Last fall when the face-off between the PSW (now Transformation Ministries) and the ABCUSA began in earnest, I found myself amazed by the poor judgmemt exercised by Dr. Roy Medley, ABCUSA General Secretary. It would have been relatively easy to reach an accomodation with PSW: find a way to de-couple the financial covenant from the covenant of relationships. Instead, Medley chose to come to California and force the issue. I wondered why.
Last week, Medley again exercised what seemed to me to poor judgment: he chose to alienate the left of the ABC with a letter that I have argued means NOTHING. (See July 19: "Why the Theo-Left Has Nothing to Fear from the Medley Letter"). However the thin-skins in the AWAB crowd have gone ape. Ken Pennings, exec of AWAB tore into Medley:
I urge Roy and all American Baptists to repent of this kind of exclusion of God's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Allied people, and 1) to welcome the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists as an official exhibitor at the 2007 ABCUSA Biennial; 2) to endorse qualified LGBT-Allied chaplains; and 3) to joyfully hire qualified LGBT-Allied people on his immediate staff. Also, I urge Roy to retract his letter and to confess his lapse in judgment in posting it. [Click HERE for the full text.]
In other words, we demand a pro-theo-left confessionalism that embraces what the Scriptures reject. Gosh, I thought we didn't go for confessionalism. Whoopsie.
It seems Dr. Medley has a two-front war on his hands: the left and the right. He seems to be in the position of Israeli PM Ehud Olmert: a two-front war (Gaza and Hizballah).
Or is he?
Maybe Medley's intentional snubbing of PSW wasn't a glitch in his programming, but was instead his central program. Maybe he's more like Darth Sidious (AKA Chancellor/Emperor Palaptine) of the Star Wars saga.
In the Star Wars legend, Sidious manufactures a war between the Separatists and the Republic so he can position himself in the center as the wise leader hero, wipe out the Jedi and make himself supreme Sith leader. (Don't push this too far--I don't.)
Could it be that Medley and the VF leadership intentionally snubbed the PSW as a means to driving out the most troublesome theo-right region, and now is intentionally snubbing the AWAB crowd to placate the remaining regions?
Maybe I'm giving Dr. Medley too much insidious credit (get the pun?) Maybe not. We'll see.
4 comments:
Bro,
Forget Star Wars, you've been watching WAY too many episodes of 24! Dr. Medley is a man without guile. He is as genuine as they come; a centrist to the core. I vote for your original assumption.
DD,
I met you once and you seemed like the coolest guy in the world.
Star Wars??????
Thanks a lot; now I have to go to Blockbuster to see what you mean.
The problem is that Darth Sidious had a galaxy to gain. What does Medley have to gain? A half-dead denomination? He already essentially had it...when it was less than half-dead.
Are you suggesting that Medley is out to re-define the role of G.S.? The brave souls in Michigan are trying to re-define it out of existence. I wonder if he'd have a prayer (even sans the right and the left) of broadening his power. And if he couldn't do that, why "orchestrate the war?"
Not buying it, DD. I'd be more wary of the regions already scrambling to consolodate power as they wait for the expected demise of the denomination. I am starting to think Parchment Valley was a move in this direction.
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