Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Fuzzy Minded Men of the Cloth Alert!
(Via Susanna at Cut on the Bias) The MinuteMan says I Am Going Straight to Hell:
There's a silver lining - it should mean a break from the cold weather.

Let me get started. Last Sunday the minister at our church devoted the sermon to war and peace. Now, on the one hand, this takes a bit of courage, since we are an Episcopal congregation in the heart of "Country Club Republican" Connecticut. On the other hand, the crowd does not generally jump ugly: last year we had an Anglican Bishop visit us just a few months after 9/11, and a few weeks after we had completed the last of the memorial services at this church for the local dead. The Bishop's message, which provoked a bit of rustling in the congregation, was that 9/11 might reasonably be interpreted as a warning from a God angered by our indifference to third world poverty. I kid you not. And although a number of people (yes, I among them) took a few moments after the service to tell the Bishop what we really thought, there was no tarring and feathering, and few raised voices.

So, I know where the bar is set for this sort of sermon. But I sat through it, and the minister was kind enough to e-mail me a copy of it, which I post below. With just a little bit of commentary. But "Fisking" a sermon? I'll be damned.
Is checking your brains at the door a prerequisite for studying theology these days? As for dealing with the bishop, when someone barfs in your lap, maybe it's a sign that God wants you to move.