I was not going to do this anymore. In fact I finished my chapter 1 and am waiting for the response from my dissertation chair. I need desperately to get away from this stuff and finish my dissertation. But what Father Mark posted touches the heart of so much of what my dissertation is focused upon.
Father mark posted this on his blog a day or so ago:
The Fault Line Runs Right Through Here: And when is the Anglican quake?
What I think is actually happening is nothing less than a culture war -- except in reverse. Whether it is Reed Hasting in California education, or Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and Michael Savage in the arena of "schlock radio"/politics or Jack Iker, Robert Duncan, and John David Schofield in religion the real upshot is that old white men want to preserve the power status quo. Yes, the war is taken to the streets in the name of "let's bring back the good old days", or let's put "God" back in our country, or Scripture is the only way to know God but face it, it is old white guys upset that they are losing their grip on the culture. Keep in mind that John David Schofield has said that since the 1960's TEC has been headed in the wrong direction. Do you suppose that has any connection to, let's say, the civil rights movement? The founding of La Raza and MECHA? Or maybe the women's movement?
The manifestations include anti women, anti-gay, anti-Obama, anti-"loose morals", anti-education, anti-teachers, anti-just about everything. But, they stand for nothing -- they are not for anything except themselves and they hide behind things like "that old time religion", men-were-men, women have a place in the home (barefoot and preggers), and the American Flag. These folks have an incredible anti-intellectual, anti-education, anti-learning, anti-books program that is, for some unknown reason, attractive to so many men and women it is hardly laughable. In fact, it is not laughable, it is beginning to rock the foundation of our nation.
What do they want? Well, they want not to lose power. They want the white male European culture to remain dominant. What they see is the battle that is raging in places like New York, California, Texas, Florida and other states wherein the cultures are beginning to reach a point where there is no dominant culture, but rather that patchwork quilt we have talked about for so long is beginning to take hold. What those who gathered (last week-end) in Washington, D.C. want to maintain is not a culture of power sharing but rather a largess system where the white guys give every body some power, not just too much. We allow folks to think, just not critically. We allow some decisions just not those that will affect me and my lifestyle. By doing so they have fooled themselves into believing that "they share Martin Luther King's dream" of a better America. Better to them means please enjoy the power we allow you all to have.
Father Mark, and others, have clearly begun to peel the onion back on these hypocrites. What needs to be done, first, is stop treating them like some small but likable aberration. Sarah Palin is just like Jack Iker just like Michael Savage. These are incredibly dangerous people and yes, we could lose our Episcopal Church, Anglican Communion, and yes our country if these dreadful people are allowed to continue unabated. We need to get the message out that these folks are not forward thinkers, in fact they are not thinkers at all. These are power gathering people who intend to use it in ways that we have not even thought of yet. We need clear cut statements that reject the status quo, that make room for all people and all cultures. We need to define the "big tent" far better than we have to date and begin programs to not only bring everyone under that tent but to marginalize those who refuse to accept the new power structure. That means allowance for the immigrant from wherever and however that immigrant got here to get a job and contribute and find the dream just like so many of our parents and grandparents did a generation or so ago. We need to look forward not back. We need to refute quickly and effectively all the nonsense that questions one's loyalty, one's heritage and one's birthright.
For The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion it means "graciously" removing the Archbishop of Canterbury. Under this description it becomes so very easy to understand what is going on in Canterbury and how duplicitous the current Archbishop is.
The Episcopal Church needs to take an even harder line with those who would plunder the United States for their own greed and power. Lobbying throughout the world for full exclusion of those who have attempted the coup should be swift and effective.
Legal action must be complete and with no quarter given for those who have tried to abscond with property that does not belong.
New sections of the canons and constitution should be drafted and approved that will reduce the effective position of bishops and clergy raising the level of authority for the laity.
The people who would reduce full inclusion to a mere footnote in the annals of the Episcopal Church must themselves be reduced to a mere footnote in our history.
Thank you Father Mark for the clarity.
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