Tuesday, June 20, 2006

The Silver Lining

As anticipated, the election of Bishop Schori as Presiding Bishop of the ECUSA has sent social conservatives into a frenzy of outraged bloviation...which begs the question, Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

After reading one fulminating fundamentalist compare female clergy in general to "trained monkeys" -- I've come to the conclusion that it's a good thing. Because the more assholic and hysterical the public reaction of these folks, the sillier they look. And they look pretty damned silly now.

So to the religious bigots out there I say: Keep talking. In fact, tell us what you think about EVERYTHING.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

assholic?! Now THAT is quite the word!

I always thought that the whole "women in church leadership roles" issue was totally finished. I thought we had turned our focus to the whole "queers in church leadership roles" issue. . .If we're not done with the women, then how frickin' frackin' long do we have to wait for the church to realize that not only women can lead, but queers can as well?!

net said...

Preach it, Sister!

Tom in Ontario said...

Sometimes I hear one of the fundagelicals start to sound intelligent and then they just say something or do something really stupid. How frustrating.

Weekend Fisher said...

Irony, irony, irony. What is the definition of a "religious bigot"?

RevHRod said...

I am fascinated by J's comment. We are totally not over the woman thing! If we were, women in the ELCA would not have such a tough time with second calls. If we were, there would be more women serving as senior pastors. If we were, people would quit asking me if my husband is also a pastor. (They never ask him if I am also in pest control!) If we were really over it, women would make the same amount of money as men do and we wouldn't have to explain the rules about maternity leave to call committees.

Whew! We're not over it. And we need to keep measuring our progress so that we can tell when we really are on equal footing. My guess is that a time may come when being a pastor is like being a nurse. "Oh, you know. He's a male pastor." With the loss of societal cachet and perceived power, pastoring may just be too touchy feely. ;-)

Anonymous said...

That's the ticket! The more they spew, the better we know what we are REALLY dealing with. Mwa ha ha.