Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s Christmas message is poignant, lovely, and strong. “In what form will you find the Christ child this year?” asks +Katharine, a question that is so familiar as to be almost iconic. I’ve read the message very carefully, though–it’s short–because I first read a critique of it, a particularly vicious and mean-spirited critique, I might add, that was featured at Stand Firm. The original includes some sneering at the Spanish text claiming that it is pidgin Spanish, which it isn’t, and is published at MJC (The Midwest Conservative Journal – Copyright by Christopher S. Johnson), where it is followed by a long piling-on of vituperative comments.

But it is the Stand Firm commentator who deserves some first prize for gratuitous nonsense–I can’t quite think of a good name for it. That eminent critic removes from its context a sentence that reads, “Indeed, Jesus is understood as that helper for all who fail, by the world’s terms, to save themselves,” and uses it as the opportunity to deliver a lesson in “theology,” to wit:

No one can save themselves, Kathryn [sic]. NO. ONE. While terribly old fashioned of me, may I recommend Romans 3:21-26 for devotions this week?

I am imagining a scenario in which the presiding bishop turns to her critic and asks without rancor or any touch of irony, “Master, what must I do to be saved?”

I am also thinking that +Katharine is now the target of a hate campaign similar to the one that has dogged the footsteps of Hillary Clinton . . . .