There are certain men in this world who are a law unto themselves.

They rise up publicly and smite God's chosen "hip and thigh, bone and marrow, heart and lungs", they hire and fire on personal whim and are not amenable to the entreaties of their colleagues, their egos destroy institutions, they sign and break covenants for their own advantage, they turn acts of private compassion into public slanders for political gain and they discredit the church before the world, they intimidate the flock by being "dominating and domineering", they take other men's wives and molest children, they rule by expulsion and threat of expulsion, even in fields where they are manifestly incompetent they create a ludicrous and ineffective culture to impose on the sensibilities of others, they insinuate indecencies about young women for expressing their beliefs, they are men without discretion or tenderness, they publish scandal sheets out of a "love for the brethren"....

It is of a piece. It is the nature of this unclean bird. These are not just the deeds of the 1920s which can now be gotten over. These are the humiliations of today's public life. These are the "nutty professors", the Barney Fifes and the Keystone Cops. These are the teachers, leaders and pastors. But mostly, this is the church of your children.

"But, really, dissidens! Aren't there better things we could be doing?"

In a sense I agree with that. There are many pleasant things we would prefer. There is a book here at my left elbow, there is a CD in the tray with a "legendary performance" by the Wiener Oktett. Either of these is preferable. But we forget what is at issue here. This is the church of Jesus Christ which was explicitly told to see to these matters. You tell me where judgment begins. As it stands we do no such thing and we are disgraced in a world amply supplied with Hillary Clintons and Eliot Spitzers.

Will this movement ever examine itself?