Posted on 02/13/2006 6:19:43 PM PST by sionnsar
“Politics and church don’t mix.” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone mouth these words I’d have a lot more money than I have now. And, of course, to the extent that politics is dirty, underhanded, deceptive, and cheap, church and politics do not mix.
And yet, so long as fallen human beings are charged with stewardship of the Church, “politics”, the art of creating, moving, or changing corporate consent, will be part of it.
Unfortunately, even in the church politics can be dirty. Take the hit piece against the orthodox bishop of Albany published Sunday in the Times Union. So very interesting that something this low, skewed, unsubstantiated, and nasty would come out just as Albany is gearing up to elect her coadjutor.
This is, of course, only speculation, but I imagine if we dug deep enough we’d find Via Media chin deep in this article’s muck.
That’s politics.
And that’s the problem. Revisionists know politics. Revisionists, in fact, love politics. If you’re living in a revisionist or “centrist” diocese think about the last diocesan convention you attended. Who was most energized? Who was excited? Who was there with bells on? I’d be willing to bet my presently screaming two-year-old boy that it was your friendly neighborhood radical revisionist.
If you’re wondering what happened to the Episcopal Church; how she decided to embrace homosexual sex as her cause celeb, the first place to look is your own parish’s annual meeting.
Believers, orthodox, faithful believers, have, up and until this time, had much better things to do with their time than serve as their parish’s representative to diocesan convention.
We’re not into politics after all, we’re into Jesus.
But guess what? That leftist radical in your parish—you know, the one who obnoxiously screeches “Her” when the prayerbook reads “Him” on Sunday mornings—is “into politics". In fact, he or she has all the time in the world to devote to ecclesial activism.
That, beloved, is what happened to the Episcopal Church. That old, tired, cliché, “evil wins out when good men do nothing” has proven true. From your parish’s annual meeting to your diocesan convention to the General Convention itself, the radicals have embedded themselves like tics in the body of Christ. How did it happen?
You and I were too busy that weekend. So we didn’t run for parish rep.
I don’t know whether it’s still possible to save the Episcopal Church. It’s pretty far gone. But before it dies or just in case we want to preserve whatever emerges in its place, keep this in mind: God the Son became incarnate. He became man and immersed himself in the dirt and grime of humanity, yet without sin. During his time in the grime Jesus called his followers to be as sly as the fox and as innocent as the dove.
Does this mean believers should give themselves over to dirty, underhanded, deceptive, and cheap politcs? No.
Does this mean we should “get political”? We’d better start.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. MAJOR B-U-M-P!
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