An obviously-frustrated Brad Drell blows off some steam in this posting. Writing as though he were purportedly a “reappraiser” (liberal) on a church listserv, he says (extra paragraphing added):
We [liberals] can’t let anyone else have a say in what we think or do. We are so far superior to all those other Anglicans and Christians out there.
We are the prophets for the whole world, and if those illiberal neo-puritan dimwits that believe the Bible to be God’s Word would just let us alone, eventually they’ll come around to our way of thinking, because we are always right.
Oh, c’mon, Brad; you’re way overreacting. Just because y’all “reasserters” and we “reappraisers” disagree doesn’t mean we think we’re superior, any more than it means you do. (I’m going to use “you” in the second-person plural; I’m not targeting this missive at Brad personally.) Neither does our disagreement mean you can’t have a say in what we think or do. It just means we disagree.
We’re very receptive to what you have to say about same-sex unions and gay bishops. That’s because we’re aware — or at least most of us are — that we could be wrong.
But that doesn’t mean we’re automatically going to submit to your views. We’re just as smart, just as educated, just as loving of God and our neighbor, as you are. We’ve read the Bible just as carefully and prayerfully as you. Yes, we have different views about the Bible’s authority than you do, but we don’t recall ever hearing a voice from heaven proclaiming its — or your — infallibility.
In the end, we have to believe, and act, according to our own consciences. That includes voting in church governing bodies. And votes do matter; maybe that’s not the best way, but that’s the way we do things.
At General Convention 2003, our views happened to prevail. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose (Carole King — omigosh, I’m coming down with Zahlitis 
). You didn’t win that one, but life is a movie, not a snapshot.
We’re not asking you to submit your conscience and judgment to ours. But don’t hold your breaths waiting for us to submit to yours, either. You often seem to be doing just that: holding your breaths until you turn blue. That strikes us as just plain childish.
Some of you scorn us for offering the so-called Rodney King plea (“can’t we all just get along?”) Some of you mock our efforts to keep the church together. Trust me, there are times we’d just as soon see the backs of you, too.
But the mission is what matters. Maybe we’re deluding ourselves, but we persist in thinking that, if we can keep collaborating and sharing table fellowship, we might each learn things we didn’t know; and that working together, we can do a better job of proclaiming God’s good news, to the doubters and unbelievers of the world, than we could separately.
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(By the way, Brad, for several months I’ve been lurking sporadically on the HoB listserv. I don’t quite see what’s gotten your goat. Sure, sometimes some of the liberals can be opinionated, but far less so, it seems to me, than many of the conservatives on T1:9 and your own blog. )
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