Friday, February 26, 2010

Venerable ol' church periodical calls out leadership on lawsuit mania

The Living Church Foundation Editorial: Lent and Lawsuits

The Living Church has been around for quite some Episcopalian time. It is, like the New York Times, a "gray lady." Its affectionate nickname is "The Living Crutch."

So it is good the read a pointed editorial in TLC, comparing the Presiding Bishop's "soft-spoken and impressive video about Lenten discipline" with her "ruthless strategies and self-valorizing language" in using lawyers and lawsuits (and millions of the people's donated dollars) to bully the church she is supposed to serve.

In fairness, TLC points out that traditionalists have not thought through the Gospel implications of some of their own actions, and thrown fuel on the lawsuit conflagration.

Still, it is up to the leader to model the values of the organization, and PB Jefferts-Schori has been a model of hostility, non-communication, obfuscation and, judging from a recent press conference, deception. Not to mention terrible stewardship of the church's human and material resources.

"This is carnal, it is sick, and it’s the very sort of hubris-laden sin that Christians ought to confront within themselves during Lent. We consider it welcome news when a bishop shows the vision of refusing to play the lawsuit game."

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