Well, here it is. It won't take you too long to read it, a collaborative midrash on our current obsession, composed by five straight married men typing out a letter that demonstrates how politics is local. A little nod here, a slight nuance here, a little silence on that point, and a few affirmations thrown in. For our sake, don't come around here for a while, we just can't be near you while you're with... that man. I know you have an invitation, but can you just forget to mail it back? When you agree to the seating arrangement and menu, there will be a time for dialogue - by that time, the dinner party will be at our house, and there won't be any confusion about who's with who. And no fornicating or sodomizing bishops.
Granted, when you're worried about your churches burning and have boy martyrs who died because they didn't want to be raped, you've got other things on your mind. Sad, in a way. Akinola has never, to my mind, accurately described who Gene Robinson is. He sees Gene Robinson as an imperialist, worse than Shell, Exxon, Halliburton or... Disney. Thinking Anglicans has a little post on perspective.
Well, I'm not too upset at the letter. If the American Churchs refuse to show up, The ACC will have lost two important voices, which is too bad. When conservatives and liberals hang out with their own too much, they become arrogant and brutal, convinced of their own ideology, mistaking their own foolishness for wisdom. However, it's voluntary. I wonder if the liberal church will continue to foot the bill.
That's true charity, to pay for a party you won't even be invited to. Perhaps now, through example, the liberals can focus on the more important things - like global poverty and AIDS, instead of this weapon of mass distraction. There are plenty of smaller churches who would benefit from these gifts.
I like your "party" analogy. The Americans and Canadians were not bounced, they were not eighty-sixed. They were politely shown the door, and told that they were welcome back when they sobered up.
But they won't "sober up" in the view of the world Anglican communion. Their addiction to the elixir of pop culture progressivism is too strong. So the questions become: Will the North Americans walk away from the Anglican communion? Will they be evicted? Will 80% of the Anglican world leave if neither of the above occurs?
My guess is that the Episcopalians will higher-criticize the Communique to claim that it really means the contrary of what it says, and the Episcopalians were right all along.
Posted by: JM | Feb 25, 2005 at 08:41 PM