Muddled? Who's muddled?

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Aug 07, 2008

Pat is the security guard at a bank. Mike is a bank robber.

Pat is an indifferent employee. He punches the time-clock, plods through his dull routine, and waits for the paycheck on Friday. Mike, on the other hand, is a perfectionist: hard-working, methodical, punctilious about the details of his craft. What he does, he does well.

Which is morally superior: Pat's respectable mediocrity or Mike's criminal artistry?

If you choose Mike, you'll probably understand the moral reasoning used by the Archbishop of Canterbury on the issue of same-sex relationships.

Strangely enough, despite the clarity of the Archbishop's moral leadership, the Boston Globe reports that the affairs of the Anglican communion "remain as muddled as ever," even after the candid and productive discussions of the Lambeth Conference. Freshly returned from Lambeth, Bishop Thomas Shaw of Boston tells the Globe that he will continue to ordain homosexual men-- now there's a surprise!-- despite the outrage of other Anglican prelates. It is "pastorally important" to do so, you see, and as many Catholic priests and theologians have learned, if you can invoke some form of the word "pastoral" you can disregard all other principles of moral reasoning.

He also said that local priests will continue to bless same-sex marriages, although Shaw said that those priests are doing so on their own and that "I haven't authorized anybody to do anything."

One of these soft summer evenings, as you muse on the Anglican claims to apostolic succession (insofar as any Anglicans bother to advance those claims anymore), ask yourself which one of the 12 Apostles might have uttered those words: "I haven't authorized anybody to do anything." Doesn't sound like St. Peter, does it? St. Paul? Don't think so. One of the Sons of Thunder? Uh-uh....