Newspaper Columns by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
I was at an international ecumenical meeting in May -- until the group
used an Episcopal altar as a bar.As a liturgist, it is my job to know what all denominations think about
altars and how they believe altars are to be respected. I assume it
didn't occur to them that this altar deserved the treatment they show
theirs.When I was on the Yale Divinity School faculty, someone from another
denomination told me that when women left her church in order to seek
ordination, she encouraged them to go somewhere other than the Episcopal
Church. "You know," she said with a patronizing smile, "to us, the
Episcopal Church seems, well, fake."Much of the official ecumenical conversation happens on a level where
people speak in lofty terms about blue sky concepts. Those conversations
seldom deal with our down to earth unconscious bigotry, the everyday
kind.Roman Catholic Bishop Timlin of Scranton wisely pointed out last year
that we do not want to transcend what separates us.I agree. I think sin separates us. I think disrespect separates us. I
think clueless appeals for tolerance rather than for respect separate
us.Among the promises Episcopalians make at baptism and the various times
we renew our baptism, the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer
includes respect for the dignity of every human being. For me, that
includes respect for the beliefs and symbols of others.I raise the specter of how some from another group seem to feel about my
group, about how much it hurts to be considered a fake Christian, to
give the reader permission to ask if there are any religious traditions
whose values do not deserve respect.I am not one who believes that contradictory religious teachings can be
true at the same time -- though they may all be wrong. I suspect I will
always believe that certain religious groups have gotten things wrong,
but I do not share the belief of radical Protestantism that other
religious leaders know the truth and deliberately hide it from their
people.Saying that we do not share another's belief is a perfectly reasonable
thing to do in honest conversation. We do not, however, have the right
to act as though other people hold their beliefs and value their symbols
with less integrity than we hold and cherish ours.Beliefs are not just ideas; symbols are not just things. Beliefs are how
people organize their identity; symbols connect them to it.If I asked to borrow your deceased mother's engagement ring to scratch
bird droppings out of a tight space on the sole of my golf shoe, YOU
would insist, I'd hope, that the ring is sacred to your memory of your
mother, a symbol of how much you still value what you had together. You
might even punch me in the nose. That would be wrong, but
understandable.The same might be said of the profane use of Christ's name in the media.
Though I don't expect that name to be important to every person who
makes movies, I expect them to realize that the name is important to me.
This is not deep philosophy. It is good manners, simple respect for
those around us. Is this a hard concept?Leaning how to disagree without disrespect is hard, however, because
nothing in the current culture points the way. Our culture teaches us to
ignore or minimize beliefs -- even to destroy what is different.If we are going to talk with one another and to learn from one another,
respect - not simply tolerance -- must shape the conversation. Tolerance
is a legal concept. Respect requires a mature and tempered heart.Return to the index of Bishop Paul's columns for the secular press
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