Falwell, personality, politics and religion

In response to Jerry Falwell's death, I've been reflecting on personality, politics and power, especially as it relates to the church.

I'm going to go back years, to my life as a young adult, living in Virginia. Those were Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Jim and Tammy ruled the religious airwaves.

Back then, I was not a particularly religious person. I wasn't really a Christian, though I had some vague notion there was a God, a Creator.

I wanted nothing to do with religion, as represented by these demagogues -- and let me emphasize, they were big. They and their like-minded minions seemed to define communal religion, which was mean, grasping, greedy, small-minded and selfishly ego-centric.

I wanted nothing to do with it.

I remember the Bakers taking away their toll-free number for prayer, and leaving one only for people to call in donations for their many projects, like mansions, more diamonds for Tammy, etc. People calling in for prayer concerns were just being whiny and taking up too much valuable time.

Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell ... well. White (straight) male supremacy. Everybody do as they say. They're in control.

Falwell attacked women, gays, Jews, anyone not ultraconservative. Even Teletubbies, for Heaven's sake.

His legacy is one of prejudice, and of playing to prejudices for political gain; of combining church and politics for personal power and glory.

May God have mercy on him.

I believe God does have mercy, and Falwell is healed, and literally, sees the light now.

Thank God I'm not a member of his or Robertson's church. I'm an Episcopalian, right? We believe in welcoming all to the table. Women aren't flamboyant armpieces or relegated to silent kitchen duty, but have a place in the church. We believe in the via media, and using reason.

Except the Falwellians have made a pretty good assault on the Diocese of Central Florida, and they rule with impunity in other places. Iker, Duncan et al would rather subject us to ecclesiastical fascists like Akinola than recognize a female presiding bishop. They call for foreign interference in our national church, overturning the whole tradition of the church they claim to uphold, to get their way. For power.
Like Falwell, they play on and incite prejudices. They used one diocese having a openly gay bishop, chosen by the people of his diocese, in the same process that made them bishops, to start this whole comtemptible mess.

No more than I would have been a member of Falwell's or Robinson's church do I want to be a member of their version of the Episcopal Church.

I've said a lot on this matter. For a more succinct view, go to Padre Mickey's Dance Party: This Is All I'll Say On The Subject.

Back to the middle ages
Don't kiss, don't tell, or don't get Communion

I saw this news story yesterday. The sheer hypocrisy of the priest is flabbergasting -- sin is OK, as long as nobody knows about it?

That's if exercising one's rights as an American, and standing up for one's beliefs is a sin. That, apparently was the sin that got the lesbian couple excommunicated. They dared to write their legislator in support of same-sex marriage, and it got into the newspaper. Terrible. Now everybody knew the couple was gay, and apparently the only sinners in the church, because they were the only ones excommunicated.

Hypocrisy. Gay discrimination. Power play.

Priests like this would like to return to the dark ages, when they had more complete control over people. A word from the priest and people were shunned. Excommunication was a life or death matter.

I'm not just picking on Roman Catholic priests. There are plenty in the Episcopal Church making the same kind of rumblings. Wrong politics, wrong "manner of life" = out.

Last year during Lent, the bishop of this diocese wrote a piece in the diocesan newsletter in which he suggested withholding Communion might be used more often to "discipline" members of the flock. Some gay and lesbian members were afraid they might approach the Communion rails at their churches and be turned away.

See my entry from March last year here

The fuss over that died down, with no one denied Communion, at least that I know of, thank God.

The sin is in using the Sacraments, using the body and blood of Christ as an instrument of power.

God knows our all our sins, public and private, and he will judge us all, priests included.

Here's the story:

Gay couple denied communion after stand
After taking a public stand for same-sex marriage, a gay couple were
notified they are no longer welcome at Catholic communion.

By KATHLEEN MILLER
Associated Press

GILLETTE, Wyo. --
Leah Vader and Lynne Huskinson, a lesbian couple who got married in
Canada in August, sent a letter recently to their state legislator
decrying a Wyoming bill that would deny recognition of same-sex
marriages. The lawmaker read the letter on the floor of the
Legislature.

Soon after, the local paper interviewed the couple on Ash Wednesday and
ran a story and pictures of them with ash on their foreheads, a mark of
their Christian faith.

It wasn't long after that that the couple received a notice from their
parish church telling them they have been barred from receiving
Communion.

"If all this stuff hadn't hit the newspaper, it wouldn't have been any
different than before -- nobody would have known about it," said the
couple's parish priest at St. Matthew's, the Rev. Cliff Jacobson. "The
sin is one thing. It's a very different thing to go public with that
sin."

Catholics deemed sinners in the eyes of the church are sometimes taken
aside and privately advised not to take Communion. But Cheyenne Bishop
David Ricken, gay Catholic organizations and a national church
spokeswoman said they could not recall any previous instance of a U.S.
bishop denying the sacrament to a gay couple in writing.

Now Huskinson and Vader say they are struggling to reconcile their
devotion to the church with their devotion to each other.

"You spend half your time defending your gayness to Catholics," Vader
said, "and the other half of your time defending your Catholicism to
gays." ...

Fascism, anyone?

It's time to look at the 12 warning signs of fascism again. While the imagery designed at the site focused on national politics, the same principles apply to church politics.

Go here.

Insert +Iker or +Akinola or +Duncan's face for Bush's or Cheney's, and see what you get.



Sexism, homophobia, intellectual bullying, spiritual abuse, identifying dissenters as treasonous (revisionist-not-real-Christians) are all acceptable, in this brave, new world.

Lamentations

Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's response to San Joaquin's Convention, Dec. 4:


I lament the actions of the Bishop and Convention of the Diocese of San Joaquin to repudiate their membership in the Episcopal Church. While it is clear that this process is not yet complete, the fact that the Bishop and Convention have voted to remove the accession clause required by the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church would seem to imply that there is no intent to terminate this process before it reaches its full conclusion. Our task as the Episcopal Church is God's mission of reconciling the world, and actions such as this distract and detract from that mission.


I deeply lament the pain, confusion, and suffering visited on loyal members of the Episcopal Church within the Diocese of San Joaquin, and want them to know of my prayers and the prayers of many, many others.


I continue to consult with others involved in responding to this extracanonical action.



The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate


It's cold comfort, but good for Bishop Katharine -- she's not letting them get away with the word games. I lament the situation also, though.

What's the next move to be?