Lately my reading of the left has felt like the penance end of the spectrum, and it's because of how often I'm encountering the F word. I'm not talking about Bono's favorite curse word, which I, too, have used in moments of fury. Instead, I have in mind the word "fundamentalist," the religious world's nearest equivalent to racist trash talk.

Anyone who ever has used this word to dismiss an opponent knows the surge of pride that it brings. However dispassionate our pose, if we're calling someone a fundamentalist, we know the underlying accusations. A fundamentalist is less educated, less civil, less loving, less inclusive, less righteous and, above all, less observant of via media Anglicanism than the nonfundamentalist who's doing the name-calling.

But I think my strongest complaint with this labeling is that it's so onesided, so prone to demonizing. Imply that the movement you're opposing is fundamentalist, and nobody has to guess who is the hero and who is the goat.

What would I propose as an alternative? One that comes to mind is to identify a temptation that presents itself readily to Episcopalians of all theologies. In short, I think one of the greatest perils in our life together is triumphalism. In my selfchosen tribe of the Episcopal right, I think triumphalism has reared its head when people talk as though a majority of the world's Anglican primates will recognize the newly formed Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes as the one true (or even the most true) North American expression of Anglicanism.

Several archbishops may indeed prefer the company of network members. Some may say they are in communion with the network but not with the Episcopal Church as a whole. But expecting a majority of the primates to announce what is true Anglicanism in North America is expecting too much. I worry, in fact, that this amounts to yearning for a deus ex machina moment. Our decades-long conflict is about far more than sex, and it has shown little potential for tidy solutions, much less top-down pronouncements that will make everyone shut up and play nice.

On the left, the temptation of triumphalism manifests itself in three phrases, identified recently by the Rev. Kevin Martin in the Jan. 8 edition of his Vital Church Ministries newsletter (http://www.vitalchurchministries.org/ ): "Get over it," "Get therapy" or "Get out." Martin's website version of the newsletter gives readers the opportunity to leave their responses, and it is happy news that many readers responded to his honest essay with compassion.

Louie Crew wrote, for instance: "I would not say any of those three things to you, nor even think them. I am appalled that others have. They are wrong. Instead, embrace. ... Surely all we dissenters have much to teach one another, especially about God's love — not only for us, but for those with whom we disagree. That will surprise the world far more than any position we might take regarding the issues about which we disagree."

But one respondent, Alex D. Moffat, essentially rose to the defense of "get over it": "It is very odd that people like yourself can see the election and consecration of Bishop Robinson as submission to culture, when the cult has heretofore taken the opposite position (yours!) so emphatically. Things may be changing in our societ and, for the sake of the millions of actual and living human beings affected, I certainly hope so. Yes, ‘Li with it.' Better you than all of them if you must, leave — but spare the r of us from ‘The Devil made me do it.

Moffat places a plus sign after hi electronic signature, which of course means he's ordained (though he does not appear in the Episcopal Clerica Directory). If such language is his of a pastoral response to a brother Christ — albeit one he assumes is probably a "homophobe" — I rest my case that triumphalism is a temptati that crosses all of our theological boundaries.

I've certainly been guilty of it, you probably can find it in some of writing over the years. Some readers may think it is present in this colu I'm asking that we all search our he for this poison and, as appropriate, kneel in repentance.