Tea Party and the Schismatics

I was relieved to see the numbers that attended the Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear in Washington DC yesterday. To know that maybe, just maybe, there really are more people who recognize the lunacy and the anger coming from the right for exactly that gives me hope.

As I thought about the people who identify with this Tea Party movement, I considered that many of the same people... or at least the same mindset... are among those who force schisms within mainline denominations such as the Episcopal Church. The average Jane and Joe Schmo who have followed a leader out of TEC have been told that we are "unorthodox". They leave not in love, but in anger and bitterness. In this country, the Schmo family has been fed lies about what we believe about Christ and the Christ mythology, claiming that we don't recognize his birth, life, death, resurrection and/or ascension. And, much like the Tea Party making a demon out of our African-American President and female House Speaker, the schismatics have rallied the Schmo family to their cause by making the inclusion of LGBT people... especially +Gene Robinson and +Mary Glasspool... reason to be afraid. Very, very afraid.

Fear has become a useful recruiting tool for those who wish to tear apart people who once stood together. And, unbeknownst to the poor Schmo family, they are drinking from a cup of Kool-Aid and not one of salvation.

The Tea Partiers are being manipulated by Republican Party operatives such as Karl Rove who know how to play upon people's insecurities and prejudices, convincing them to vote against their own self-interests. The Schismatics are being manipulated by leaders in the Southern Cone who see their numbers rising, and want to be the moral and spiritual bullies with the absolute authority within the Anglican Communion. In both cases, the puppeteers have no interest in reason or dialogue with anyone. And as long as they can keep serving up the Kool-Aid, they'll have a group of obedient hopped-up followers who will keep them in charge.

Sadly, in the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury has reasoned that the way you keep everyone in dialogue is by whacking them on the knuckles, or placing duct tape over their mouths. Too many opinions, and too many voices seem a bother. The Church of England will be facing a vote in the General Synod on November 24th as to whether it will adopt a new contract... I'm sorry, covenant... to supposedly hold the Anglican Communion together. The problem with the proposed Anglican Covenant is that it will put a centralized authority in charge of deciding who's being naughty or nice, and basically any other part of the Communion can veto what happens in another province. So, if a member such as the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Church of Canada should decide that gay people, having been baptized, might also be called to the priesthood... or might just being called to marry their same-sex love... and decides to respond to that by honoring and witnessing that call... the Church in Africa or Asia who disagree will now be able to nix that provincial decision. Instead of allowing the churches to struggle and disagree and dialogue, an outside authority will tell the covenanted members what they can and can not do.

That sounds more Roman than Anglican to me.