Because Christianity is Embarrassing

Even those of us who are Christians may be excused if we’ve failed to follow the ins and outs of the current unpleasantness in the Anglican Communion. We've watched this movie before. Another mainline denomination – albeit one with way cool buildings and ass-kicking costumes – discovers sexual deviance, the poor, the sick, and the less fortunate, and decides that it would be terribly relevant to become a social welfare organization, with an emphasis on the latest in group victimization causes. Thus, the Episcopal Church, instead of preaching Christ crucified, decided to be with-it and thoroughly modern. And what better way to demonstrate that than to consecrate an active, practicing homosexual as a bishop?

Take that, all you homophobic Ku-Kluxers! (The days of hooded Nightriders with torches, shotguns and nooses having now wholly passed, it’s safe for the ladies and gentlemen to add their voices to the chorus. No muss, no fuss, and we all feel so terribly revolutionary! Oh the tingle!)

Of course, the worldwide Anglican Communion is no longer your great-grandfather’s Church of England, bunky. It is now, in fact, dominated by vibrant, growing churches in Africa and Asia. And many of those folks haven’t come to Christ at this late date in order to be side-tracked into the rich Western white-man’s worldly cause du jour.

If you’re at all interested in following this conflict, you could do worse than to cruise by the Midwest Conservative Journal, or Captain Yips Secret Journal. The latter recently included this hilarious perspective:

[The American Episcopal Church] is the Anglican Communion’s crazy Aunt Melinda, the aging hippy who comes to family reunions in a floaty tie-dyed mumu, carrying an immense, daisy-appliqued straw handbag. In that bag she has a ziploc of grass and a S & W Model 10 (“for when the pigs come for me”), asks everyone if they want a toke, and then talks loudly about her sex life in explicit detail. Melinda, though, is rich with money left by generations, and money has bought her tolerance - up to a point. Recently, some members of the family have wondered if she’s past it, have begun refusing to come to parties and events if she shows up, and some are even muttering that maybe Melinda needs a trustee.

Just so.