No longer. It is now an aging, shriveling, sexually obsessed church that is foisting a variety of sexual behaviors (LGBTQI) that no church in history has ever done or would have deemed remotely acceptable, (or even discussed) on its diminishing 700,000 parishioners in 100 dioceses. The 10,000 or so Episcopalians who show up at GC2012 in Indianapolis next month have no idea the damage they will do if Rites for the blessing of same sex marriage passes (which it is guaranteed will).

Already Episcopal bishops are lining up how they will cope with this new reality. The more revisionist ones, like PA Bishop Charles E. Bennison, are demanding that their clergy be prepared to administer such rites if asked to do do or face their personal judgment if they do not.

Clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania will soon have the option of blessing same-gender couples, the Right Rev. Nathan D. Baxter, bishop of the diocese, said recently. Baxter said that if trial liturgies for same-sex blessings are approved at Next month's General Convention of the Episcopal Church, his diocese would use them.

Bishops with a remnant of Christian conscience like Texas Bishop C. Andrew Doyle plan to navigate around a proposed Rite by allowing those parishes who want to use them to do so, but traditionally minded parishes will not be forced to use or implement them.

"My plan does not ask for further debate or require approval," Bishop Doyle told the clergy gathered at Camp Allen recently. "I have not asked people to change their positions or even to like the plan that I am setting before us," he explained. "It is my deepest desire to offer a generous breadth of pastoral care for our members throughout the diocese."

However, Diocese of Dallas Bishop James Stanton is not expected to allow the blessing of same-sex relationships even if a resolution allowing the blessings passes at the July General Convention in Indianapolis. The new Bishop of Central Florida Gregory O. Brewer is expected to hold this position, as well. Both men are evangelicals with a high view of Scripture. They will not compromise. Unfortunately, they are only among half a dozen bishops expected to take a hard line. The vast majority of bishops will go along with it. Somewhere down the road, perhaps as early as the 2015 General Convention, the blessing of same-sex relationships will be made mandatory upon all dioceses like women's ordination.

Concurrent with this apostasy is news that The Episcopal Church is in a financial mess. Few seem to get the connection between the church's declining finances and sexual apostasy. The truth is discussion of budgetary considerations might actually top that of gay Rites at GC2012. Pushing pansexuality is coming at a great price.

One of the main ideas of "pansexuality" developed by Sigmund Freud is to focus on the search for pleasure, the exploitation of the differences between the sexes, and the overthrowing of traditional relationships between men and women. Among his aims was to attack the authority of the father, deny the specific roles of father and mother, and wrest away from families their rights as primary educators of their children.

For Douthart, this is all about bad religion and the need to root it out. He wants to see America return to its confessional roots. No one is accusing him of being a fundamentalist. After all, he writes for the New York Times. Douthat reminds us that he was baptized Episcopalian, attended evangelical and Pentecostal churches as a child, and converted to Catholicism at age 17. He argues that prosperity preachers, self-esteem gurus, and politics operating as religion all contribute to the contemporary decline of America.

He is right. And in one word he calls it "heresy." No ifs, ands, or buts, just plain heresy. When asked what he meant when he said we were facing the threat of heresy, he responded, "I try to use an ecumenical definition, starting with what I see as the theological common ground shared by my own Catholic Church and many Protestant denominations. Then I look at forms of American religion that are influenced by Christianity, but depart in some significant way from this consensus. It's a C. S. Lewisian, Mere Christianity definition of orthodoxy or heresy. I'm trying to look at the ways the American religion today departs from theological and moral premises that traditional Protestants and Catholics have in common."

Our forefathers wouldn't recognize the Episcopal Church today if they rose from the dead compared to what its early founders believed, most of whom were true believers. Today, most Episcopalians are cultural Christians, playing the game, dressing up, saying the Creed (but do they really mean it?), and listening to sermons on diversity and inclusivity with a smattering of Bible verses twisted to substantiate unsustainable positions.

We have become a nation of heretics because our churches are heretical. The departure of mainline Protestant churches from the Reformed Faith to a social gospel started us down the road. It began in the late-1800s and early 1900s when American Baptist seminary professor Walter Rauchenbush developed what is now called the "social gospel," a biblically naïve attempt at mercy ministry to the poor. Instead of the Gospel of grace leading to transformed lives, and as a result, to social action and social betterment, the "social gospel" declares that the Gospel IS social action. Helping the poor, raising the standard of living of the oppressed is what the Gospel is all about. Mrs. Jefferts Schori would totally agree with Professor Rauchenbush.

Apostasy

The Bible is full of warnings about apostasy. The term means to deliberately renounce or reject one's faith commitment. It is an act of defiance and rebellion, which is taken very seriously indeed in Scripture. John Shelby Spong and TEC's mostly revisionist HOB should take note. Consider just a few of the many passages which address this issue:

Mathew 24:9-14: Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

1 Timothy 1:18-20: Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

I Timothy 4:1-2: The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

Hebrews 3:12-14: "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first."

II Peter 2:20-22: If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud."

The warnings are clear. Yet that has not stopped The Episcopal Church HOB and HOD passing resolutions at one General Convention after another relating to human sexuality that deliberately go against Holy Writ. It seems that only adultery, pedophilia and bestiality remain as no no's.

Making a shipwreck of their souls comes easily to bishops like Gene Robinson, Mary Glasspool, J. Jon Bruno, Tom Shaw, et al the thing that is difficult - at least if you believe in biblical Christianity - is staying in. Jesus made it crystal clear that following him was no joy ride. Indeed, it made things very difficult for people to follow him. Jesus said the Christian life is about self-denial, crucifying the flesh, and carrying our cross daily. He even said this: "He that endures to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 10:22).

What we have today in TEC is a bunch of false shepherds - male and female. In addition to the many warnings about unbelief and apostasy, the Bible also frequently warns against false shepherds, which these men and women obviously are. Here are just a few of these warnings:

Jeremiah, 23:1-2: "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture." says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: "You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings." says the Lord.

Matt. 7:15: Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

Acts 20:28-31: Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard.

2 John 1:7: Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

The need for perseverance in the Christian life is crucial. As St. John wrote in the Book of the Revelation 2:10: "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown." We have a perfect biblical summary of these tragic stories of apostasy found in 1 John 2:19: "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us."

No one will talk about apostasy or heresy at General Convention. No one is interested much anymore in what Spong thinks, but his mindset lives on. His legacy will see the Episcopal Church go down like the Titanic. In the words of St. Athanasius, "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops." The Episcopal Church is reaping what it has sown.

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