[Magdalen] 224th Convention of The Episcopal Church in SC

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I'm sure you're right.

I, however, am just talking religion.  And my point remains that we in
organizations such as the episcopal church have been accepting and
tolerant.  I think that's reasonable.

The putative Anglican Churches in several other countries has become
infected with toxic  fundamentalist ideas, and they apply their
fundamentalist views to Bible interpretation, and then call us heretics if
we don't immediately agree with stuff we have never agreed to to begin
with. (at least, not in my lifetime) We find ourselves facing non-starter
arguments we are used to getting from Baptist or non-denom types and other
know-nothing types, and it is awkward to face incredibly horrible theology,
poorly formed and abysmally badly understood, without saying something
like, "Excuse me, but your theology would not pass muster in first year
seminary in our church."

We in the Episcopal Church are willing to support another communion quite
actively, regardless of theological slant. We have in fact done just that.
Repeatedly. And I would not oppose it.  However, the problem is that the
other folks have no interest in tolerance. They see a difference, label it
sinful and all those other dreary words that I wish folks would excise from
their vocabulary, and they want us to do as they believe or they apparently
intend to do whatever they can to bring us down. They were nurtured in the
Anglican Tradition but it would seem that they do not understand the
central underpinnings of that tradition.

I can certainly understand the strong feeling that we need to realize that
these folks have been badly treated by a long line of Westerners over
centuries and we need to cut them some slack.  Oh I'm perfectly willing to
cut them all the slack in the world.  But they don't get to dictate how we
do church.  That would be analogous to banning all music in the Western
tradition because a lot of Blacks find it offensive.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 5:30 PM, Lynn Ronkainen <ichthys89 at comcast.net>
wrote:

> I'm not just talking religion here James...
>
> It is my opinion that 'the west' still calls many shots that are residue
> (emphasis on the due, perhaps) of colonial thinking... rooted in power and
> control (by force or multitude)
>
> It is like the racial consciousness training conversation that was had on
> the HoB/D last month, of anyone here happened to follow that.  People can
> think they are not biased , and they can learn to do things that are not
> biased, but unless they deeply examine their though processes and verify
> that they have changed not just swerved, they are merely  making a small
> dent.  This is the way with the Western Civilized world and the trickle
> down into our times... spirits of cooperation and benevolence do not an
> equal plain make.  We still view ourselves as being 'more ahead' and
> therefore more experienced, mature, etc... thus more able to see everyone's
> bigger picture.  That's still holding on to power, IMO.
>
> Lynn
>
> From: "James Oppenheimer-Crawford" <oppenheimerjw at gmail.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 3:18 PM
> To: "Magdalen at herberthouse.org" <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
> Subject: Re: [Magdalen] 224th Convention of The Episcopal Church in SC
>
>  I think the West has been very, very willing to allow other parts of the
>> world to find their own way.  It was only when they found that something
>> we
>> were doing was not okay in THEIR book that the trouble started.
>>
>> My feeling is that the other folks can continue to oppose and attack
>> whatever they want; I just won't ever support any aid to any of them. Fair
>> is fair, after all. If our theology is too tainted for them, so is our
>> money.
>>
>