I'm Going To Miss You, Louie.

(But not yet. Updates below)

I haven’t posted on the Current Unpleasantness in The Episcopal Church™ in a while because, well, I wanted to enjoy my Christmas without having to wade through all of the sanctimonious moral relativism from the folks who keep trying to shove their “prophetic gift” down my throat. It’s the holidays. Please. So for several weeks I have been happily deleting posts from The House of Bishops and Deputies Listserv as fast as they hit my email inbox, and feeling great about it. I was planning on unsubscribing this week when an entertaining firestorm of posts broke out over this little phrase:

Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin.

Most Christians, myself included, would give you a “well, yeah." We separate the sinner, our neighbor who was made by God, from their sinful actions, which are governed by mortal influences and desires. We must love our neighbor and ask for forgiveness for their sinful actions, just as we must ask for forgiveness for our own sinful actions. We are all sinners. But we must be honest about what actions are sinful and fall short of the teachings and Glory of God. Honest with ourselves; and honest with others. That is a high calling with high standards, which has great reward (like, eternity). To me, and to many (I’d say most) Christians, that little phrase encapsulates the essence of Christian Love toward one another.

Unless you’re a Lefty Episcopalian. To the majority of the thinkers and leaders at The House of Bishops and Deputies Listserv, the very phrase “love the sinner; hate the sin” sends them into a lather. It is a “ cop-out”. It's "crap." It’s soooo Ozzie and Harriet. It is “judgmental” and it “demonizes”. At best, it is ignorance; at worst, it is outright homophobic bigotry and hate. In their line of reasoning sin and sinners are inseparable, so if one must love the sinner, one must love the sin. And besides, Christ never uttered that specific phrase, and who are we to judge, anyway? Since the Laws were fulfilled/wiped away by Christ’s Great Commandment, the only the Sin nowadays is “broken relationships”. And all who disagree are just taking the Bible too literally and without “context”, which only the illiterate, the paranoid, and the bigoted do these days. QED.

But why all the fuss over this phrase? Simple. Since “love the sinner; hate the sin” is a commonly held theological belief among most Christians, including most Episcopalians, the Lefty leadership of the The Episcopal Church™ are hell-bent (literally, IMHO) to change that belief. It directly flies in the face of the “prophetic gift” they insist we all accept, which requires ignoring Scripture and 2,000 years of Christian teaching, and celebrating what was once sinful behavior as not sinful anymore. Most Christians, including many Episcopalians, are not willing to do that. But to the Lefties now in control of the The Episcopal Church™, advancing their “prophetic gift” is, in the end, all that matters - and they really bristle when that agenda gets challenged. Even by a little phrase. They haven’t worked for 30-plus years advancing it to be questioned now.

Once this theological hissy-fit plays itself out I will likely unsubscribe from this Listserv. But it is, in an ironic way, entertaining to watch those who claim to champion diversity, tolerance, and understanding, being so singularly rigid, hostile, condescending, and absolutist. I have little in common theologically with the majority of those who post on the Listserv, and their posts just clog up my inbox anymore. I will, however, continue to pray for you Louie, Elizabeth, Tom, Nigel, Liv, Susan, Dan, Mark and the others, and I ask you do the same for me.

UPDATE: Now they are saying that "love the sinner, hate the sin", is only used to demonize gay and lesbians and keep them out of the church. Really? I first heard the phrase in Sunday School when I was, oh, about 7. That would be 1966. Before the Gay Rights movement started. Note to Boomers: not everything is about you, you know.

UPDATE: This thread over at the HOB/D never ends! What fun! Goodwin's Law has been achieved already, now someone introduced poetry into the mix. Ugh. What is it with Lefties and poetry? Does rhyming make for a more substantive argument or something?

UPDATE: Oops. Someone just said that anyone who does not agree with the Lefty agenda is a "homophobe", and deserves to be called that. Some of the nicer Lefties even called foul on that. So I think a new rule is in order, which I'll call, for lack of a better name, "Clifford's Rule":
"As an online discussion about The Episcopal Church grows longer, the probability of an accusation of theft, bigotry, or homophobia approaches one."

UPDATE: Throw "heresy" into the terms for "Clifford's Rule". The mud-slinging isn't all one sided, you know.

UPDATE: (Revised. I read the last post wrong) Five days on and the thread is still alive! The name calling calling has subsided, and they're mostly trading recipes. Really. Someone is trying to have the last word and saying that even if the "prophetic gift" is wrong, is it a sin to be wrong? Hmmm. I say, stick to recipes.

UPDATE: Calling Phil Ochs... The "anyone who doesn't agree with me is a homophobe" poster is back, and saying Jesus didn't seperate sinners from others, so we shouldn't either; except when it comes to "homophobes" - The Episcopal Church would be a lot better off if all the "homophobes" were gone. How logical. How Christian. But even some of her "allies" are saying that is going a little too far.