Certainly, when the Episcopalians support””or seem to be supporting””gay marriage, it says something important about who we are as a nation and where we are going. But interest from the press is more prurient than that. Reporters haven’t covered the similar battles within the Methodist, Presbyterian, or Lutheran denominations with the same zeal, and the fact that the United Church of Christ (which has its roots in those early Puritan congregations) already ordains and promotes gay clerics and performs same-sex unions merits little attention. (Though, to be fair, those churches have also managed to keep themselves intact.) The Episcopalians matter because, small and fractious as they are, they represent the apex of WASP culture””the honorable, formal, Greatest Generation values of a bygone age. (And because, despite their dwindling numbers, they still hold more than $4 billion in investments””not including real estate””according to a 2007 Episcopal Church fact sheet. They could, in other words, fund Obama’s new education initiative.) FDR and Ronald Reagan were Episcopalian, as are Gerald Ford and George Herbert Walker Bush. Watching the Episcopalians fight amongst themselves is like watching a boozy family brawl at a genteel country club. Onlookers continue to hope that someone””grandpa or junior””will finally say what he’s really thinking and make a headline. Or that someone will step in and dramatically reconcile the warring factions, thus making the family happy once again. No such luck. Like most families, the Episcopal Church prefers to potter along. They fight, they patch things up (or not), they move on. In this saga, as in all stories about families, the drama is in questions of identity and affiliation as the world continues to change””and not in carefully worded resolutions coming out of an annual convention.
Longing for the days of Kenneth Woodward, former religion editor of Newsweek in a different day,
http://www.newsweek.com/id/42652
“FDR and Ronald Reagan were Episcopalian, as are Gerald Ford and George Herbert Walker Bush.”
Writers at Newsweek have trouble with more than religion when it comes to getting things right: we lost Gerald Ford nearly three years ago, but the reference to his religious affiliation is in the present tense. Sheesh.
Yeah, Elle (#2). Lisa Miller isn’t going to win any prestigious awards for great journalism as a religion writer. But she is onto something; the press does give TEC much more media attention than its small numbers deserve. And that’s precisely because of our historic influence, since TEC/ECUSA has often wielded a power far greater than its small but very elite membership. Thus, 11 of the 44 American presidents have been Epsicopalians, and a similarly disproportionate percentage of US Senators and CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies have likewise been members of TEC.
But there are clear signs that this historic influence is waning now. In 1776, over half of the representatives at the Continental Congress were Anglicans (29 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence). But the traumas of the Revolutionary War and disestablisment of Anglicanism in the southern states started the downward slide. And in the new post-Constantinian, post-Christendom, secularized culture in which we now live, a lot of that clout is drying up. In another generation (if Christ hasn’t returned), I suspect TEC will only be a pale shadow of its former elite self.
David Handy+
[blockquote] It’s hard to think of an interesting story about the Episcopal Church in America because what happens within the Episcopal Church is—frankly, and with deep apologies to all my Episcopalian friends—just not that interesting.
Not only are Episcopalians less numerous than they used to be, their cultural and social power has been diluted as well. [/blockquote]
I hope this is seen by the PB & Co. Just the thing to make their day!
I see other commenters have beaten me to the punch. It’s hard to take this piece seriously (or anything in Newsweek, frankly) when such a basic error as whether or not former President Gerald Ford is still alive, is missed by the author AND her copy editors.
Sorry, I’ll pass on reading it all.
Ronald Reagan was baptized in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but was a Presbyterian as an adult. I can find no references to his being Episcopalian.
http://www.adherents.com/people/pr/Ronald_Reagan.html
This has been answered by Terry Mattingly: journos [i]love[/i] the Episcopal Church because it agrees with them and they can spite Rome with it because it looks [url=http://sergesblog.blogspot.com/2003/05/from-conservative-blog-for-peace.html]Catholic[/url].
It’s not because of social prestige that church doesn’t really have any more.
It’s still solidly white and upper-middle-class but that’s gone all PC – not the old culture of honour and avuncular good manners I like.
As Joseph Bottum has written, none of the mainline churches have had any cultural clout in 35 years. They’re just trend-followers.
Reagan wasn’t an Episcopalian. The son of an indifferent Roman Catholic father (whom he got his very Irish looks from) and a Disciples of Christ mother, he was raised in his mother’s faith and, as an adult, like Eisenhower (River Brethren) joined the more mainstream church that was historically No. 2 in old WASP social standing, the Scottish one, Presbyterian.
