Episcopal Church resembles 'Peace Corps in ecclesiastical drag'

This was in today's email box:

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow - 4/27/2009 6:00:00

A veteran newspaper columnist and longtime member of the Episcopal Church USA says the denomination has cheerfully given up truth to placate a relativistic culture.

William Murchison's new book is called Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity. He says the denomination, like other churches of the American mainline, seems to be in a mad dash to catch up with a secular culture that values self-expression and does not want to promote the holy and just God of the Bible.

ECUSA's Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, he says, has set the tone for the denomination.

"When our presiding bishop implies she's more concerned about hunger, primary education, and AIDS and issues like that, then it's clear that she doesn't have her mind on the primary objectives the church ought to be following -- which are the presentation of the gospel," says the author. "And that's what makes the church look like the Peace Corps in ecclesiastical drag."

For that reason, Murchison says many feel the denomination is irrelevant and have left. But he remains optimistic that the church can return to its biblical roots.

"I happen to think this is a wonderful time for evangelism," he shares. "I'm too old, at 67, to be a pessimist; I'm more of an optimist. And I believe that God's in charge -- and he will take us through the trials of today, and he will bring his people where he wants them to be."