Here is a story from Carl Sandburg’s Abraham Lincoln. As I quote it, I’m envisioning an editorial cartoon in which a bishop throws up his hands in horror at the sight of a parishioner approaching the communion rail. The parishioner is wearing Bush and Kerry buttons.
In this world of sound bite media treatment the church has allowed the question of membership to be reduced to a single, highly politicized dimension. Here is Sandburg's description of what happened to a Baptist church as it debated a stand against whisky.
“ When Mentor Graham, the schoolmaster, joined the temperance movement, the church trustees suspended him. Then, to hold a balance, the trustees suspended another member who hand gone blind drunk. This action puzzled one member who stood up in meeting and, shaking a half-full quart bottle so all could see drawled, "brethering, you have turned one member out becas'e he would not drink, and another beca'se he got drunk, and now I wants to ask a question. How much of this 'ere critter does a man have to drink to remain in full membership in this church?"
I agree that the bishops must speak out on human life issues. I agree that the Baptist church was right to speak out on the dangers of drunkenness. However, by letting the question of membership be framed on the single dimension of temperance that church obscured its devotion to the gospel. The bishops are falling into a similar trap.
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