My latest is a set of comments on PrayTell about the Roman Catholic Womenpriests, about whom I have blogged before and before. Because I think that the Bishop of Rome and say, the Patriarch of Constantinople have a pretty good case for being authoritative voices in their realms of Christianity, I accept that they do not accept the ordination of women to the priesthood*. When I opined that it is delusional to engage in an action which excommunicates you from the Roman Church and then turn around and call yourself a Roman Catholic priestess, the website's monk moderator told me that I did not have an inkling about the complexities of this issue. Me? Not an inkling? But I was polite:
And as you know, studying theology reveals that practically everything in Christianity can be interpreted as “complicated, historically problematic, ambiguous and open to further doctrinal development.” That is a condition which, while significant, is not by itself decisive.What pisses me off about several of the commentors over there is that they think they can hold whatever theological opinions they want and still maintain that they are in perfectly good standing in their churches. In fact, that they far better understand them than the people who run them. And some of them have the theological smarts of a bumper sticker.
I admit that it bothers me because I made a huge change in my life because I could not accept my tradition's theology. It seemed the only honest thing to do. I don't regret it and I am not whining, but it was hugely costly for me. So when other people play religious Humpty Dumpty and then get all superior about it, it makes me angry.
____________________________
*My best female friend is a minister. And I have great respect for Bishop Rosamonde. But they are Unitarian Universalist and Gnostic, respectively. No conflict between their traditions and female clergy. But it does not fit for Catholic and Orthodox faiths.
No comments:
Post a Comment