Shared Items from around the web

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Here are a few interesting things I ran across in my RSS reader over the past week. Take a look and see what you think:

  • http://www.theworldistoomuchwithus.blogspot.com indie

    I about fell out of my chair when I read that headline. Its totally misleading. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. The PB could say, “I like to eat eggs for breakfast” and someone would manage to find a secret heretical message. Don’t we have enough trouble that we don’t need to go around inventing it?

  • http://quovadis.soultopology.com Jody+

    Did it make you want to read the post? I thought he did a good job of collecting analysis etc… But the thing is, some people think the PB is a poor communicator, I don’t think so, I think she says exactly what she means, but that she has a muddled theology. Her good points are outweighed by the fact that her critique could as easily be applied to the creed as to the sinner’s prayer. She’s right that much of American protestantism overemphasizes the individual–but that’s not really a problem in the Episcopal Church. An increasing problem in TEC, judging from folks I talked with at Anaheim while I was there (briefly), as well as an increasing number of folks who hold views similar to those of the (rejected) Bishop-elect of Northern Michigan, Thew-Forrester, is the rejection of any need of salvation at all. As Bill Carroll (one of my former professors, and hardly a conservative) put it:

    I do think she should have been far more careful in choosing her words. There are plenty of people in the Episcopal Church who would look at any affirmation of basic dogma and say “Your God is too small.” This is a petty and dangerous evasion of the task of sound doctrine. …

    I do think that what the Presiding Bishop chose to say (in prepared remarks) was a risky and unhelpful thing to say, given the rather loose attitude toward doctrine that prevails among some in our church.

    So, all that is to say, I think the PB’s remarks are often symptomatic and I don’t think it’s making a mountain out of a mole hill if it helps us get at a bigger problem that we face.

    On another note, I think it’s sort of funny that this is the only news item I shared in Google Reader over the past week… (the post is automatically generated once a week).