A Hermeneutic of Suspicion

Legislative Day #7 06.19.06


One of the liberal male deputies accused me today of being paranoid.

I said that I wasn’t paranoid. Rather, like all those of us who function within the framework of liberation theology, I operate out of a hermeneutic of suspicion.

He laughed and said, “I’ll have to remember that!” As if I had made it up as a joke.

I’m as serious as a heart attack.

We spent the first five full days of this convention playing church in the old boy network style of church politics. Lots of easy banter. Lots of story telling. Lots of lovely strolls down memory lane. Lots of “affectionately straining the bonds of affection” with some pretty inappropriate ruling by the House – all in the name of collegiality, of course.

Some of you know me well enough to understand (and hopefully forgive) my bluntness, but for the first few days, well, the legislative sessions of this convention has felt like the ecclesiastical version of that old game I understand some play called ‘slap and tickle’.

Quite abruptly, the game has ended and we were presented, just three days from deadline, with the bulk of the resolutions from Special Committee #26 in response to the requests from The Windsor Report. We made lots of rules today in order to deal with these resolutions in a timely manner: just two minute presentations from deputies – 45 minutes worth of debate – no amendments presented until after 30 minutes of debate.

And, we were told – at 5 o’clock today when we FINALLY started to get to the meat and potatoes of the resolutions – we were going to deal with these resolutions as long as it took to get them done. Everyone had visions of it being 10 PM and no supper, hopelessly deadlocked over the tedium of word-smithing a resolution.

(As I was being kicked out of convention hall at 7:30 by the Convention Center Security, I realized that this had all been a bluff. We couldn’t have stayed there all night even if we had wanted to. I swear, I wanted to ring someone’s neck!)

We passed one resolution: A 160, which we felt we could live with. No “repentance” but, rather, “mindful of the repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation enjoined on us by Christ” – which was language right out of The Windsor Report. We offered an apology but not for consenting to the election of the bishop of NH. Rather, we apologized for “those who were offended” and asked for forgiveness for our precipitous behavior.

We made one minor adjustment to the language, and it passed handily by more than 76% margin.

A161 is the most problematic. It combines the two requested moratoria – on the election and consecration of LGBT people as bishops as well as authorizing of liturgical rites of blessing for LGBT people.

It is, in a word, evil.

I make no exaggeration here. It is evil.

Frank Wade, the co-chair of the Special Committee, prefaced our work by saying that sometimes, you have to “jump high” in order to get a better perspective – to see the bigger picture – of the real work that needs to be done. It’s not about the individual, Frank told us in his rich, melodious, senatorial tones which we’ve come to recognize, but it’s about sacrificing the individual for the whole and wholeness and w/holiness of the rest of the Body.

Fine. I’m with you Frank. Except, it was LGBT people who were being asked to sacrifice themselves (“fall on your own sword,” as one bishop strong-armed me in saying) on the altar to the false god of the Anglican Communion. Or, the false God of clarity.

Name your false god. Convention floor was thick with them today.

But, here’s the really heinous thing: After asking “bishops, standing committees, and search committees” not to consider LGBT people for the episcopacy, the final ‘resolve’ asks convention – are you ready for this? – to apologize to LGBT people and their supporters for hurt by these decisions.

I am absolutely speechless!

In other words, we are going to do mutilating surgery without anesthesia and we know it’s going to hurt, and you won’t look anything like the Child of God we’ve told you that you are when we’re done with you, so we’re going to apologize ahead of time.

Or, as one of the members of the Special Committee asked us, “Think of the upside of this resolution, he chirped. No one likes it.” Hearing the convention growing restless, he added, “We know that this resolution stinks. Just hold your nose and vote.”

Just hold your nose and vote??????? Are you kidding me????

I’ve never heard Jesus say that. Now, I know that Kendall Harmon has said publicly that “most Episcopalians don’t know Jesus,” and perhaps he’s right. The Jesus I know, near as I can remember, never said, “Hold your nose and follow me.”

The way I remember it is this (and you’ll correct me if I’m wrong): Jesus said, “Pick up your cross and follow me.”

But he never said, “some of you pick up your cross.”

Or, “Hey, you, over there. YOU pick up your cross.”

Can you believe one Christian – one Christian ordained in God’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic church – asking this of other Christians?

As one of the deputies wisely commented, “If you have to apologize for your behavior before you do it, perhaps you ought not do it. Perhaps your behavior is wrong.”

Gee, ya think?

Not to mention in absolute opposition to our canons. We have two canons which deal with non-discrimination, and includes the category of LGBT persons.”

I think we can overturn this heinous resolution tomorrow morning – the conservatives hate it as much as we do, but for completely different reasons.

Reminds me of that old story about Forrest Gump being interviewed before getting into heaven. Gabriel asks him, “How many days in the week begin with “t”? Forrest thinks for a while and says, “Two.” “Right,” says God, but how did you get that answer, thinking that the correct answer is “Tuesday and Thursday.” Forrest says, “Oh, that is easy. The two days of the week that begin with “t” are Today and Tomorrow.

Which goes to the point of saying that sometimes there is more than one right answer to the same question. And that you can be right for all the wrong reasons.

We are being asked to sacrifice something for our membership in the Anglican Communion
We are told that this is good for us and good for the communion.

As Henry David Thoreau once said, “Whenever you see a man coming at you with the intention of doing you good, you should run 100 miles in the opposite direction.”

As I leave to begin another day on the floor of convention, I will continue to operate out of this hermeneutic of suspicion. I am ready to make the sacrifices necessary to be true to myself and what I know of Jesus, who said, “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Elizabeth+ 06 .19.06