When God Wants Your Attention

     Last week, I was outraged by the words of some of my religions leaders. I got angry. As time went on, I stayed angry. To my thinking, they trivialized the suffering of many and held up an elite few as deserving of our prayers over everyone else. The egregious nature of it hit me hard. What made it a tougher was the reaction from other members of my denomination. When The Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States devoted special prayers to those people, some lay people and clergy presented it to members of the Anglican Communion in this country as marching papers.To question or refuse to comply was tantamount of being a bad Christian.

     So I walked away. In internet terms, this is known as a flounce.

     The problem was, It didn't make me feel any better. I sought out groups associated with my denomination. It didn't take me long to realize that many of the people felt the same way I did. For every farmed response telling me that Bishop Curry had issued my marching orders, there was someone trying to come to grips with values being challenged by leaders who seemed more interested in virtue signaling than the real effect these people they were asking us to pray for were having on our lives.

     Christy Thomas, who writes The Thoughful Pastor for Patheos Progressive Christian section, summed it up prefectly in her essay, Something Broke In Me Tonight.