By James Wilson
I have written about bullying in this space
many times – from citing a right of self defense for school students to
exhorting the people to stand up to government bullies by non-cooperation on
the one hand and advancing a positive alternative on the other. But governmental tyrants and depraved
individuals are not the only bullies on the landscape. There are corporate bullies out there, and
some of them can operate only with the subsidy of the courts. Take – for example – the Episcopal Church.
When
the Church began ordaining practicing homosexual people to the office of priest
and bishop in 2003 hundreds of congregations and many thousands of people saw
this as the last slide in an escalating cascade of defiance of the Word of God
– the Bible – which is the intellectual foundation stone of any Christian
Body. These communities allied
themselves with other legitimate jurisdictions within the worldwide Anglican
Communion and sought to go their way, worshipping God as they understood Him
and seeking no harm to anyone. But the
Episcopal Church – like an Egyptian Pharoah before them – would not let these
people go.
They
invoked a canon – a fancy term for church law – known as the Dennis Canon. This rule was adopted in 1979 and declares
every congregation holds its property in trust for the diocese to which it
belongs. (A diocese would be the church
equivalent of a state among states.)
Using this canon as authority the Episcopal Church took church after
church to court, demanding surrender of their property to their dioceses, and
funding each diocese as it brought the lawsuits. The Dennis Canon claims authority
retroactively, a stunt that would not pass constitutional muster – there is
that pesky “full faith and credit clause” – if it were a dog house at
stake. Churches that purchased their
property decades before the diocese existed – let alone the Dennis Canon – and
all the rest who spent their own money and bought property prior to 1979 were
all sued and many lost in courts that refused to make judgment on so-called
neutral principles of law. They reduced
the issues to a contest between siding with the establishment or the émigrés –
based on which party the judge liked best.
Most of the time the establishment won.
The
Episcopal Church summarily stripped departing priests and deacons of
ecclesiastical credentials on the nonsensical charge of “abandoning the
communion.” There is such a basis for
this stripping, but it applies only to clergy who leave the Anglican Communion;
in nearly every case these clergy simply transferred to another branch of the
Communion, a routine administrative function.
The good news is
that few of the clergy stopped performing their duties, but the action of
deposition was every bit as much a bit of corporate bullying as the half dozen
or so bishops who forbade me to read a protest at the consecration of one of
their apostate buddies despite the rules and regs that clearly gave me the
right and even the responsibility to do so.
They said my two minute statement was “too long” despite the fact one
could only search in vain for a “too long” rule and even though one of their
bishop buddies spoke three times as long while protesting another consecration
of which this gang did not approve.
A
half dozen priests in the Connecticut diocese were summoned to New York City
where national church authorities demanded they recant their public statements
of resistance to the Episcopal Church.
We Anglican clergy swear an oath to obey the legitimate orders of our
bishops; we owe no such loyalty to national church authorities under our
Church’s constitution and canons – not even the obligation to show up for star
chamber meetings in New York. The
Connecticut Six told the bullies to shove it.
But the beat goes on.
Now
the Episcopal Church is suing whole dioceses that have seceded, and they have
prevailed in their first lawsuit against the Diocese of San Joaquin in
California. They claimed their constitution
mandates the same conditional ownership of diocesan property as the Dennis Canon
places on congregational properties. The
judge apparently failed to read the Church Constitution and canons; no such
language occurs in them. The case is
being appealed – with many others – and the good news is (according to me) that
those loyal to our founding documents – the Bible – will win either way. If we prevail in court we strike a blow for
justice and constitutional principles – both church and American
constitutions. If we fail in court we
are left “lean and mean” to pursue the mandate Jesus gave the apostles two
thousand years ago to go into all the world proclaiming the Kingdom of God
unencumbered by material goods.
But
would God have a more direct benefit available to His people who stand against
corporate bullying – whether from the Episcopal Church or some secular outfit
that wants to destroy the free market through monopoly tactics? He surely would.
It
is pretty clear if we read Matthew 10, Mark 13, or Luke 21 that part of serving
God in His Son is to be persecuted.
These chapters assure believers they will be given what they are to say
and do when they need the gifts. That
assurance is for any time or place – not just churchy disputes – but the catch
is the promise being only for those who have sold out to Jesus. We live in a time of more identifiable
interventions by God in human affairs (in English – miracles) and decisions to
follow Christ than at any previous time in history. Jesus Christ promised this outpouring of grace
when the end draws near. We also live in
a time of unprecedented evil from bullies of all kinds. Jesus predicted this too when He said there
would be war, men calling evil good and good evil, and hatred against His
people simply because we are His people.
This confluence is to be wholesale and worldwide, as the end draws
closer. Do I have any idea when He
returns to rule? No way. But I do know He said when we see these
things – the good and the bad and the ugly – to lift our heads because He is on
His horse and on His way. And a little
bit – or a large bit – of court subsidized bullying is supposed to ruin my
day? Not.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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