrives and profits on chaos.
"Hulme even trotted out the ancient Herbal chestnut about the missing decades in church history, and then the curtain rising on a new religion invented by the early church fathers (somebody should lock him in a small room with Jared Olar and a copy of Eusebius!)"
I've got the Eusebius. Just show me where the small room is! :-D
I think we have to acknowledge that Armstrongites are masters of illusion. Appearance is everything. The package is always slick. The naive will mistake this for substance. The salesmanship ethos of Herbert Armstrong will forever permeate the various Armstrongite offshoots of the pre-1995 WCG.
"The package is always slick."
True. But Hulme doesn't have the charisma of HWA or GTA. That's why his church of 1500 and dwindling will soon disappear leaving him no choice but to take the money and run..
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