The Death Knell for the Episcopal Church

I don't think they can survive this. The newest leader of the church says that homosexuality is not a sin. Here's the full story, via the Drudge Report.

It's a schism. There's your big word for the day. Try and work it into a written report tomorrow, just for laughs. Then try and work in "trebuchet."

Here's my problem with this deal. What this amounts to is a group of unrepentant sinners who don't like the idea of religion condemning what they do. Basically, they are saying: "We like the idea of Christianity. We like the idea of a Savior. We like the idea of being forgiven of our sins. But we don't want to give up our particular sin because we like doing it." So they try and get a church to go along with the idea that it's not a sin, it's just a different form of love.

Homosexuality is not any worse a sin than lying, or adultery, or anything else we are told is offensive to God. Any of them can get us condemned straight to Hell, if we don't accept salvation, and we don't repent of those sins. We've all the exact same path to salvation, no matter the offense. We're all saveable, and all just as culpable.

I'm hacked off this particular church has sunk to this level of stupidity. They are watering down the message, just to avoid upsetting some people who want to have their cake and eat it, too. If one starts picking and choosing what one likes out of the Bible, you end up diluting the whole thing to a point where it loses its meaning altogether.

This is very similar to the United States Constitution. It's supposed to set forth hard and fast rules that limit what the government can do to free people. It's not about giving rights to the people. It's about preserving a set of common rights that all free people have. In other words, it's about keeping the government from taking those particular rights away from you.

Every law passed reduces freedom in some small way. Even down to the most picayune city ordinance. Let's say your city says you can't have more than 3 dogs in city limits. Guess what? You no longer have the right to own as many dogs as you want. There may be good reasons for it. But you still don't have that freedom any more. It's gone. Once those rights are gone, they aren't coming back. That's the purpose of the Bill of Rights. It says explicitly what rights cannot be abridged by a government. It is the standard by which all other laws must be judged by. Ten Amendments, much like the Ten Commandments. Don't muck with them.

The Bible holds some similarity in that it sets forth absolute rules which govern salvation, and set forth a moral code by which we are to live, in order to please God. He's set it up so that if we do what he asks of us, our lives are easier here on Earth, and that our salvation is assured. When we start mucking about with the rules, and saying that we can pick and choose which rules we live by, we're pretty much thumbing our noses at the Almighty. That's not a position that's conducive to anything good.

The church is supposed to be about coming together, and supporting one another in the Christian faith. It's a place of commonality, a place where people who are trying to walk in the path of Jesus get a bit of moral support. When the church introduces a divisive element such as this into the mix, they've effectively taken away a lot of common ground. The bedrock of this common ground HAS to be agreement on what the Bible says we can and cannot do.

There's been great strides made in getting away from traditional denominations over the last 20 years or so. Part of the success has been a renewed focus on what the Bible actually says, as opposed to what the Methodists think, or the Lutherans, etc. Which is the way it's supposed to be, as far as I'm concerned. Who cares if you're sprinkled or dunked? It doesn't really matter, as long as you've committed to following Christ.

That means following what the Bible has set forth for us to do. That means we can't pick and choose which sins we really don't want to give up. It means repenting of all of them, and allowing Christ to work in turning us away from those sins.

The Bible, much like the Constitution, has to be the last word on what we can and cannot do. Some wise man once noted it's the Ten Commandments; not the Ten Suggestions.

On a related topic, it appears the Pentagon has classified homosexuality as a disorder. Glad Clinton's not still in office. Of course, this has drawn the ire of all sorts of people, who just don't really like the truth to be spoken. It's always gratifiying to see liberals squalling about something like this. It lets us all know that nerve is a bit sensitive to pressure.