Friday, February 15, 2008

Steve on the Anglicans

Getting tired of this, David? Me too.

How I wish (and all Anglicans wish) we could just live and let live. Move on, let it go.

Up until Michael Ingham started this whole thing, that's exactly what Anglicans were doing. No Anglican was, say, walking into a United church and shutting it down because they were performing gay marriages. No gays were turned away at the door of any church. No one was protesting. There weren't even any pamphlets. Peaceful coexistence was the watchword.

But then Ingham decides, against church history and authority, that when it comes to a conflict between his opinions and church authority and even the Bible, he's right and everyone else is wrong. The whole church district must start performing a ritual against their will. Arrogant? You bet.

And he brought down the fight. He started bullyboy tactics. And most Anglican churches bowed under, but a few said, no, we should have the right to believe what the church has always believed, and not be forced by some middle-management clergy to believe something else.

And Ingham threatened, and bullied, and waged war in the media.Whatever. He can say what he likes. But then all the peace-loving, community-supporting, faithful Anglicans catch the blame, and are painted as being intolerant. When, by any standard, the intolerant, bullying one is Ingham.

1 comment:

nachtwache said...

You surprised me with this post. I agree. I didn't think that you'd see it this way. Live and let live, sometimes that's what needs to be done, because we don't all agree.
It's possible to 'agree to disagree' without getting nasty.