DEFCON 4: Dupes and Lackeys, Spies and Saboteurs

The Reformed Pastor presents an interesting subject in his post "More on the Communist Episcopalian." It all stems from this strange announcement from the Communist Party USA

"The Communist Party USA has established a new Religion Commission to strengthen its work among religious people and organizations. In its leadership are activists representing various religious traditions from around the country. Tim Yeager, a Chicago trade unionist and a member of the Episcopal Church, serves as its chair.

'We want to reach out to religious people and communities, to find ways of improving our coalition work with them, and to welcome people of faith into the party,' Yeager said. 'We invite questions and responses from people who would like to dialogue with us on matters pertaining to religion, Marxism and the struggle for more peaceful, just and secure world.'

'There is a common misconception concerning the position of the Communist Party USA about religion,' Yeager noted. Many who are unfamiliar with the party wrongly assume that all Communists are atheists, or that the party requires its members to be atheists. 'Nothing could be farther from the truth,' he said. 'Religious people are welcome to join.'"

Sounds like Episcobabble to me (translation: "All that communist fundamentalism was bad. Look what happened, Mao is dead, Lenin lays quietly pickled in the Kremlin wall, and who reads Marx literally anymore.")

The Reformed Pastor tracked down a bio on Mr. Yeager from an outfit called the Episcopal Peace Fellowship where he claims,

"Mr. Tim Yeager (Prov. 5) is a member of Grace Church in Oak Park, Illinois, where he serves as assistant organist. Tim is the Chair of the Peace & Justice Committee of the Diocese of Chicago. He is the Financial Secretary/Treasurer of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, UAW Local Union 2320, which represents nearly 4,000 lawyers, support staff, social workers and other employees working in legal and human services agencies across the country. Tim has served one three-year term on the NEC where he has been a member of the human resources committee and an EPF representative to the Consultation. He is concerned that the Church finds and uses its prophetic voice to advocate for a more just and peaceful socioeconomic order, and feels that there has never been a greater need for all people of good will to join together in the struggle against poverty, violence and fear."

Hero of the Revolution! Saving those oppressed lawyers.

What is going on here? Is Mr. Yeager a Christian trying to change the communist party, an imperialist saboteur? Or is he a communist trying to change Christianity by infiltrating its weakest link? Perhaps he is just another misguided universalist Episcopalian hoping to change the world and is being used by the communists to take more dollars from the unsuspecting capitalists.

I also wonder what the communist party is up to in creating this "Religion Commission." It certainly can't be planning to spread the Gospel of Christ.

Take one guess who will win the inevitable showdown between the old Marxists and Leninists and these new thang God talkers at the next party congress.

I don't mind having communists at the communion rail, as long as they have been baptized, confirmed, and say their/our confession, but if they do that, are they really communists? I suspect not, and I would pray they are not doomed to be condemned to some future gulag by their puppet masters.

This story spurred me to compose,

"An Episcommist Manifesto."

We are an “inclusive Church.” We welcome the enemies of religion. We are not only “inclusive,” we are “accepting” as well. We do not want to offend anyone, especially someone who volunteers for committee work. We will not challenge them in their beliefs. We will not ask them to give up their earthly passions and follow the wandering rabbi (whose name we shall not mention in front of them). We will be ready to hear how the Spirit speaks through their voices. We shall affirm their prophetic messages.

Carnival 1 : Lent 0

The following letter came via snail mail the other day, and I have carefully transcribed it as I believe it means something, but I need help in figuring it out. Some background information may be helpful. For the past several years ECOOS would have a weekly gathering during Lent on a weeknight such as every Wednesday or Thursday during which various educational or devotional programs would be put on by the rector. A simple meal would be provided by one or more of the parishioners. Attendance would usually start out with 10-12 persons and would decrease each week as the weather improved and Easter neared.

"February 19, 2009

Dear Members and Friends of the Church of Our Saviour,
Since I have come to Our Saviour, I have seen that many traditional Lenten practices of the Church of my youth have changed. Fewer people take upon themselves a Lenten fast or attend mid-week services and meals. Fewer people attend Holy Week observances. I, personally, believe that these changes have been consequences of the facts that 1) so many women have entered the workforce, and that two-worker families just don't have the amount of time to spend on anything that they used to when women, by and large, stayed home; and 2) young people are far busier in after-school and job opportunities than ever before.

