IS THE JOB DONE?

Mr. Robert Duncan is now the former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. But, is the job finished in Pittsburgh? I think not, there is at least one more to do. Let me say upfront, I do not understand for certain that a diocese without a bishop falls under the presiding bishop but I certainly hope so and here is why.

Here is a portion of one of two statements on the Pittsburgh diocesan website:

“This is of course a very painful moment for Pittsburgh Episcopalians. The leadership of The Episcopal Church has inserted itself in a most violent manner into the affairs and governance of our diocese. While we await the decision of the diocesan convention on realignment to a different province of the Anglican Communion, we will stand firm against any further attempts by those outside our boundaries intimidate us,” said the Rev. David Wilson, president of the Standing Committee.

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Ya'll want painful, come visit St. Francis in Turlock, California. You want painful, come visit with a life-long Episcopalian that had her church sold out from underneath her so that Mr. Schofield can fund his move to the Southern Cone. Presumably this was written by and for the Standing Committee of the diocese of Pittsburgh. And, guess who is on the Standing Committee? Yes none other than The Reverend Geoffery Chapman, St. Stephen's Church, Sewickley, PA. This is one of my "favorite" people -- he wrote the Chapman Memo that the entire orthodox world is force feeding the rest of the Anglican Communion one word at a time.

"The Chapman Memo"

Tell you Pittsburgh folks what. How does the following sound? Since the Reverend Geoffery Chapman's has/advocates the abandonment of the doctrine and discipline of the Episcopal Church we ask for the following. Given the fact that the Presiding Bishop has ultimate control of the diocese at this time, Rev. Chapman could be inhibited and ultimately deposed as well. He can then sit on the sidelines just like is beloved boss. Perhaps then the Archduke of the Southern Cone could welcome the Rev. Chapman into the fold as well.

All those in favor signify by saying "Aye".

Sound Fundamentals

"The economy is fundamentally sound."  John McCain.

Apparently Presidential hopeful John McCain does not live on the same planet nor in the same country as you and I.  This statement is beyond comprehension.  The mortgage world is beyond absurd.  I work in Stockton, CA, the city with more foreclosures than any other.  The unemployment rate in the county I live in, is over 13% and the nationwide unemployment is 6.1%.  I have no idea how many manufacturing jobs have been moved overseas in the last 8 years but I would hazard a guess that it is more than in the history of the country.  In fact, we are in danger of losing every manufacturing job in the country to overseas labor.  My brother-in-law works for Sylvania lighting in So. California and most of the light bulbs they now sell are made in China. This process has a demonstrated 60% failure rate and yet Sylvania accepts that failure rate because the labor is so cheap it still is profitable.  We have not had a true anti-trust suit since Bobby Kennedy was Attorney General (for your youngsters that would be 1963).  Now we see the federal government nationalizing AIG.  This of course after such colossal failures with Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Lehman Brothers.  AIG will cost the taxpayers 85 Billion dollars -- that has got to be close enough to salvage a lot of personal home mortgages.  Couple that with the 100+ Billion dollars spent in Iraq funding George W. Bush's and Dick Cheney's friends.  Washington Mutual is about to go under.  In the meantime oil companies announce record profits of 10-13 billion dollars per QUARTER.
 
Enter presidential hopeful, John McCain.  John has 7 homes which he sometimes cannot remember.  I do not know if that is he cannot remember he has 7 homes, where they are or why he has them.  John believes that middle class income is $4million.

The economy is fundamentally sound the same way the emperor is dressed.  It is because I say it is, and, if one says it enough then we will all believe it.  I genuinely feel like I have fallen through the looking glass.
 
I am ready for a change -- the kind of change that John McCain cannot bring because he cannot see anything but a fundamentally sound economy.
John, you will get my vote --- when pigs (with or without lipstick) fly!

Don't believe me?  Try this:

"Wall Street's Just Deserts"

The Reality of Afghanistan

"Afghanistan is bigger than Iraq, more rugged, more impoverished and vastly more complicated, with more languages, more ethnic groups, more tribes and more lethal neighbors."

