In his profile, the Rev. Mr. Behase writes the following: “My hunch is there are a lot of Georgians who think they have only two choices: adopt the fundamentalist agenda hook, line, and sinker or reject Christianity as being irrelevant.”
Now the word “fundamentalist” actually does have a specific historical meaning, but it has lately come to mean “people who are more traditionally minded than me and who I really would like to dismiss because I don’t want to engage them.” I am afraid the bishop-elect uses the word in the latter, debased term. This will not bode well for Evangelicals, Anglo-Catholics, old fashioned broad church Episcopalians, cultural converatives within the church, and many others, none of whom are fundamentalists within the original, and correct meaning of the word.
The use of the word “fundamentalist” was a sure giveaway — that and his parish’s practice of communion of the unbaptized, same sex blessings, and the non-celibate gay male on staff.
I’m sorry for the diocese. It had a chance — and now it will continue a long decline, either slow or fast: http://tinyurl.com/ne5qwj
What fascinates me is that some revisionists are so obsessed with their gospel, that they are literally [i]willing to lose their parishes — lose money and parishioners enough to sink some parishes — in order to have one of their linchpins, which is affirmation of a particular currently faddish minority sexual desire [but not, of course, other not so popular minority sexual desires].[/i]
Every branch of learning has FUNDAMENTALS. Why is that so foreign to people? Even liberals have fundamentals in everything that affects them…except in the one certain fundamental….that THEY are not God. When in 8th Grade Algebra I attempted to have the teacher to understand my revisionists views of math…but I ran into the fundamentals time and time again. I learned when I STARTED with the assumption that I wasn’t the center of the universe after all.
So it is with Christianity. This overinduldged and narcissitic generation (“adulterous…?”) believes that life starts with them and that all other life or truth must surround that claim. Try that in science and you might get burned (literally). Try that with Christianity and you also might get burned…..literally.
St. Alban’s has been hindered greatly by the move towards making the National Cathedral a “parish congregation.” They’ve lost many of their members to the Cathedral, and the Cathedral has made it difficult for them to attract new people. It has a long history of strong rectors (like them or not).
I have noticed one thing about so many of the carefully prepared statements by episcopal election candidates. They are often asked to describe some situation of conflict or difficulty and how they resolved it. We often hear the first part of the question answered. We virtually never have the second part. It is always soft focus. What I would have wanted to know would have been: How did you transcend the historic racial divide? What policies did you adopt, what strategies? What did you give up and what did you take on? What gifts did you find coming into play, and what failures did you learn from, on the way? I ask these things this not as someone who has all the answers, but as someone who thinks that we can learn from the questions.
Only a hunch, but some babies are baptized in a church because of its proximity to relatives or because of a family tradition. (In our parish, when that is the case, we ascertain that the family of the child is attending a Christian congregation and then immediately transfer that child’s baptismal membership to that congregation so as not to inflate our rolls.)
As to the attendance issue, there could be multiple reasons, not the least of which are the issues of the day. But in this case, I think Mark Johnson’s take (#6) is probably true.
In his profile, the Rev. Mr. Behase writes the following: “My hunch is there are a lot of Georgians who think they have only two choices: adopt the fundamentalist agenda hook, line, and sinker or reject Christianity as being irrelevant.”
Now the word “fundamentalist” actually does have a specific historical meaning, but it has lately come to mean “people who are more traditionally minded than me and who I really would like to dismiss because I don’t want to engage them.” I am afraid the bishop-elect uses the word in the latter, debased term. This will not bode well for Evangelicals, Anglo-Catholics, old fashioned broad church Episcopalians, cultural converatives within the church, and many others, none of whom are fundamentalists within the original, and correct meaning of the word.
The use of the word “fundamentalist” was a sure giveaway — that and his parish’s practice of communion of the unbaptized, same sex blessings, and the non-celibate gay male on staff.
I’m sorry for the diocese. It had a chance — and now it will continue a long decline, either slow or fast:
http://tinyurl.com/ne5qwj
What fascinates me is that some revisionists are so obsessed with their gospel, that they are literally [i]willing to lose their parishes — lose money and parishioners enough to sink some parishes — in order to have one of their linchpins, which is affirmation of a particular currently faddish minority sexual desire [but not, of course, other not so popular minority sexual desires].[/i]
Every branch of learning has FUNDAMENTALS. Why is that so foreign to people? Even liberals have fundamentals in everything that affects them…except in the one certain fundamental….that THEY are not God. When in 8th Grade Algebra I attempted to have the teacher to understand my revisionists views of math…but I ran into the fundamentals time and time again. I learned when I STARTED with the assumption that I wasn’t the center of the universe after all.
So it is with Christianity. This overinduldged and narcissitic generation (“adulterous…?”) believes that life starts with them and that all other life or truth must surround that claim. Try that in science and you might get burned (literally). Try that with Christianity and you also might get burned…..literally.
http://12.0.101.92/reports/PR_ChartsDemo/exports/ParishRPT_912200911346PM.pdf
There is the parish chart for Saint Alban’s for those interested.
Great find, Kendall.
Incredible.
St. Alban’s has been hindered greatly by the move towards making the National Cathedral a “parish congregation.” They’ve lost many of their members to the Cathedral, and the Cathedral has made it difficult for them to attract new people. It has a long history of strong rectors (like them or not).
I have noticed one thing about so many of the carefully prepared statements by episcopal election candidates. They are often asked to describe some situation of conflict or difficulty and how they resolved it. We often hear the first part of the question answered. We virtually never have the second part. It is always soft focus. What I would have wanted to know would have been: How did you transcend the historic racial divide? What policies did you adopt, what strategies? What did you give up and what did you take on? What gifts did you find coming into play, and what failures did you learn from, on the way? I ask these things this not as someone who has all the answers, but as someone who thinks that we can learn from the questions.
How can baptisms increase and Sunday attendance decrease? That seems off to me.
Only a hunch, but some babies are baptized in a church because of its proximity to relatives or because of a family tradition. (In our parish, when that is the case, we ascertain that the family of the child is attending a Christian congregation and then immediately transfer that child’s baptismal membership to that congregation so as not to inflate our rolls.)
As to the attendance issue, there could be multiple reasons, not the least of which are the issues of the day. But in this case, I think Mark Johnson’s take (#6) is probably true.