Those developments are not going to change anytime soon, so I have come to accept the loss of traditional Lenten activities as a fact of life in the contemporary Episcopal Church and in our parish. That does not mean, however, that I believe any less in the worth of observing what the Church calls a 'holy Lent.' What it means is that we have to do it in perhaps different ways, with less busyness and more intentionality.

First and foremost, what we do as Christians in the Catholic tradition is to worship at God's altar every Sunday. Therefore, more than any other discipline, I bid all of you to keep holy the Lord's Day and attend the divine liturgy. If you have become slack in your worship duties, Lent is the set time to practice in your life what you say with your lips.

With this letter you will find a sheet with all of the major events of Lent and Holy Week that we have planned. You will also find a purple copy of a new rite that the clergy of our Catawba Convocation have come up with in order to respond to the pressing economic woes of our community, state, country, and world. We have many resources in the Book of Common Prayer to address such a condition in the world, and that is where this rite has come from.

We shall pray this short prayer service each Wednesday in Lent after Ash Wednesday, at noon in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. It is intended to give folks time and space in which to pray for those who are unemployed or fearful of losing their jobs, those who have to do the unpleasant task of firing people, those who have lost income or security, those who are fearful of losing their job, those who have friends or family suffering during this deep recession, or those who wish to pray for our elected leaders as they seek to serve their various constituencies. The form is enclosed so that even if you cannot attend the service on Wednesdays, you can use it elsewhere at work or at home, with others, with your family, or by yourself."

My initial impression was that, for the game of Lent, score one for culture (carnival), nil for the Church (Lent). Later, I wondered if it was the team that dropped the ball, was it the fans, the cheerleaders, was it the coaching staff, was it the owner, or was it the League Commissioner?

The most depressing thought I had was that maybe the game just can't compete with the distractions of the world anymore.

Pieter Bruegel's "The Fight between Carnival and Lent," 1559

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes (Turn and Face the Strange)

This Sunday's sermon was presented by the Rev. Mary Cat Enockson who had Jonah 3:1-5, 10 along with 1 Corinthians 7:27-31, and Mark 1:14-20 as scripture readings for today.

Her initial description of Jonah's difficulty changed the story a little. Her version, unlike the section read during the service, suggested that Jonah also presented a message for the people of Nineveh to repent, but what we read was

"‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’"

To me, Mary Cat's version fails to reveal the embarrassment of Jonah when God changes his mind and spares the city. In addition, the lectionary curiously omits verses 6-9 where the King gets credit,

" When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’ "

I love that "Who knows?" in the new translation, but I would like to point out the KJV of verses 9-10:

3:9 Who can tell [if] God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did [it] not.

The new translation helps with the tricky questions of God repenting and of God doing evil.

While the sermon focused on Jonah, we ignored a question that I have regarding this business about God changing His mind. I have often wondered if this might be an argument against "Predestination." It certainly is an argument for intercessory prayer.

Also by focusing on Jonah, her deviation into the gospel of social change during the latter part of the sermon was weak.

I agree that Christ changes lives, and can change society, but there is more to it than that. I disagree that resurrection is the transformation of us into a mere instrument of social change. What about the transformation from a mere mortal into someone who, through Christ, is given eternal life? Did we hear about salvation today? No.

The scriptures from today made me think that the changes we get from becoming Christians are not always what we expect. If the 1 Corinthians passage meant that the people of that day were preparing for the end of the world, then they got it wrong and we got something different ("Thy will be done") or maybe God "changed His mind."

Likewise, what were those simple fishermen thinking when their lives changed at the Sea of Galilee in Mark 1:14-20? They did not know that they would later be witnesses to a real Resurrection. Nor could they know at the time of the promise of eternal life. They were changed, over time, into people who could spread the Gospel of Christ resurrected, the message that saves souls, and yes, changes society.

Changes
David Bowie




(Note there has been controversy over one word in this song so I included some alternative interpretations, I believe Mr. Bowie wanted his band to sing "strange" and many of us believe they do.)

"I still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
Every time I thought I'd got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I've never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I'm much too fast to take that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange/strain/straight)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange/strain/straight)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence and
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange/strain/straight)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't tell t hem to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange/strain/straight)
Ch-ch-Changes
Where's your shame
You've left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can't trace time

Strange fascination, fascinating me
Changes are taking the pace I'm going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange/strain/straight)
Ch-ch-Changes
Oh, look out you rock 'n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strange/strain/straight)
Ch-ch-Changes
Pretty soon you're gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time "