Haters gonna hate (and dysfunctionals gonna dysfunction)
An Episcopal priest and deputy to the upcoming General Convention says:
When I was in seminary, I was part of the hapless bunch that gawked while activists “stirred the pot” for cause after cause. The energy and effort of the seminary, and thus the formation of clergy who would go out into the church from it, was all about “issues.” Jesus was little more than a symbol by which to illustrate each faction’s cause.
Whatever your position on any of “the issues,” you have to be either willfully ignorant, insane or evil to deny that The Episcopal Church handles controversy in a way that destroys the church;
Throwing down difficult and divisive issue after difficult and divisive issue without constructive resolution of any.
Creating fights for the sake of fighting, and turning allies into enemies to do so.
There is much fruitless argument about leadership, structure and order in this dysfunctional denomination. Let’s up and admit what we are:
Lunacracy.
We are ruled by craziness. Crazy stuff done by unstable people. The whole system, especially the way in which we select leaders (ordained and lay) seems rigged to perpetuate that. And the results are constant, predictable and obvious.
“We are in chronic, long-term, unfocused conflict. Just at the time when the long-running conflict over the place of gays and lesbians in the church seems to be heading toward a settlement, people who were once on the same side of that issue are in conflict with each other over a new set of issues. We have lost trust in each other as faithful servants of Jesus.”It’s worth going to the link and reading her whole piece. It’s about how the church is absorbed in all kinds of issues while unable (or unwilling) to proclaim Jesus Christ to the world.
When I was in seminary, I was part of the hapless bunch that gawked while activists “stirred the pot” for cause after cause. The energy and effort of the seminary, and thus the formation of clergy who would go out into the church from it, was all about “issues.” Jesus was little more than a symbol by which to illustrate each faction’s cause.
Whatever your position on any of “the issues,” you have to be either willfully ignorant, insane or evil to deny that The Episcopal Church handles controversy in a way that destroys the church;
Throwing down difficult and divisive issue after difficult and divisive issue without constructive resolution of any.
Creating fights for the sake of fighting, and turning allies into enemies to do so.
There is much fruitless argument about leadership, structure and order in this dysfunctional denomination. Let’s up and admit what we are:
Lunacracy.
We are ruled by craziness. Crazy stuff done by unstable people. The whole system, especially the way in which we select leaders (ordained and lay) seems rigged to perpetuate that. And the results are constant, predictable and obvious.
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