"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
Friday, January 24, 2003 A foretaste of heaven for the multi-culti church progressive
Check that. The recent ordination rite for new Suffragan Bishop Gayle Harris at the Episcopal cathedral in Boston must have been heaven for the Green Party at Prayer. Legions of CTA panel discussants and NCR op-ed writers no doubt looked on longingly. Here's a picture gallery from the ceremony. Very nice miter on the far right. Wonder if they handed her a Pro-PLO placard with her crozier?
In other Massachusetts Anglican news, Suffragan Bishop Bud Cederholm writes of his need to get his mind right on his own innate racism as a white person.
I remember vividly the anti-racism training and experiences of the 1960s and ‘70s. Through such training I was able to understand the privilege I enjoy in American society as a white male. By virtue of the color of my skin I am immune to the abuse, prejudice and discrimination suffered by people of color. Those training experiences transformed my life, my heart and my understanding of mission as reconciliation. Sadly, the evil of racism is alive and well in society and in our institutions, including the church. Apathy allows racism to increase. Continuing and increasing inequities in education, housing and health care, in the justice and penal systems and in job opportunities cause suffering that can not be tolerated by a church committed to “respecting the dignity of every human being.”
When I look at our national policies and priorities I ask, Why has most every war or skirmish that the U.S. has found itself in since World War II been with people of another race or culture—Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Nicaragua, the Gulf and Arab nations? I realize there are many factors that draw us into conflict with others, but racism which causes hate and fear makes it easier to wage war, seek revenge or engage in violence against a people who are different from us.
For a bracing look at how this sort of thought-reform in the guise of racism-awareness is practiced in that other haven of the bow-tied progressive, higher education, see this classic article by Alan Charles Kors in the archives of Reason magazine.
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