Unparalleled corporate greed and irresponsibility, predatory lending practices, and rampant consumerism have amplified domestic and global economic injustice. The global impact is difficult to calculate, except that the poor will become poorer and our commitment to continue our work toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 is at great risk. A specter of fear creeps not only across the United States, but also across the world, sometimes causing us as a people to ignore the Gospel imperative of self-sacrifice and generosity, as we scramble for self-preservation in a culture of scarcity.
The crisis is both economic and environmental. The drought that grips Texas, parts of the American South, California, Africa and Australia, the force of hurricanes that have wreaked so much havoc in the Caribbean, Central America and the Gulf Coast, the ice storm in Kentucky””these and other natural disasters related to climate change””result in massive joblessness, driving agricultural production costs up, and worsening global hunger. The wars nations wage over diminishing natural resources kill and debilitate not only those who fight in them, but also civilians, weakening families, and destroying the land. We as a people have failed to see this connection, compartmentalizing concerns so as to minimize them and continue to live without regard to the care of God’s creation and the stewardship of the earth’s resources that usher in a more just and peaceful world.
In this season of Lent, God calls us to repentance. We have too often been preoccupied as a Church with internal affairs and a narrow focus that has absorbed both our energy and interest and that of our Communion ”“ to the exclusion of concern for the crisis of suffering both at home and abroad. We have often failed to speak a compelling word of commitment to economic justice. We have often failed to speak truth to power, to name the greed and consumerism that has pervaded our culture, and we have too often allowed the culture to define us instead of being formed by Gospel values.
Greed and irresponsibility? Like spending millions suing parishes and diocese who are departing because “we (TEC) have too often allowed the culture to define us instead of being formed by Gospel values.”
TEC is deposing faithful Bishops and rectors who dare “speak truth to power.”
The problem is not with corporate greed and irresponsibility. The problem is the desire for government, whether the US or TEC, to increase its control in our lives to the detriment of our freedom.
The ultimate irony of the statement of the HOB, is the certitude and pretense that they know what is wrong in the secular world of financial policy, in which they have no expertise or experience, yet clearly have no idea how to fix their own problems of declining membership, departing diocese and parishes, and faith in God and Jesus in our society.
These so called leaders of TEC are willfully blind to the fact that the big government secular culture which the HOB finds so attractive, is itself doing everything it can to destroy Christian faith and values upon which our country was founded.
I add my voice to #1. This apology rings very hollow when one knows that the same voice continues to sue all who will not abandon the faith of previous generations and endorse the compromised ‘new form’ as lived out by the presiding bishop.
When you have acted badly, and lost respect…people stop listening
[blockquote] Unparalleled corporate greed and irresponsibility, predatory lending practices, and rampant consumerism…[/blockquote]
But enough about 815.
Another futile, sacreligious, un-repentant emission from the House of Buddhists.
I would only note that merely because the authors are not in a particularly good place to levy the criticism does not make the indictment (ipsissima verba) untrue. Some of the examples cited are those about which the Global South is itself concerned. Miranda Hassett makes a good point that while Lambeth 1998 was remembered for Resolution 1:10, that was one important piece of a body of resolutions that reflected the Global South’s multiple concerns (including, but not limited to, sexuality). And it’s not an either/or situation. The problem is BOTH one of private greed and irresponsibility AND the abuse of power in church and state alike.
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
If they had noted the financial crisis and urged their flocks to remember the poor and increase their giving where possible, that would have been a good thing. This statement, blah, blah, etc.
That private greed and irresponsibility are the heart of the problem is highly debatable. We have always had private greed and irresponsibility, and free market capitalism is the best way in our imperfect world to channel private greed to produce economically useful goods and services, and to allow irresponsibility to suffer the consequences through bankruptcy.
Whether one agrees with this view or not, TEC as an institution has no knowledge or expertise upon which to base economic recommendations. Finance and economics are not taught in seminary, nor do the vast majority of Bishops have any real world experience in making things and providing services for a profit.
