Who Needs Electronic Scoreboards?

This is amazing to me.

A South Korean boys high school cheering section.

One Other Thing . . .

If I hear, one more time, about "preserving our place at the table," I'm gonna scream, then set out on a quest to destroy every table on Earth.





We. Don't. Have. A. Place. At. Any. Table!

YOU ARE NOT HERE!

YOU ARE HERE

You're place at the table is this: TEC has been told, "Hey, you give us the money for food, and we'll let you sit with us!" The Primates have had dessert and coffee and are laughing behind their hands at you while you wait for them to open the door for you.

NO. TABLE.

What You Do In Your Own House . . .

Responding to the comments on the previous thread (which were overwhelmingly supportive -- I thank you), it occurs to me that what really gets me is the way in which our allies - and, more importantly, those on whose behalf the fight is being conducted - are falling down, utterly.

We keep talking about doing something "prophetic," but, to put it bluntly, haven't the guts to back that up. It's cowardice at best, laziness at worst -- future generations will benefit, we say, while not lifting a flipping hand to do more than lodge protests, to engage in hand-wringing-bitch-and-moan parties on the internet, try to "convince" ossified brains by being oh-so-polite, and . . . of course . . . the old Anglican standby committees, committees, committees!

What a joke.

No wonder no one takes us seriously. Perhaps, just perhaps, I've misjudged Rowan and his back-and-forth, up-and-down, now-you-see-him-now-you-don't act -- maybe he's trying to set forth the unique proposition that we are SUPPOSED TO FREAKING DO SOMETHING FOR OURSELVES!!!!

Ya think?

Prophets are not nice people -- that's why people kept driving them off and trying to kill them. What we're seeing - from gays and lesbians, and allies - is a lovely middle-class pantomime of prophecy -- as long as no one really gets down on us and we can win the PR war, it's worth it. Give me a break! What is wrong with these people?! Tell the truth to the ABC and everyone else -- these are rotten people seeking to do real harm, and they won't stop there if a little enlightened self-interest helps you, Milord! Stop trying to convince them your the good guys -- show them that you are up against the bad guys! Stop enabling the homophobes by being so damn polite to them!

That's if we actually have something to say!

At this point, the continual little sidestep that the liberal side are dancing inspires nothing so much as disgust at an obvious, self-parodying political attempt at emotional ingratiation. Stop being so damn polite to these lukewarm, self-interested "allies," too! You've let Schori run right over you without so much as an attempt to hold her responsible for her utter incompetence and disingenuousness as a leader!

I keep saying "you" because, until I start seeing some fire there, I'm out. Why fight for those determined to be mistreated, who will simply beat you if you don't allow them to be beaten? No one takes you seriously, no one's joining up from outside or speaking up from other corners because of the simple fact that you make make absolutely no effort to appear that you're taking it seriously yourself. There's no engagement. Emotional engagement is messy, but without it, you're not taking what you're professing seriously, and no one else will either.

On the previous thread, I wrote:

It's time we let our allies know they're falling down, too . . . it makes me think that many of my agnostic/atheist friends may be right about it being primarily self-loathing homosexuals who seek out a place in the church -- maybe it's just that those are primarily elevated to leadership: the safe, inoffensive ones. Look, if they want to invite those kind of monstrous people into their lives, that's fine, but they're inviting them into my life, too, by expecting that I'm to "respect" a clear attack on personhood and allow them to derail and even set policy.
In short, I guess what I would say to my allies is that who you choose to be beaten by is up to you, but don't bring 'em to beat me up, too.

I hate to tell you guys, but if you're serious about unity, then what you're doing is utter crap. Forget the justice -- just look for unity, because justice cannot be unified with those who deny it. If you're serious about justice, then grow up and stop trying to look like the good guys and be the good guys. Whatever you do, here's the thing: your unity with someone is going to be lost -- at the present tack, it's going to be those who are outspoken and determined to reform, and then, those who're left will have no one to speak out when the wolves finally turn on the nice, quiet, polite gays and other liberal "impure."

That's IT

I have been accused of not respecting the dignity of Fundies and Reasserters (and one alleged Catholic priest).

Guilty.

