Things at the General Convention, from a certain perspective, certainly didn’t look good. My fellow deputies \u201d\u201d I admit to serving as an elected member of this naughty assemblage \u201d\u201d endorsed pretty much the same menu that hooked Episcopal appetites during the wild and woolly ’60s. We’re a church whose worship and formularies presuppose the ancient Christian truths; except the way we have come lately to express these truths often makes it seem our principal interests are “social justice,” cultural diversity and the liberalization of sexual norms.<\/p>\n
We slammed “colonialism,” patted the Palestinians on the head, urged new government programs to create jobs, called for a carbon-unfriendly energy policy and instructed priests desirous of doing so to confer the church’s blessing upon same-sex unions. I mean, are we the churchy version of The New York Times editorial page or what? Can’t you see millions of Americans beating our doors down to hear us address the worst of modern anxieties \u201d\u201d family disintegration, the loss of meaning in life, the burgeoning of government supervision and control over daily existence?<\/p>\n
Actually, that’s not what the church itself, at a slightly less exalted level, was saying. A report by the Standing Commission on the Mission and Evangelism of the Episcopal Church noted bleakly….<\/p>\n