Consider the word "Nun."
Through cultural conditioning and your own experience, maybe you think of someone like this:
Or this
Or this
Or this
Or for some older readers, this:
Or for some even older older readers this:
And, of course, many -- maybe most -- real nuns don't wear habits these days, but even so ...
We bet that when you think "nun," you wouldn't think of this
That's "sister " Grace Miller.
We have criticized the idea of clerics exploiting the deference so many of us were taught from childhood to show them, in order to push left-wing politics from the pulpit.
There are "nuns" who do it too. Today we saw a letter to the editor at the Democrat and Chronicle, from a "Sister" Grace Miller. She stated that Gantt, the man who said this, deserves respect, instead of the contempt he's worked so hard to earn.
Our contributor, Lucy, saw this particular specimen in action last Tuesday at the County Legislature meeting, and had this to say:
"A badly-behaved woman was led out, and actually was arrested, I was told. Seemed like someone living on the streets. Somebody said she might be a nun, named Grace Miller. If this is a real 'nun,' then Britney Spears is the Virgin Mary."
In the spirit of "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find," we learned that Miller has a history as director/producer/actor in political street theater, and is known as a perennial shrieking harridan in civic meetings and on the doorsteps of government buildings.
A legitimate member of Holy Orders in a meaningful sense? Maybe, as our own Lucy wondered, just someone off her medication.
So, to all the ministers, nuns, bishops, priests, vicars, deacons, canons, curates, archdeacons, rectors, monks, deans, reverends, suffragans and all other 57 varieties: Act like a member of holy orders and you'll get that special respect we accord such people. But when your "gospel" is no different from this week's talking points from Democratic headquarters, you're entitled only to the respect due a political shill. Which means none at all.
5 comments:
I don't know. When I think of the word "nun", I think of Sister Ancilla Marie, my fourth grade teacher. She was all of four feet tall, but wielded her yardstick like a broadsword and struck fear into the heart of even the toughest, most intractable students in the school.
I wouldn't say this Gantt-orchestrated charade is the product of left-wing politics. It seems to be about what your title suggests: an irrational cult of hatred for the Republican-led legislature, which leads its acolytes to block anything and everything that involves Republicans, which in this case was a bi-partisan committee that the Republicans happened to support.
This also looks an awful lot like a failed attempt to revive the outrage that the FAIR Plan created. The legislature is being accused of the same things - operating behind closed doors, forcing things through without discussion - but in this case, those factors just aren't there.
Kudos on the work you've done balancing this story. Lucy's recent post, "The Story They Won't Report," is one of the best blog posts I've ever read. Keep up the good work!
This issue of left-wing secular orientation of mainstream churches has been troubling for years. This and your item about the Archbishop of Canterbury nail one of the important points, that they get away with it because many of us were brought up to have automatic respect for our priest, rabbi, nuns, etc.
In some of the churches it's not that big an issue at the individual church level. As an Episcopalian, I rarely hear this kind of thing in church itself. It's at the diocesan/bishop level and national level that you see it most. When you see bishops in your own church, as in Massachusetts, carrying signs in an anti-Israel demonstration, you know that something has gone very wrong.
That said, I'd be every bit as critical of clergy who spouted Republican talking points from the pulpit, too. That seems to happen more in the Southern, more evangelical churches,though, rather than in what I think you mean by the "mainstream" churches.
If anyone reading this story has never met this “sister” you may be wondering if the picture does her any justice. You may be thinking that she was just caught at a bad moment. Well, I have dealt with her before. It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, in this case they are all true!
Hit the wrong button in posting your comment this morning and accidentally deleted it. Very sorry.
If you'd care to resubmit it, we'll be sure to include it. And will be very careful about which button to use. Again, sorry.
It seems fairly clear that your blog has little if any understanding of the prophetic role Christianity attributes to it's clergy (in this case someone whom the Catholic church would call religious not clergy). Christian leaders on both sides of the theological spectrum (left-right) have spoken to power for centuries...take Francis or Luther, or Calvin, or Dr. King. Take Falwell or Robertson or Dobson on the right - they all speak their version of truth to power...be it democratic freedoms and liberties (like in the selection of a public defender) or a call to end abortion and "protect" marriage (in the case of the right-wing names above) there is a long tradition of clergy speaking to power and promoting their version of justice and truth.
For you to complain about so-called left-wing religious types like sister Grace doing this while not recognizing the social voice aspect inherent in all religions and promoted by all religious types is just plain ignorant.
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