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"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a Hope-er, a Pray-er, a Magic Bean buyer; if you're a pretender, come sit by my fire. For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!" -- Shel Silverstein

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

A Proverb for the Primates



















The first bits of news to trickle in from the Primates meeting are fascinating in their predictability if not the speculation they inspire.

The Living Church is reporting that the Bishop of Pittsburgh apparently has had his laptop stolen from his hotel.

TLC is also reporting that the Archbishop of Nigeria wants the meeting agenda changed and Bp Sentamu and PB Jefferts Schori dumped.

The media are also reporting that "Uniformed security personnel, some equipped with police batons, cordoned off an entire wing of the White Sands Hotel and Resort on Monday. No one is allowed to enter the secure area without a red security badge issued by officials of the Anglican Consultative Council. Any time a primate leaves the secure area he or she is accompanied by either a uniformed security detail or staff members employed by the ACC."

Petty theft, armed guards, red security badges and an attempted hijacking of the agenda.

Quite an inauspicious way to begin an international gathering of Christian leaders. And most of them think people like me are an embarrassment to the church!

I'm reminded of Proverbs 6:16-19 Seven Things God Hates

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:

haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that hurry to run to evil,
a lying witness who testifies falsely,
and one who sows discord in a family.


So far, I figure they are five for six on the things God hates.

But, they have a perfect score on the abomination.

Pray without ceasing, brothers and sisters. Pray without ceasing.

2 comments:

Bill said...

This is a "good ole boys club" if I've ever seen one. Ultimately it's about power and coming down on anybody and everybody who is not in lock-step with their brand of theology. For the life of me, I don't understand what they have against women. I mean, look at them, they all run around in dresses anyway.

Bill said...

Would it really be all that bad if they went off on their own (schism). I'm all for unity, but unity usually means a fellowship of people who basically get along. I don't see that here. They're asking us to agree to some fundamentally discriminatory practices. And what's worse is that they don't see it. They hold up a page of scripture and say, lookie here women have no say in anything and homosexuals are damned to hell. In 1938 another group used similar logic to sieze the property and lives of an entire people. These folks won't realize how wrong this is until somebody does it to them. Then wait till you hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth.