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Published On: Apr 07, 2009 10:27 AM
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Published On: Apr 07, 2009 10:27 AM
What if the church threw a schism and no one showed up?
Chipping away.
Lots of church stuff in the news lately. Both the
Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) are holding their big
conventions this week.
For the Presbyterian Church, the big talk is of schism. This year, there's a report called the "Peace, Unity, and Purity" report that's generating a bunch of controversy. As Linda Richmond would say, "The Peace, Unity, and Purity report will bring neither peace, unity, nor purity. Discuss."
The far left of the church hates it. The far right of the church hates it. The middle seems to be embracing it. (Personally, if I were in the middle, I'd embrace it just to tweak off the far left and the far right. Since it is my job to be contrarian, I'm on the far left, and yet I still think it should be approved. I'm crazy that way.) Anyway, it's all too complicated to go into, and frankly far too tiresome. But the upshot is that if the report is approved (though now the conservative wingnuts are trying to redefine what "approved" means) the far right wing churches are threatening to split. Since they've already basically split by forming a shadow denomination within the denomination I don't think it really matters.
But here's the kicker. "Split" isn't really the word we should be using. First of all, the liberal churches have never talked about splitting away from the moderates. So, we're talking something like 100 conservative churches out of thousands. (Whether they'll really take off is a little doubtful since they probably can't keep their property if they leave. It'll be interesting to see what is more important to them: their big stained glass buildings or their immortal souls. Care to place a wager?)
A hundred churches isn't even really a splinter, though. Isn't it more like a "sloughing off?" Or perhaps "chip." Conservatives have made this all sound so scary by threatening to "split", but it really doesn't sound very bad if you say, "If this report passes, mark my words, the church will chip!!"
In completely unrelated news, we're having our house painted. They're currently scraping away the completely useless, old, cracked, weathered, pathetic paint chips before they apply the new paint. See, if you don't get rid of the old paint chips, the paint will look like crap and just fall off anyway, and the wood underneath will rot. So the best thing to do is to get rid of the paint chips. Just power wash and scrape those chips away, otherwise the chips will be nothing but problems. Once the chips are gone, you get a new, fresh, beautiful paint job that will protect the underlying wood for years.
For the Presbyterian Church, the big talk is of schism. This year, there's a report called the "Peace, Unity, and Purity" report that's generating a bunch of controversy. As Linda Richmond would say, "The Peace, Unity, and Purity report will bring neither peace, unity, nor purity. Discuss."
The far left of the church hates it. The far right of the church hates it. The middle seems to be embracing it. (Personally, if I were in the middle, I'd embrace it just to tweak off the far left and the far right. Since it is my job to be contrarian, I'm on the far left, and yet I still think it should be approved. I'm crazy that way.) Anyway, it's all too complicated to go into, and frankly far too tiresome. But the upshot is that if the report is approved (though now the conservative wingnuts are trying to redefine what "approved" means) the far right wing churches are threatening to split. Since they've already basically split by forming a shadow denomination within the denomination I don't think it really matters.
But here's the kicker. "Split" isn't really the word we should be using. First of all, the liberal churches have never talked about splitting away from the moderates. So, we're talking something like 100 conservative churches out of thousands. (Whether they'll really take off is a little doubtful since they probably can't keep their property if they leave. It'll be interesting to see what is more important to them: their big stained glass buildings or their immortal souls. Care to place a wager?)
A hundred churches isn't even really a splinter, though. Isn't it more like a "sloughing off?" Or perhaps "chip." Conservatives have made this all sound so scary by threatening to "split", but it really doesn't sound very bad if you say, "If this report passes, mark my words, the church will chip!!"
In completely unrelated news, we're having our house painted. They're currently scraping away the completely useless, old, cracked, weathered, pathetic paint chips before they apply the new paint. See, if you don't get rid of the old paint chips, the paint will look like crap and just fall off anyway, and the wood underneath will rot. So the best thing to do is to get rid of the paint chips. Just power wash and scrape those chips away, otherwise the chips will be nothing but problems. Once the chips are gone, you get a new, fresh, beautiful paint job that will protect the underlying wood for years.
Posted: Tue - June 20, 2006 at 09:53 AM