Wanker/s Of The Day
by pastordan
Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 08:03:15 PM PDT
First Congregational Church of Marshfield:
A speech by a visiting clergyman has prompted a bid by members of the First Congregational Church of Marshfield to formally break ties with the national United Church of Christ.
The minister of the 375-year-old Green Harbor church said some members of the congregation found a church official’s Nov. 4 sermon on global warming and other hot-button issues more political than spiritual, prompting a proposal to disaffiliate from the denomination.
Church members will meet Sunday at 11 a.m. to discuss and possibly vote on whether to sever ties with the United Church of Christ, the Rev. Jim Howard said.
The Rev. Howard said some of the 200 members of his congregation have taken issue with some the United Church of Christ’s viewpoints during his nearly three years in Marshfield.
But he said Sunday’s meeting is prompted by a Nov. 4 sermon by the president of the denomination’s Massachusetts Conference, the Rev. Jim Antal, at the church’s 375th anniversary celebration.
Among other topics, the Rev. Howard said, the Rev. Antal spoke of ‘‘stewardship of the Earth and his passion and concern for dealing with global warming.’’
‘‘A number of people in the congregation felt that that was inappropriate for our anniversary Sunday,’’ the Rev. Howard said. ‘‘That it was a political topic where there should’ve been a spiritual focus.’’
Okay, so it sucks when the "bishop" comes and his sermon is a dud. Did they make clear what they were looking for? And how shallow does your faith have to be to threaten to sever denominational ties in the freaking newspaper, over one lousy sermon? Put on your whole freaking armor of God, march a delegation down to the conference office, and read Rev. Antal the riot act. That's the Christian thing to do.
But you'll notice that I've made this either a singular or a plural entry. Where the hell is Rev. Howard in all this? He sounds likes he's trying to be a neutral arbiter, but there's not much middle ground in these things. If he's fulfilling his duty to the denomination, he'd tell the congregation that he'd walk if they left. He'd certainly tell them that they were being WATB's who needed to get off the spiritual milk and onto some theological solid food. He'd certainly not pose for a picture for the paper or give them enough patient quotes to file a story. What gives?
(Via this guy, who's old enough to know better, I'm sure.)
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