God's Timing

Religion and political Transformation This is Life! has a very interesting post on much the same subject as my last post, that there exist often overlooked similarities between Fundamentalists and Liberals, and that implies that there are differences between those groups and Orthodoxy. I am willing to talk and to work with all sorts of people, and blogging is sure a wonderful way to meet them and learn first hand that those with whom you disagree are flesh and blood people trying to make sense of the world as best they can. I am clear in my own mind about the difference between Orthodox and Fundamentalist but its also clear that this is a nuance that eludes many, especially those who are not church going, or who do not penetrate their faith deeply, for whatever reason. I respect friends and readers who take a different path, but I want to be clear about how our approaches differ. From This is Life!:

First and foremost, we oppose things like abortion and women's ordination for completely different reasons than the conservative evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians. For us, the way of life handed down by Jesus to his Apostles knows nothing of these things, and that is why we do not accept them. They are foreign to the Church's experience. And, indeed, the Church has clearly rejected them as practices compatible with Life in Christ. For conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists, these things are wrong because they have constructed an interpretation of Scripture such that "the Bible says" these things are wrong. Our stance is founded on and in the two thousand year old mind and life of the Church. Theirs is on an interpretation, which, however sincerely held today, may give way to a new sincerely held interpretation tomorrow. ... In fact, from our vantage point, socially and politically liberal Protestants have much more in common with their conservative and fundamentalist Protestant opponents than do we traditionalists. Both liberal and fundamentalist Protestants advance their agendas and causes on the back of their own interpretations of Scripture. They practice essentially the same hermeneutic, but allow different premises to shape their conclusions. Even when they sincerely try to let the Tradition have a voice in their interpretations, it is merely one voice among many, and if it does not fit their presuppositions, it is ignored along with all the rest they reject.

Not only that, but both socially and politically conservative evangelicals and fundamentalist and their socially and politically liberal Protestant opponents even practice the same form of social transformation, that of political enforcement, albeit they are mirror images of one another. Whether it is the American Family Association's grassroots political action alerts or the Episcopal Church's political efforts at General Convention 2003, both agendas share the same spirit and the same dynamic--both are impatient of God's timing and seek to achieve by humans means what they claim is of the Spirit.

Notice how NWW has never satisfied itself with advocating winning political power and has always taken the stand that any true alteration in society must come from the bottom - up, from the culture to the seats of law and power?