The Wilful Sunflower

I just popped into one of my Yahoo! groups and discovered that someone had posted this article:

Blair Slammed Over Iraq War By His Own Priest

Excerpt:

After the service Fr Russ, a family friend, told the Daily Mirror violence and loss of life are not God's way to solve the world's problems.

Father Russ, priest at St Anne's Roman Catholic Church near the PM's Chequers home said: "Man must live by the will to integrity rather than the will to power. The PM is caught up in the will to power game. That is his problem.

"He has had a moral surrender from his past. His positions have changed over the years... He may not like me very much for telling you but it is my job to try to speak the truth from God."

Another person on the mailing list commented:

I am very much encouraged to read this. Years ago I attended a church where, with the polls around the corner, the pastor used the pulpit to promote the current party that was in power – plucking a verse from the Bible that we should submit to authority. However, he did not state that submission is conditional upon righteousness and integrity.

When I confronted him quietly, he told me off: "You are supposed to love your leaders." Sorry to say, church flocks in general idolise their pastors as if they (the pastors) could do no wrong.

I am very proud of Blair's priest. He is a rare gem to stand up to such a prominent member of his flock.

Speaking from experience, many churches would be basking in glory if such personalities were to turn up on a worship service.

And ain't that the truth! A friend described what happened when the Prime Minister's daughter, Marina Mahathir, who is also president of the Malaysian AIDS Council, came to her (my friend's) church to speak on AIDS: "The choir had to practice singing special songs because she was coming, and everything was done up nicely, because the leaders insisted it had to be just so for Marina Mahathir. She arrived a bit late because she'd been held up by traffic. They actually stopped the service and announced her arrival, and everybody stood up and clapped! She looked astounded. I was embarrassed! It was like we were so overawed by her, we were trying to please men instead of God."

As for pastors being unreceptive to correction or rebuke – or even mere questioning! – sometime back, John Campea had a post about the phrase "touch not God's anointed": "At any rate, something that would drive me crazy was when big name 'teachers' came to our church and would teach the most wacked out, cocaine induced nonsense, and then if you DARED try to question the teaching they would hit you with the 'Touch not God's anointed!' line."

I wonder whether that would come under "taking God's name in vain"... but pastors are human too; they get defensive and offended when they are questioned, just like you and I. In fact, it takes a humble person to accept correction graciously, and authority figures, I would think, tend to have an especial problem with being humble. Asians understand this very well; if you admit you were wrong, you "lose face". To "lose face" is to be humiliated and lose the respect of others; dignity is all-important. At all costs, one must not allow one's self to "lose face". Hence rule #1: Never admit you are in the wrong.

The funny thing is that I respect those who can accept correction even more than I respect those who refuse to admit they might be wrong.