Bottom-Feeders Strike Again

Sometimes I wonder when the reactionary right will ever give up their tired old inquisition games. Probably never.

Those of you who have been following events for more than three years will recall the tactic that David Virtue and his minions attempted during General Convention 2003, when the consent to Gene Robinson's consecration was pending. The right-wingers found that then-Bishop-elect Robinson had supported a website . . . which linked to a website . . . which linked to a website . . . that seemed to espouse pornography. His detractors tried to scuttle his consent on the basis of those thin threads. But sensible heads recognized that one cannot be hanged for some guilt-at-third remove. The investigative group appointed by General Convention reconized that +Robinson had never espoused the goals of that third-remove website. They recognized the nefarious agenda of the people who were trying to paint him with that brush.

So tonight it has amused to me to see one of the reactionary right-wing sites trying to do the same thing to The Episcopal Majority.

A great many of the right-wing sites and their commenters hide under cloaks of secrecy and anonymity. They operate in the darkness; and we know what other cosmic power seeks to hide in the darkness. By contrast, The Episcopal Majority has posted the names of its sponsors and supporters from the first. From the beginning, we have worked in the light of day.

Today, one of those reactionary sites has painted us with the "heretic" brush, because one person who signed-on as a supporter to our site is -- in the high-and-mighty view of these right-wingers -- a supposed heretic. And so they bring out that tired old saw yet again: that all of us are heretics. It's so pitiable.

I can't decide whether this makes me laugh at the pitiful excesses of the schismatic right or should make me want to do a dope-slap at them.

Which one of us could not be found to be in some third-degree connection to a heretic or criminal or other scofflaw?

And I cannot help but observe that those people on the supposed "right" seem increasingly desperate to lob pot-shots at those of us who are walking in the light. I wonder what underlies their increasing desperation.

As long as I am blogmaster of The Episcopal Majority, I will continue to post the name of every person who sends me an e-mail saying he or she supports the goals of The Episcopal Majority. I will not subject them to an inquisition or litmus test. I will not decide who is or who is not "worthy" to sign-on to our goals. I will welcome all who want to support the "big tent" we are constructing over there.

If the schismatics want to perform an inquisition into every person who wants his or her name posted at The Episcopal Majority, let them do so. The more they do so, the more it reveals the petty hypocrisy behind their venture.

By their fruits, we shall know them.