THE MODESTO BEE: ONCE AGAIN MISSES THE MARK

Well, hi again.  It has been quite some time since my last posting.  I could explain why but I will not - at least for now.  What prompted this posting was the shabby reporting of the Modesto Bee.  Yes, Ms. Nowicki is once again roaming all over the journalistic country side.

Here is the article:

http://www.modbee.com/2013/05/19/2722994/turlock-episcopal-congregation.html#

Here is at least one rebuttal (this has not been posted since I am awaiting the renewing of my modebee account).


I thought the Modesto Bee had an editorial page for this type of an article. The writer's personal opinions are not to be insidiously inserted in the "news article" the reporter has written. The opening line in the article begins with "think FORGIVE, act". This neither opens the article nor does it give insight into what this article is about. It clearly infers that the current Anglican parishioners have to forgive something or someone. The second paragraph further serves to editorialize by "including the words, 'Thou are giving and forgiving ...'". The third paragraph explains the reporter's indignation and at the same time sets the stage for "good guy versus bad guy". The Anglican St. Francis Church are the good guys while the big bad Episcopal Church is the bad guy.

The fourth paragraph, "the decision was made to return St. Francis and the historic Red Church (Sonora), ... " The line infers that these two Anglican parishes somehow own the buildings in which they held their services. Both these (in fact all 40 of 47) buildings were taken over by the Anglican parishes by right of occupancy. They were never paid for by the individuals nor the Anglican Diocese headed up by Eric Menees. The Episcopal Church is simply trying to regain that which was taken without recompense. And who among us would not want to "sue" if a squatter occupied our home when we were not looking and the squatter will not give it back?

The fifth paragraph is full of quotes from the Anglican Bishop from Fresno with NO corresponding quotes from Bishop Talton, the Episcopal Bishop who rightly is responsible for the property and as the Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin is the steward of all the Episcopal property. What reporter, seeking balance would not balance quotes?

The reporter goes on to share quotes from long standing Anglican parishioners about their "home". The reporter failed to quote any of the long standing Episcopal parishioners who grew up in that parish and were unceremoniously thrown out of their building.

The reporter goes on to quote the Anglican Bishop to say "Grace Anglican Church ...will be a place where God is honored and glorified". As if to say that when the Episcopal parish regains their rightful property these parishioners will not honor and glorify God.

The reporter goes on to quote Russ Rappley from Michigan (who joined the parish only after the split the “Anglican” and the Episcopal diocese was completed, and knows nothing of the Episcopal parish that was there) "it’s not the way Christians should act". Again no balancing quote(s) from Kathy Galatia, the current Vicar of St. Francis Episcopal Church. And, the quote infers that what the Anglicans did by taking over the building is the Christian thing to do!

There are several more unbalanced quotes by parishioners and story lines by the reporter that predetermine what readers ought to think about this story.
I am greatly disappointed by the biased reporting of this reporter. Even non-journalists know that the "below the fold" ought to contain responses and reactions from (the other side).  Journalists are responsible for who, what, why, where, when, and how.  The conclusions drawn from a dispassionate and unbiased article are supposed to be the readers. 

All I can say in conclusion is journalism has taken a "turn for the worst" to quote and Eagles song. 

Personal note: best wishes to all my blogging friends.

THANK YOU!

Do you remember when you worked a 10 hour day 6 and 7 days a week?  Remember when you never received shift differential and overtime meant you got home after supper?  Remember when you worked the construction industry and you had no protection against acetone and asbestos and all the other deadly chemicals everyone was exposed to?  Remember when your children worked 8 OR 10 hours a day in a sweatshop?Remember when you never had holidays, vacation or sick leave?   Remember when you received a dollar a day and you lived in company quarters and you paid the company store and the debt from that store got past on to your children and great grandchildren?  Remember when you were hurt on the job and you lost weeks and weeks of pay?  Remember when you were fired for going to your spouse's funeral and you never got unemployment? Remember when the farm workers were paid 50 or 75 cents per day, lived in "provided housing". Remember when the boss's best friend got the promotion and you got squat?

You say you don't remember these things at all?  Of course not because so many of our fathers and grandfathers literally fought and died for the rights of workers.  And Unions were formed and unions bargained for the basic necessities of life.  You say you don't remember and it could never happen again?  Review the minimum wage laws and see how many Republicans vote against it!  Review worker's compensation laws and see how many Republicans vote against it!  review the state disability laws and see how many Republicans voted against it!

