This is Life!: Revolutions Around the Cruciform Axis

Torn by Griswoldian "Dialogue"

The NPR report on Robinson's consecration was telling.

While the hype predicted there would be 4000-6000 people in attendance, according to the report, only 2500 were there, among them some 50 or more bishops. (There was even an "Orthodox" pretender "bishop" there. But none of the Orthodox claim him. He is not legitimate. Cf. Al Green's "Other Orthodox" page. Where they dug him up from, I have no idea.) [Update: I've located the gentleman. His name is Paul Peter Jesep. Here are Jesep's comments on Gene Robinson. He is a member of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. This church is not recognized by any canonical jurisdiction. They are, in essence, self-generated. For example, take a look at their "Metropolitan-Archbishop" Michael of Cleveland, "Eparch" of all the United States and the Americas. Has this guy graduated high school yet?]

The NPR report talks about there being an excitement that was "almost giddy" in the hockey arena where Robinson was purportedly consecrated. Robinson was even referred to by one supporter as "the best thing since canned beer." Imagine.

Never was any comment such a clear indicator of the two (or three, depending on how you count) religions which now obtain with in the Episcopal denomination.

No Episcopalian should have been surprised by this. This has been a long time coming.

The days of Anglican "broadmindedness" ended in the mid-70s when, instead of working patiently through dialogue and the slow processes of the General Convention, bishops took it upon themselves to claim the mantle of the Holy Spirit and ordain women, uncanonically mind you, to the priesthood.

All the Griswoldian blather about dialogue and seeking a deeper place of love is just smarmy politics. Griwsold failed to show any leadership in the matter, but let his partisan advocacy show through.

Like it or not, Griswold and the Episcopal Church has done something no church claiming apostolic succession has ever done. Despite warnings from within her own denomination, despite warnings from brother and sister Anglicans (not the least of which was the Archbishop of Canterbury!), despite warnings from evangelical Protestants, and the Episcopal Church's former ecumenical partners, Rome and the Orthodox, ECUSA decided to ignore all those warnings, claim the leading of the Holy Spirit and go ahead with what she had already determined to do.

This is not dialogue. This is "Let's talk until we wear you down and you agree to what we want to do anyway." Griswold signed the Primates' Statement a few weeks ago, then went ahead and did what he had already determined he was going to do. This is not loving conversation. This is not seeking deeper unity. This is raw, unbridled arrogant power. It is the sort of American arrogance Griswold claimed he was embarrassed about when he travelled abroad.

Griswold and company want to claim that the schism which obtains in the Anglican Communion is all about conservatives and traditionalists failing to play nice. Robinson blames the schism on everyone opposed to his consecration.

This is arrogance to the nth degree. The NPR report mentions that the celebrants on Sunday were happy and excited about this new thing they had done. But the reporter also notes they did not want to think about the consequences of their actions. And this is precisely the arrogance I'm speaking about. Griswold and Robinson, and the rest of the powerful elite, give the Anglican world the finger, but then want to blame the reaction on the judgmental attitudes of all those conservatives and traditionalists. Yeah. Right. I can bitch slap you, but you dare not get angry.

Those who advocate same-sex unions and the acceptance of homosexual acts need to get one thing clear: they are going it alone and they will be alone. If your ecumenical partners object to the ordination of women, yet you go ahead and ordain them; if your ecumenical partners object to the legitimization of homosexual acts, yet you go ahead and give your blessing for them; if you sign a statment agreeing that by doing certain actions you have stepped outside of the common mind and are going to face the consequences; then it does little good to cry foul when your actions bring on the very consequences you acknowledged. And you certainly cannot claim to be part of the club.

Griswold, Robinson and their supporters have, by their own actions, become a small North American Protestant sect. They have, in the midst of clear and explicit warnings, taken themselves out of the Anglican communion, out of fellowship with their ecumenical partners, and created a new religion.

It's that simple. It's not more complicated than that.

Oh, sure, Griz and Co. will bluster and grimace. They'll claim the Tradition. They'll bemoan the fact that no one else can hear the same voice of the Holy Spirit they hear. (And maybe, since the rest of the Christian Tradition and the present Christian world can't hear it, hey, just maybe it's NOT the voice of the Holy Spirit they hear. Hmmmm? Thought about that, have you?) But in the end, they will be playing by themselves in the cul-de-sac they've created.

And they'll shake their heads at all the mess they've left behind, wondering how all those mean people could go on without them.

Posted by Clifton at November 5, 2003 05:00 AM | TrackBack