"Where there is a real military presence, it is possible to bring peace and development to Afghanistan. But where there are no foreign troops, there is often anarchy. Though European governments like to draw a line between bringing 'security' and engaging in counter-terrorism in Afghanistan, on the ground those missions blur."
Anne Applebaum, Willing To Win in Afghanistan? The Washington Post (Op-Ed), September 16, 2008.

I live between the Pentagon and Fort Belvoir - and I can total up more total "tour days" in Afghanistan than Iraq for my military friends (and their children). Stay informed, and remember all the NATO troops stationed there in our prayers.

Not That Different

A little Sunday music from Collin Raye:

I laugh, I love, I hope, I try
I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry
And I know you do the same things, too
So were really not that different, me and you

WHY DID MCCAIN PICK PALIN?

National Public Radio is running a program on both Morning Edition and All Things Considered entitled Does Race Matter in '08. The series talks with 13 persons. 7 persons are white and 6 persons interviewed are of color. Here is a little bit about York, PA. York has about double the national average of people living under the poverty line. York also has a manufacturing economy (hard to believe that in an Eastern state, huh?). This should be fertile ground for the democratic candidate since we have lost more jobs overseas than ever before. These folks talk about why they are voting for who they are voting. It is a fascinating series but it made me think about why John McCain would pick Sarah Palin. As a caveat, these are 13 people, hardly a representative sample that would hold up statistically -- but, they are, I believe, representative of the "culture wars" that are going on in many of the battleground states like California, Texas, New York, Florida, etc. And, the style and technique of the Republican strategy is reminiscent of the same swift boat techniques used last presidential go around.

Let's start with this quote from the series:

"I don't think there is a problem with a black man," says Don Getty, a retired police officer, who is white. "I personally don't think Obama is the right one. He doesn't have the experience."

Margie Orr, a black receptionist, takes exception to Getty's view of Obama's experience.

"My thing is, though, what would make you think Palin would be — OK — we know John McCain has medical problems, God forbid that this man is elected, and this white female, so what you're saying is, though, the United States would rather see — as long as they're white — they don't care if she's even a female, but as long as it's a white person ..."

"No, I don't think that's the case," Getty responds. "She has more executive experience than he does. He was a community organizer. Nobody's ever told me what a community organizer is."

Then there is this exchange:

"I look at Obama, and I have a question in my mind," she says. "Years ago, was he taken into the Muslim faith? And my concern is the only way you are no longer a Muslim is if you are dead, killed. So in my mind, he's still alive."

Although Barack Obama has said repeatedly he is not a Muslim and has never been a Muslim, Moreland is still unconvinced.

"There is something about him I don't trust," she says. "I don't care how good a speaker he is, I just can't trust him."

This is the same person who just a few minutes earlier says this:

"I can't recall any privilege that I got because I was white," Getty says. "I mean, I went to city schools. But I don't know of anything that I got because I was white that the black kids couldn't have gotten the same thing."

So lets think about at least one way Sarah Palin may have been selected to the VP slot. Karl Rove gets a panicked call from the McCain staffers. We want to win but we are losing by anywhere 4 to 6 percentage points what can we do? Rove says, "No problem." You guys saw how close the tough lady, Hilary Clinton came to getting the nomination, right? let's capitalize on a couple of issues. You need 4 to 6 points, right? We put a white woman on the ticket. It gives the white folks a chance to vote for change and without voting for a black. It eases the conscience and allows people to think that they are not racist. It gives voters the chance to say, "But I voted for change, I voted for a woman. Isn't that a good thing?" Sarah Palin gave McCain all that plus change and plus the religious right which needed a reason to not vote for a black. In addition, she has executive experience and isn't that better than a US Senator?

Is McCain a racist? Does the McCain camp use racist tactics to divide and win? Well, you decide for yourself.

One of the most telling parts of the program allows us to each answer this question clearly for ourselves:


Of the seven white voters and six voters of color, the majority of white voters are supporting McCain. All of the people of color are supporting Obama.

What does that say? Coincidence? Or is something else at work?

"I only heard one person even say or even think the reason they were voting that was because of race," says property manager Charlotte Bergdoll, the sole undecided voter.

She said she didn't see a connection between race and political choice, and in that assessment she wasn't alone.