Does Newsweek actually pay Lisa Miller?
“…annual convention?”
It seems that the article’s main point is that the world is changing, leaving Episcopalians – and other mainline protestants – in the dust. I’m not sure if she’s right about one of her suppositions: we’re a family.
Part of the reason religion has changed is because churches are now market institutions. We exist to please our congregants. If you don’t like gays, go to the church that won’t ordain them. If you do like gays, join a church that will. It’s all about personal preference. But I don’t think we’re like families much, anymore.
I wonder if she is saying – TEC provides a microcosm of how the culture is changing at large.
Believing that homosexual activity is sinful has nothing to do with liking or not liking someone, although some would like to dismiss that belief as just being hateful. Such characterization puts up a smokescreen to prevent true debate and a concession that this belief may actually be justified by Scriptures.
My guess with the Reagan thing is that he was buried by The Reverend Senator John Danforth from the Nat’l Cathedral.
On the other hand, I’m somewhat shocked but not surprised that we hold $4 billion in investments. What is that money tied up in (besides property)?
Oh, for pity’s sake. Reagan never had an Episcopal day in his life, and being buried from the Washington National Cathedral doesn’t have anything to do with his membership or affiliation. Like the Amy Sullivan piece on Gingrich saying his wife Callista was a life-long Catholic, which is pathetically easy to learn is utterly wrong (born, raised, and attended a Lutheran college, which is the tradition most of her family still holds), you immediately start to wonder — what else are they getting wrong if they can’t check facts as basic as whether Reagan was ever Episcopalian?
Which he wasn’t.
Everyone’s mentioning Gerald Ford, but this stood out to me more strongly:
“The Puritans in New England . . . during the American Revolution sent many of the nascent nation’s Anglican primates fleeing to Canada for their lives.”
Unless Ms. Miller is using the term “primates” very loosely to describe church leaders, the term is an inaccurate one.
(There’s also the matter of the General Convention not meeting annually, but that’s comparatively minor.)
JW #10 writes:
[blockquote]It seems that the article’s main point is that the world is changing, leaving Episcopalians – and other mainline protestants – in the dust.[/blockquote]
John (or whatever your real name is),
This is exactly what anyone who decides to give his or her ultimate allegiance to this world will end up as — dust. If this is what you have chosen to pursue, and by your consistent comments over multiple threads I can reasonably conclude you have so chosen, I really do hope it works out for you.
10: All true but although the danger of relativism is always there one can hold there is a one true church [i]and[/i] accept religious liberty at the same time. So the liberal Protestants can pretend two men can marry; no problem.
RE: “Such characterization puts up a smokescreen to prevent true debate and a concession that this belief may actually be justified by Scriptures.”
Meh.
AlliB, I understand I think what you are saying.
But John Wilkins already knows there’s can’t be much “debate” between folks who already hold mutually opposing and antithetical foundational worldviews; in order to debate one must share the same language and at least something in common beyond “we’re humans.”
Far from putting up a smokescreen — because it’s not needed in his case — I suggest that the “characterization” is merely John Wilkins venting his spleen and hoping to achieve a little testiness from others.
I find the general tone of the article quite acceptable. PECUSA used to actually MEAN something in American life, even if it mean privilege and the benefits of WASP identity. ECUSA meant less. TEC means nothing at all. You see, as I’ve said many times, the orthodox and the internet have effectively destroyed any value which the Episcopal brand-name used to have merely by making public the inanity of it all.
Best and most accurate quote of the whole article!
Randy, but the author is dead wrong. It is of the utmost interest because it is a microcosm of what is happening nationally. Nationally, cause and effect are so many confused streams, it is hard to see the play of the vital forces clearly. In TEC, we may see them clearly because we see them in small. But then, she was worng ratherfrequently. Larry
Lisa Miller is a total embarassment to religious reporting. Anyone who sneers at Evanglelicals saying, “I don’t understand why people need to pray with each other”, or “Why can’t I just worship God at Starbucks over a veni latte?” (which is what she has said in other articles) has no business having the job that she does. Then again, it’s Newsweek we’re talking about. Enough said.
Glaring error. The Episcopal Church had 3.5 million members in 1965. We have 2.2 on record today. We have had over 30% decline, but not just from 2001. We are now declining at around 2% a year since 2003. Our current rate of decline is projected to be between 10 and 15% over the next five years. BTW – the current financial crisis is directly related to this decline. Further, when we drop below 7000 domestic congregations, we will see many dioceses no longer able to afford the cost of a Bishop.