I’m an Anglican, nee: “Episcopalian.” At one time, those two words described the same thing. Not today. As I’ve previously recounted on these pages, in the late 60’s and early 70’s, a new breed of Episcopal priests – all of whom espoused theology that was far to the left of the mainstream – infiltrated the Episcopal Church hierarchy and eventually took over. They subsequently enacted changes to our denomination such as the ordination of women, followed by the ordination of openly homosexual priests, culminating in the ordination of a practicing homosexual bishop and support for homosexual marriage with the blessings of the church. This has resulted in a cataclysmic schism within the largest group of Episcopal churches in North America, and the virtual excommunication of those that support this group, by Anglicans in the rest of the world. That much is fact. In the last week or so, another large diocese – this time in Fort Worth – has chosen to leave the mothership (a.k.a. “The Episcopal Church” or “TEC”) and align themselves with other Anglicans who cannot stomach this endorsement of theological liberalism. Predictions are now that, within the next year, there will be a new organization of affiliated Anglican/Episcopal churches in the U.S.A. – a group that will have the blessings of the worldwide Anglican community, and one that will offer an alternative for communion to the liberal TEC bunch.
The larger question is, “what happened?” How did one group – the secular/progressive/liberals – stage what amounted to a very quiet coup, and hijack an entire denomination? I’ve wondered about that for years. And now, thanks to the Reverend Dr. Peter Toon of the Prayer Book Society, I have the answer.
They rewrote the Book of Common Prayer – and used it as a tool to attempt to remake our faith. [Read more…] about How to Hijack a Religious Denomination.
As I write this, the American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, World Council of Churches, Quaker United Nations Office and Religions for Peace are set to host an “international dialogue” on the topic “Has Not One God Created Us? The Significance of Religious Contributions to Peace” at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan. Their Very Special Guest? Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
I’ve always loved to read. It’s relaxing. I read a lot – mostly tech books, but I try to read some recreationally, both to relax and to expand my horizons. I was watching Glenn Beck on Headline News a couple of weeks ago, and he had author Andrew Klavan on, pitching his latest, Empire of Lies. Sounded interesting, so I filed it away to a slot on my list of “books I want to read.” This past week, I thought about the book, but had a hard time remembering the name or the author. It finally dawned on me that I could use Amazon’s “if you like this book you might also like” feature to find it. Sure enough, I was able to remember the general look of the cover. I’m not always into instant gratification, but for some reason, I really wanted to read this, and I had some time on my hands, so… 
College Students and alcohol have historically gone together like mac ‘n cheese, Abbot and Costello, and livers and cirrhosis. Stories about binge drinking seem to imply that this is something new. Nonsense. In the 20’s it was bathtub gin and speakeasies. Back when I was in school (late 70’s, for the record) it was beer by the pitcher at our local pizza parlour, or the infamous Jungle parties at the KA house. Drinking is nothing new. Neither are its effects. Recently, a number of college presidents have opined that lowering the drinking age (back) down to 18 would cut down on drinking. I have a few thoughts about that. 