5.09.2005 | Say what you mean...

...and mean what you say. It's an old lesson, one that was knocked into me at a quite young age. Not that I always follow this advice, mind you. Just that I know that it is the right thing to do. This lesson in truth-telling has apparently not quite taken with some parts of the Christian world.

I make specific reference to the Episcopal Church, USA, which has had its issues with the truth since it insisted on flouting Scripture with the promotion of an openly gay Bishop. What is interesting is how Anglicans, which used to include ECUSA (there's some sense that much of the worldwide Anglican Communion, being a little more rigorous than ECUSA, is no longer in full communion with ECUSA), use too many words to say too little.

Just the most recent example may be found via the Episcopal News Service, which notes that yet another local church has disassociated itself from ECUSA. From this news story:

The [ECUSA] diocese and parish [Christ Church] have attempted to conduct the entire process with respect for one another's beliefs and opinions," said Bishop Dean E. Wolfe of Kansas. "While these issues have caused great pain for many people, the agreement allows us to move forward on separate paths in our ministries." (emphasis added)

Under the assumption that what prompted Christ Church to split was its refusal to go along with the sin of celebrating a practicing and unrepentant homosexual as a bishop, it is difficult to see how a Christian can "respect" the ECUSA's "beliefs and opinions." Not when those "beliefs and opinions" contradict black letter Scripture.

We are not speaking of how many acolytes should be on which side of the altar; whether to drink the cup or dip the wafter in it, or a myriad of other things not dealt with directly by Scripture. How we worship, discussions about what did that crazy John mean when he wrote the Book of Revelation, and many, many other things yet to be fully revealed to us are fair game for "opinions." Not what God tells us directly is an "abomination" in His eyes. Not when Paul, with the authority of the Holy Spirit, tells us that "a bishop must be blameless" (Titus 1:7).

ECUSA and Christ Church are infected with a disease, one of the symptoms of which is being unable to utter a simple declarative statement. Of putting "being polite" above telling God's truth.

| technorati tag | Christianity|