Life As Performance Art 52

I find it interesting how at polar opposites I always seem to find myself from the official party line of the Anglican Church. So, we have it from our parish priest that at this recent synod they have decided to go on with their bromance with the First Nations, and absolute nothing has been said about supporting the homeless and anti-poverty work. I think there is an elephant in the living room that needs to be named here... Even though Anglican churches do have community meals, in some of their parishes, and even if a few have partnerships for affordable housing (but not many), as well as some community outreach programs, it is my observation that the Anglican Church falls way behind other Christian denominations in outreach and support work to the poorest of the poor, and for one simple reason: Anglicans tend to be well-off (often old money), stuck in their ways, selfish and greedy, and they also hate any challenge to change their lifestyles and sacrifice comforts and entitlements, if only to identify even a little bit with He who became very poor for us. They cling to their single malt scotch and other pricey booze, their lovely sumptuous homes and pricey possessions ensconced in some of the toniest neighbourhoods, their lovely expensive cars, their luxury cruises, all of them the usual obscene entitlements that separate them from the rest of humanity. This is beyond disgusting!!!! And I don't care one single shit who reads this or who gets offended. This is the very selfishness and greed and hypocrisy that Our Lord railed against and that sent Him to the Cross for us, and I see no reason why those rich poobahs should be let off the hook. Our parish priest says that the church is listening to the Holy Spirit. HA!!!!! If they are, then it is with very selective hearing that they are listening. After the kind of shit and abuse that I have been through from some of those whited sepulchres (fancy-shmancy Bible talk meaning whitewashed tombs) I am not about to cut them slack, nor am I going to believe anything that comes out of their mouths. As to their relationship with First Nations, that is somewhat admirable, but they also run the risk of being held hostage to guilt and manipulation, because the Anglican Church does not seem at all interested in engaging with persons as individuals with dignity and who make or refuse to make moral and ethical choices, but as broad categories fueled by the kind of politically correct postmodernist bullshit that gets churned out of their theological academies. So comes this ridiculous assertion that all white people are privileged, and by extension, well-off and successful. People like me, who will be stuck on a low-income, though Caucasian, and in social housing for the rest of our lives are ignored and not given existence in the Anglican Church, because we challenge their intellectual laziness, and destroy their false sense of security in making broad and mindless stereotypes. Well, hear this, my dear privileged Anglicans: We are not categories. We are persons. All of us. Some of us, myself for example, would prefer to not see race or colour and choose instead to engage with persons away from categories, stereotypes and convenient little boxes, and you are making this supremely difficult. Not all First Nations people think the same way. You will find every bit the full range of opinions and perspectives among them that you will find among other people, so stop presuming that you know what is best for them. It is their lives and their responsibility and we have to know when to step back and respect them as autonomous persons, and not as a disenfranchised category that merits your pity. These are individuals worthy of respect, and there is something of this lacking in the Anglican formula of political correctness and identity politics. Take Colten Boushie, for example. Not one single person seems to want to have a balanced perspective or sense of proportion about him, which is simply this: a guy goes on a joyride with his friends, probably drinking, they run out of gas, try to steal a truck from a local farmer and he gets shot to death by the farmer over it. Those are all the ingredients. It doesn't matter that he was aboriginal, nor that the farmer is white (not a settler, he was born here.) So, a young man refused to make an acceptable moral choice, and a farmer also refused to make an acceptable moral choice, took out his murderous rage on him. This is actually a morally complicated scenario that speaks much more of the very human drama that we all share in, regardless of race, culture or heritage, and we have to start seeing each other beyond those labels and stereotypes, and we also have to start showing real and unmitigated kindness and mercy for everyone, aboriginal, white, coloured, or whatever. We are not categories. We are persons. We all hurt the same way, we all bleed the same shade of red.