To the Editor:

One of the saddest signs of the disarray in our church today is that a signficant statement by the new Bishop Robinson of the Episcopal Church has gone largely unremarked. He said, in effect, that God was on his side in this vote of the Episcopal church.

One of the more cogent sections of Scott Peck's "A Different Drum" is where he talks about blasphemy. Blasphemy is only something that a person who claims to be a believer can commit. Peck's viewpoint is that God probably is less concerned if we occasionally use four-letter words or whether we agree with a particular dogma or not. Rather, blasphemy, taking the Lord's name is vain, is when we use God's name to justify our own prejudices in our own sight. God then becomes little more than a cloak of virtue to drape over them.

Blasphemy, by this definition, is probably one of the most regularly violated of the Ten Commandments in our society today. We've used God's name to justify wars, persecutions, bigotry. And Bishop Robinson has committed blasphemy in using God's name as justification for his own self-interest.

Blasphemy is such a common violation of God's laws that it usually goes unremarked. Bishop Robinson is far from alone. We may excuse it, as we often do, because "everyone does it". I don't know if God would agree with that. But we should remember, as we use God's name for self-justification, that we no longer have a claim to be a follower of Christ, a disciple; rather we are expecting Christ to follow us. We are separating ourselves from Christ in the name of Christ. We are denying the divine inspiration and authority for agape and instead appropriating this solely in for ourselves.