If you don't think it can happen again listen to the issues in Wisconsin.  Did you know that between Governor Brown and President Pro Temp Darrel Steinburg (BOTH DEMOCRATS) the public pension system in the State of California was gutted.  The average teacher retires at about $39,000 per year in pension but they felt it was too much.  Never mind that these pensions had been bargained.  That teachers usually go their whole life and never see a distributive scheme let  alone profit from it or more to the point ruin other peoples pensions by using it. But hey, the rich get tax breaks and the teachers and other public servants get to pay for the tax breaks.

If you think it can happen again then say THANK YOU to all our union constituents for all the hard work, then, now and in the future.  Happy Labor Day. A Vote for Romney is a vote for eliminating Labor Day.

Power - That's My Speciality

Here is the latest from the diocese of South Carolina.  This is actually taken from the website of the SC Episcopalians but the beginning three paragraphs make a point I have been working over for years.

 

The point is that the need to create ACNA or AMIA or any other multiple lettered acronym is nothing more than a power grab by those who choose to be above the law.  Here it is:

 

CHARLESTON - The Cathedral of St. Luke& St. Paul is moving forward with plans to sever ties with the Episcopal Church, and shift its loyalty to something called “the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina” (PECDSC). Diocesan leaders have been quietly encourag ing parishes in the Diocese to amend their corporate documents to replace references to the Episcopal Church with similar references to the PECDSC. That is what the communicants of the Cathedral will be asked to do at a meeting of its congregation on September 9th.

Attorneys advising SC Episcopalians believe over the past two years the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina under Bishop Lawrence has re-invented itself as a "religious organization" separate from the Episcopal Church. The PECDSC’s corporate documents do not include an all important clause that accedes to the Constitution of the Episcopal Church, or otherwise does not include provisions that that impede accession to the Constitution of the Episcopal Church. This is important because unqualified accession to the Constitution of the Church is essential for membership

 

Notice that South Carolina has already been spoken for by some bozo.bishop from ACNA and so Bishop Lawrence has decided to create his own diocese -- it appears that it may be his own Anglican Province.  John David Schofield taught him all he knows and is probably part of Bishop Lawrence's kitchen cabinet.  It is hard to believe but this has all been about a power grab.  These folks did not like the election of a woman to the position of Presiding Bishop, not just because she is a woman (though that has a lot to do with it) but because they think they can do a better job.  So, we have provinces and AiMa stuff and Church of Rwanda and GAFCON and all these folks trying to become bishops and those who are bishops trying to become popes. 

 

Someone really ought to put all these folks in a long long timeout..

John David Schofield II

I would like to begin with a quote from South Carolina Episcopalians.  The actual story is entitled "Diocese Adrift as Bishop's Options Narrow".

Bishop Lawrence has generally surrounded himself with a cadre of admiring friends and advisors who uniformly reflect his Biblical literalism and hostility to authority. Lawrence has revamped key governing structures of the Diocese such that they are now little more than an extension of that cadre. The direction of the Diocese is generally believed to be directed by God through revelation to Bishop Lawrence, who in turn, shares it with the Standng Committee, then the clergy, then the lay people of the Diocese.
 

While Bishop Lawrence has used many things similar to John David Schofield in bringing his diocese to the brink the above quote is an encapsulation of the exact formula Schofield used in cutting San Joaquin out of the Episcopal Church.  But, here is (I think) the unique part: See the highlighted part of the quote, that is my emphasis.  But, before I say anything, since I am just a blogger of no repute let me provide the reader with the quote that the South Carolinians used to open their story:

“Hooker articulates for Anglicanism its answer to the question of what is our authority. Our authority is the association of scripture, tradition and reason … Scripture for the Anglican is a fundamental source of authority for the church; but apart from reason it is dangerous. It becomes the mirror for the misdirected person to project his or her own opinions and give them the authority of God. The sin of schism is the result."
– Urban T. Holmes in What Is Anglicanism? 

Bishop Lawrence came to his diocese with the promise of staying within the Episcopal Church.  On that basis he garnered sufficient votes to be ratified.  So much for truth in the church.  I suppose he had his hands behind his back and his fingers crossed.  Just like John David Schofield.

Now, in closing and perhaps my main point (after  an obligatory I told you so. Okay, got that out of my system) is that here is at least one more bishop who has done the same thing.  I will let you guess who I am talking about but his initials stand for Daniel Martins.

Will we  ever learn???!!!???



H/T Preludium

Lance Armstrong, The poor, and Oil Depletion

Once again the idea of  "smacking" the poor raises it's ugly head.  See, those who are less fortunate, those who lost their jobs and those who are just down on their luck receive cash payments and food stamps and WIC in order to merely keep them alive.  The operative words here are "keep them alive".  Someone has this great plan of drug testing those who receive government "handouts" prior to providing them with the necessary funds to merely subsist.  Not, live like kings, not reap huge windfall tax relief, not stock market wealth up the proverbial you know what, merely to subsist.  We all know that almost all of those people are druggies anyway using the money Uncle Sam gives them to buy heroin or crack or meth or weed.

