They aren’t The Church of England.

Those few bishops that spoke on behalf of the church the other day aren’t the church. I know what they wrote was juvenile and mean. Their logic couldn’t pass a eighth grade class in philosophy, let alone sociology, civics, or history. Even though they went out of their way to try and tell you that they respect you, just not enough to support you in any way.

Those cowardly people that couldn’t put their name to the document. They have no support, given by general synod, to speak the mind of the church on an issue they certainly wouldn’t get popular support for in such a case. They did it for craven, political reasons, not moral convictions. Still desperate to “preserve the Anglican Communion” by giving red meat to pacify the angry cannibals, desperate to devour their own. This, the last ditch effort to turn around the failed leadership of Archbishop Rowan Williams.

These people aren’t The Church of England. And they certainly aren’t the church.

For all of the irritatingly political and disturbingly narcissistic responses to conversations about human sexuality and marriage we get in the press and in the church writ large, none of this is the church. It isn’t us.

It is petty, self-preservationist bullshit.

Tobias Haller, in fewer than 700 words, absolutely destroys the sexist, homophobic, and theologically unsound statement made by a star chamber that seeks to deny you equal rights and mollify both the small number of homophobes in their backyard and the even larger number elsewhere.

But remember, the problem isn’t the church, and it certainly isn’t Christianity. It is them. That small group that is pretending to speak for everybody. Abusing their power. Relegating the systems to nothing. Acting on the authoritarian principles forged in the era of the monarchy and the resort of the desperate and derranged. They are worse than out of touch, they are antiquated; useless.

I know that they haven’t said anything you haven’t heard before. You’ve come to expect it from us. Mostly because we refuse to speak. We have allowed our own star chambers to do that or refused to refute the ramblings of those evangelicals that get so much more face time on TV than any other religious group.

But hear me now:

These people aren’t the church. They are only part of it. And many of us didn’t know what else to do. And for that, and for all of the evil done to defend a faith that needs no defending, I am sorry. Please forgive me. Please forgive my friends. And please know that what we want, what the church wants, what GOD wants, is for us to love you.

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