Posted on 07/12/2012 8:09:26 PM PDT by marshmallow
The headlines coming out of the Episcopal Church’s annual U.S. convention are stunning — endorsement of cross-dressing clergy, blessing same-sex marriage, the sale of their headquarters since they can’t afford to maintain it.
The American branch of the Church of England, founded when the Vatican balked at permitting King Henry VIII to continue executing any wife who failed to bear him sons, is in trouble.
Somehow slipping out of the headlines is a harsh reality that the denomination has been deserted in droves by an angry or ambivalent membership. Six prominent bishops are ready to take their large dioceses out of the American church and align with conservative Anglican groups in Africa and South America.
“An interesting moment came at a press conference on Saturday,” reports convention attendee David Virtue, “when I asked Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, if she saw the irony in that the House of Deputies would like to see the Church Center at 815 2nd Avenue, New Yorik, sold (it has a $37.5 million mortgage debt and needs $8.5 million to maintain yearly) while at the same time the national church spent $18 million litigating for properties, many of which will lie fallow at the end of the day.”
This is no longer George Washington’s Episcopal Church – in 1776 the largest denomination in the rebellious British colonies. Membership has dropped so dramatically that today there are 20 times more Baptists than Episcopalians.
U.S. Catholics out-number the Episcopal Church 33-to-1. There are more Jews than Episcopalians. Twice as many Mormons. Even the little African Methodist Episcopal denomination — which broke away after the Civil War — has passed the Episcopalians.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.beliefnet.com ...
With allies like the Saudis and the Pakis (who sheltered Osama for 10 years), who needs enemies?
True. He was a devil, but a secular devil. And now we're making the same mistake with Assad
True. He was a devil, but a secular devil. And now we're making the same mistake with Assad
We don’t defend Christian nations like Georgia or Serbia; we fight for Bosnia, Kosovo, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. -- for Bosnia, Kosovo -- what utter idiots we are....
Are you two done defending Al Qaeda and bashing the U.S. and our military? I sure do hope so.
huh? What are you talking about? Alq are islamic scum who need to be obliterated by us. I said while AlQa used this as a pretext for 9.11 (saying that "infidels" had "dirtied" the "holy soil of Arabia") --> as a pretext. We went to help a Moslem despot (Kuwait) against a secular despot and then got burned for our efforts (the burn being 9.11)
I'm doing nothing of that sort. Our government has made mistakes in GWI. Afghanistan was a just war -- retaliation and it got us back some respect. But GWI was a mistake imho. And supporting the Saudi and Paki scum IS a mistake.
Well, the Episcopalians Did It Again
Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 10:23AM Episcopalian leaders continue to guide their denomination into the abyss—and no doubt, the Presbyterians (PCUSA) will soon follow.
As reported in the Huffington Post, the Episcopal denomination’s General Convention voted this week to make it illegal to “discriminate against anyone.” Specifically, that means it is now illegal to “. . . bar from the priesthood people who were born into one gender and live as another or who do not identify themselves as male or female.”
Readers of my columns and other pieces may remember my prediction that this fast train into the pit would not stop just with practicing homosexuals. It will inevitably lead all the way to pedophilia. I cannot help but think of Jesus’ words: “Wide is the gate that leads to destruction.” Those words became poignant when I read the jubilant quote from one of the Episcopal leaders:
"It is not just a good day for transgender Episcopalians and their friends, families and allies. It is a good day for all of us who are part of a church willing to take the risk to continue to draw the circle wider as we work to live out our call to make God's inclusive love known to the whole human family," the Rev. Susan Russell, a deputy from the Diocese of Los Angeles and an activist who supported the legislation, said in a statement.
That wide “circle” is certainly the wide gate that Jesus talked about. It is the place where people can enter with all their baggage, but then they proceed to go over the cliff of eternal destruction. If this decision doesn’t cause Bible-believing Anglicans (who represent 90 percent of Anglicans worldwide) to sever ties with the Episcopal Church, I don’t know what will.
For years, some of us have said that the Episcopal Church has ceased to be the Church of Jesus Christ. But if you’re no longer the Church of Jesus Christ, then whose church are you?
There are only two ways—God’s and Satan’s. There are only two kingdom’s—God’s and Satan’s. And there are only two churches—God’s and Satan’s. For any faithful worshipper of Jesus Christ, there can be no doubt as to which camp the Episcopal Church now belongs.
I know, I know . . . many of the church’s remaining members will call me narrow-minded, homophobic, ignorant, and hateful. But I want them to know several things.
First, God knows, as do many of those church members, that I don’t possess a hateful bone in my body.