Well, fair is fair, right?  We should have a fair and just society so here is a modest proposal.  Anyone who receives a government subsidy of any sort should be drug tested:

1, those who receive oil depletion allowances should be drug tested.  Most of the owners and CEOs probably use cocaine regularly.  We all have seen movies about it.
2, those who receive crop subsidies or payments to allow fields to lie fallow or water subsidies would be drug tested.  We all know that corporate farms grow weed on their farms to "subsidize" their income.
3, All those who receive capital gains reductions or investment credits should be tested.  They probably use illegal performance enhancement drugs that make them angry and unable to listen.
4, GM, Chrysler, and all the banks and investment firms that received handouts from the government should be drug tested.  Lord knows  their actions leading up to the economy falling apart clearly indicates drug use.  Should check those beady little eyes.
5, All the veterans who receive service related disability pensions should be tested.  After all, we all know that service people drink to excess and use those funny little things they pick up in Afghanistan and Vietnam and other places around the world.
6, then let's drug test all those on social security since they buy drugs of all kinds with their medicare and medicaid payments. 

Got everyone covered?  Hope so.  Think of the money the government will save.  Not only all the cash but we can do away with health and Human Services, Internal Revenue, Social security, Veterans Affairs, EPA, Natural Resources.  Oh, and while we are at it let's drug test EVERYONE in government -- they all receive cash handouts from the feds.  I have one better idea-- Let's not just start with congress but let's start with the Republicans in Congress who are so eager to drug test the poor and downtrodden.  Anyone who takes money from the government and then denies it to everyone else clearly is on some kind of drug!

Happy News

I suppose I can be depressing at times, Lord knows I get depressed, however, this time I wish to share some personal and happy news.

First, our daughter, after studying hard for many years, having two children and a myriad of other things happen in her life, has now completed her credential.  Not only that, but she now has a teaching position -- in California no less! 

Second, today our son begins his quest to become a Naval Officer.  He is a Petty Officer, currently, or more correctly (as of today) an Officer Candidate.  He was trained as a nuclear type and did one deployment in the gulf. Already, he has moved a number of times and will do so many more times. He has a very patient wife and two children also.

So that I can tie this into the  blog, both families are practicing Episcopalians.  Our daughter is very, very active and has done a mission to Chile.   Currently serving on a vestry as the fund raising person.  Her son has been featured with the Presiding Bishop and has never missed a convention.

I just wanted my readers, indeed anyone who stumbles across this humble blog to know that there are young families who love the Episcopal Church and are willing to make Christ the center of their lives and to make the Episcopal Church the center of their earthly attention.

We are a small family that has struggled through the trials and tribulations of the diocese of San Joaquin.  But, take heart, a new generation is coming to take over.  A generation of people willing to work for what they believe in, Christ made manifest through the Episcopal Church.

By the way, my wife and I could not be prouder of two children (and of course four grandchildren) who are on their way to success both spiritually and physically.  We love them very much and hold them up for all to see, the torch is not only passing to a new generation (thanks JFK) but the torch has been accepted.

Let The Dead bury the dead

Here is the best reason I can give for not allowing those who return from the ACNA diocese to not be allowed any voice or vote in the Episcopal Church at least for 5 years.  This quote comes from another blog whose name will remain not spoken and he comment is on the process we follow as a democratic organization, one of the few in the Anglican Communion.  This writer is ,presumably still in the Episcopal Church which makes me very very nervous:

It's not the fault of Committees 9 and 10 that those resolutions take up so much time. The resolutions come in from CCABs, dioceses, bishops and deputies and have to go somewhere - if we eliminated those committees then they would have to be taken up by others. Speaking for committee 10, we took five health-related resolutions and combined them into three; and a whopping SEVEN poverty-related resolutions were combined into ONE. So in that respect, I'd say that Committee 10 actually *saved* us all a lot of time. The only way to improve the situation would be to somehow prevent the resolves from being made in the first place.


Improve what situation?  The need for democratic process?  The need for all voices to be heard?  The desire to  not run over the weak, the minority voice, those who you feel have no real say in the matters of the church?

Please, go join the Anglican Communion of North America if you feel as strongly as you seem to.  We practice and live by the big tent theory and we have no need of "bishops" telling us what we believe especially in public and especially speaking for me.  I have my own voice and can speak when I feel it necessary.