So you have a minister of the United Church of Canada who is an avowed atheist. You’d think it would be a pretty big deal, right?
Meh.
Her atheism has prompted a “review.” This is the weakest response in the history of responses but it is already being called akin to…you guessed it…THE INQUISITION!!!!
The Vancouver Sun:
The move happened quietly this month, when two United Church adherents from the Toronto conference, Ann Harbridge and Linda Parsons, made a motion to interview Vosper “with a focus on continuing affirmation of the questions asked of all candidates at the time of ordination” into the United Church of Canada.
I’ve already had a member of the United Church of Canada email me and say the review of Vosper reminds her of the “Inquisition.”
That would be the “Inquisition” of the 15th-century Roman Catholic Church in Spain, which has become notorious for the way it tortured, burned and otherwise murdered at least 5,000 people for perceived unorthodoxy. It doesn’t seem to be very accurate language to use in the more mundane Vosper case.
But it is the kind of exaggerated language that I’m sure is feared by members of the super-tolerant liberal United Church of Canada. I suspect they’ve been worried any attempt to review Vosper’s high-profile atheistic declarations would be seen as close-minded authoritarianism, with Vosper’s supporters portraying her as a “victim” and even a “martyr.”
So far the review of Vosper, who has often been in Vancouver on book tours, has not received any media attention outside the United Church of Canada. But we’ll see what happens when it does.
The supporters of Vosper claim that she is “courageous” because since 2001 she has been offering an atheistic alternative to belief in an “interventionist” God. I understand Vosper considers herself some version of a “Christian atheist.”
Vosper is not a shrinking violet about her ideas: She recently publicly urged United Church of Canada Moderator Gary Paterson to “clear the public sphere from the prejudices of religious belief,” since, she argued, religion is a key source of global violence.
But many progressive voices in the United Church of Canada are frustrated because they think Vosper and her supporters, including the roughly 80 who are listed as members of her Toronto congregation, engage in either-or thinking, which critics say sometimes entraps even the otherwise high-quality United Church Observer.
They don’t seem to realize there have long been many ways to believe in a transcendent reality that doesn’t demand blind obedience to an all-powerful supernatural God who “intervenes” when “He” feels like it in the world.
Hahahahahahhaahhaaha. You’ve got to admit this is pretty hilarious. The United Church of Canada can’t even figure out if not believing in God is a disqualifying factor in a minister of the church. So paralyzed by political correctness are the officials of the church that they’re afraid to act.
Let’s watch to see what happens. This should be fun.
Something tells me that these same officials would have no problem seeming “authoritarian” if a minister of the same church came out in support of traditional marriage. Boy howdy would that prompt more than a “review.”
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