I have received some rather negative comments about my last post. Unfortunately, none of them were signed, and I do not post “anonymous” comments. I have the courage to stand behind what I write, and I only post comments from people who have the courage to sign what they write.

I would like to respond to some of the issues raised. Some folks felt it was inappropriate for a bishop to be angry and encouraged me to reread my Bible. Actually, I read my Bible regularly and have never found a passage that says it is inappropriate to feel, or inappropriate to be angry. What’s more, there certainly is no indication that ordained folks should not feel – in fact, not being able to feel would be a terrible detriment to people in ministry as they would proceed on a rather heartless basis.

There was also mention made that I and the people whom I sheppard would all end up in hell. Since I do not believe in hell – in fact, the word “hell” does not appear in the New Testament in the original language – I am not too concerned about that. In fact, my personal feeling is that those who hold to some sort of hell have huge doubts about the efficacy of Jesus’ redemptive role in the history of humanity. Such calls for damnation result from human beings projecting their anger onto God, not from any biblical understanding of anything

There was also a call for me to be reported to my supervisors for the angry tone of my last blog. How interesting, and yet how predictable. First, this is a personal blog and this is still America, where freedom of speech exists. I also took great care not to identify any individuals involved in the subject of my post. I assume the comment writer comes from a rather conservative theological position (given the tone of his comments), and I have always found it curious that conservative folks’ answer to any disagreement is not dialogue, but rather an attempt to silence the person with whom they disagree.

So, to summarize: it is ok for people to mistreat other people, even people close to me I would assume, but it is not ok for me to have strong feelings about that. Very interesting, and in fact very curious.

I’m afraid we will just have to agree to disagree. I suspect that will be a problem for you, but that is your issue, not mine.