If he had been a saint, he would be the patron saint of BLIMPS.
Posted on 01/30/2006 5:54:14 AM PST by marshmallow
The Episcopal Diocese of Washington is proposing that the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall be made a saint. Marshall was part of the court majority in the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling, having successfully convinced Justice Harry Blackmun (the author of the decision) to expand the legalization of abortion throughout the third trimester of pregnancy. The Diocese intends to ask the 2006 General Convention to include Marshall, who died in 1993, in the book of "Lesser Feasts and Fasts."
"Thurgood Marshall is a saint already in the Bay Area," says the Bishop of California, the Rt. Rev. William Swing, "as people hearken back to his memory often." Marshall's sanctity, as it appears from the testimonials offered in support of his cause, was of a peculiarly reticent order:
Thurgood Marshall believed very strongly in the Constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. Consequently, once he became a Supreme Court Justice, he attended church very infrequently. Concerned that he would develop partisan political views which affect his judgment as a Justice, ironically, he ceased voting in local and national elections.
The pastor of Marshall's Washington parish -- testifying in favor of his parishioner -- corroborates this view:
Although his family attended church almost every Sunday, "the Judge," as he preferred some to call him, did not. He did attend enough to be "respectable" about his membership, but he never equated church attendance with his being a Christian. Courts, not candles, were his milieu.
It's impossible in this connection not to call to mind the celebrated quip about the faith life of Senator Ted Kennedy: that his religion is so private he doesn't even impose it on himself.
I find it hard to believe that Archbishop Akinola will rejoice in ECUSA's latest curtsey to rainbow-coalitionism. That said, there appear to be few obstacles in the Blessed Thurgood's ecclesiastical path to Cooperstown. The Diocese has even proposed Scripture readings for the celebration of Marshall's feast -- as well as a Collect, which I swear I am not making up:
Eternal and Ever-Gracious God, you blessed your servant Thurgood with special gifts of grace and courage to understand and speak the truth as it has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ...
I interrupt this Collect to remind worshipers of one of Marshall's most famous remarks, delivered in response to a question about his possible retirement from the Supreme Court: "I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband." He was to be disappointed in both respects. Let us resume, dear brethren, the Eucharistic Oration:
... Grant that by his example we may also know you and seek to realize that we are all your children, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ , whom you sent to teach us to love one another; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Amen.
It should be noted that Thurgood Mashall was a supporter of abortion rights and sided with those in favor of abortion. He was no saint.
I believe the article makes that point.
They have saints in Hell?
If he had been a saint, he would be the patron saint of BLIMPS.
Thurgood Mashall would be the patron saint of murdered babies: St. Thurgood, the Baby-Killer.
WHAT is the Episcopal Church THINKING?
That would be just plain wrong.
They need members.
I thought you had to work miracles after your death to be a saint?
Are the Episcopals still Christian, even?
Most of them are Commies with collars, and they even have St. Matthew Shepard. I saw an icon of the Passion of Matthew Shepard recently at an Episcopal Church.
Heck of a way to do missionary work.
1. That is the Roman Catholic procedure. Maybe the Epicopalians have a different procedure.
2. Yes, and I feel very sorry for the old-fashioned Episcopalians.
I hope Henry VIII is burning in hell for what he did to all those good people of Britain. What chaos he perpetrated, all in the name of a male heir. Too bad he didn't know that males donate the gender X or Y to the egg. Might have saved some lives.
Sad to say, what goes around.....
Welcome to the postmodern church where the focus is on sing alongs with other religions, finding theology in movies like the Matrix, and marching for social causes.
What on earth do these people imagine Jesus would do, if a pregnant woman in trouble asked him for help.
"And lo, she felt the fetus be still in her womb, and later was delivered in secret of a dead fetus." Thur. 3:14
Mrs VS
It's a popularity contest?
My, my, my ....Does ECUSA even have a process to "canonize?" When I left ECUSA to swim the Tiber last year several of my good friends who remain Episcopalians - as well as a couple of family members - were astonished that I would consider Rome b/c of the whole "praying to the saints" issue. I was told in no uncertain terms that THEY would NEVER hold membership in a church that "worships" saints.
They may not BELIEVE in saints (they certainly do not believe in "holiness of life"), but nevertheless exceptions can be made for the purposes of making a political statement.
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