God Told Me

I frequently feel that I'm a man without a country. I'm a Red Sox fan in Cardinals' territory. I'm a profoundly Blue State person in an incredibly Red Community and State. And I'm a suspicious Christian or a Christian skeptic, whichever you prefer.
I'm not proud of this last. I have, throughout the adult portion of my life (which really did begin sometime before noon today) struggled with the problem of being a connectional Christian who thinks for himself. There is, deep in my bones, a sense of "ought to" when it comes to trusting my superiors. I just can't bring myself to do it. Another argument jumped atop my woodpile yesterday.
My cousin is one of a handful of brilliant, genuinely brilliant, minds in our Conference. She is an effective preacher. She is a dedicated and thorough pastor. She is precisely the kind of person you want right there if your kid just had a car crash, your spouse just bailed on you, or a doctor had bad news about that lump you found in the shower this morning. She is one year into a pastorate where the congregation has accepted her (no small issue for a woman pastor in a southern state), and she loves them.
In his infinite wisdom, our leader is moving her. He needs a place for a goober who can't get along with anyone, can't preach a lick, doesn't particularly want to work and doesn't have a clue why that's a problem. My cousin, meanwhile, is being sent to the most intolerant county in our Conference, a place where blacks, hispanics and Jews are not welcome, Catholics are barely tolerated, and women pastors are automatically stigmatized.
This is the reward for being an effective servant of the gospel? This is the return for a good year's work in a difficult church? Some will answer, well there is that "take up your cross" thing. But there is also an issue of justice. And an issue of trauma to a church that has had a tough history. And a family that just moved a year ago.
Of course, life is complicated. Our Supreme Leader likes to appoint women to "historic" work. Oddly, it seems to be physically attractive, petite-sized women that this 60-ish fellow likes to put in "historic" work. My cousin, like me and much of our family, isn't small, nor is she a cute girly-type woman who knows (or cares) how to make middle-aged men feel good about themselves. So she is jerked out of a church that wants to keep her--again, after one year--serving under this bishop who has proclaimed that he is appointing us for five year terms, barring something catastrophic. Like needing a place for the goober described above, I guess.
The man's explanation for everything he does, and he has done a lot and some of it much worse than my particular family issue with him, is that God tells him what to do. We are of a tradition that believes in conferencing together, and, as the family of God, discerning together. This is why our bishops have cabinets to help them make our appointments. Because we believe that multiple minds, always and inevitably, are better than one.
"God told me" is a shield that says, "You can't question me," "I can't be wrong because it's God's instruction," and "Do you really want to challenge God?" In other words, it's a load of crap.
People in leadership positions who refuse to own their decisions and instead hide behind God's coattails are beneath contempt. They should not be trusted. They cannot be trusted. They are not faithful to our identity. They should be removed from positions of authority. And when he talks about the problems in our Conference and morale problems among the clergy, he really should realize that he is the cause of a great many of them.