Reformers Who Failed in Reform
The Obstructors (13)

Many have participated in reform movements and failed, because they did not follow a sound spiritual path in reform. Among these are:

There are “reformers” of the obstructive type. They hinder every good work by wasting it in endless discussions, or by subjecting it to a routine that causes the person responsible to lose freedom of movement… claiming that they want the proper order.

Perhaps the obstruction is done with good intention:
And its cause is the nature of these “reformers,” and their love for discussion, or for increased examination, or for taking things slowly; or its cause is their routine nature, or their bureaucratic nature, or their skeptical nature that does not trust quickly. But despite the good intention, matters become delayed because of the method, and division or separation may occur.

And this obstruction may be done with bad intention because of pride or competition: people who want the reform to be carried out by their own hands; otherwise they obstruct it and fabricate obstacles and hindrances for it.

The reasons they present are not the real motive; rather what drives them is envy, jealousy, hatred, or hostility, and their unwillingness for the matter to be accomplished by the hand of “so-and-so”…!

The obstructors may present many fears before every good project so that people may refrain from it. And how easy it is for them to present arguments to prove the error of a project whose benefit they fully know!! But it is self-interest.

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Ten), 11-3-1977.

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