Let us turn to this scripture in more detail. In Acts, Paul preaches and argues in the synagogue at Thessalonica for three consecutive weeks. Some in the synagogue became jealous and hired gangs, wicked fellows of the rabble, thugs, or "lewd fellows of the baser sort" (King James Version) depending on how the Greek is translated. These gangs and lewd fellows turn the world upside down and incite trouble, uproar and riots, also depending on the translation. Paul and the Christians do not turn the world upside down. The scripture does not say that the uproar and riots helped God turn the world right side up. In fact, this uproar is seen as unwanted social disorders that harm the preaching of the Gospel.

Curry also exercised poetic license when he used the Good Samaritan scripture Luke 10:27-35 as a rhetorical device. According to Curry, the Samaritan paid for the beaten man's "health care" or a "Muslim came by and stopped" to help like the Good Samaritan. Of course Islam did not exist until nearly 600 years after the Christian faith but that was Curry reading into the scripture and exercising more poetic license.

Maybe there is a way to sympathize with Curry's scriptural interpretation and say what he really meant was that we should all engage in social activism or something like that. But Christians need to keep the integrity of the scriptures and not use them only to support our own agendas. The scriptures are not written so we can use poetic license and deviate away from a reasoned interpretation of them.

It is completely logical to say that Paul could preach the Christian faith and have the Word received and the world not turned upside down. Paul in I Thessalonians writes that the church welcomed "God's word, a power that is working among you believers."

The Christian Church is not the wicked gang persecuting Christ and who turned the world upside down.

It was the Gospel that was turning the world upside down, and not the rioters. It was the Gospel and not TEC revisionism that turns the world upside down today.

To put it bluntly, Curry encourages us to identify with the one who are persecuting Paul and the early Christian faith. The scripture reads clearly that some jealous people asked gangs to cause trouble. Curry says, "This is the heart of the Jesus movement. And it will turn the world, and the Church, I might add, upside down, which is really right side up.

To create a logical analogy based on this scripture, the Christians should be the ones reading scriptures to show how the scriptures witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are not the ones causing social unrest and trouble. We are not the ones turning the world upside down. The gospel does that. Yet Curry proclaimed to the church to be the ones who are turning the world upside down.

Maybe Curry could have found a scripture supporting his thesis but for the primary bishop to misapply this scripture is shocking. The Anglican Communion's foundation of scripture shudders under the use of scripture as a rhetorical device. According to the scripture Curry references, we should be the ones studying why Christ had to suffer and be raised from the dead. We should be the ones proclaiming about Christ as Savior. The Episcopal Church would be a Christian church if they imitated Paul's faith in this way.

The question arises how this misinterpretation of the scripture could happen for such a crucial sermon that was to ground The Episcopal Church for the next decade. Maybe if more Episcopal leaders were searching the scriptures, someone would have caught this this mistaken analogy before it was preached in front of the entire Anglican Communion.

Maybe though, Curry was being more truthful than he knew. The Episcopal Church has become those turning the world upside down like the wicked fellows and causing trouble for Christians searching the scriptures.

ACTS 17: "Now when they had passed through Amphip′olis and Apollo′nia, they came to Thessaloni′ca, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and for three weeks[a] he argued with them from the scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." 4 And some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas; as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked fellows of the rabble, they gathered a crowd, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the people. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren before the city authorities, crying, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them; and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus." 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard this. 9 And when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. (RSV)

Sarah Frances Ives holds a Ph.D. in church history. She is resident in the Diocese of Washington and a regular contributor to VOL