A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on February 19th, 2009 in Progressive Faith

Over the years, I’ve made a point of reading reams of conservative doctrine. The way I figure it, I can’t actually say what they believe if I don’t actually listen to them. As a result, I’ve come to respect the thought process behind modern conservativism, even as I continue to disagree with it. But I also understand that there are some things that are unnegotiable. If I want to do anything with a conservative, I have to simply accept that. If I ignore that reality and try to force some kind of relationship; then the only result will be that everyone walks away hurt and angry.

Stuart Dunnan, I think, may need to learn that lesson. I don’t doubt in the least that he is earnest in wanting to maintain a unified American Episcopal Church. There are a lot of good reasons for doing so. But the one essential thing that he doesn’t seem to understand is that no one chased the Bishops of Pittsburgh and Fort Worth out of the Episcopal Church. They threw acid over their shoulder as they ran.

In such a situation, it is impossible to simply shrug and say, “Well, they have thrown off the historical connections that bind us, openly declared that our entire church is unfaithful and ungodly, and they refuse to abide by legal instructions given by our governing body. But let’s keep them around anyway.” This is sheer insanity. In the first place, the breakaway diocese and congregations have openly stated that they have given up association with the Episcopal Church. What good would it do to say, “Yeah, that’s what they say – but we don’t agree.”

The comparison with John Wesley and the fledgling Methodist movement is misguided and false. Wesley did not seek to distance himself from the Church of England, in fact, he attempted to convince his new congregants that they were, in fact, still part of that church. The great issue that separated Methodists was that Wesley took to open-air preaching, which potentially cut into the finances of Anglican parishes. When Wesley saw that the Anglican communion was worried more about social appearances that actually reaching sinners, he embraced his methods all the more. But it was the church that cut him off, and not Wesley.

I agree with Dunnan that it was wrong for the Anglican Church to do so – and incredibly short sighted. But the fact is that Wesley’s evangelism would have operated as a working adjunct to the structure of the Anglican Church. The intentional schismatics of today cannot make that claim. The Episcopal Church has said that women and gay people can be ordained. No congregation is forced to accept this or to practice it. So the exclusion of gay clergy and ordained women cannot be an adjunct. It is the antithesis of what the Episcopal Church is practicing.

In other words, the roles are actually reversed. Today, the larger church is trying to enlarge the church and the schismatics are fighting against it. It is they who must decide to coexist, because that is exactly what the Episcopal Church has offered them.

Beyond that, Rev. Dunnan’s ideas are incredibly dangerous. It is the willingness to bend over backwards for the schismatics that gives them power. If the Fort Worth diocese, for example, had been told twenty years ago that they had to obey the orders of the church and turn property over to the mother-church; then we would not be in such a quandrary now. Instead, people were willing to be tolerant of people who were intolerant of them. Once the intolerant schismatics had enough numbers, they forced the issue. Now, my mother’s congregation must rent their own church from the diocese of Fort Worth because her congregation voted to remain faithful to the Episcopal Church.

How many more congregations would Rev. Duggan see destroyed in such a manner?

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