Open Letter from Scott Nunn

"Hi Dave: I have some request for Dave Town. Does that make me No. 3 behind Harris.

Since I haven’t been able to talk with you much in a long time, I’d be interested in how you made your conversion to Roman Catholicism and how it the some of the church’s strict doctrines play out with your Libertarian beliefs; I agree with you on the Pope, he will be greatly missed; do you read Andrew Sullivan? He had some very critical things to say and I must admit that I agree with him on some, such as the issue of contraception here and especially in Africa, where millions of lives and much suffering could be saved. What do you think about the pope’s refusal to meet with victims of priest abuse, and what do you think about the prominence of Cardinal Law in the papal funeral rites following the Holy Father’s death?Also, I disagree with you on the Schiavo case but we can debate that another time.I ask these questions in good will as only perhaps a former college roommate can.I’m still riding the fence as a good old half “little-c catholic” “half-protestant” Episcopalian, finding “unity in common prayer rather than unity in doctrine” as one priest recently said.Of course we’re about to kill each other over the gay bishop issue. I think we are already two churches. I have no ill-will toward the conservatives in the Episcopal Church but I think it is senseless to fool ourselves into thinking we are going to patch things up when they are bible literalists — Baptists who like vestments — and I am a person who sees the bible not as any sort of science or history book but a book of poetry, and stories and musings or mortal men trying their best to figure out the meaning of such a powerful and mysterious creator and trying to wrap up this awesome creator in a little package we can make some sense of, sometimes to control, often for our own benefit. Well, as Seymour once said, “all we do our whole lives is is go from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next. Is he never wrong?”All best, ScottPS: the rest of you Guilford/Jefferson Street guys, feel free to pipe in."

Scott NunnCross Current EditorEpiscopal Diocese of East CarolinaPO Box 1293Wilmington, NC 28402 snunn@diocese-eastcarolina.org