A thought-provoking letter from a Mormon reader who signs off as
ATINMPIWIIESAOUFFTPITCWMNSIWIAFWIWBBFHIAUO (although this is not my purpose
in writing, if I ever say anything of use, feel free to post in the Corner,
without my name since I work in a field where I would be blacklisted for
having improper and unreliable opinions). “In the New Testament, Jesus
quite plainly chose his servants. He told them that he had chosen them, not
they him. Christ’s church has always been a kindgom, not a democracy. As I
read the Bible, it is clear that it is a top-down management style. Christ
calls apostles, they call bishops, they call elders, etc. (this is the way
my church functions, so perhaps this makes sense to me because it is what I
am used to–I don’t mean be offensive). This pattern is of course,
completely contrary to today’s hyper-egalitarianism. I believe democracy
(well, I prefer a democracy modified by aspects of republic) is ideal for a
civil government, but not for Christ’s church, where it is, in my opinion,
incredibly arrogant for men and women to decide what they want as opposed to
learning what God wants. At any rate, it seems to me that this incident with
Bishop Robinson is really a symptom of the larger problem that as a culture,
we have allowed the idea of hierarchy, authority and obedience to become
synonymous with oppression and have allowed cherished, traditional
institutions (other than government which should be democratic) to be run
like clubs where everyone has a vote. After all, if the people in
Robinson’s episcopate had not elected him, none of this would have happened.
What if Christ had allowed his disciples to vote on whether Peter would be
the chief apostle? An unlettered fisherman?”