Seminary is probably going to be bad for my respect of clergy, especially those of the more mainline groups. Today I had an entire class in which we effectively danced around the Gospel message without ever really talking about it. This was strange since the class was about conflict management, and well, the greatest source of conflict for a Christian is the preaching of the actual Gospel.

In a roundabout way, the class was a good example. In the room are many people from many different points of view concerning the truth of Jesus Christ as savior of the world. The professor doubtless wanted to avoid discussing something that would no doubt lead to conflict, but the result was that the conflict that comes from telling people the truth about the world (as we wingnut fundies see the world) was simply ignored, even as we alluded to the Gospel.

It’s amazing how much people can say about the Gospel without ever saying it.  

Someday I’d like to hear unequivocal speaking from leading clergy in this diocese. I’m probably not going to see it, since the avoidance conflict is the goal here, not the spread of the Gospel. The result is that I’m going tokeep seeing a Church that lies about Jesus Christ through the hypocracy of cloaked words, rather than speaking the message of life.