A.S. Haley: The Proper Treatment of Arrogance

Monday, June 8, 2009

It is not required of us as Christians that we be silent in the face of injustice. In commanding us to "turn the other cheek", Jesus asked that we not give tit for tat, but never required that we meekly accept the wrong thereby done. Our Lord was, to the contrary, outspoken against the moneychangers and dove-sellers in the Temple, and rebuked even His own disciple for resorting rashly to the sword. Paul also requires Christians to challenge their brother when he is in the wrong, and to call on him to mend his ways.

So it is that I give you today a striking example of a richly deserved upbraiding of Bishop Jerry A. Lamb, whose uncanonical acts now bid fair to equal or surpass those of the Presiding Bishop. I wrote some time ago about his folly in presuming to "depose" clergy in the Diocese of San Joaquin. I warned that the only result of such an act would be to confirm that those very same clergy were needed to establish a lawful quorum so that the Special Convention held at Lodi on March 29, 2008 could transact business---including the business of confirming the Rt. Rev. Lamb, resigned, as "Provisional Bishop". And after he followed through just last week, by signing sentences of deposition for 61 clergy, I confirmed the end result of what he had accomplished: a demonstration, for any and all to discern, that he was not lawfully confirmed in the office he now claims to occupy. The emperor had no clothes, and Bishop Lamb has no see. the rest