Yes, the pump was already primed by heretics like Episcopal Bishop Jim Pike. He descended from liberalism and rejecting the Gospel to adultery, alcoholism and drugs, and then to seances and witchcraft. It seems appropriate that he ended his life falling off a cliff in the Judean desert. (Matthew 4:1-11). He now lies in an abandoned and overgrown graveyard in Jaffa.
My personal view is that once we all began calling ourselves something other than followers of Christ and lived by walking in The Way, we began to go astray. I pray for the day we lay down our religions and cling to the cross.
Episcopalian Bishop James Pike is covered extensively in the book by Douthat