But after the voters spent more time debating that divide — again, all the voters of color behind Obama, and almost all the white voters behind John McCain — most came to a reluctant conclusion.

Does race matter on a subconscious level? There was a series of exasperated utterances of "Yes."

I Remember

Something very special is happening at the Pentagon today, a dedication. Sacred Ground: The Pentagon Memorial

Please remember those left behind, particularly the family of LTC Neil Hyland. He was my tenant, and then my next door neighbor. He died in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Rest in peace, Neil - and all who died with you that day. And so today, I remember.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SAN JOAQUIN AND PITTSBURGH

In a well written piece Father Bruce Robison compares and contrasts the Diocese of Pittsburgh with the Diocese of San Joaquin. See the following link for the entire article.

"A Reflection on San Joaquin and Pittsburgh
--The Rev. Bruce Robison, Rector, St. Andrew’s, Highland Park
(Pittsburgh)"

This article is located at Father James Simon’s blog entitled Three Rivers Episcopal, a blog that James (The Three Legged Stool) called our attention to a few weeks ago. The quote I would like to call your attention to is:

“More pertinently, though, I have continued to follow the San Joaquin situation, and I’m writing this commentary, because I and many others have wondered if there might be a few clues there about what might lie ahead for us here, in Pittsburgh, with our “realignment vote” at diocesan convention now only a bit more than a month away. After all, of the four dioceses of the Episcopal Church that seem on the course for “realignment” (San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, Quincy, and Fort Worth), San Joaquin went first.”

This is, for the Pittsburgh Across the Aisle folks of some genuine import. There is at least one theory that says you know where you are going by following where you have been. The Pittsburgh folks have extrapolated this theory just a tad and said, "We know where we are going by using the Diocese of San Joaquin as an example and by that example we can, to a large extent, plot our course for where we want to go.

But, what if this is all a smokescreen? What if there is a larger plan? What if the answer to the proverbial question, “How does one eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time.”, really apply to the TEC?

If we take every “realignment” as an isolated event then yes, the Pittsburgh approach makes sense. But what if each realignment is but one more step in an overall plan to takeover the entire Episcopal Church? Then we (TEC) are always one step behind and getting further behind with every realignment. And each time the next diocese moves to the Southern Cone or the AMiA or CANA and TEC is forced to pick up the pieces TEC gets further and further behind.

Ahhh, but there is one thing we may need to consider: “tipping point”.

“The term tipping point describes a point at which a slow gradual change becomes irreversible and then proceeds with gathering pace. It is derived from the metaphor of a rigid solid object being tilted to a point where it begins to topple.”

For us, TEC,  our "tipping point" comes from so many legal entanglements that we wake up one morning and discover we are they.

These seemingly related only in concept "takeovers" are in fact a larger and more direct attack on the Episcopal Church. That yes, Pittsburgh can learn from what happened in San Joaquin but that will quite easily play into the hands of the “Primates Council”. The current  strategy TEC is following will eventually give up the Episcopal Church. What we need, really need, is a strategy that will stop these thugs in their tracks.

My first suggestion, after much thought, is that the primate involved, in this instance, Greg Venables, the Province and every bishop in that province be named personally and individually liable for these incursions. Certainly they are the direct as well as indrect beneficiaries of the "realignment".  They benefit immediately with the illegal transfer of property and cash to the various entities within the new province.  In addition, we test out some new legislation that perhaps attacks these individuals, perhaps under the Alien and Sedition Acts or perhaps under some IRS or INS code that gives these Primates the opportunity to expend their resources and their time and their attorneys in court. Perhaps were Mr. Venables named in suits in Fort Worth and San Joaquin and Pittsburgh and forced to appear any number of times – or better yet, when here arrested as a flight risk and held here until these suits were over the other Primates may begin to think twice about these stupid, mean-spirited and ugly forays into the Episcopal Church.
Now, we will hear one more time about how awful we are that we are "suing" and we my stand to lose more laity but hey, in about 5 years we are all going to be "Southern Conaliones" otherwise so what's to lose?

If we want to avoid the inevitable then we will need to create a much broader strategy that includes some form of offense. A defensive strategy will only postpone the inevitable.