We do live in a free country, and TEC and anyone else is free to express their views. My point is that on secular issues where TEC has no expertise (global warming, tax rates, drilling in anwar, minimum wage laws etc) they profess great certainty.
In the areas where TEC as an organization should have expertise (definition of sin, divinity of Christ, resurrection of Christ, how each of us can find and follow Christ in our personal lives, etc) TEC expresses great moral ambiguity and confusion. Thousands of years of theology based on Scripture, reason, and tradition is thrown out because TEC is completely taken with today’s left wing secular politics. As a result, TEC today is a left wing secular organization with the new trinity of gay rights, Global Warming, and the MDG.
Bill,
I can sympathize with the “no expertise” argument up to a point. From the point of view of church history, however, that’s frequently been the perspective trotted out to pressure churchmen not to criticize the prevailing economic and social order in any way, but to focus on the cultural order. Pope John Paul II – to name one figure whom most of us here can at least respect for his convictions – did not buy that argument.
More to the point, are there any economic experts left standing at this point? So much of what happens now seems to be purely a matter of guesswork.
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. Matthew 7:5
Sorry Jeremy,
But the House of Bishops has abdicated much of its credibility due to its inaction, social/theological innovations (HERESY), and it’s self-important pronouncements from a group who have racked up many of the same deplorable results in their own dioceses that they criticize in society at large. John Chane’s Nat Cat was/is a bloated waste of funds and endowments for the promoting of revisionism to the point that they can’t balance the books anymore. Go down each diocese and you’ll uncover many such stories. The REPENTANCE needs to happen in the HOB as they seek to model what they believe the solutions to be. Ain’t happenin’.
How absurd that these people will sit in a comfy retreat and say anything about people losing their security. MAYBE…if they believed themselves….they would have shelved this expensive little mutual admiration society to show everybody how serious they were. (What was I thinking?)
I’m sorry everyone here hates the church so much. Your church? Maybe no longer your church? Maybe never your church? I am sorry in any case.
The themes of this statement are proper for the church and it is mean spirited to sneer and condemn simply because we are unable to move away from our regular obsessions.
Jesus spoke a great deal about poverty. The Magnificat, too, reminds us that God turns the world upside down – putting down the mighty from their seat, and exalting the humble and meek. Filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away. Jesus spoke hardly at all about sex, and what he said about organised religion was mostly critical.
#11 Badman
One has to remember that the context of God’s mercy in the Magnificat is “to those who fear Him” Luke 1:50 and thus there is a spiritual aspect to filling those who are hungry which covers those who believe. It is not a blanket grace to all mankind as liberation theologists and some Episcopalians appear to believe.
I think your first paragraph is off base and offensive.
Choir Stall,
I’ve no particular love for the House of Bishops as currently constituted. But there’s plenty of need for repentance in all jurisdictions. Have you forgotten Bob Duncan at GAFCON?
[i]Over the last five decades, we have made more than our share of compromises when issues of Scriptural Truth were debated or challenged . . . Moreover, the witness of our personal lives has been scarcely better than the record of those whom we now forthrightly confront: divorce and remarriage, sexual sin, addiction, material possessions, careerism, children who wander far. Further to our shame, we have sometimes as orthodox battled one another – splintering into factions and sects, competing with one another for territory or adherents, even at times condemning one another – publicly proclaiming the Truth while privately operating for our own advantage. So it is not just the progressives who have allowed sin to masquerade as righteousness, but sometimes the orthodox as well that have disgraced, disrupted and divided the whole Anglican Communion.[/i]
I believe that and so, I trust, does ACNA. I stand by the point I made earlier; this sort of critique of the economic order is much more prevalent in the Global South than many Global North conservatives imagine.
Given the source, I won’t even read their statement. If you ever wanted to know the answer to the first order question: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”, listen to the purple shirts at an HOB meting.
Heh.
RE: “I’m sorry everyone here hates the church so much.”
