Posted on 08/14/2005 9:17:15 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
I'll apologize in advance for this vanity post but I need to get this off my chest:
At our 10:30 a.m. mass this morning, our pastor was the celebrant. Today's Gospel was the story of Christ's meeting with the Canaanite woman and the eventual healing of her daughter. Our pastor then followed with his homily where he first related the plight of the Canaanite woman with a woman he knew who called him requesting prayers for an illness in her family which we could relate to since my wife and I are both contending with (minor, we hope) health issues.
The nest thing we know, the pastor is relating this to the "lady camped out in Texas asking for healing AND ACCOUNTABILITY" (the emphasis is my own). We sat there and listened through the sermon as he returned to the Sheehan story a few more times asking us to imagine an Iraqi woman who lost children in the same position.
Thankfully, it was pretty short and we stood for the Creed but then, immediately before the intercessions, the pastor returned to the topic.
This was too much for us so we turned and left, commenting to those around that we don't come to church to hear politics. I handed the usher my offering as we exited.
This is the first time something like this has happened in this church we have attended for the past twenty years or so and I feel pretty horrible about the whole thing.
I had a similar experience when the war started. Our priest went on and on against the war. I didn't walk out, but I've only been to mass a few times since then. I was livid !!
Did you have to restrain yourself from heckling the preacher? Should have kept the offering.
I know how you feel.
The only thing I can tell you is to pray for your pastor.
We had a similar situation with our pastor who would relate his sermons to something he'd read in the NYT or witnessed on the Today Show.
My wife and I made it a point to pray for him and for the last year of so his sermons are about Jesus, His works and His Word. Many others must have been praying as well.
Don't feel bad, I've been tempted to do what you did many times.
I reject, on principle, getting political scoldings from who are, essentially, religious parasites.
If I wanted to homogenize my religious, political and cultural existence, I would become a muslim!
Remove the pastor. He's turned.
Would you have walked out if the pastor's politics agreed with yours?
(That said, I don't know if I would have walked out but I certainly would have been pissed.)
You showed integrity and dignity.... don't second guess yourself this way.
What if the priest would have said something even more disrespectful? What if he would have talked about the joys of child molestations or something else?
While it's true in the most generous terms, God wants sinners to repent, to my knowledge Timothy McVeigh never did.
anyway, think about it. strip away all the spin, and there really are some striking similarities; the timing is enough to make one at least reflect upon it. And if there's one thing that wisdom dictates, it's to reflect upon all facets of the story. There is something valid about a mother expressing grief and appealing to authority, when it's unspun.
I certainly don't agree with what is being portrayed of her motives and message but recall that she is simply a useful tool in the hands of the propagandizing left. It is instructive to consider, apart from that, what genuine grief she must be experiencing. Perhaps she's been egged on and encouraged to abandon propriety by her left wing handlers, who will be on to the next victim once they've ruined her life and broken her for good.
I would've inturrupted.
You were right to do so.
I did the exact same thing during the Vietnam war, and for the same reasons.
Read my post again. I clearly stated that stating a heresy WOULD be grounds for walking out - and a priest talking of the joys of child molestations would clearly count for that. However, as much as we don't like the pastor's political position, nothing I read in the original post struck me as heretical. It was certainly nonsense and I vehemently disagree with it, but it was not heresy.
I don't mind politics in church one bit, as long as its Godly politics and not leftist, liberal garbage.
I have to respectfully disagree, though I see your point.
But I believe that if the pastor's sermon has become
an occasion of sin for me, it is appropriate to leave.
It is more disrespectful to the Lord to be steaming in
anger in church than to quietly leave.
Obviously not, but the alarms would still be going off in my head. I know a lot of people will disagree with this but I equate Pat Robertson with Jesse Jackson, both being more politician than "religious leader."
You should have waved it in his face and told him when the sermon turns to politics the funding stops, and put it back in your pocket.
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