pecusa's big lie

It's been said that if you repeat a lie often enough people will begin to believe it. pecusa has certainly repeated the lie that all are welcome at the table often enough and that diversity of theological positions is a part of what it means to be an Anglican. That lie is repeated in the following story. One wonders how familiar those who espouse this viewpoint are with Anglican church history. Of course, we can begin with the English Reformation,continue through the Laudian church, the interregnum and further still onto the English settlement. In each period we see Anglicans choosing theological positions and eschewing other ones. Even the Elizabethan settlement was not about anything goes. Listening to officials of pecusa speak you might think that there are no boundaries to Anglicanism.

Except that we have people like retired bishop Barbara Harris telling the theologically conservative that they can leave. This viewpoint was echoed recently on the House of Bishops and Deputies listserv. Then there was Presiding Bishop Ed Browning who proclaimed that there would be no outcasts in pecusa and proceeded to make conservatives outcasts. In the liberal dioceses that I am most familiar with, like the DCNY, officials may talk about full inclusion, but you see by the token representation that they give to conservatives through appointments that full inclusion does not mean open and fair dialogue. What it means is structuring committees by appointments for preconceived outcomes. The sexuality task force in the DCNY is a case in point.

This is what attorney Samuel Scheibler says about pecusa's openness to diverse points of view in the context of another parish leaving pecusa: "The Episcopal Church has become increasingly intolerant of conservatives," he said. "Its creed seems to be 'trendier than thou.'" [From VirtueOnline]

When you hear liberals talking about Scripture, Tradition and Reason as the Anglican theological method, think scripture, tradition, REASON, because that's how they operate. And when they use the Anglican theological method, they don't mean right reason as traditionally understood. Right reason is that which is guided by the Holy Spirit. Right reason is influenced by Scripture and Tradition. No, the reason that liberals espouse wouldn't even qualify as common sense. It really is finding reasons to adopt the current mores of secular society, as pecusa is doing with homosexual behavior. A new twist in pecusa is to adopt the Wesleyan theological model of Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience. Except that unlike John Wesley when pecusa liberals use this method it comes out like scripture, tradition, REASON and EXPERIENCE. Reason and experience always trump Scripture and Tradition for liberals. People who use the Anglican theological method as it was intended to be used (see Richard Hooker) need not apply for any key positions in any liberal dioceses.

As the late great Richard John Neuhaus said, "Whenever orthodoxy becomes optional, it will sooner or later be proscribed."

When you hear pecusa officials talking about diversity and openness, remember that their actions often do not match their rhetoric.