Riverwood Presbyterian Church

Politics

Eulogy Potshot

by Clay Staggs

I really enjoy a good political argument. But, to paraphrase Ecclesiasties, there’s a time and a place for everything. And a funeral is NOT the place for cheap political shots.

Here’s an excerpt from the AP report about former President Ford’s funeral service at the National Cathedral:

In his homily, Episcopalian minister Robert G. Certain touched on the fractious debate in the church over its growing acceptance of homosexual relationships, and said Ford did not think the issue should be splitting Episcopalians. He was Ford’s pastor at St. Margaret’s Church in Palm Desert, Calif.

“He asked me if we would face schism after we discussed the various issues we would consider, particularly concerns about human sexuality and the leadership of women,” Certain said. “He said that he did not think they should be divisive for anyone who lived by the great commandments and the great commission to love God and to love neighbor.

The Episcopal Church has been under pressure from traditionalists for its 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop. Several prominent Virginia parishes have recently broken away from the church in protest.

Is this really necessary? Can the country not have a day without an argument over gay rights or whatever the issue du jour is? Has our level of debate become so intolerable that the dead can’t even be properly euolgized without these potshots?

I’m sure that no one agreed with him all the time, but by all accounts, Gerald Ford was a decent human being. It’s a shame that each side of the political aisle has so little respect for each other (and the dead) that we can’t even take a day to simply reflect on and honor the life of a good man who happened to be the President of the United States.

After all, the battle will pick right back up tomorrow.