The eCrozier

We all feel the pull of our consciences, which when healthy help us keep an ordinate self-perspective that balances self-criticism and self-glorification. Freud argued that western culture was based on the first half of this – an extreme guilt based on religious convictions of original sin and our fall from grace. This has produced, again according to Freud, a sense that we are always unworthy. Of course, in our now post-Christian culture much of this religious conviction has gone away with a stronger focus on self-esteem that often morphs into the glorification of the self (see American Idol et al).

In this other side of the balance, we are encouraged to believe in our essential goodness and how much we really deserve to be prosperous in every possible material and spiritual way. It is no accident that the rise of prosperity theology (see Joel Osteen et al) has coincided with the increased secularity of our culture. Prosperity theology is many warped things but it is at the very least an effort to keep religion relevant in a post-Christian culture.

We Anglicans have always (at our best) maintained a healthy balance in our self-understanding. Yes, we are sinners from our mothers’ wombs. But we are also beloved by God and wear, as Thomas Aquinas reminded us, the Habitus of Grace. As we wear this habit of grace and adopt the habit of grace-filled living, we never stop being sinners, but we do grow in faith and practice becoming more of who God intends us to be.

I guess all this is on my mind as I enter my first Diocesan Finance Committee meeting today. On the agenda is cutting about $300,000 from the diocesan budget, or about 22% of what was originally estimated. We have proposed expenses of about $1.7 million and proposed income of about $1.4 million. Where will we cut? I am sure we will have many opinions about who or what we can do without.

Maybe you see where I am going with all this. No, I am not trying to make you or anyone else feel guilty by what your parish is or is not giving; what percentage of your asking you are keeping. Nor I am trying to offer you cheap absolution and grace for anything financially-related. What I am telling you is the truth, just as it is the truth that we are all mixed-bags, redeemed sinners, the fallen who have been saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus.

+Scott