Sunday, August 10, 2008

'Splain That To Me, Lucy!

Okay, I'll admit to being a little slow at catching on to Anglican political posturing, but as I understand it, the Anglican leaders at the Lambeth Conference agreed to moratoria on:

(A) Consecration of actively homosexual bishops and same-sex blessings;
(B) Incursions into the U.S. by foreign archbishops/primates.

Did I get that right? Because it strikes me as odd.

Here's an analogy that explains how I see it:

The Firemen and the Arsonists

In my analogy, bishops are like firemen. They are responsible for putting out the flames of heresy wherever they may appear. The primates (or, in the U.S., the Presiding Bishop) are the Fire Chiefs. But in The Episcopal church, way more than half of the firemen have given up on putting out the flames of heresy, and have gone over to the other side: they are now arsonists, setting congregations and dioceses alight with the flames of heresy. The Presiding Fire Chief herself is actively engaged in burning down the buildings of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason.

Some foreign firemen have noticed this, and have received calls from many in the U.S., whose houses of worship were ablaze with heresy, pleading with them: Please come help us put out these fires! Many of these foreign Fire Chiefs responded in the affirmative.

So, let me see if I've got this right ...

Lambeth has created some sort of moral equivalence between arson and the act of putting out a fire in someone else's jurisdiction?! That's the way it seems to me.

I guess my response, if I were one of the foreign Fire Chiefs would be: Okay, fine. You stop starting fires, and begin putting out the existing ones, and I'll stop coming over there to put them out.