I’m sorry that one commenter on this thread imagines that when Episcopalians — as I am — don’t have [i]a grain of respect for the rhetoric and actions of the purported leaders of my church[/i] that somehow that means I hate the church.
But . . . one would naturally expect a revisionist to be offended that conservative Episcopalians don’t like his precious revisionist bishops.
One would even naturally expect a revisionist to believe that TEC revisionist bishops are somehow congruent with and equal to “the church.”
Actually, the HOB statement is better than I expected from them. Near the end it actually hints at some belief in substitutionary atonement, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the Trinity. Whether the majority actually believes that stuff is still an open question.
[i]the force of hurricanes that have wreaked so much havoc in the Caribbean, Central America and the Gulf Coast, the ice storm in Kentucky—these and other natural disasters related to climate change[/i]
Mindless parrots.
Mindless parrots
I agree. The one-note statements parroted over and over again by reasserters do get old. But you use what you have.
I had to read this several times, all the while trying to imagine that this letter was being issued by a group of churchmen whose theological perspicacity I actually respected. Well, look, give them credit for trying. I think they really want to be worthy of their calling and really want to speak a word of comfort to a pained world – and I think we can leave the cheapshots about the lawsuits aside for a moment.
I can also set aside their introductory Leftist boilerplate about “corporate greed” – which has absolutely no explanatory power in this case: who wasn’t and isn’t greedy? – or the fatuous global warming nonsense – I guess it’ll stagger along for a while mostly because of a creeping secularized Puritanism at the center of the environmental movement: we have sinned against the great earth mother and she, somehow, some way, is going to punish us.
Even then oddities abound. After a remarkable statement putting the Millenium Development Goals in their place as essentially nice-to-do, but ultimately meaningless without transformation in Him, they stop. No exploration of the transformation they themselves need is explored. We get the usual boilerplate: “in order to live more fully into the Gospel paradigm of God’s abundance for all,” whatever that means – and that seems to be the problem: do these people really know what it does mean? Uh well, let’s just talk about how bad and scared you all must feel.
The we get this odd statement:
[blockquote]We can rediscover our uniqueness – which emerges from the conviction that our wealth is determined by what we give rather than what we own.[/blockquote]
I’m not sure what the “uniqueness” is to which they are referring or that any such thing is supposed to emerge from any conviction about wealth. I guess they mean spiritual wealth. This is problematic in that such wealth (if one insists on using that term for it) emerges first of all from belonging – to the Triune God of Israel, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (the Father is never mentioned) – rather then from giving (see 1 Cor. 13). Having avoided exploring what this belonging means for themselves and their own repentence, apart from the lefty bromide later about “speaking truth to power,” they seem ill-prepared to address it at this point.
And so all the pretty words about hope seem oddly disconnected from anything that can really move the audience they wish to address. Like the preacher who uses the word “we” to avoid talking about his own spiritual struggles – owing more to an excess of narcissism rather than its lack – the bishops talk about how God can cure what ails us. But it doesn’t come off as if they’re taking their own proffered medicine. Why then should we?
RE: “The one-note statements parroted over and over again by reasserters do get old.”
No they don’t — not for revisionists named “Brian from T19” who are strangely fascinated by the parrots over here at T19. ; > )
In fact, they’re enthralling enough — and irritating enough — to compel him to post his own comments of half-hearted rebuttal and aspersion over here.
. . . Good times.
Sometimes people should make focused statements of clarity and not issue rambling remarks about everything.
My only other comment is that if TEC believes that Episcopalians should turn to God [i]now[/i] because they feel angst, what was the message to them during the good times?
Of course the peace message is good and true (but do these people sing the same hymn about the Sudan as they rightly do about Iraq?) but…
My cynical translation:
[i]’Shut up, you stupid conservatives, and let us have gay weddings in your churches, and let our Dear Leader President Obama do his benevolent work.'[/i]
Way to shut up rich white liberals about corporate greed (from Christian Lander at SWPL): mention a corporation they like, like Ikea or Starbucks.
