Rancho Miller

I was disappointed to read of the alleged dissing of the leadership of the Diocese of Quincy by the dean of its cathedral church, St. Paul’s, and another of its priests.

[Father John] Blossom said that members of the diocese have been “fed a diet of misleading information” about the Episcopal Church for as many as ten years.  He said the result of that effort has been that some people actually believe there are no Christians left in the Episcopal Church.

On a website set up to aid communication between persons wanting to help reorganize the diocese, Blossom quotes the Very Rev. Robert Dedmon, dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, who said the cathedral vote “demonstrates that when people have an opportunity to study the facts they realize that the information disseminated by the ultra-conservative leadership of the diocese was misleading.”

I’m not sure exactly what kind of “misleading information” now-retired Bishop Keith Ackerman and others have been “feeding” the diocese. Has The Episcopal Church turned away from clear biblical teaching on various issues of morality? Yes. In doing so, did it break earlier promises? Yes.

From what I could see as Peoria Journal Star religion reporter, who covered many of these Quincy-related issues over the years, Ackerman did his best to listen to everyone and get accurate information out to his people. He bent over backwards to let the process take its proper time and direction. Blossom and Dedmon are saying, in essence (and if Episcopal Life Online is reporting accurately), that Ackerman and all of the other leaders lied to their people. I simply don’t see any evidence for that. If that is so, then they remained silent and are themselves culpable. On the other hand, ELO is a branch of TEC and could easily be twisting what Blossom and Dedmon said. I also am acquainted with Dean Dedmon and am very surprised that he would say something so unkind about Ackerman. I hope the quotes were taken out of context. In fact, I looked for the quotes attributed to Blossom on the reorganizing diocese’s Web site and couldn’t find them. I’m not sure where ELO got its information.

I don’t think that Obama’s history of voting against Second Amendment freedoms, despite his recent assurances that he has the opposite point of view, is the only thing responsible for the sharp rise in gun and ammo sales.

I think people are also concerned about the potential oppression that liberals have been signaling for the past several years, as well as the need for protection in an uncertain economy.