They have no dignity and I do not respect them. They've done nothing to earn it. They do tend to cry a lot about being cast as ignorant troglodytes when they say they're really very well-informed on human sexuality, etc. Well, if they are so well-informed and still cling to untruth, that is, indeed, not ignorance. It is stupidity. I don't owe respect to those who behave stupidly and demand respect for it.

I really feel, the more I deal with my fellow Christians - liberal and conservative - that I have no place in this world and will be very glad to leave it. This is the message Christianity has given to me. I do not see that there is good to be accomplished in allowing others to run roughshod over women, gays, the poor, children, whoever because it isn't nice to call them the complete bastards they are! Perhaps I'm truly inhuman and not destined for anything but oblivion, but, whatever, I've had enough of tiptoeing around pretending bad people are good.

I have no interest in relationships, long or short term. I'm not seeking Holy Orders, and, thanks to my fellow Christians, have little interest in what the larger community has to say about me or mine. I am a white man. Poor, yes, but not destitute as yet. Therefore, I have no dog in yonder fight. I'm tired of feeling slapped on the wrist and like a truly crappy individual because I simply recognize that all this niceness is accomplishing nothing and leading to actual harm. From now on, I retire.

I've never had a place in this world, and, increasingly, don't want one. Torn between oppressors and malevolent conspirators on one side and those afraid to do anything on the other, what's the choice?

Humans! Feh!

Jacob and the Angel

Having listened to the story yet again this Sunday, I think it went something like this:

I'm Not Sure It Applies to Producer/Directors of Films . . .

. . but, break a leg, James, with your second auditions!

I shall, of course, be petitioning all manner of unholy gods for your success, as the One Holy God is busy trying to make sure the queers don't get married.

"Prince of Demons" Enma, after being told by a Reasserter/Fundie about their god

"That guy's just nuts!" he said, "I mean, I knew Moloch and even he . . . just . . . wow!"

This. Is. Great. (God's Sense of Humor Bureau)

From the Dayton Daily News

Vatican Official Insists He's Not Gay


Oct 14th, 2007 VATICAN CITY -- A Vatican official suspended after being caught on hidden camera making advances to a young man said in an interview published Sunday that he is not gay and was only pretending to be gay as part of his work.

In an interview with La Repubblica newspaper, Monsignor Tommaso Stenico said he frequented online gay chat rooms and met with gay men as part of his work as a psychoanalyst. He said that he pretended to be gay in order to gather information about "those who damage the image of the Church with homosexual activity."

Vatican teaching holds that homosexual activity is a sin.

"It's all false; it was a trap. I was a victim of my own attempts to contribute to cleaning up the Church with my psychoanalyst work," La Repubblica quoted Stenico as saying.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Saturday that the monsignor had been suspended pending a Vatican investigation. Stenico is a top official in the Vatican's Congregation of the Clergy.

The Vatican after acted Vatican officials recognized Stenico's office in the background of a television program on gay priests that was broadcast on Oct. 1 on La7, a private Italian TV network. Stenico was secretly filmed making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful.

In the Repubblica interview, Stenico said he had met with the young man and pretended to talk about homosexuality "to better understand this mysterious and faraway world which, by the fault of a few people — among them some priests — is doing so much harm to the Church."

He said he had never been gay and was heterosexual, but remained faithful to his vow of celibacy.

Italy's Sky TG24 said Stenico had written a letter to his superiors with a similar defense.

Calls to Stenico's home and Vatican office went unanswered Sunday.

It's Another Week. Huzzah.

I was so wrapped up in all going on in the world o' TEC and our corner of it that I forgot that it has now been a year and some week and a half that I've been alcohol-free!

I'm proud of me.

James has a new blog covering his progress as he makes his first film. He explains it much better than I can on his blog. He is finding it incredibly slow at the moment, and, though I have never been a film actor myself, I understand that he is currently experiencing the frustrations unique to an independent film project, compounded by the difficulties of the film requiring voice talent, rather than onscreen, live-action talent.

I'm proud of him.

There. Emotion over. You may return to whatever you were doing.

