How sad and how true. As someone said at Stand Firm: Does the word doughnut mean anything if you include bagels and English muffins? How we expect Christian to mean anything if you include Islam and Buddhism? What silly, silly people.

Yep. Definitely a “dog bites man” story. Or, better: “cat sheds on sofa,” since we are talking about something everybody expected to see.

Another excerpt from Kings which relates to ordination: I Kings 13:33-34: “Even after this [the man of God acceding to corrupting blandishments contrary to God's command] Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.”

Chris:

After I read this posting this morning, I came across this interview, which has a quote that apropos for here:

[Mike Aquilina]: You say that Christianity succeeded in part because of its high moral standards. Today, however, many churches are lowering the bar to make religion more popular. How would you analyze their efforts?

[Rodney Stark]: They’re death wishes. People value religion on the basis of cost, and they don’t value the cheapest ones the most. Religions that ask nothing get nothing. You’ve got a choice: you can be a church or a country club. If you’re going to be a church, you’d better offer religion on Sunday. If you’re not, you’d better build a golf course, because you’re not going to get away with being a country club with no golf course. That’s what happened to the Episcopalians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Unitarians and, indeed, to some sectors of Catholicism.

Here’s a better theory: Bishop Pike merited a lot of news coverage over his apostasy. I am sure that Bishop Swing got reams of press coverage over his syncretism. It is definite that John Shelby Spong got a lot of column inches over his 12 Theses and other anti-Christian works.

With all of that, the general public already knows that there are plenty of Episcopal bishops who are not Christian. The press knows it too. So this latest election is not news at all, except for the ostriches still left in the Episcopal Church.

PMcGrath, thanks for the link. That was educational and inspiring.

Chris, if you add to your quote the end of verse 21
“And the People said nothing” (NIV) then it is indeed indicative of your comments above. How our Lord must shake his head in bewilderment!

Doug LeBlanc wonders why the story of the Episcopal Organization’s putative Buddhist bishop hasn’t received more media coverage than it has.

As Joseph Bottum has explained, although the mainline Protestant churches still have lots of members, no-one has taken these institutions seriously in about 35 years. (Bush and Obama don’t care what the heads of the United Methodist Church and United Church of Christ think of government policy.) So one of their ministers is a loon. That’s not news.

Allen,

In regards to those ostriches:

“Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig” – Robert Heinlein