All posts tagged authority
I'm not always wearing my full habit...
I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people that believe it.
— George Carlin
Undercover Nun hopes that every Christian person recognizes the truth of this statement. It is true for each one of us. Some of us are young, growing into our authority. Some of us are more seasoned, so that authority becomes the favorite comfy sweater. Some of us shout our authority, and some of us whisper, and some of us sing. Some of us do all three of those, but at different times.
The truth of the matter is this: you have authority, by virtue of being a human being, a beloved child of the infinitely-loving God. Learn your authority. Taste it. Grow into it. Own it. Wear it as a mantle. As with all gifts, God never intends for us to leave our authority unrecognized and unused.
One would be hard pressed to prove — as the Articles of Religion require, from Scripture — that belief in heterosexual marriage is necessary to salvation. Lacking that demonstration, it cannot be a matter of the faith.
Brother Tobias Stanislas Haller, BSG, at In a Godward direction: The missing QED
From the comment thread below this marvelous statement, Br. Tobias clarifies that this is based on documents that are foundational to Anglican/Episcopalian spirituality: the Thirty-Nine Articles, the writings of Richard Hooker, and the Lambeth Quadrilateral.
Basically, this is saying that we can find in scripture the basic matters of the faith, which are pretty well summed up in the historic creeds. Beyond those things, faithful people can disagree. Yes, the Church can (and does) speak out on matters of morality. However, that does not make these matters of morality to be matters of the faith.
I love the commenter who took this one step further to monogamous heterosexual marriage. I know that polygamous (usually, polygynous) and polyamorous marriages are, of necessity, more complex; however, I’ve never really gotten what the big deal is over them.
Catholic board bans gay and ‘Nazi groups’
I found this an interesting story. Part 1:
An Ontario school board has come under fire for banning gay-straight alliances from its schools.
The Halton Catholic District School Board in Burlington voted last November to bar students from forming gay social justice groups because they would clash with the school’s traditional Catholic value system.
In an interview last week with Xtra, Canada’s gay and lesbian newspaper, board director Alice Anne Lemay said there are a number of groups the board disallows, and with good reason.
“We don’t have Nazi groups either,” she is quoted as saying. “It’s not in accordance with the teachings of the church. If they wanted to have a club outside of school, fine, just not in school.”
So here we have an indirect link between school-sponsored social justice groups for gay rights and school-sponsored groups that promote discrimination, fear, and violent hatred. We don’t allow school clubs that promote rights for homosexual people, just like we don’t allow school clubs that promote hatred, violence, and fear-mongering.
But wait! That isn’t what she meant to say!
In a statement posted Monday on the school board website, Lemay defended the board’s stance and said her comments were taken out of context.
“It was not my intent to make any type of comparison between gay-straight alliances and Nazi groups. Rather, I was providing a number of examples of groups that are not endorsed and permitted in Halton Catholic schools, for example, groups in favour of abortion or hate groups of any nature,” she said.
“I did not make a direct comparison between gay-straight alliances and any of these groups, nor was that my intent.”
For what it’s worth, Undercover Nun agrees with Ms. Lemay. She did not make a direct comparison. I’ll even allow for the indirect equation being unintended.
Unfortunately, an indirect comparison is more insidious than a direct comparison. If she’d said “These gay groups are just like the Nazi groups we turn down,” then everyone would find the statement ridiculous and reject it immediately. That would be it (other than the inevitable outcry and retraction). This indirect comparison, though, links the words “gay” and “Nazi” in our minds. For many (most?) readers, this link will go unnoticed, but it will still be present in the mind and even physically in the brain. When the idea of a gay person next comes up, that link will light up, and “Nazi” will briefly flash on the mind’s television screen.
This technique is frequently used by advertisers and propagandists. You ever wonder why beautiful women advertise laundry detergent? It’s insane to think that using Cheer instead of Tide will make you more beautiful, but this is the indirect link that is made in your mind: Cheer detergent = beauty. The link doesn’t have to be logical or rational to be present and to work. It only has to exist.
The thing is, Ms. Lemay, that you are in a position of authority. You are charged with using language responsibly. There have been so many instances of stories like this hitting the news because a spokesperson was careless with his or her language. Words have great power, and when they are misused or abused, words can do great harm. Your carelessness has created that link in minds: gay = Nazi. It’s not rational, logical, or true. But now it is present and operative, and no number of retractions can ever wipe it away.
Undercover Nun pleads for all spokespersons to carefully consider their language before giving statements. When you speak as a person of authority, your words take on extra weight, so the good or harm that can come from them also takes on extra weight. Be just. Be kind. Love mercy. Walk humbly.
I’ll hold you in my prayers, Ms. Alice Anne Lemay, as I pray for those who may have been harmed by your words.
“Go Live as a Man for One Week.”
…..
I lived as a woman for 50 years, and was a real feminist. Then I transitioned to living as a man, and I was shocked at how different it felt on an every day basis, to be accorded the regard and deference that men are automatically given as their due in this world.
The first thing I noticed was how people moved out of my way when I walked down the street. That became my metaphor for how much easier it became to move through my world. Then it became stunningly clear that people no longer interrupted me when I spoke - they listened with a new interest and regard, and started taking my ideas seriously for the first time in my life (and I have an IQ of 160, so I was never a slouch in the idea department).
I found that I no longer had to earn and re-earn respect in every situation in my life, I was given authority and power to move decisions and change the course of events, automatically, and without having to prove myself again and again. Society seemed to constantly feed me positive energy and esteem. That powerful current of high regard bolstered me, fed me confidence and self satisfaction in a way I had never before experienced as a woman.
Gone were all the slights, interferences, being ignored, and challenges that seemed, by comparison, to diminish and drain my energy as a woman, not support it. Women get elbowed out of power all the time, and it becomes “normal” to be less than. …..
Undercover Nun may not be a man, but she insists on being treated with respect and dignity… as every person should, woman or man, black or brown or white or anything in between, gay or straight, transgender or in the process or “natural”, every person.
They Kingdom come, O Lord; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Police admit deliberately misleading public on expanded security fence law - The Globe and Mail
Civil libertarians were fuming after hearing Friday that the Ontario cabinet gave police the power to stop and search anyone coming within five metres of the G20 fences in Toronto for a one week period.
However, the Ministry of Community Safety says all the cabinet did was update the law that governs entry to such things as court houses to include specific areas inside the G20 fences — not outside.
A ministry spokeswoman says the change was about property, not police powers, and did not include any mention of a zone five metres outside the G20 security perimeter.
When asked Tuesday if there actually was a five-metre rule given the ministry’s clarification, Chief Bill Blair smiled and said, “No, but I was trying to keep the criminals out.”
Undercover Nun does not approve. This is so uncanadian it’s nigh unbelievable. How can the police chief expect citizens to be honest with him, if he cannot be honest with the citizens?
Authority brings with it a deep and grave responsibility, the responsibility to work for the best for those who give you obedience. Taking on the mantle of authority is a choice, and taking on the yoke of obedience is a choice. If authority is misused and abused, then obedience is thrown off and discarded.
Chief Bill Blair, Undercover Nun is praying for your immortal soul.
