July 2002

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In this essay, David spoke to the notion of the "gay community," and related topics. His thoughts have sparked an interesting discussion, which until now I've stayed out of. For the record, I agree with David on the topic.

What made me want to comment at this point was David's latest post (as of this writing) to the discussion. It reminded me of something I object to about going to church these days. It's the use of "we" in saying the Nicene Creed. Of the three major creeds in use in Christendom, that's the middle one in terms of length. All three cover the Trinity; Apostles' does so in short order and Athanasian goes on at greater length.

Until the 1978 revision of the service book, whenever we LCA Lutherans used the Nicene Creed we used a version in which the paragraphs started, "I believe..." And that was fine by me. I know what I'm saying when I say "I believe." But the 1978 book's writers decided that "We believe" was the way to go. And I can't, in all honesty, say "we" believe anything.

How the hell do I know what someone else believes? I can make the assumption that if someone else is participating in the service (and saying the Creed), there's a good chance the person believes in the Trinity. But I don't know it. And based on not knowing, I can't, in good conscience, say it.

Where this ties in with a discussion of community is that the use of "we" is supposed to indicate corporate worship in a "community of faith." And yes, I know there are other uses of "we" in church services, that I'm not complaining about at the moment. The language used in a creed, though, has for years struck me as being especially important, since a creed is an absolute statement of faith. And if I don't know your beliefs, I'm not going to attempt to state them. Doing so would make me part of an even larger community: that of idiots.