Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Episcopalians In Need of Pastoral Care Following the Kavanaugh Hearings

The Justice Kavanaugh confirmation hearings took up a lot of the media's attention for the past  several weeks. The reaction from Episcopalians has been predictable. The national organization of Episcopalians whined that Kavanaugh's name be withdrawn before all of the facts were in, presuming guilt in order to claim a righteous stand against a nominee who they were vehemently opposed to anyway because of their fear that he might swing the court to restrict abortions. 

We heard about this via an e-mail from the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina last week,
By David PaulsenPosted Oct 4, 2018[Episcopal News Service] 
"Episcopal leaders, congregations offer pastoral responses in wake of Kavanaugh hearings  
With Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court potentially on track for a final vote in the Senate as soon as this weekend, some Episcopal leaders are adding their voices to the ecumenical response to Kavanaugh’s hearings and the sexual assault allegations against the judge.
The National Council of Churches, of which the Episcopal Church is a member, issued a statement Oct. 3 calling on President Donald Trump to withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination because of his testimony during the hearings and his judicial record.
'Judge Kavanaugh exhibited extreme partisan bias and disrespect towards certain members of the committee and thereby demonstrated that he possesses neither the temperament nor the character essential for a member of the highest court in our nation,' the Council of Churches said."
These so called "churches" are really not interested in the judge's demeanor, it is all about abortion, abortion, abortion.

Nobody needs pastoral care, especially from Episcopal false teachers.

Apparently, some of the few remaining conservative Episcopalians who actually read these missals from Bishop Waldo's communications team were upset enough to let him hear about it. The Bishop was forced to apologize because of these "few" who spoke up. He issued the following letter yesterday,

9 October 2018
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
This past weekend, we sent out our usual EDUSC News email update. As always, our goal with this update is to share news from across the diocese and the larger Church. We make no political endorsements or condemnations, of persons or parties.
In our weekend edition of the EDUSC News, we included a report from the Episcopal News Service about Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. The article led off with a summary of a statement by the National Council of Churches, of which The Episcopal Church is a member. We felt the statement was newsworthy regarding the larger Church, meriting its inclusion.
However, the majority of the article focused on various ways that dioceses and parishes across the country have responded to victims of sexual assault. The article highlighted the difficult but necessary work done by those gathered at General Convention this summer, listening to stories of those who have been victimized by others in the Church.
A few took exception to the inclusion of this Episcopal News Service report, to the extent that it is worth addressing with the whole Diocese.
These past few weeks, our national conversation about sexual assault took a new turn, bringing us into further difficult and consequential considerations. Women and men who are victims of sexual violence experience unspeakable trauma with often lifelong consequences. We must pray for all who suffer, including Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and her family. We must also pray for those who are accused, even falsely, for they suffer consequences as well. So, in this moment, we pray also for Justice Kavanaugh and his family.
It is difficult to deny that we as a nation seem to be living on the edge of a knife. Any number of subjects and events create opportunities for us to feel anger and bitterness toward one another and to give up on our relationships with each other within the Body of Christ. Ephesians tells us to approach one another “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” This is our call especially in the midst of conflict, a call to which the apostle Paul repeatedly called the earliest Christian communities.
When it comes to claims of sexual abuse in our institutions, our diocesan policy – and indeed the practice of The Episcopal Church – is to hold everyone affected in prayer. This ENS article failed to do that. We must take accusations seriously, and we must respect the dignity of all people; those who have suffered sexual assault and those who have been accused.
Therefore, when we are on the edge of a knife that seeks to cut us apart from one another, we, as the Church, must find a way back to each other. We must find ways to be open and honest with one another. We must listen before we judge.
I take every accusation of sexual violence seriously. I also seek to respond pastorally to all involved, both the accuser and the accused, and their families. I invite each of you to do the same.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Andrew WaldoBishop, Diocese of Upper South Carolina
I am still waiting for Bishop Waldo to apologize for sending a large chunk of these conservative Episcopalian's money to the National organization each year, money that goes to support heresy and of course abortion, abortion, abortion.

If conservatives were as mean and hateful as those acting up against everything Republican these days, pastoral care would be needed. Imagine hateful people hounding their bishops and their families, interrupting their meals at restaurants with chants of "Baby killer" or "Heretic". Imagine them planting thousands of tiny crosses in front of those bishops' cathedrals. Imagine them having die-ins in front of those bishops' cars preventing them from driving home. Imagine confronting them as they enter General Conventions or at their hotels during the convention.

Just imagine, because it won't happen.

We know how to behave, and besides, the S.S. Episcopal is sinking anyway, and we don't need to waste any more torpedoes on her.


4 comments:

  1. The entire spectacle was appalling, and this "religious" statement against Kavanaugh was appalling. So, when Sen Harris put that preposterous letter about gang rape into the official hearing record, Kavanaugh was supposed to just shut up, as Sen. Hirono said? The innocent accused of vile crimes are entitled to defend themselves and their reputations. If TEC doesn't think so, it's just another sign that their primary sacrament is becoming abortion.

    And Kavanaugh wasn't, when he was nominated, the most hard-core conservative Trump could have named! He's a center-right conservative, by all accounts. The opposition party has simply lost its collective mind.

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  2. As Bishop Waldo writes, "Therefore, when we are on the edge of a knife that seeks to cut us apart from one another, we, as the Church, must find a way back to each other." But who is wielding that knife my good Bishop?

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  3. TEC has been in the business of defining one side of any public policy issue as "Christian" and the other side as bad. The fact that many of its parishioners might have different ideas hasn't bothered them. The bishops and GC delegates have been wielding that knife for decades, and then they pretend to be aggrieved when people leave.

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  4. This was the Clarence Thomas hearings 2.0.

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