If the Shoe Fits...

Episcopalians and Southern Baptists usually find themselves at some distance from one another on the theological/political compass. Pronouncements from clergy in one group carry little weight, if any, among the other.

Which is not to say that they ought not learn from one another… Read on.

In the midst of the “YouTube Debate” among the Republican presidential candidates Wednesday night, one questioner asked the question that won the evening’s Do-You-Still-Beat-Your-Wife? award: “Do you believe every word of the Bible?”

Several candidates slipped and slid on this one, muttering affirmative answers while interspersing adjectives like ‘interpretive’ and ‘allegorical.’

It fell to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who is also an ordained Baptist minister, to land the “money punch.” Said he, “I believe in the Bible, and I recognize that in today’s world, parts of it are allegory. But until we get the major parts right: ‘Love your neighbor,’ ‘Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me.’ right, there’s not much point in worrying about the rest of the details.”

He might also have added, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” but two out of three isn’t bad. We wish that all the Episcopalians/Anglicans who continue to insist that they know God’s will and the other guys are hopeless heathens had been listening.

Probably not…