If the bishops’ intended exclusion of what they have judged to be Biden’s sinfulness is an expression of the Donatist sensibility, it is yet Donatism in a new key, its newness defined by the rather odd ways that the bishops have reconfigured the pure/impure binary. The American bishops have shown no sign of such reflexive critique. Though theologically misguided, the ancient Donatists applied their ethics of purity consistently throughout the Church to all its members. Doing so, of course, would utterly fragment what’s left of the American Church, spiritually and—the word needs to be pronounced—financially. Ancient Donatism and the new Donatism are deficient practices of the Church because they forget that it is God’s gift of grace, mediated by the sacraments of the Church and not by its pastors, that brings the Church to resurrected life.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 05, 2021 13:07 UTC