Didn't really expect to spend part of my day being berated by high school classmates in Arizona for quoting Leviticus 19:34 and saying that I chose love over fear.
On FB, of course.
Another classmate chimed in with kindness & grace about welcoming strangers (she's a great human - I'm glad we've been friends for all these years) and a couple guys started saying "you liberals" (huge AZ insult). I wrote back, "It isn't liberal, it is biblical."
Also, I'm pretty certain none of the less-than-generous types know anything about my life or work. They seem to think they are bullying the same shy Christian girl they bullied in high school.
And this is just sad - I'm pretty certain none of our white ancestors showed up in Arizona as "invited guests" of the Pima, Pueblo, Navajo, or Hopi.
Does that mean they might have been....ah, criminals?
Oh no. Now they are quoting Romans 13:1-2 at me. Someone free me from this hell.
I don't suppose it would do any good to point out that they don't believe that Biden is president and Paul said, "for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God."
Won't work, will it?
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Watching some clergy attacking Pelagianism reminded me how Sen Josh Hawley blamed "our present crisis" on Pelagius (CT magazine, 6/4/19).
It is unnerving seeing people in my own denomination (Episcopal Church) echoing Josh Hawley.
And I'm not convinced either the critics or Hawley understand Pelagius.
It unnerves me because I recognize the theological road where a certain kind of radical Augustinian position and exclusionary politics become intertwined.
I once traveled that road. It nearly undid me - took me to the most self-abusive and hurtful places of my entire life.
Saw Confederate Memorial Day trending. Remembered when I used to work at a VA Episcopal church (20 yrs ago) & the rector and I would hide all the paintings, memorabilia from RE Lee/Civil War in closets & the basement each year on this date. And then "forget" where we'd put them.
Some random church member would go on a hunt and find them and put all the stuff back.
And, the next year, we'd do the same thing all over again.
We'd "accidentally" take the memorial flowers delivered to the church to the hospital and shut-ins. Oops! We just didn't realized they were supposed to honor Confederate veterans!
Archbishop of Nigeria: "ACNA was formed by GAFCON, as a safe haven for faithful Christians who reject the apostasy & rebellion in TEC."
Couldn't really be clearer. ACNA's whole reason for being is anti-LGBTQ. It isn't just a church "struggling," it is their raison d'être.
It is one thing to be part of a denomination trying to come to terms with tradition, the Bible, polity, and justice for LGBTQ persons (like the UMC) and a different thing to be a clergy person ordained into a denomination founded explicitly to oppress an entire group of people.
Can you imagine WILLINGLY vowing to obey a bishop in a denominational body who says "The deadly ‘virus’ of homosexuality has infiltrated ACNA. This is likened to a Yeast that should be urgently and radically expunged and excised lest it affects the whole dough.”
Years ago, a minister told me a story of a funeral:
The widow sat in the front row, crying, surrounded by wailing friends. At the point in the liturgy for the sermon, the priest came down and stood at the open coffin.
He laid his hand on the dead man, and said....
"There are some people who, when anyone sees them, say, 'What a good man! What a wonderful man! He makes me so happy!'"
The widow and her wailing friends, responded, "Yes, father; yes, father."
He paused. And said, "Yes, some people make everyone happy."
He looked down. Paused again. And then said, with his hand patting the dead man,
Silence can be consent or complicity; but silence can also be mourning past words, a voiceless sorrow and suffering, pain without any shape other than groaning.
It is extremely important in community to be able to discern one from the other.
There are silences that are wrong, sinful, evil; there are silences that are the most holy of things possible.
Some silence fuels injustice; some silence is truth in the face of injustice.