02 September 2003 - 11:20 p.m.

It's so yesterday's gag now, but I've only just come across Sage Stossel's take on The Coming Schism.

At St. Ann's this past Sunday, Rev. Hunt's sermon focused on Mark 7:14-15, 21-23, using it to question the framework of "spiritual warfare":

". . Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

The gist, as I heard it: in the drive to define within vs. outside, to declare who is Episcopalian and who is not, who are the winners and who are the losers - is this not the language of "powers and principalities" rather than of community and reconciliation? Should we not look within rather than hastening to attribute evil to external sources?

Two years ago: you can shut the door