“They’re our brothers and sisters. When we stop seeing people that way it’s so easy to start making laws or enacting policies that harm them.”
Is the recording available anywhere? Even so, massive yikes.
I’m an Episcopal priest, and I’m trying to imagine how I’d respond to this. The only time I’ve ever had to ask someone to leave was when a, say, mentally unbalanced man came into the church and screamed profanity at me in the middle of the service and told me that I needed the permission of the Korean consulate to preach (this was a white guy in a Navy sailor’s cap, in Hawai’i where I live—not sure what his deal with Korea was). He did this twice over a couple years and I have a person who works with unhoused veterans in my parish who’s told me that she’d been instructed not to interact with the guy because he was deemed too dangerous. So, asking him to leave was a safety issue. But no one tackled him.
I’d like to think that I’d let this guy have his say. If he’s not cussing anyone out or getting violent, I’d probably let him talk and then invite him to hang out and talk some after the service. I sure as shit wouldn’t demand him to “respect my authoritah” or see him tackled to the ground. That is something I can’t wrap my head around.
Hey father! How long have you been doing your job? And how’s it changed in the time you’ve done it?
Been a priest almost 14 years. As for the change question, are you asking me about my own personal experience of doing the work of a priest, or how has the church at large changed during my time?
More people need to be doing this at churches. Its the easiest way to fix the free speech narratives:
“why are churches trying to ban the words of jesus?” “These are public spaces that get tax breaks for being public spaces, why is there censorship in these places”
Yes, but also, the craziest people will say either A. That the pastor should be the one preaching (like the people in this case did) or B. That that’s really just politics (even if you’re literally quoting there Bible), and politics should stay out of the church
Fucking legend.
A church to the antichrist. You will treat the sorjourner as your own.
