In the early days of Stand Firm I used to get fan mail like this. Occasionally I still do, but I think all the people who hate me have just decided that insulting me only encourages me.

Anyway, here’s what showed up in Bishop Iker’s email box today (via email, but check out the comments at CJ’s):

From: “Semes Robert”

Date: November 13, 2007 7:55:47 PM CST
To: [+Iker’s email address]
Subject: Presiding Bishop Jefferts-Schori’s letter to you

Dear Mr. Iker:

I hope that Presiding Bishop Jefferts-Schori takes you out behind the woodpile and beats the sh*t out of you…you pompous asshole.  Your arrogance is beyond the pale and a disgrace to what’s left of the Christian Church. Why don’t you give the Episcopal Church a gift this holiday season and get the f*ck out of it.

- A pissed off and disgusted gay Episcopal priest…who you can’t touch because I don’t live in your fascist diocese.

Nice. Forget for a moment the notion of Katharine Schori bowing up on Jack Iker. Let’s turn our attention to The Rev. Robert Semes, whose email address is “highchurchatheist@gmail.com”:

He runs some outfit called “The Jefferson Center,” which proclaims its mission:

To promote critical analysis and reflection on religious and secular worldviews

To support the absolute separation of religion and government in order to foster religious liberty, including the freedom to be non-religious

To advocate for the rights and dignity of every person regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, social class, or religion

The good Rev. Semes bestowed some of his unique pastoral gifts on David Usher, who used the foul email as an opportunity to… well, to nail the m.o. of gay Episcopal activists:

These words exemplify the methodology of same-sex marriage advocates when they noisily invade churches: They call everyone who does not agree with them horrendous names, such as “patriarchal,” “gay hater,” “woman hater,” or “bigot.” In the feminist tradition, they are “in your face” and all over you. Most nice churchgoers do not know how to handle these hardball political street tactics within the realm of church decorum. To keep the peace, they sit by meekly while radicals take their church over one board seat at a time, and finally appoint a revisionist Minister or Reverend feminist-advocate.

It will come as no surprise that Semes is a big fan of John Shelby Spong:

I have no quarrel with Jack Spong. He is probably one of the sanest people in the crumbling Anglican empire. He tells it like it is. I support him. He at least does not demonize and oppress people, e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons, to seek power and control in a church where keeping up appearances is rife. Too bad the right wing crowd that is so self-assured that they are right, swathed in the flag and the Bible don’t just do us all a favor and do their “realignment” bit and get out of our hair. Perhaps they should look into some sort of ecumenical marriage with the Southern Baptists where I am sure they would find commonality and soul mates!

The sad, but hardly surprising, thing about The Rev. Semes is that, with each passing day it seems, he represents not the lunatic fringe of the Episcopal Church, but its leftist mainstream. And I’m not talking about the foul language and bad attitude - I’m talking about the fact that he’s not a man of God at all, and certainly not a Christian. I run across people all the time who are truly baffled as to why people like The Rev. Semes would devote so much of their lives to a faith and a church they hold in utter contempt. And all the time, I tell them the answer: Because they did not come to embrace it or to be transformed by it, but to destroy it; and in the case of the Episcopal Church, it appears they may finally have their way.