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To: Miss Marple
The answer is money.

You're right, of course. Both the Episcopal bishops in Dallas and Fort Worth said they're not going anywhere (just as they went nowhere when women were ordained), but they're going to observe the historical doctrine of the Church and not ordain gay priests.

At first blush, it might be gratifying to stalk out the door, but, unless your own parish or congregation is adopting the liberal line, you should stay where you are and fight it out.

If you stay in, you can control how much these bishops get for their activities and special projects. Catholics are bringing some dioceses to their knees (Boston comes to mind) by withholding donations.

12 posted on 08/06/2003 7:23:18 AM PDT by sinkspur ("You want pajamas? Stripes, dots, or animals." Oscar Madison in THE ODD COUPLE.)
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To: sinkspur
In the Methodist Church, you cannot control the assessment by the district. This is decided at the district level and is given to each church proportionally. Should you withhold money, the Methodists (who own the land) have the right to shut the church down and sell the land.

Should you only give to local funds (like the building fund) the minister usually directs a larger proportion of the general fund to the district, and makes up for your withholding money that way. The only way you can stop this is to withhold all money, which most congregations cannot do as they must donate to pay expenses and local outreach efforts.

20 posted on 08/06/2003 7:29:55 AM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: sinkspur
At first blush, it might be gratifying to stalk out the door, but, unless your own parish or congregation is adopting the liberal line, you should stay where you are and fight it out.

In my opinion, the battle is over and has been for a long time. The Episcopalian Church has been walking toward this apostasy for decades, in little baby steps. Conservative Bible-believing Episcopalians should have left decades ago. Frankly many have. Why fight over fallow ground? Strong language, but I think it is true.

117 posted on 08/06/2003 8:40:25 AM PDT by Zack Nguyen
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To: sinkspur
The answer is not money or real estate!

The whole thing comes down to the fact that mankind is basically rebellious to God and it's only through acceptance of Christ, death to self, and regeneration of the Holy Spirit that one can be born again and live in a way that pleases God.

And since man has a need and longing for God, you have a contingent of folks (the homosexual crowd) who want to do their own thing but still want God (in some form) in their lives. This is fence sitting to the Max (a pick-and-chose religion).

And because some/too many denominations are not firmly rooted in the Bible that has left them open to the culture to 'shape' them.

It's a case of people wanting to continue to sin and wanting to have it be approved of (just to make em feel good... i.e. they are redefining 'sin'). And they're just choosing the path of least resistance to do so (er at least it appears that way).

136 posted on 08/06/2003 9:08:55 AM PDT by blue jeans
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To: sinkspur
On the other hand, maybe they should consider becoming Anglican Use parishes en masse.
168 posted on 08/06/2003 10:11:34 AM PDT by B Knotts
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