Mark 5:24-34
So, there are a bunch of people around Jesus, lots of them touch him. One gets healed. Faith.

I didn't actually think about this today. It was posted to a list I subscribe to. Worth thinking about, though.

"If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
--Desmond Tutu

Well, mainly I've just been mad lately. And I'll tell you what I think about that. I can think of no more reasonable, no more Christlike response, than anger. In fact, to borrow from a now-famous bumper sticker, "If You're Not Mad, You're Not Paying Attention."

I am not mad about very many things. Most things I attribute to stupidity and it's not practical or even wise to be mad at the stupid. People who voted for Amendment 2 in Texas, just as an example. They are stupid. I'm not mad at them.

But, a diocese where people are treated badly and you can get kicked out of church is not stupid. It's mean. I am mad about that. Steaming mad.

Mainly I am mad because of the way I have been treated. But, I have to wonder how many lonely Christians there are in this diocese who were kicked out and have no place to go. How many others were run off by mean priests, left outside the flock, trying to figure a way to get the sacrament? That makes me boiling mad, which is one step up from steaming.

And the thing that makes me fiery hot mad to the point of boiling over? Bishops who should know better and yet allow their sheep to languish under the care of inept and stupid under shepherds. Bishops who are willing to take a Baptist, throw a chasuble over him, and call him an Episcopal priest. Ordination being sold for celibacy. Promotion of the heresy that there is a wide gulf between those in HOLY orders and the rest of us who are supposed to take orders. Laity being treated like children instead of children of God. Priests who want to be called Father even though they behave more like donkeys. Being able to become an Episcopalian by watching a video. A "Mission" to avoid controversy, and the poor, at all costs. Yes, I am mad... White, hot, roaring, calling bears down out of the mountains to eat you, mad.

I am mad at the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. I am mad at every priest and deacon and archdeacon and rector and arch rector and bishop of every variety. Whatever your little title, I am mad at you. I am mad that you have a church and I do not. And I am mad that you are running it into the ground.