Where is the love?
Today's SMH frontpage article carried a scandal which has erupted in the Anglican church.
A female doctor wrote a rude email to the rector of her church, and was ostracised as a result of it.
She's been taken off all roles at church, which has caused rampant gossip to spread through the church, including flavours of lesbianism and paedophilia. She is now suing the Anglican church for defamation.
The full article is
here.
Before I begin, I shall say that there are always two sides to a story. I base my next 300 or so words on purely on the SMH article, and thus I am no doubt uninformed of the full and extensive circumstances. I make note of this bias now. However, I think this article brings out a much larger problem
in general, which is not particular to this incident, but rife in all church communities (and that's the
real problem).
As with all issues in life, it is best to turn to the Bible to base one's opinion.
"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault,
just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over." Matthew 18:15
"Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him
gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted." Galatians 6:1
I believe that the church did not act biblically (ie. according to what God would have wanted), by taking her off ministerial roles without talking to her first.
All people are sinful, and we all make mistakes. Christianity is no stranger to this concept - but the church seems to forget that we all live under forgiveness, every single one of us a sinner forgiven by God. I think of the story that Jesus told about the man who had a debt of millions. It was graciously cancelled by the king, but then he turns around and beats up the guy who owned him a dollar. If we've indeed been forgiven of millions, let's not turn on the one who owes us a buck.
"Brothers,
do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it... There is only one Lawgiver and Judge... but you - who are you to judge your neighbour?" James 4:11-12
Gossip within the church makes me overwhelmingly sad. Christians are supposed to show people God's love, and yet we can be the most unloving people in the world. Rampant gossip shown here displays the ugliness of people, devastatingly deviant to what Jesus taught.
I say this not with superiority, because I am someone who has engaged/engages in gossip myself. It is wrong, and I am so ashamed of that. I struggle with keeping my mouth shut all the time. Seeing the tragic consequences of gossip played out on the city's frontpage news is a starking reminder of the potency of the poisonous tongue.
I could say more, particularly in reference to what God says about lawsuits in 1 Corinthians 6. But I'll just end this post off with another passage instead -
"If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely.
The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him.
Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him." 2 Corinthians 2:5-8
I have a good mind to write to the lady in question to reaffirm my love, as a fellow Christian, to her.
So she screwed up. We all do sometimes. Let's just continue to love her and forgive her and embrace her in. Church doesn't have to be this ugly. It was never supposed to be this ugly.
Skin.
We all have skin -
Dark skin, fair skin,
Smooth skin, wrinkled skin.
Our skin keeps out the unkind weather -
It shields us from the harsh glare of sunlight;
Raindrops glide easily off our bodies.
Our skin keeps us in -
It delineates us from the external world,
A demarcation of physical space.
Our skin hides our flesh -
It conceals the gore of blood and sinew
And clothes us in a garment of inoffensiveness.
We all have skin -
Thick skin, thin skin,
Tough skin, fragile skin.
My skin keeps out unkindness -
She shields me from the harsh glare of judgement,
Enabling criticisms to glide off my esteem.
My skin keeps me in -
She disentangles me from the intrusions of others,
And guards the sanctuary of emotional space.
She also hides my soul -
She conceals my worst thoughts and fears,
And tucks me into a gown of inoffensiveness.
What happens when a victim burns?
When skin evaporates in the heat of conflict,
Precious armour now melting at one's feet.
Pain sears more than heat could ever accomplish
Outwitted only by a pounding fear.
You shake and whimper
From the blinding agony or blinding shame
In stark exposure,
Muted and maimed.
In the absence of skin
You are left
Raw.
Perfect.
ANTONIO.
In faith, she's too curst.
BEATRICE.
Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God's sending that way;
for it is said, 'God sends a curst cow short horns;' but to a cow too
curst he sends none.
LEONATO.
So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns?
BEATRICE.
Just, if he send me no husband; for the which blessing I am at him
upon my knees every morning and evening. Lord! I could not endure a
husband with a beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen.
LEONATO. You may light on a husband that hath no beard.BEATRICE.
What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel and make him my
waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and
he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a
youth is not for me; and he that is less than a man, I am not for him:
therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bear-ward, and
lead his apes into hell.
LEONATO.
Well then, go you into hell?
BEATRICE. No; but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say, 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here's no place for you maids: 'so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.Last night was perfect. So divinely perfect. I definitely want to do that again.Still, it'll never replicate last night - things never are the same the second time around.I'm still swooning... =)
Surely there's more I can do than just sigh...
My heart aches.
It's a shame that colloquial overuse has vacuumed so much out of these three words, because they do encompass all that I feel now. You know, that feeling when the only thing that you can do to relieve the heaviness sitting square on your chest is to take a deep breath in and sigh.
The foolishness of it all is that nothing even happened. I just sat down and watched a documentary, and now I feel so sad.
Blogs are good for this reason because it is a rare medium in which I can say things that I normally don't convey to other people. Serious issues make for awkward conversation in a society with an affinity for only polite conversation about meaningless things like the weather and reality TV.
Ha, the irony. The documentary I just watched,
that was reality TV.
I hate it how I am so affected by documentaries and newspaper articles. They stay with me for days and days and days. I could already hear how melodramatic that sounded as I typed it - "I saw this documentary and it made me so sad!" Sounds trite and empty and so very blonde.
But oh how sick I feel. The cruel, cruel juxtaposition. Watching a doco about destitute Indian children living in red light districts of Calcutta (and their looming fate into the abyss of prostitution and drug trafficking), then flipping through the SMH's Sydney Magazine. People who spend four figures on a pair of speakers and seven for a run down terrace. People who spend more on cocktails in one night than an Indian child sees in a year.
Blah. People moan about the injustice of the world all the time. Socialist greenies who don't shave their armpits and nag people to join Greenpeace and eat lentils and tofu. We roll our eyes and walk on by.
But hell, as I live and breathe now, the children live and breathe too. What will become of them? What is there that I can do to change this somehow?
What can I
do?
