That's My Church!

Catherine Seipp has a column up about the Rev. George Rigas, Rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, who seems to have got himself in trouble with the IRS for political sermonizing ahead of the 2004 election. Apparently, Rev. Rigas pictured Jesus Christ as the alpha and omega of Policy Wonks, sitting in on a debate between Bush and Kerry:

"Mr. President," Regas' Jesus continues, "the consequences of arrogance, accompanied by certitude that the world's most powerful military can cure all ills…." And blah-blah-blah-blabbity-blah. This Jesus is awfully wordy, not at all like the terse prophet you may remember from the Bible. Regas apparently thinks Jesus would sound rather like Cindy Sheehan blathering on to the Huffington Post, or maybe like one of John Kerry's speechwriters.

Seipp also notes the blindness that can be caused by excessive self-rightiousness:

[T]he retired rector insisted a few days ago, on The Times' Op-Ed page, that his sermon "did not cross the line" between religion and campaign politics because "peace and the alleviation of poverty are core values" of his congregation. But peace and the alleviation of poverty are core values of any congregation, and there are plenty that are liberal yet manage to address these issues without attacking particular political parties or candidates.

I will say for my own rector that, liberal as he is, he's pretty good about keeping blatant politics out of his sermons. However, I've often noticed that the more lefty members of my clergy and congregation seem to feel that they own the peace/poverty issues. It isn't that they disagree on the merits with suggestions that poverty might better be alleviated through, for example, strengthening of primary education via school vouchers and competition plus rigorous academic standards. Rather, it's that they assume that a conservative couldn't really be interested in such a goal at all and, therefore, that any suggestion he makes for achieving it is automatically invalid, not even worthy of debate or discussion.

I dunno what Jesus would do, but I'm pretty sure He wouldn't think too kindly of that brand of arrogance.

Yips! to K-Lo.