Bishop's Letter - January 2020
Dear Friends,
On January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, the College of Bishops of our Church was meeting online when we became aware of what was happening at the U.S. Capitol. It was heartbreaking to see what took place, both the violence (several people died, including a Capitol police officer) and the fact that at least some openly proclaimed that they were Christians acting “in the Name of Jesus.” Such acts of violence are wrong, as were the rioting, looting and burnings of last summer.
Early the next morning, Bishop Julian Dobbs and I went to the Capitol to pray the Great Litany from the Book of Common Prayer, which for centuries Christians have prayed in times of national crisis, seeking God’s forgiveness and deliverance. (Perhaps you would like to pray the Great Litany in your personal times of devotion. You can find it on page 91 of the Book of Common Prayer 2019 and online here.) Many of our churches also held special services of prayer for our nation.
Christians follow Jesus, and his Gospel transcends and critiques all cultures and all political ideologies. The Church is not a political party and there will inevitably be political disagreements among godly, faithful Christians. But we must all acknowledge that there have arisen in our society violent extremes on both ends of the political spectrum that are incompatible with the way of Christ. We may be more sympathetic to one end of that spectrum and so we try to see its members as well-intentioned and motivated by justifiable frustrations. But we must not allow our sympathies to cause us to be silent about such public wrongdoing. In fact, we should be quickest to speak out when those of our political persuasion publicly misrepresent Christ.
We must be on guard against this dehumanizing polarization that infects both extremes in our culture. We are being bombarded with messages that relentlessly tell us that all those who disagree with us are just like those radical extremists we see on the other side.
In a recent sermon, I said this:
I’ve been reading about the impact that technology is having on us, both from secular scientists and engineers like Jaron Lanier, and Christian theologians and philosophers like our own Craig Gay of Regent College in Vancouver. They are warning about what the technology is doing to our character, to our soul. In particular, they caution us that social media is fostering the polarization of our society to the extent that it is destroying our capacity for empathy. I’m not qualified to explain how technology companies make use of algorithms, but these critics make clear that social media companies feed users with a polarized diet of material that makes it more difficult to empathize with those who disagree with you. Lanier points out that what people see when they log in to their preferred social media platform is a universe that has been completely customized by algorithms to provide material that either meshes with your hyper-individualized preferences or else is radically opposed to your views.
It leads to a culture where we are constantly reinforced in believing the very best of the virtues and motives and insights of our own camp, and the very worst of those evil people who disagree. In fact, our culture increasingly urges you to demonstrate your commitment to your cause by how viciously you attack those you oppose.
How we view, describe and engage with those who disagree with us makes all the difference for the cause of Christ. On the Summit for Life livestream last Saturday, one of the speakers, David Bereit, founder of 40 Days for Life, told a moving story of a Christian pro-life activist who had at first stood outside a Manassas, VA abortion clinic and angrily harangued the abortionist as he went in and out of the facility. But then, convicted by the Holy Spirit, he began instead to reach out in love, speaking kindly to the doctor and engaging with him personally. A relationship developed and the doctor came to reject abortion entirely and he thanked the Christians for loving him out of the abortion industry.
We must never dehumanize or write off those we oppose, even those we see are causing great harm. They are made in the image of God and we love them as those for whom our Savior also died, even as we faithfully witness to the truth we know in Scripture.
Scripture commands us to pray for those in governmental authority “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:2–4).
Let us, in humility and with penitent hearts, pray fervently for all of our leaders and for the healing and transformation of our nation.
Faithfully yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. John A. M. Guernsey
P.S. I know that many of our clergy have reflected pastorally with their congregation on these events. Four thoughtful articles I’ve seen are here:
The Rev. Patrick A. Ware: Letter to My Congregation Regarding the Capitol Riots of January, 2021
The Rev. Sam Ferguson: Ambassadors of Reconciliation in a World Divided
The Rev. Dan Marotta: We Need Epiphany (Now More Than Ever)
The Rev. David Drake: Dear Resurrection Family and Friends