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Saturday, November 17, 2007

More Episcopal Church comments

I've seen a lot of the folks comparing themselves to Martin Luther. I've been trying to find ways to be descriptive without using labels or going to far with the "us and them" mentality, but these are the folks who think it's perfectly okay not to believe in the creed, even if you're a bishop... the ones who doubt the authority of scripture and don't believe in the divinity of Christ. (Now, I do want to make this clear here... I have friends who are of different faiths, and in some cases no official faith at all, and I have no issue with the fact that they don't believe the Bible or believe in Jesus. The sole reason I have a problem with it in this instance is that these are leaders in what is supposed to be a Christian church.)
I've done a lot of thinking and praying about this Martin Luther analogy for the past few days. My husband was raised Lutheran, and attended a Lutheran college, and has done extensive research on Martin Luther. I've discussed a lot of this with him, as well.
Now, these leaders of the church, the Presiding Bishop and a lot of other Bishops, and I'm not even sure who all else, are the ones who have been steering the Episcopal Church USA further into heresy. The other Bishops (the conservative ones, for those who must insist on labels) have been observing this, and have tried in many ways, over many years, to bring them back into compliance with Scripture. They have tried to re-form the church, to bring it back to the original constitution under which it was formed, which is based very strongly in Scripture. Martin Luther watched the Catholic church become more and more corrupted, and tried to bring them back... he wasn't the one dragging them astray.
Those of you who have been trying to use this argument to defend your actions need to do a bit more studying and praying. You are the ones with the political and economic power here. You are NOT acting in the place of Martin Luther. You are The Church.

I wonder if the Windsor Report would have gotten a better reception if it had been nailed to a church door?

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Scandalon

I've had some songs rattling around in my head recently, and I decided to inflict them on my readers, few though you may be

So today's episode is Scandalon by Michael Card.
Verse 1 :
The seers and the prophets had foretold it long ago
That the long awaited one would make men stumble
But they were looking for a king to conquer and to kill
Who'd have ever thought He'd be so meek and humble


Chorus :
He will be the truth that will offend them one and all
A stone that makes men stumble
And a rock that makes them fall
Many will be broken so that He can make them whole
And many will be crushed and lose their own soul


Verse 2 :
Along the path of life there lies a stubborn Scandalon
And all who come this way must be offended
To some He is a barrier, To others He's the way
For all should know the scandal of believing


This verse is the one I wanted to talk about first. In many ways, it is truly a scandal to be a believer. We are labeled intolerant, closed-minded, even homophobic, by people who don't even know us. Now I do realize that there are a vocal few who really are that way, and they give the rest of us a bad name. BUT, how is considering all of us like them any better than how they stereotype "liberals" or "gays" or any other group?

Verse 3 :
It seems today the Scandalon offends no one at all
The image we present can be stepped over
Could it be that we are like the others long ago
Will we ever learn that all who come must stumble


Some people today (probably a lot... probably a whole lot more than will admit it... perhaps even ALL of us, to some degree) want to mold God into their own personal idea of Deity, instead of taking him as he is. They want to warp His Word, pretend things are acceptable to Him that really aren't, and make themselves feel "Holy" for the sins they are committing. They want to make God unoffensive to everyone. In the name of "tolerance" they water down the message and the gift. The image they present doesn't even have to be stepped over, it just melds into the road. Some of us already know we have to stumble... we realize we are all sinners, and we don't hold up our sin as a good thing.

I think the book of Revelation makes a good case for the second coming to be much less meek than the first. Then He will come as a King who conquers and kills. He will separate the sheep from the goats. He won't be quite so step-over-able then.

Monday, November 12, 2007

The Episcopal Church

Okay, I can almost... almost, mind you... understand the desire of the certain Bishops to reform where they are, rather than just do the honest thing and LEAVE a church they don't agree with to form their own where they can set all the rules the way they want them. Almost. Even though it's not just a matter of a few secondary rules, it's the actual CREED they don't agree with... basic, fundamental tenets of the church that they cannot even verbalize, much less say they believe. They are sworn to uphold these same tenets. They affirm in front of witnesses, and SIGN their name in front of witnesses, to defend these tenets. And yet, it's not dishonest and a breach of contract for them to deny them?

Beyond all this, for the rest of us who DO believe the creed and the tenets of the church and the Holy Scriptures, who are trying to leave the church (as a last resort, because they won't uphold the Scriptures and they won't leave to form a church where they don't have to), are being threatened, sued, convicted in "Episcopal Court" of all kinds of trumped up heinous charges. I have heard it compared to the Spanish Inquisition, though I sincerely can't see how something like that could happen in this day and age, especially in America. I absolutely cannot comprehend why they want to FORCE us to stay, when they so firmly believe we are intolerant and closed-minded and who knows what else.

If you and an acquaintance completely disagreed about something, and neither of you could possibly budge on your opinions, and they tried to walk away from the relationship... would you try to FORCE them to stay? Why would anyone want that?

I'll likely have more on this later, but right now I feel I'm too upset to be particularly coherent. If you managed to get to the end of it and don't think I'm making any sense, please feel free to ask for clarification, and I shall do my best to oblige.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Backtracking..

I've added a couple of older posts, that were originally posted on my livejournal page. Having multiple blogs is confusing me, I think o.O
Anyway, if you scroll down to July of '06, you'll see the two new old posts =P

And here's today's lovely tidbit of karma! :D

So, if you read those two blogs, you know what lovely bunch of folks I used to see at my doctor's office. I say used to, because we have now gotten settled into the new doctor's office that my kids' pediatrician recommended, and they are FANTASTIC. A little bit of a wait time sometimes, but nothing too horrid, and they are SO nice and helpful that it pretty much negates that.
Anyway... my husband had an appointment this morning, and the lady he saw asked "Didn't you guys come from Dr. Dube's office? Have you seen the news? They're under this huge investigation, one of their PA's was arrested for practicing medicine without a license".....

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

*ahem* Sorry.

Link to the news article I found online
I'll think I'll be snickering all morning, at least =P

Hubby found and linked another article about the fiasco, too.
This one was the day after the other article

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Welcome to the nuthouse, Dearest!

My husband finally fell into the blogging craze ;)
Check out his Moments of Clarity!

*hugs*
Welcome in, darling :)