Liberal Christianity is paying for its sins (DUH!)

Los Angeles Times ^ | July 12, 2006 | CHARLOTTE ALLEN ; Catholicism editor for Beliefnet

[altura]

I've never understood the concept of the Rock, paper thingee either.

I mean why would anyone choose paper?

I need help, as I know this is important.

[bert]

The churches are no different from other organizations.

The Lefties make a special effort to take control from the top and then dictate policy downward. This tactic is used everywhere.... the teacher's unions, the nurses unions, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the Librarians association and on and on.

The churches are no different . By forcing themselves loudly and arrogantly into positions of leadership the ordinary members who have no leadership aspirations are tacitly forced into submission. Their financial contributions are soaked up and redirected to leftist causes. The left is truly evil. The destruction of all that is good about America is their goal.

[2banana]

When a church doesn't take itself seriously, neither do its members. It is hard to believe that as recently as 1960, members of mainline churches — Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans and the like — accounted for 40% of all American Protestants. Today, it's more like 12% (17 million out of 135 million). Some of the precipitous decline is due to lower birthrates among the generally blue-state mainliners, but it also is clear that millions of mainline adherents (and especially their children) have simply walked out of the pews never to return. According to the Hartford Institute for Religious Research, in 1965, there were 3.4 million Episcopalians; now, there are 2.3 million. The number of Presbyterians fell from 4.3 million in 1965 to 2.5 million today. Compare that with 16 million members reported by the Southern Baptists.

When your religion says "whatever" on doctrinal matters, regards Jesus as just another wise teacher, refuses on principle to evangelize and lets you do pretty much what you want, it's a short step to deciding that one of the things you don't want to do is get up on Sunday morning and go to church.

Now there is a winning strategy...

[trisham]

And they keep telling the Catholic Church that it had better get with the liberal program — ordain women, bless gay unions and so forth — or die. Sure.

******************

Good article!

[VoiceOfBruck]

Liberal Christianity = trying to serve two masters.

[Grampa Dave]

Close to two decades ago, I was the Senior Warden at our local parish, and we went to the local seminary to interview for a curate to be an asst. priest.

I was amazed at how few of those we interviewed were Christians. Most looked at God, Christ, his time on earth, his death and resurrection as a nice fairy tale.

We hired a young Christian Man with a wife and a son. He was proud to be a Christian. He was good for our church and is a good priest now.

What is happening in the E Church started over 2 decades ago. Too many of us accepted Priests, Curates, Deacons and Bishops inspite of them not believing in the basic tennants of Christianity.

[dsc]

Liberalism -- all leftism -- is of and from Satan. It was devised to corrupt.

[wideawake]

"The first Whig was the Devil." - Samuel Johnson

[jimmyray]

I mean why would anyone choose paper?

Paper covers rock! 9 possible combinations, 3 of which are ties (rock-rock). In the 6 remaining, each element wins 2x. Basically, every hand you have a 33% random chance of winning, or losing, or tying. However, if you can 'read' your opponent, you may improve your odds somewhat.

[IronJack]

all the mainline churches and movements within churches that have blurred doctrine and softened moral precepts are demographically declining and, in the case of the Episcopal Church, disintegrating.

That was the plan all along. These "hot" social issues are nothing but dialectical wedges used to split the faithful. And it's working.

Most lamentable of all is the reality that the people pushing the liberal agenda don't give a tin hoot about the subjects. They don't care about homosexuality or unwed mothers or the poor or any of the other beneficiaries of their so-called largesse. They are simply using them as the levers with which to open cracks in the existing social order, the more easily to replace that order with the chaos of socialism.

[MinuteGal]

I thank the good Lord that I was baptized and confirmed in the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church.

There have been attempts, but this old-line Lutheran denomination has remained quite solid.

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All liberal pap is shifting sand.

Leni

[L98Fiero]

I'm thinking, Frank, Dean and Sammy. :-)

[L98Fiero]

"Among the suggested names were "Mother, Child and Womb" and "Rock, Redeemer and Friend.""

That is one of the dumbest things I have ever read. Like a bunch of stoned hippies sitting around a campfire.

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed. Thanks for the ping!

[AnalogReigns]

This is the 3rd time this same article has been posted....

[jimmyray]

Anyone find it odd this is in the LA Times, of all places?

[Fiji Hill]

Leftists in the United Methodist Church, to which I belong, have succeeded in making our hymns more politically correct by eliminating "sexist," "viloent," and "hegemonistic" language.

"Good Christian Men Rejoice," for example, is now "Good Christian Friends Rejoice," and "God of Our Fathers" has been changed to "God of the Ages," despite the fact that the words were written in 1876 to commemorate the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, and the music was written by organist George Warren in 1888 to commemorate the centennial of the Constitution. Meanwhile, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," a perennially popular hymn, cannot be found in the hymnal. I assume that it was dropped for promoting the sexist concept of God as a father.

Examples of political correctness can be found throughout the hymnal. "Rise Up, O Men of God!" contains a footnote that reads, "'ye saints' can be substituted for 'O men." From "America the Beautiful," the following verse has been eliminated:

"O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern, impassioned stess
A thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness"

"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is missing its third verse:

"I have read a fiery gospel writ in the burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemnors, so with you my grace will deal.
May the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel,",br> As God is marching on."

And, of course, don't waste your time looking for "Hold the Fort" in our hymnal. I have met very few Methodists who have even heard this once-popular hymn, which was inspired by the Battle of Allatoona in 1864. But you will find "O Young and Fearless Prophet," a hymn from 1931 which contains verses denouncing "false love of country" and "our greed for wealth."

Our current hymnal dates from 1989, and a new one is due to come out soon, which will almost certainly be even more politically correct.

[Mr. Silverback]

Incoming? Heck no. I own 7 cats and I laughed my butt off.

[Mr. Silverback]

When a church doesn't take itself seriously, neither do its members. Ms. Allen is brilliant, but I must take issue here. The problem is not that the PCUSA and the Episcopalians don't take themselves seriously. The problem is that they take themselves very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, seriously and see themselves as the last few people who can save the beauty of Christianity from the horror of Christian doctrine. Trust me, no one takes themselves more seriously than ChurchCommie clergy.