RE: theage.com.au ~ GAY ministers still up for debate

[Greg Crawford]

I would not have said that the Catholic/Protestant issue is Northern Ireland is a fundamentalist issue. In fact, I don’t believe it is really a religious issue at all. The tension in Northern Ireland is just another leftover problem from the greed of English imperialism. The English exploited the Irish just like they did the Scots, and they used Anglicanism as a means of suppressing dissension in Ireland, banning Catholic worship and attempting to replace it with their own State-run church so that religion was used for political purposes.   It’s interesting that in the Republic of Ireland, Catholics and Protestants seem to get on quite well.   - Greg     From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darren Wright Sent: Friday, 30 July 2004 9:46 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: 'insights' Subject: Re: theage.com.au ~ GAY ministers still up for debate   There's an old saying: 'There has to be blood on the floor of the assembly for the church to live in peace.' Decisions have to be thrashed out," she said (Mary Hawkes). "In the past people have been so nice. We're all nice people so we back off when things get ugly. There will be blood on the floor at assembly. Mary Hawkes is the Spokesperson for EMU I've always said that the Reforming Alliance sounded like an organisation from the Star Wars movies, and after reading Mary's quote on blood being spilt I'm now moving my previous statements and suggesting that instead of Star Wars perhaps it might fit more in a Buffy The Vampire Slayer series. Quite seriously though (even if i might have been serious above) I'd like to suggest a couple of things about what I think could be discussed as the evils of Fundamentalism, or in this case the evils of Orthodoxy . I might choose to go into this in greater depth later, if I find the time, but It concerns me that what I see happening in the world, in the way of wars could largely be seen to have been brought about by Fundamentalist or Orthodox groups. Previously: Ireland: Orthodox/Fundamentalist Protestants and Catholics Sudan: Orthodox/Fundamentalist Muslim groups Palestine: Orthodox/Fundamentalist views on land Iraq/America: Orthodox/Fundamentalist Christian and Muslim The list could, (and does) go on, (and depressingly on and on) but what I think I am seeing is that Orthodox/Fundamentalist groups seem more willing to war over what they believe than other groups.  This comment by Mary does not surprise me in the least because it certainly fits in with this theory. Mary is the spokes person for what is described as a movement back to Orthodoxy, (it seems that whenever I use the word Fundamentalist friends in the movement debate with me) and as such I am not surprised in the least that war language has been used by them. "We are against those evil people who would have the Word of God under seige, who want to defile the Church and the Bible, who have misunderstood the word of God..." Much like Bush in his Pre/Post-Iraq war speaches Mary no longer needs to name those evil people, they are now "Beurocrats" and "Sinners" and "Heirachy" and possibly "Evil" people.  ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS.... So, the question I'd ask is at the next Assembly, or even now...  when some are wanting a war, what is our response as a Church? Do we: a) Refuse to ler warmongers into the Assembly meeting? b) Meet warmonders with open arms and love them with God's Love? (warning blood may be spilt) c) Fight back? d) Sit and take it and cry and turn the other cheek until they feel satisfied that they have spilt enough blood?  (and if we're standing then hug them) e) All of the above? f) Any other response anyone can think of? -- Darren Wright Fool Youth and Family Worker   UCA NSW Synod Presbytery of Canberra Region GPO Box 221. Canberra. ACT. 2601.   [EMAIL PROTECTED]   02 6248 9311 (office)     "The Gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new address, because the recipient is repeatedly changing place of residence." - Helmut Thielicke ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------