Peace sermon risks gov't sanction for Episcopal church

This, as the French would say, is arrogance from the arrogance house. Rich, unctuous gourmet arrogance off the hottest burner on the kitchen stove in the most important room of the house of arrogance. A justice-minded Episcopal church has been threatened with losing its tax-exempt status(Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning, Chicago Tribune, today) because--get this--the pastor preached, right before the election, that Jesus would oppose war. What a subversive message, right? Look how those liberals twist the Gospel for their own ends! Jesus, who preached and lived peace, Who gave himself up to be killed, though he could have saved himself, because the integrity of his radical teachings inevitably called down capital sanction. Truly an inappropriately political message in a Christian church.

And the arrogance of targeting this innocent act by a peace-minded pastor. I mean, doesn't anyone remember how Bush's reelection campaign sought evangelical church directories to broaden their base?(Evangelicals Say They Led Charge for the GOP, Washington Post, Nov. 8, 2004.) Maybe Bush's detractors were too busy crawling into bed and sobbing when this article came out (check the date) to make the appropriate hue and cry. I hope, emboldened by the last year and a half--in which our president has abandoned America's poor to death by bombs, waves and deprivation--we will all find voice now to call out this latest outrage.


I have more conference updates coming, but had to get this out first.