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I was minding my own business perusing the net when a headline from the UK Telegraph caught my eye:

Secret Plan to Avoid Church Gay Split

. . . and since your PP hasn't lobbed any grenades at the gay priest thing in a while, I thought this might serve as a launching pad; so I looked it up.

Imagine my disapointment when it had nothing to do with the Catholic Church; and, since your PP is an Eastern Catholic priest, Priestly Pugilist nomrally confines itself to what's going on in the Eastern and Western Catholic Churches; but I decided to read the article anyway. I'm kind of glad I did, because it confirmed for me a thesis I had explored in a series of posts last year (3/30/07 & 3/31/07), in which I made a connection between homosexuality and liberalism in the Catholic Church, and the resultant alienation of priests who don't "play along" and who are labeled as "rigid" and "uncaring," when all they really are is straight.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is backing secret plans to create a "parallel" Church for American conservatives to avert fresh splits over homosexuality. Dr Rowan Williams has held confidential talks with senior American bishops and theologians who oppose the pro-gay policies of their liberal leaders.
A handful of hardline American dioceses are already defecting from the Episcopal Church, the American branch of Anglicanism, and transferring their loyalties to a conservative archbishop in South America. Dr Williams is desperate to minimise further damage in the run up to the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference this summer which could be boycotted by more than a fifth of the world's bishops.

Isn't it interesting how it's the dioceses defecting over pro-gay policies which are labeled as "hardline"?

His recent comments backing aspects of sharia law have heightened tensions by further alienating Africans who are struggling with militant Islam in their dioceses.

I can't imagine why ( ! ! ! ).

According to insiders, Dr Williams has given his blessing to the plans to create an enclave for up to 20 conservative American bishops that would insulate them from their liberal colleagues. The scheme would allow them to remain technically within the Episcopal Church but under the care of like-minded archbishops from abroad.

First it's a "plan," then, one sentence later, it's a "scheme." Something tells me we should have our seat backs and tray tables in their upright and locked positions.

The Primate of the West Indies, Archbishop Drexel Gomez, a moderate conservative, has agreed to participate, and other primates could be recruited.

I wonder what a "moderate conervative" is? Anyway, here comes the money shot . . .

However, the initiative is likely to infuriate liberal leaders of the Episcopal Church, who will see it as an attempt to undermine their authority and interfere in their affairs.
Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, the head of the Episcopal Church, has been cracking down on any diocese or parish that seeks to leave, and numerous legal actions are under way.

This is what I thought was interesting. I thought religious liberalism (and moral liberalism, for that matter) was a rebellion against authority. I thought "cracking down" was something that only mean-spirited, fascist conservatives did. I thought that the operative method of liberalism was to "live and let live," and let each find his own way, free from the tyranny of rabid judgementalism. Since when does an honest, free-thinking liberal, who wants nothing more than to let the poor oppressed gays find a home in her Church without anyone telling them how to live their lives, decree that she's infallible and everyone just better do what she says or else they'll be hell to pay? Am I missing something here?

Look up the word "liberal" in your dictionary. I think the last one died somewhere around 1930.

by Priestly Pugilist