Posted on 04/29/2005 9:49:34 PM PDT by sionnsar
Frank Griswold recently signed his name to the following statement:
On March 8 we, as leaders of the Episcopal Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, and United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, issued a joint statement questioning the priorities of President Bush’s 2006 Federal Budget. We remembered the Gospel story of Lazarus and the rich man and noted that the 2006 budget had much for the rich man but little for Lazarus. It was our hope that Congress would take action on behalf of "Lazarus." Sadly, all indications are that has not been the case. Therefore, today we call upon Congress to reject this budget and go back to the drawing board.
We believe our federal budget is a moral document and should reflect our historic national commitment for those in our own country who suffer from hunger, lack of education, jobs, housing, and medical care, as well as concern for our global community. There are good programs that can help solve all of these problems. We know -- we have seen them at work and we our doing our part with our own programs. But we cannot do it alone. Government must be a partner in providing opportunities for our fellow women and men to pursue their God-given gifts. We commend those who attempted to improve the FY ’06 budget by adding funds for Medicaid, education, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and international family planning. We regret that the speed with which this document is being brought to the floor does not allow time for the careful examination such a document requires.
As we view the FY ’06 Federal Budget through our lens of faith this budget, on balance, continues to ask our nation’s working poor to pay the cost of a prosperity in which they may never share. We believe this budget remains unjust. It does not adequately address the more than 36 million Americans living below the poverty line, 45 million without health insurance, or the 13 million hungry children. Worldwide, it neither provides sufficient development assistance nor adequately addresses the global AIDS pandemic. Therefore, we ask Congress to reject this budget and begin anew.
We conclude today, as we did March 8, by asking that together we "pledge ourselves to creating a nation in which economic policies are infused with the spirit of the man who began his public ministry almost 2,000 years ago by proclaiming that God had anointed him ’to bring good news to the poor.’ "
There's nothing particularly unusual about this statement. Frank's a liberal clergyman, after all, and this is the sort of thing liberal clergymen have been signing for decades. Even though I don't agree with it, I would have a lot more respect for it had not Frank recently said this:
Some of the law needs to be kept, but not all of the law needs to be kept.
This:
When you talk about the authority of scripture, not as a rule book that has all the answers, but if we see in scripture the way in which God works — the way in our own day to attach to the motions of the spirit in our midst.
This:
For instance, in the portion of Romans that talks about homosexuality, clearly the Biblical writers assume that everyone was naturally heterosexual, and therefore any kind of homosexual behavior was unnatural. Well, I think there’s a big question mark there.
And this:
Along with many others, both within and beyond the Roman Catholic Church, I offer my prayers for Pope Benedict XVI as he takes up the august responsibility of his office. I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide him in his words and his actions and that he may become a focus of unity and a minister of reconciliation in a church and a world in which faithfulness and truth wear many faces.
All of which makes the above statement a tad hypocritical on Frank's part. I mean, if Frank gets to cherry-pick which parts of Scripture he will rigidly observe and which parts he will "reinterpret" out of his way, then Christian charity demands that George W. Bush should have the same privilege. And how can Frank call the 2006 budget "unjust" since this is "a world in which faithfulness and truth wear many faces?"
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. TO: Administrators of the various post-modern Christians-against-Christ "churches".
FROM: The rest of us.
SUBJ: Your "religious" analysis of the President's budget.
Dear Sirs, Madams, and those of ambiguous sexuality,
SIT DOWN. STFU.
Thank you.
You forgot: "Amen."
Hallelujah!
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