On San Joaquin
If I ever wished for time to blog on an issue when I had no time, it would be the vote taken recently by the Diocese of San Joaquin to leave the ECUSA. I find it an enormous tragedy, though less a tragedy than the attitudes which have driven the vote. As I may have said, the church in So. Cal. which took my wife and I in when we were unmarried, when I was divorced, and nurtured us spiritually has also left the communion, although as an individual parish.
It is time for my blog to grow up. The Brian McClaren assignment is proof for me (or maybe I'm the one growing up :) ). My brief rant on inerrancy below is utterly inadequate, completely non pastoral, and the kind of solipsistic outburst one finds, oh, in Eliot's The Waste Land. It is true: I cannot believe a reading person who puts sufficient and genuine energy into studying the Bible can affirm it the "Word of God" with the meaning the Bishop of SJ does, or turn to its writings, selectively, for proof-text individual positions on critical moral matters. The fact also remains I know the Bible is the foundation of my own faith, that it is used by God in remarkable and mysterious ways (how many of us, including me, have had the tolle lege), and that it contains the things into which angels dared to peer (figure of speech or actual angels, no idea). The NT remains, in my view, unique in all world literature, though the books it contains remain fraught with the marks of their human authors, authors who were not taking divine dictation, but doing their best, in differing rhetorical situations, to promote the faith which had changed their lives forever. Any other position is untenable to me. That we set aside so much of the Levitical law, allowing children born out of wedlock into church, or the crippled or injured; that we have sex with our wives during menses if so inclined (maybe if the bottle of wine was just that good)...yet grasp like madmen onto verses which support our fears and biases, which thereby ALIENATE human persons from the full experience of Christ in their lives...I find this calamitous beyond description. I find such a reading a gross misunderstanding of the NT epistles and the Gospels.
And in the meantime, I applaud the Presiding Bishop Katherine for her leadership during this time, our own Diocese for taking a different stand on this issue, and frankly, the huge number, I would argue the majority, of Episcopalians who realize proof-texting on an issue as critical as homosexuality is a failure to act in responsible wisdom. That many other genuine Christians in other denominations agree I know. And for those who cling to a simpler understanding of Scripture as a perfect manual for living, a God-dictated book without any human component, an aproach, incidentally, which usually works, which preserves a faith I would agree with on many key points, but which can lead one horrifically astray in matters which involve the love of neighbor as self...for the rest I pray sincerely. We used to debate slavery in this country using the Bible. And women speaking in church or wearing slacks. The time has come for a widespread and honest assessment of what the Bible really is by those who continue to cling to its every single phrase and passing comment, but who are missing its central focus completely.
I will say more when I can on the Bible. When I can. For now, I have to run...essays stacked about me like, oh, the excessive quail. My sincere love to all who follow Christ...there is no faith like our faith, no tradition like our tradition, no love like the love God has expressed in Christ.
It is time for my blog to grow up. The Brian McClaren assignment is proof for me (or maybe I'm the one growing up :) ). My brief rant on inerrancy below is utterly inadequate, completely non pastoral, and the kind of solipsistic outburst one finds, oh, in Eliot's The Waste Land. It is true: I cannot believe a reading person who puts sufficient and genuine energy into studying the Bible can affirm it the "Word of God" with the meaning the Bishop of SJ does, or turn to its writings, selectively, for proof-text individual positions on critical moral matters. The fact also remains I know the Bible is the foundation of my own faith, that it is used by God in remarkable and mysterious ways (how many of us, including me, have had the tolle lege), and that it contains the things into which angels dared to peer (figure of speech or actual angels, no idea). The NT remains, in my view, unique in all world literature, though the books it contains remain fraught with the marks of their human authors, authors who were not taking divine dictation, but doing their best, in differing rhetorical situations, to promote the faith which had changed their lives forever. Any other position is untenable to me. That we set aside so much of the Levitical law, allowing children born out of wedlock into church, or the crippled or injured; that we have sex with our wives during menses if so inclined (maybe if the bottle of wine was just that good)...yet grasp like madmen onto verses which support our fears and biases, which thereby ALIENATE human persons from the full experience of Christ in their lives...I find this calamitous beyond description. I find such a reading a gross misunderstanding of the NT epistles and the Gospels.
And in the meantime, I applaud the Presiding Bishop Katherine for her leadership during this time, our own Diocese for taking a different stand on this issue, and frankly, the huge number, I would argue the majority, of Episcopalians who realize proof-texting on an issue as critical as homosexuality is a failure to act in responsible wisdom. That many other genuine Christians in other denominations agree I know. And for those who cling to a simpler understanding of Scripture as a perfect manual for living, a God-dictated book without any human component, an aproach, incidentally, which usually works, which preserves a faith I would agree with on many key points, but which can lead one horrifically astray in matters which involve the love of neighbor as self...for the rest I pray sincerely. We used to debate slavery in this country using the Bible. And women speaking in church or wearing slacks. The time has come for a widespread and honest assessment of what the Bible really is by those who continue to cling to its every single phrase and passing comment, but who are missing its central focus completely.
I will say more when I can on the Bible. When I can. For now, I have to run...essays stacked about me like, oh, the excessive quail. My sincere love to all who follow Christ...there is no faith like our faith, no tradition like our tradition, no love like the love God has expressed in Christ.
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