From David Virtue:
A deep unspoken truth about The Episcopal Church today, and one that is never talked about, is that it suffers from a Jesus Deficit Disorder. TEC is conscious of an enormous range of social issues and sexualities. What is missing from pulpit and pew is little, if any, talk of Jesus as the true liberator, life-giver, forgiver, healer and Redeemer from sin. More is said and written about homosexual acceptance, pluriform thinking, other religions, poverty and political issues than there is of Jesus Christ. Episcopalians have made the gospel about so many things - things other than Christ. The truth is, Jesus Christ is or should be the gravitational pull that brings everything together and gives it meaning. Without Him, all things lose their value. They are detached pieces floating around in space. Take the issue of sexuality. It has been detached from Scripture, driven by the culture and by a small handful of people who have demanded and gotten their way to the exclusion of the majority who believe otherwise. The majority has been bullied into believing that they are homophobic, fundamentalist if they oppose the pansexual agenda of The Episcopal Church. Almost every week, the sexual agenda of TEC grows more strident and out there. This past week a candidate to be the next Bishop of New Hampshire announced he is openly gay and living with a "partnered" man, while the other two candidates are both divorced and remarried. That's not all; a transgendered woman from the rump Diocese of San Joaquin, a public defender, was ordained as an Episcopal deacon this past week. Carolyn Woodall, an attorney with the Tuolumne County Public Defender's Office, was conferred the title in a ceremony at the Episcopal Church of St. Anne in Stockton, joined by dozens of church leaders, family members and friends. She will serve at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Jamestown, comprised mainly of local Episcopalians who stayed with the rump Diocese of San Joaquin following the split in the Diocese, which saw orthodox Episcopalians become Anglicans and join the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America. The only question now is what sexualities are left that TEC has not experimented with and where does "inclusion" end and sexual sin begin? If the bottom (if you'll pardon the pun) is limitless on the sexualities TEC is prepared to endorse, at some point we must say that words like "fornication" and "adultery" have no meaning because they can be rationalized away in the name of "inclusion". Everybody is a victim. There are no sinners. All are welcome at the table of our Lord without taking sin seriously or even into account. If "sin" is going to be defined as a variety of phobias...homophobia, Islamophobia, etc. then we are no longer a church we are something else altogether.
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