When they attack the free market they saw the branch on which they sit and pontificate as well as stop a real economic recovery (economists don’t call it a correction for nothing).
Of course Episcopalianism has a right to exist (it’s a free country) but it’s funny to read liberals sounding like [url=http://home.comcast.net/~acbfp/catholic.html]Catholics[/url] or old Tory high churchmen when they call it [i]the church[/i]. I forget which angry comedian said it but in Anglo-America today only the Roman Catholic Church is [i]the church[/i]. The same people who rail at Rome when the Pope repeats its one-true-church claim then claim it for themselves when it comes to defending their hobbyhorses. [i]’And I believe one, gay, wholly upper-middle-class and mostly white church…'[/i]
[url=http://home.comcast.net/~acbfp/index.html]High-church libertarian curmudgeon[/url]
Dear 11, Badman. I don’t hate the Episcopal Church. I spent more than fifty years there. It’s sort of like when your dad comes home on drugs, rapes your sister, steals from you, beats up your mother, tries to seduce the neighbor kids, and generally puts himself outside the bounds of civilization. He also buys off the local sheriff. You don’t stop loving him. You stand ready to help him if he repents, but you have to find another place to live. My analogy is not up to the usual standards of this site, but you could hardly mistake my meaning. YiC, Bill
This listing of old pastoral letters of the PECUSA give some good context for just how much drift has taken place!
http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/pastorals/
A great excuse to abandon the MDG’s and put the money toward lawsuits.
Dumb Sheep.
“…the force of hurricanes that have wreaked so much havoc in the Caribbean, Central America and the Gulf Coast, the ice storm in Kentucky—these and other natural disasters related to climate change..”
-Statement by the bishops living in England 800 years ago as they enjoyed a bountiful harvest of grapes grown in England’s then-warmer climate.
“Speak truth to power”??? What decade is this?
“…the force of hurricanes that have wreaked so much havoc in the Caribbean, Central America and the Gulf Coast, the ice storm in Kentucky—these and other natural disasters related to climate change..†Herein, as an example, lies the problem and the reason that #7 is so correct about HOB having become little more than a secular liberal political organization. They do not know that any of the catastrophes they list have anything to do with “climate change” (which used to be global warming, until meteoroligist told the liberals that the earth was cooling over the last 20 years, not warming). They state: “Unparalleled corporate greed and irresponsibility, predatory lending practices, and rampant consumerism have amplified domestic and global economic injustice.” They don’t know any of that to be true, though most are intelligent to know that there are other theories on what has caused this economic crisis, some of which relate to their own beloved liberal politicians and their liberal social engineering, which is now continuing at a more rapid rate than anytime in US history, IMHO. Yet they put in their “pastoral” message indictments of certain segments of our population, who are not within their liberal political paradigm. In the secular world, the church must deal with things as they are, as our Lord did (give unto Caesar, etc). The church’s job, it seems to me, is to help us all deal with these problems, not attempt to point accusing fingers at certain segments of mankind. Our church is to be a force in the world, not of the world, to help the poor, the helpless. It’s purpose is not to adopt secular goals like MDGs. It’s purpose is to follow the instructions of our Lord to help the sick, feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, and bring all to Christ. That should be the message of the HOB – not condemnation of how the sick became sick, the poor are poor, or the prisoners were imprisoned, since the HOB does not know how these things happened, other than what it chooses to believe from its own tunnel vison of secular liberal politics.
It’s sort of like when your dad comes home on drugs, rapes your sister, steals from you, beats up your mother, tries to seduce the neighbor kids, and generally puts himself outside the bounds of civilization. He also buys off the local sheriff. You don’t stop loving him.
Yeah. That’s exactly what its like.
I agree. It’s EXACTLY like what TEc is doing to parishes loyal to the Bible and the Church’s historic teaching. Good analogy.