[Vision2020] Clergy put on notice

[keely emerinemix]

I would love to be, while not a clergy member, a fellow (fellowette?) 
evangelical who can counter Iverson, and will be and have been making some 
inquiries into how best to do so.  I am mystified and disappointed by the 
silence from the faith community overall during the four years I've been 
here -- that is, when I'm not fuming about it.  Critique and rebuke from the 
evangelical side of things would be more significant, but at this point I'd 
be thrilled if any pastor/clergy said or did anything to bear witness to the 
theological, social, and pastoral train wreck that is Christ Church.

Ironically, the faith community that most promotes social patriarchy and 
ecclesiastical hierarchy appears to be benefitting the most from the silence 
of the brethren, particularly those who also hold to the necessity of male 
clergy.  It's certainly not an indictment of male clergy, but perhaps 
suggests that for the church to really recover its prophetic voice, it must 
begin to identify its pastors on the basis of their giftedness, not their 
gender.

Oh, for a Sojourner Truth, a Sarah Grimke', a Priscilla, a Deborah, a 
Phoebe.  The song is more beautiful and carries further when sung from both 
sides of the aisle . . .

keely




From: "J Ford" <privatejf32 at hotmail.com>
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Clergy put on notice
Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 23:05:10 -0700

Well, let's see if anyone responds to this - my hope is that the silence 
does not become deafening:

Clergy remains silent

It’s been a week, but Ed Iverson’s mean-spirited op-ed regarding immigrants 
still galls me (Opinion, 6 & 7). Not because I disagree that sooner or 
later, every country, including ours, has to have an end to immigration. 
Iverson’s assertion that immigrants, illegal or otherwise, are lazy is about 
as specious a claim as anyone could make. I can’t imagine a fat, old 
librarian cutting asparagus in the fields of southern Washington with a 
knife, a job done by illegal immigrants that is the extreme of physical 
hardship. But Iverson already has shown that he’s the village idiot in any 
number of columns. As an editorial writer, I’ve already accepted the fact 
that between him and Michael O’Neal, they’ve set new grounds for 
mean-spiritedness in any small-town paper’s op-ed section.

What’s upsetting is the silence of the rest of the clergy in the rest of the 
Pullman/Moscow community. Iverson regularly distinguishes between himself 
and his critics as him being one with the Lord. The rest of us who are not 
copacetic with his worldview are contemptible heathens.

How does any of the malarkey written by Iverson square with anyone raised 
with Christ as their personal savior? Christ lived in poverty. He gave his 
cloak away. He healed the sick. He lived a life, until he was crucified, 
that was a model of compassion, poverty and mercy that all, Christian or 
non-Christian, could look at and aspire to emulate.

The silence of the clergy in this community to the continual affronts posed 
by Iverson and his claque are deafening. I have two questions for them. 
First, does he represent the Christian viewpoint in our community? And 
secondly, if his insistent mean-spiritedness does not represent you, why do 
you not speak out? If you believe in the Lord’s judgment, how will your 
silence be judged?

Chuck Pezeshki, Pullman

J  :]

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