Titles

While reading the blogs this morning I once again am amazed by the way we pigeon hole people. I am an avowed church geek and love anything that has to do with large gatherings of bishops or people like the Catholic World Youth Day in Sydney and the Lambeth Conference in England. I also love anything British so this is a bonus.

Anyway, why is it that we have to refer to people by a title? I don’t mean titles like bishop, pope, priest, etc. But rather, liberal, conservative, gay, etc. For example, yesterday Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire spoke at a church in England. All of the headlines were something like Gay Bishops Speaks in Church. However some 100’s of bishops spoke yesterday but I did not see anything like Heterosexual Bishops Speaks in Church! Why is that? Does the word Gay sell papers? The other thing I was thinking about today is why is it that if you do not agree with the person you have the right to make fun of them? I have notices that people who would lay down their life to defend their image of the church quickly throw it all out the window when someone who is canonically elected or appointed disagrees with them. If one of their own says something, no matter how stupid it is, they will refer to them as His High Mucky Muck Holiness kiss his hand and listen to every word that he has to say no matter how stupid it is bishop, but if someone like the Present Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the US, who happens to be a woman, says anything they refer to her simply as Kate or Katie? So you love the church and her traditions but only as you see them.

The same goes for titles like liberal and conservative. Someone asked me yesterday is Jesus was to be here right now would he be a liberal or a conservative. Well, I said, I think he would just be Jesus and his words would speak for themselves. Why do we have to refer to people this way. If they don’t agree with you then they are the opposite of you. I guess George Washington and John Adams were right when they said political parties would divide the nation. We are red and blue, liberal and conservative, gay and straight, etc. Let’s just try being, Oh I don’t know, friends, love one another, maybe Christian!

2 Comments

  1. when a man stands up for himself or his ideals he is firm and assertive when a woman does the same thing she’s considered a b–ch. anne

  2. There are always going to be people that disagree. Does it mean that they can’t be friends, no. Does it mean that they do not love each other? No. Does it mean that they must agree on everything…I think not. We must agree to disagree and try to get along as Christians should. Frankly, many of the comments that come across the blog are far and above anything I feel comfortable with and therefore, cringe, quietly. Everything has a direct and equal opposite, it is a fact of life. It is not easy to get along but we must learn to the changes that we have no control over but wish never happened.

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