Some Pics From the Front in a Typical Southern TEC church

This link is to the website of the wonderful Fr. Logue of King of Peace Church, as he was the speaker at our annual stewardship dinner, but, it is of our parish and its people (including the choir, conspicuously bereft of me, as it was a work night) and comments from someone not in the parish, but deeply involved in parish and diocesan ministry of his own.

I'm not the only one who likes St. Pat's!

Don't Go Where Ya Ain't Wanted

I just really feel like I don't have a place on my favorite blogs, anymore (with the exception of Madpriest, of course, but I usually have little of substance to offer there, it being far above my own intellect - yes, I mean that).

I simply am not impressed by Harry's story of dinner with Katharine. Not Harry's telling, mind you, as he is a splendid writer, but the event itself. The whole "build me a school" thing -- it seems terribly contrived, and a rather easy out for KJS. Let's face it, there is little else she could've suggested that would have tugged more at the heartstrings, short of building a school/orphanage/kitten-and-puppy shelter. I'm not against the project - if I can help, I will - but it seems like the kind of starry-eyed, busy "charity" that so enveloped ladies of the Victorian and Edwardian times. Give them something to feel important about, and they won't agitate for better treatment. Its busywork. On another level, our being "given a charge" feels almost as if we're being told we have to buy our plates at the family table.

Look, if you want to build schools, great, but don't go all gooey and hero-worshippy because it was KJS's idea. You could've done that on your own. Besides, there are kids in need right here, so why make a demand for something somewhere else? Why make a "charge" that is so damn easy to give to and so easy to feel good about?

I'm just not impressed, and rather depressed at how easily everybody seems to have simply bought into this project and the unquestioned goodness and holiness of "our Kate."

So, I'm definitely in the minority -- I neither particularly like nor trust KJS; I think the school-building is a bit of bread-and-circuses. All this makes me, apparently, selfish, bad and small. So be it. One poster said "It's not about YOU!" I know. Nor did I mention so. However, I also don't think it's about YOU feeling better about being treated second-class because you've been given a homework project. And that makes me awful, too.

So, I just don't feel welcome, any longer, on the blogs, and will keep away, but I will say:

Build the school, but don't stop there if you're serious about changing the world. Give everything. Don't let God use you, let Him use you up. And, for God's sake, stop acting like Katharine Schori gave you some great honor -- you're better than that, and it was your right, anyway.

Please Forgive Me . . .

Just in time for Halloween, the sound of horror itself; something so vile, so evil, so mind-numblingly horrific, I must caution all to beware.

I ask your forgiveness for this, but, having heard it myself, I needed to pass it on to those I love, like Stephen King's eponymous Pet Sematary, or the even-eponymouser King in Yellow -- one warns, but one is compelled. (And if you knew the story behind the cute little kid in this and the anime he's in, it would make it even more wrong).

Another Church is Leaving! Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh . . . it's them.

Christ Church, Savannah, has made its dramatic bid to go to Uganda (if only they would). They're playing it all breathless and heroic, of course, but, unfortunately for them, they are not the only people in the Diocese of Georgia with access to computers.


The reality is this:

Christ Church the building is important only as a monument. It would honestly have more meaning to Methodists than to Episcopalians, given its relationship to the Wesleys. It has styled itself as our principle church, though only one church was ever officially named as our Pro-Cathedral, and that was not Christ Church but St. Paul the Apostle's.

The leadership of Christ Church is considered to be, even by most conservatives, a group of extremist nutballs. There's no kinder way of putting it. Having huffed off to play in a corner alone numerous times, the congregation is no longer considered a de facto part of the diocese. The fact is, both Bishop Louttit, and moreso, his predecessor, Bishop Shipps, have been very considerate of the conservatives, bending over to reassure them that they would not be forced to endure women in the Sanctuary nor queers outside the choir. Shipps is notoriously conservative Anglo-Catholic (even wearing the zuchetta), and even he grew weary of the constant complaining of Christ Church. In short, Christ Church has no complaints in its own diocese (they're even allowed to use the '28 and only the '28 Prayer Book) and has been represented by two theologically-conservative bishops who've allowed them (to the detriment of the entire diocese) to do pretty much as they wish.

