January 05, 2004

WILL YOU STILL LOVE THE FUTURE WHEN IT'S PAST?

Bishop Lee's Choice (NY Times Magazine, 1/4/2003; via Mark Shea)

[Episcopal Bishop Peter] Lee's decision to support Gene Robinson seemed uncharacteristically bold. How, I asked, had he arrived at it?...

Finally, Lee spoke with his wife of 38 years, Kristina. ''She's been very forceful on this,'' Lee said. ''She said, 'Peter, do you want to be on the side of the future or of the past?' That was a significant question for me.''

Lee decided to embrace the future.


As I recall, this argument also seemed persuasive to the followers of Karl Marx. However, the Communists never presented proof that their vision of the future was correct, and neither does Lee. Conservatives, in contrast, hold that actual human experience is more worthy of trust than prophecies from a crystal ball. If that's being on the side of the past, may we and the past remain allies.

Posted by Paul Jaminet at January 5, 2004 10:29 AM
Comments

You gotta go where your customers are.

Posted by: Robert D at January 5, 2004 10:59 AM

Robert,these days,the Episcopalians don't have many customers and they are losing market share everyday and facing hostile takeovers from emerging markets in the 3rd world.
If your looking for domestic performers,invest in the Baptists and Mormons.

Posted by: M. at January 5, 2004 12:55 PM

As far as I can tell the Episcopalians main business is in running a chain of wedding and funeral chapels. Endorsing gay marriage seems a logical move. DINKS (double income no kids) have deep pockets.

Posted by: Jason Johnson at January 5, 2004 01:14 PM

M, it sounds like they are following a "botique" strategy - rather than compete with the WalMart(Baptist) & Target(Mormon) on low price & volume, why not corner the small, high-end, high-margin designer market?

Posted by: Robert D at January 5, 2004 02:00 PM

Jason - Given the short span of gay relationships, it might be time to extend their product line into divorces. They could do a ceremony of blessing for divorced couples. It could double as the episcopal ordination service.

Posted by: pj at January 5, 2004 02:08 PM

Robert,not a bad stratagey,but that high-end market is the least likely to get up early on sunday just to have someone lower down the social scale lecture them.

Besides,they're already morally superior,so church for them is redundant.

Posted by: M. at January 5, 2004 02:52 PM

"Besides,they're already morally superior,so church for them is redundant."

Every church is, one of the main reasons for getting up on Sunday is to reinforce how superior you are. Besides, who says you have to do it on Sunday? Even when I was a Catholic, we had Saturday and Sunday evening mass.

Posted by: Robert D at January 5, 2004 02:58 PM

If you think that worship is equivalent to moral smugness, you need to visit my church sometime.

Posted by: Gideon at January 5, 2004 05:43 PM

No, but worship and moral smugness are no strangers. Of course I was just giving M a hard time. It seems that the other guy's religion can always be equated with moral smugness.

Posted by: Robert D at January 5, 2004 09:40 PM

Or moral error.

Posted by: Jeff Guinn at January 6, 2004 11:49 AM

Baptists can be compared to Wal-Mart in at least one other aspect: The size of their places of business.

I've passed Baptist churches in the south that are literally as big as Super Wal-Marts, although usually more esthetically pleasing.

Posted by: THX 1138 at January 6, 2004 12:58 PM
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