This is Christianity?

If this is Christianity, Count Me Out



Like many of you who check this blog regularly, I subscribe to the House of Bishops and Deputies listserv. I read almost every posting – whether from right, left, or center. Having been an addicted subscriber since mid-2003, I now feel like I "know" many of the voices there – even though I've met very few of the people in person.

There's this one guy who's a "priest." If I recall correctly, he used to be in one of those "faux Anglican" churches, but he was received into the Episcopal Church by one of those bishops who hates women and queers. Now this guy has moved to the Diocese of Dallas. But it doesn't matter very much, does it? … He's moved from one diocese where hating the Episcopal Church is a diocesan sport into another that's just the same.

I call this guy "Cassandra." We can always count on him to find anything in the news that suggests any decline in the Episcopal Church. If there's a scandal in any little out-of-the-way Episcopal parish, we can count on this guy to post it to the 5,000+ readers of the HoBD list. If there's a cleric anywhere on the planet who decries the Episcopal Church for any reason, we can count on this guy to trumpet it like the blind pig. [Surely even you who haven't lived in Texas do know the "blind pig" story, don't you?] He's managed to become more a caricature than a human being.

He out-did his amazing sanctimonious self today. He posted a news item to the listserv, with the subject heading:

"Homosexual Sin Is Shattering WWAC Communion"

Then he pasted-in this article from the Times Online (from London), by Ruth Gledhill. Problem is, the actual headline in the Times was:

"Bishops Threaten to Boycott Lambeth Conference"

Hmmm … Notice any dissimilarity?

Interestingly enough, the article he posted didn't say that we queers and our supporters are destroying the Communion. It said that some bishops in the Church of England are ticked off that the Episcopal Church isn't kowtowing to the ultimatum that the primates threw down in Tanzania a few months ago.

So … that was the Voice of Self-Professed Orthodoxy on the HoBD list today … bless his heart!

[Parenthetically, let my Inner Editor say just a brief word. "WWAC" is a handy abbreviation for the "Worldwide Anglican Communion." So our faithful HoBD poster known to me as Cassandra posted a headline warning us of a dire threat to the "Worldwide Anglican Communion Communion." Y'know … if he's gotta be hateful, couldn't he at least be literate? I suppose not! Your resident English major will now take a chill-pill.]

Meanwhile . . . a friend sent me this amazing and downright chilling video clip from a recent Christians United for Israel conference. I encourage you to watch it. These "Christians" (and I use the term loosely) are absolutely certain about their reading of Scripture. They know that if the good ol' U.S.A. would bomb Iran into oblivion and set off a holocaust in the Middle East, then Jesus Christ would be forced to do his "second coming" thing, and all these Good Christians will be raptured, leaving the rest of the world to suffer hideously. And they are so very happy and earnest. (Incidentally, note that U.S. Senator Joe Liebermann is a hearty supporter of this group and keynote speaker at their conference!) They seem to believe that the Left Behind fiction is a scholarly treatise on the End Times.

One person who commented after seeing the Christians United video wrote this painfully sarcastic comment on that site:

I want to be a Christian.

I want to tell lies to get what I want and to do so in the Name of God. Then, should I feel guilty (as if), I will repent my sins so that God will love me and I won't go to hell. . .

I want to be a Christian so that I can DAMN all who don't follow my corrupt ways . . . .

I want to be a Christian so I can wave my hands in the air and cry for my "Savior" Jesus to cum and clean the world of people who don't look like me, act like me and conform like me. I want to be a Christian that does weird and wiggy dances meant to conjure up my spiritual conviction to worship a blind faith that condones slavery, racism and - of course - EXCLUSION.

I want God to permit me to react in WAR when I don't get my way - ooops! I mean, God's way. . . .

Yes. I want to be a Christian. I want to be a blind pawn in the game of WAR. . . .

Ya think?

I feel pretty safe in guessing that person doesn't go to any church, and isn't going to be lured into any church that proclaims its triumphal "God is on our side" message.

By contrast, The Episcopal Majority posted an essay a few days ago on Puzzles and Mysteries – which suggested that we should be humble in approaching the word of God, and quite humble about assuming that we have God's Word "just right." Their "It's Really Not About Sex" had a similar message.

The spirit of militant fundamentalism and Christian triumphalism is alive and well … and walking the earth. I'm not so terribly surprised when I find it in wacky Protestant fundamentalist groups. When Deputies to our General Convention spout analogous muck … then I do get sick.

So … this is a rant. I'm putting on my flameproof bodysuit.