Thirty years? Forty years? Fifty?
How long has this war on liberals gone on in TEC?
Yet, always and evermore, our liberal leadership - and I'm not speaking of the politicians in the pointy hats, but the actual leadership - gets it wrong. I understand a decade or two, but this is ridiculous.
You can't keep treating vicious and dishonest people with honor. They have none, and they don't deserve to be treated as if they do. You can't "debate," you can't "focus on the issues" because there are no issues, any longer. The objections by "orthodox" have been answered, again and again, thoroughly and publicly. This is not about "issues" but about propaganda. There are no "issues" in the lurid lies about pedophiles and bestiality
still propagated by the right-wing. There's no "issue" about proper procedure in a naked attempt to strip TEC's laity and parish clergy of participation in deciding its direction. These are
attacks and our charming-but-ineffectual-turn-the-other-cheek liberals are arguing with the bombs and bullets coming at them.
It's not turning the other cheek, but turning a blind eye in the name of a misguided view of Christian ministry. I used to think it was just laziness, but I'm not certain, now. I think they're like Henry Blake in MASH, distracted, basically genial, and completely incapable of recognizing the need to clamp down on elements like Margaret and Frank. Maybe, even more, they are like parents we've known, so damaged by their own parents, that they are consumed by self-doubt, tormented by indecision, and so let the bully-child torment and drive away the quiet child, all the while in a pitiable state because they, the parents, have no confidence in their authority or rightness. The result is the same: chaotic harm to those they are supposed to love, but the right and the left; the right because they are allowed to continue running their scam with a degree of honor that is in opposition to their goals and methods, the left in a far more obvious manner. Words like "discipline," "deposition," "excommunication" all result in horror and a shunning of those who suggest them. Well, I'm ready to be the BAD GUY, because someone has to if we are to survive.
I don't mind holding these "orthodox" protesters up to ridicule because that's all their views deserve. They are not arguing from a logically-held position and know it. They are attempting to manipulate a sound-bite-oriented public (which has been the public since the printing press) and instill emotional, irrational response. A sound-bite-oriented public
will not respond equally to a reasoned argument! This is along the lines of a child frightened of the boogeyman because of what a malicious sibling has been telling them. Explain physics, if you like, it won't help until you show them the closet is empty, the monster is a joke, and discipline the sibling for frightening them so it won't continue. The Public is a creature in and of itself, a very powerful and unthinking creature. Yes, you can reach each individual heart and mind in time, and, while you are attempting that, The Public is going to stampede right over you, leaving something that looks like wet, bloody tissue paper.
I've heard the arguments, a Jesus, meek and gentle as a lamb, and every bit as unreal as the Roaring God On High of the "orthodox." Jesus said to treat unrepentant sinners as tax-collectors and sinners, and Jesus did - indeed! - eat and socialize with tax-collectors and sinners, but, and this is crucial, He did so to teach them and to bring them back, and didn't consider them disciples until the time they repented. Sorry, but that's how it is. The "it's-all-good" Jesus is a product of a liberal Cloud-Cuckoo Land. He held out His hand to everyone just as they were - but expected change. Jesus did say to turn the other cheek, but a whip of cords, however you want to soften it, is a tool used to drive thieves, attackers, and even animals away, and He used it at the Temple. He always held out the teaching to bring repentance and change, but did not hold out the promise of Oneness without repentance. He held out hope to the world, but chose his disciples carefully - and that's what the Church is; it's that inner circle, the disciples, not the whole undifferentiated mass of the world. Jesus forgave, but Judas still died.
There is no Love in a relationship that carries no expectation. There is no Love, because that is not a relationship.
Here's the view of The Episcopal Church I see:
Within a few years, we will have been thrown out of the Anglican Communion because we were deemed to be too troublesome. We won't, of course, "want to make waves," so we'll meekly bow our heads. We won't want to "sink to their level" so we won't give our detractors the public hiding they need, and The Public won't listen to rational argument. We'll lose those who are terrified of "going it alone" and joined to be a Rome-without-a-Pope. The idea of establishing a new communal relationship will be too much work for our leadership, who will argue that they don't want to antagonize Canterbury with who they wish to "eventually" reestablish cordial relations. The liberal leadership will, typically, accept this without criticism - because that's "mean" and "arrogant" - and this indecision will fail to bring anyone back and encourage more to leave. An outreach to a more progressive aspect of society will toss all babies out with the bathwater and the aging hipsters who have derailed the beauty of worthy Tradition will drive out those who, like me and most I know personally, are liberals with a strong ethos and theology of traditional worship. At this point, it will be a church of elderly hippies, even more elderly bishops, and those kids who have not yet gotten old enough to say, "No, I'm not going to church this Sunday." The GLBT community will have long ago deserted TEC - those not drawing a salary from a parish, at least - because TEC was "committed" to their rights only so far as it required no real sacrifice - even being thrown out was a passive thing, a decision made by others.
Ever been to one of those churches that immediately fills you with pity and horror? One of those churches with those desperately - and I mean desperately - friendly handful of late-middle-agers and one or two sullen teens? One of those churches that your heart says "This church is dying?"
Get used to it. That's what TEC will be within my lifetime unless those of us with the strength to be the BAD GUY step over and around the current liberal leadership, wavering and self-doubting, filled with just enough psychology and philosophy to undermine conviction, and tell them "Thank you. We'll take it from here. Get somewhere safe, close your eyes and stop your ears and when it's cleaned up we'll call you back out to your altars and committees and newsletters." We BAD GUYS, who aren't afraid to mock the ridiculous, to punish the criminal-in-intent-if-not-action, who aren't afraid of words like "reject," "discipline," "excommunicate," will do the dirty work and then retire to let the GOOD GUYS come back and smile and take the warmth and credit, as we
BAD GUYS are remembered with loathing, shunned as much as any orthodite - because we love TEC and all of you enough to do it. If we
just will do it and take the reins from those who've failed in wartime.
