I was initially turned off today by Mary Cat going into the "Da Vinci Code" mythology. I was not sure if she was spreading the Gospel according to Dan Brown or not. Today is the Sunday on the Church calender that we remember Mary Magdalene. I think we could have stuck with what the authorized Bible has to say about Mary. One can always look to the web to find Mary revisionism. In fact http://www.futurechurch.org/marym/index.htm seems to have formed the basis of today's sermon (in case you were among the throngs absent). The fact that in today's Gospel, Mary is sent to tell the twelve of Christ not yet ascended should have provided plenty of material for a sermon on feminine leadership. As far as I know, Athanasius left the gnostic gospel of Mary out of what we in the pews should be taught, but he is currently portrayed as a bad man, who deprived us of early Christian thought. No matter, now that the gnostic gospels are on-line (http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm ) we may someday see their return to the pages of "The New American Revolutionary Bible" (don't even try to Google that) and we can hear about them every Sunday (The top reason for being Episcopalian).
If we had to listen to the Gospel according to Dan this week, next week I would like to hear more on the Geneaology of American Liberal-Progressive Gnosticism http://www.thomasbrewton.com/index.php/weblog/the_genealogy_of_american_liberal_progressive_gnosticism/ I doubt we will hear that one!
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ReplyDeleteWHEW!!! For a minute there, I thought I'd really missed some interesting points in the sermon.
ReplyDeleteAs to today's sermon, I was disappointed by the fact that the EDS indoctrination is finally peeping through. I had hopes that wouldn't happen.
ReplyDeleteEDS Professor Isabel Carter Heyward, Harvard Professor Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza and Mary Grey in Europe, among others, have sought to create a paradigm shift in feminist cristological discourse through constant deconstruction of traditional biblical texts. This morning we heard a facile approach to an otherwise extraordinarily complex theological position wherein the alleged "historical (read 'male') oppression of women" transcends Scripture, tradition and even reason. I suppose this should come as no surprise, given the path EDS (and TEC) have chosen. I'm reminded (unfortunately) of that very famous quote from Isabel Carter Heyward: "I have a really hard time with the Nicene Creed as a statement of my personal faith." Our future clergy are entrusted to these people for teaching, nurturing and molding and, instead, they are being led down the path to perdition and apostasy.
Will the seminary's (i.e. Sewanee's) leadership keep sliding to the left as well? Will they see their falling revenues as an indicator of taking the wrong path. They will probably be glad to be rid of the curmudgens (Alumni). Perhaps the seminaries boards will reason that when alumni donations are down, the solution must be to "raise taxes" (tuition). Maybe they can seek Federal "Faith Based Initiative" dollars. Or maybe they will hire a professional fundraiser to conduct a survey. I think they need a retired professor of Economics to give them a lecture on Econ 101.
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