The straw was overt threats in the form of letters to the present Bishop to withdraw church property from the diocese, resulting in a letter from the chancellor (which Christ Church tried, unsuccessfully, to use as proof of martyrdom) saying that they had been given enough time to decide if they were in or out, to declare themselves within in a certain time period, and, if they were in, to pay money owed to the diocese, and if they were out, to relinquish the property and godspeed. The result was a sudden back-pedalling from Christ Church vestry saying, in essence, "Are you severing your pastoral relationship, Bishop? We don't want to leave. Please don't make us." The chancellor wrote back that they were being given options, not an ultimatum.

So, it is dishonest to portray this as Christ Church's out-of-the-blue decision: they chose one of two options, even beyond the deadline given. They take people none of us are acquainted with, as they've withdrawn even when deigning to attend Diocesan Convention, and money we've operated without for at least a decade I know of.

As for the building, I'd be just as happy if they sold it to the Methodists or Savannah's Historical Society, as it is the ugliest of the diocese's churches, looking more like a bank or a Masonic lodge than a church. It certainly is nothing in comparison to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (St. Jean Batiste[sic]) in Savannah(RC), the Episcopal church of St. Paul the Apostle, or even Temple Mickve Israel, built by Christian immigrants who'd never seen a proper synagogue and built a lovely church with a Star of David where the cross would normally be. As for their owning the place; they own it as much as I own Georgia because I pay taxes and live here. I can, of course, take Georgia with me if I move to a different state.

Maybe It's Just Me

I've no use for heroes. Those are people you look to to defend you, and will stand up for no matter how ridiculously ineffectual they are . . . "My hero, right or wrong!"

I think a lot of liberals have our Presiding Bishop as a hero.

All she seems to do is travel around, speaking here and there, and I constantly hear "Wow! Just listen to her! She's great!"

Have you listened to her? Other than a husky, hypnotic voice, I mean.

She may sound great, but strip away the usual cliches, the ecclesial buzzwords, and the occasional mild joke, and I believe she is the most banal speaker I've ever heard. She may be brilliant, but she certainly hides it. Maybe it's just her spectacular humility. As for what she's saying, it's hardly any different from Bush-style "Stay the course" rhetoric. Try actually listening to her, reading a transcript of one of these spectacularly trite addresses, giving clearly perfunctory assurances, and you'll wonder if it's not an election year.

I understand that women were glad to have her elected. Hell, I was glad to have a woman PB, as I've found women are often more effective at actually accomplishing things than men -- especially in ecclesial surroundings! But, beginning with wriggling her way into the House of Deputies to ensure the excresence we call B033 and its passage, right up to her current use (for the 15,000th time) of "We're not going backwards!" if I were a woman, I'd be demanding a recount! She is a disgrace compared to every female leader I've ever had the honor of serving under. Frankly, I've begun to think that if you hear "We're not going backwards!" and find it anything but hollow, you may, as Lewis Black suggests, need shock treatment.

As far as I'm concerned, KJS has a loooooong way to go to prove herself worthy of the title "Leader." At this point, I'm forced to conclude that she is rendered either completely incompetent by the systemic built-in mediocrity that seems to be a prerequisite of the episcopate, or she is a career politician of the worst, most duplicitous sort, working with what she has learned is an easily-duped and criminally self-negligent constituency.

Shape up, Katharine, or step down.

If You Had Any Doubts That Are Just Bad People . . .

Here ya go.

I'm serious, you need to look at this. It may save your life.

Literally.

Now they're talking about killing us . . . if we're worthy, that is.

Note the deep and sincere apology from alleged "man" Greg Griffiths.

The most disturbing thin is that otherwise intelligent people are doing the usual Episcopal "nice" response, which is, excuse my language, fucking silly. Apparently, we're supposed to "laugh off" death threats, terroristic threats.

I'm not sure which side is more insane.

But, then, those wacky religious extremists have always been more talk than anything else . . .

. . right?

I mean, they'd never actually strike, or anything. These are Americans we're talking about!

Besides, we Americans are smart enough that we'd never give a religious extremist - especially one calling for the deaths of opponents - a real forum to reach people.

Wake up, folks.

God's good. Man ain't.