Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness. Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it. It gets him thrown in prison. That’s pretty much where he’s put himself by his own refusal to recognize that she, too, shares in God’s nature, just as much as he does – maybe more so!Just to be clear, the passage from Acts 16 describes Paul casting a demon out of a slave girl whose masters are using her possession to make moolah. The possessed girl is holier than St. Paul, according to the chief bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States.
I wonder if she is also holier than Jesus, who was known to cast out a few demons himself? Is he too guilty of not being able to recognize "beauty" which is "different"?
As Simcha Fisher says, please, Episcopalians,
get out now. Your church is bonkers.Indeed. This is what Benedict XVI made the Anglican Ordinariate for.
I'm not even kidding. If you read your bishop's sermon and a cold horror came creeping over your mind, please remember: the Catholic Church is here. We will always be here. We will always be waiting. We have a couple of insane bishops, too, but they hardly ever get interviewed by the New York Times, and many of them are actually decent scholars, and faithful and courageous guys.