Second, as long as I’m pleasing God and obeying His Word, it makes no difference to me what people call me.
Third, and most important, I wear their words of attack and insult as a badge of honor. For Jesus Himself said, “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.”
I may not possess a hateful bone, but I do possess a broken heart—not only for my former church, but also for the very few (and I do mean very few) remaining faithful believers in the Episcopal Church who misguidedly think they can stay and be a light.
Tragically, they have become an ember. The Episcopal fire has gone out, and I pray that those remaining believers will get out before their fire is extinguished also
Yeah, we ran in to defend a Muslim monarchy to free it from a country tolerant of Christians (military and US made a bad call) and AQ used that to attack us (if only we’d stayed away, they’d have left us alone).
Not to mention the insinuation that Soldiers are a heartbeat away from turning into war criminals.
Exactly what I said , (if only we’d stayed away, they’d have left us alone). -- that's your conjecture, not mine. Specifically they would not have directly attacked the US so soon, they would have been attacking their neighbors
think of this -- if we hadn't get involved in GWI, AlQ's enemy would remain the House of Saud and the Secular dictators like Assad, Saddam, mubarak, etc.
Saddam would be super powerful and a threat to Saudia, Iran and Turkey.
right now there are 2 rival camps in the Moslem world: Saudia paid Sunnis with Alqaeda and Shia Iran with the Hizb'allah -- if not for GWI, there would be a third -- the secular types.
The terrorists would be focussed on the seculars while also fighting against the corresponding sunni/shia...
where exactly did I say that? Stop making up stuff -- nowhere have I said that and to me our soldiers are not war criminals. They did their duty, and well. Neither is Bush a "war criminal" if you want to call him that. Dubya did well in getting us out of Saudia. His dad got us into that mire....
and Kuwait was separated from Iraq by the Brits and also the Iraqis and Kuwaities share the same oil well...
Yep, here I am...making stuff up...
Googled the question, and it seems that even his bastards died young. Richmond, whom he recognized and honored, and Henry Carey, probably his bastard by Mary Boleyn both died in 1536, Richmond at 18, Carey at 8 or 9.
The answer is large trusts, left to the church by many generations of the faithful. They allow the lights to stay on in empty churches and salaries to be paid to flockless priests. The monies have been rapidly depleted in the current decade and will be exhausted soon in many dioceses. When that happens the Episcopal Church will crumble away in a twinkling like the bad guy in Indiana Jones.
“Our policy has been for the last 20 years at least, drive out the Christians, set up the muslims, let them kill all the rest who won’t or can’t leave.”
The facts are there for all to see, no doubt.
Even that whole charade was completely misrepresented to sell it to the American public. There was no Soviet “invasion” of Afghanistan any more than there was an American invasion of South Vietnam; the Afghan GOVERNMENT asked the Soviets for help (as Saigon did with us years before), and the government they were supporting lasted for years after the USSR collapsed (I believe it fell in 1996 - it lasted longer than South Vietnam did after our withdrawal).
Like Americans today, the Soviet troops worked in collaboration with the official Afghan army (though they were allowed to shoot back).
“Are you two done defending Al Qaeda and bashing the U.S. and our military? I sure do hope so.”
You probably would have said the same thing in 1939 to fellow Germans who questioned the morality of invading Poland in collusion with the Soviet Union.
Are there any points in particular you can refute?
Any actions we’ve criticized that you can defend?
Did anyone defend Al Qaeda?
I saw no such thing in our conversation either.
Future Snake Eater, remember that the Boston Massacre occurred when British troops fired on British citizens; blind faith in authority can have frightening consequences. This country was born from men who thought so as well.
You’re hours behind the power curve. Try again.
Spare me the 1770 talk. This is the 21st Century. Certain unpopular decisions have to be made for general stability purposes. That sometimes includes killing POS hajis and securing oil-producing nations for our future security and prosperity. The potential for offending terrorist organizations shouldn’t even factor in to the decision—because they’re terrorist organizations and no one cares what they think. Except you, apparently.
People like you are people like you because you can’t/won’t make those decisions. Because you think it’s still 1770.
That was an eloquent defense for the assault on the secular government of Iraq (we killed them for oil and future prosperity? - you sound like the anti-Busk lunatics); they were so stable we armed them to the teeth throughout the 1980s to fight Iran. Keep cheerleading meaningless killing; some of our servicemen were killed by weapons we sent there when Saddam was our friend. We did nothing but kill a lot of people (not terrorists - those are our friends, the Saudis - including Bin Laden himself), and completely DE-stabilized the region.
You can keep pretending I defended terrorists; it may distract from your complete ignorance. Don’t let facts get in the way of your opinions.
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