Posted on 10/11/2005 5:32:55 PM PDT by sionnsar
The Episcopal Church hasn't apologized for something it had little or nothing to do with lately so I guess this is no surprise:
In other action, the council became one of a number of voices in the Episcopal Church that will ask the 75th General Convention to deal with the church’s historic connections to slavery.
While one can always learn more from the study of the history of slavery, said council member John Vanderstar, the National Concerns Committee decided that "it seemed time to quit cutting bait and start fishing."
The council agreed to send to the convention a resolution (NAC-036) declaring slavery to be a sin "and a fundamental betrayal of the humanity of all persons who were involved."
The resolution would have the Episcopal Church express its "most profound regret" that the church "lent the institution of slavery its support and justification based on Scripture... and [that] after slavery was formally abolished, the Episcopal Church continued for at least a century to support de jure and de facto discrimination..."
The resolution would have the church "apologize for its complicity in and the injury done by the institution of slavery and its aftermath" and would direct the Presiding Bishop to call for the church to participate in a "Day of Repentance and Reconciliation."A companion resolution (NAC-038) calls for the next convention to authorize a study of the complicity of the Episcopal Church in the institution of slavery and "in the subsequent history of segregation and discrimination." The proposed study would also investigate the economic benefits that the church derived from the slavery, and how the church can "as a matter of justice, share those benefits with African American Episcopalians."
And if you don't already know the result of this "study," you really need to get out more.
The last part of the study would involve "what would essentially be reparations, although some do not want to use that word," said the Rev. Kwasi Thornell of the National Concerns Committee.
If you're still in ECUSA, remember that the next time you scratch a pledge check. Liberal sock puppet that he is, Frank Griswold mouthed the usual leftist banalities.
"It’s insufficient simply to say that [slavery] is no longer a reality," Griswold said in an interview after the close of the meeting.
He said that he believes the country has not acknowledged deeply enough the impact that slavery had in the past and the wounds that people today, both descendants of slaves and others, still carry.
While the council resolution will most certainly be changed and considered along with others that may come before the next convention, Griswold said one outcome of the conversation is already clear.
"It does push us in a direction that will be costly in terms of our psyches and maybe in terms of our immediate resources," he said.
Your lawyers might not be too happy to hear that, Frank, what with the lawsuits against orthodox Episcopalians and such. But there's an aspect to this story that I find interesting.
As generals went, Confederate general Leonidas Polk wasn't much. Few generals of that war were; the number of great generals to emerge from the War for Southern Independence is not high(Grant, Lee, Jackson, Sherman, Forrest, Longstreet and perhaps, had he lived longer, Pat Cleburne). But Leonidas Polk had a distinction no other general in that war had. Prior to the war, he was the Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana.
Not only that but Jefferson Davis was a devout Episcopalian as was Robert E. Lee. And Episcopalians were well-represented throughout the Confederate States leadership. So, as part of ECUSA's "contrition," will these men be posthumously excommunicated?
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. ping
Well by God, its about time the WASPs of today took responsibility for the sins of their religious forefathers (but of course not foremothers, being, as they were, part of the oppressed masses of the day and all.).
Um, while they're at it and in a repentance mode, maybe they could shake a little of that money loose for the suffering, hungry, ill clad and shod decendants of those Irish ditch diggers or Greek shoeshine boys who were, well, not quite white enough, or even human enough for that matter....Please.
Oh, no money left? What the lawyers and the orthodox didn't get the gays spent on a Wiccan Festival/Rave cum Hamas Fundraiser? Well, never mind!
You know, ECUSA should get some new straw men to kick around; the current ones are getting moldy.
Next up: reparations for shellfish eaters and wearers of mixed fabric clothes.
And whilst we're at it, let them not forget the descendents of the poor, destitute victims of the Highland Clearances, in which the Scottish Highlands became almost devoid of human life ("almost" depending a wee bit upon one's definition of "Sassenach"), to make way for sheep.
What do the scriptures say about slavery? Last time I looked, it wasn't politically correct.
"And whilst we're at it, let them not forget the descendents of the poor, destitute victims of the Highland Clearances, in which the Scottish Highlands became almost devoid of human life ("almost" depending a wee bit upon one's definition of "Sassenach"), to make way for sheep."
Yeah! Them guys too!
Thanks for the ping sionnsar
Well, if Confederate slavery was evil, so was Confederate thievery, and since the Confederacy never paid off its bondholders and paper money holders in specie, maybe some of us can sue the ECUSA apologetic crowd for our own reparations.
I apologize
;>
That was my first thought when reading this. I can't seem to find the passage that calls slavery a sin.
free dixie,sw
Hey, Episcopalians! If you plan on tacking on bank interest and dating the accruals from 1619-1865, you'd better get your friends at the IMF on the phone. You're going to need a whole lot of money to pay off these race-hustlers.
In fact, I'll wager that the whole net wealth of the Episcopal Church wouldn't be enough to pay off this panhandle.
Remember your Bible and remember your manhood. Tell these guys to go jump in the lake. That includes Griswold and his gay seminarians.
Polk even redesigned the Confederate flags his division's brigades and regiments carried (several museum examples survive) by reversing the colors of the Battle Flag to a red cross, which he uprighted to make a standard Cross of St. George versus the St. Andrew's Cross, reflecting his Episcopalian faith, and put on a sky-blue background without fimbrations.
A white fimbration (outline) was later added to the cross, and the blue field was deepened to dark blue. On both versions of Polk's battle color, 11 or 13 large white five-pointed stars adorned the arms of the cross. This flag was carried by Polk's regiments for at least two years.
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