The truly stunning news this week is the inroads our junior devils were able to achieve in the Synod in Rome. Shades of the Episcopal Church playbook emerged all over the place.

Cardinals were falling all over themselves pleading local option on sodomy, adultery, and those wonderful words "contextualization" and "decentralization." This is precisely what we want to hear. Keep the Culture Wars going by preaching cultural diversity. Let them think that whatever the Africans think is not what will play out in downtown New York, Chicago, LA, or Philadelphia. Under no circumstances must the notion of ontology enter the discussion--that there is a universal, unassailable, non-negotiable morality that stands above all time and place. Keep the sodomites whining about inclusion and the pain they allegedly feel being hated by heterosexuals--a myth that has cowed a whole generation from talking about homosexuality as a dangerous pathological behavior.

We were thrilled to read of that doctor in Massachusetts who got expelled from a hospital for daring to talk about the medical dangers of homosexual behavior and the moral issues surrounding it. Words like "offensive" constituting "discrimination," "harassment," and "unprofessional conduct" are precisely the language we like to read. It is sweet music to our ears. That he had been a respected urologist on staff for nearly 30 years and a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty makes the firing that much sweeter.

We have managed to take the Homoiousios verses Homoousios debate of earlier decades and keep the homo part alive for such a time as this. Well done. Guns and gonads are killing off tens of thousands of Americans annually--a superb achievement not found even among the Russians or Chinese. In the latter country, we are regrettably seeing a resurgence of Christianity that we could not have anticipated following the demise of Mao.

Of course, we are still marveling that you managed to find and exalt this fellow Trump. His elevation from a towering business figure to a new American political icon who represents the worst in greed, vanity, narcissism, and bullying is something we have never seen before in North American political life. We are so used to the thugs and murderers, the Stalins, Hitlers, Maos, and more. However, in Trump we have the worst of American individualism, triumphalism, and, worst of all, the strands of capitalism that so impressed Our Father that he thought of allowing a miracle and raising Ayn Rand from the dead. However, the Counsel of Hades warned him there might be a backlash in the form of a rise in supernaturalism, which could backfire on us. After all, Trump has his biggest following from evangelicals, which is sweet music to Our Father's ears. ISIS is too obvious.

We are so delighted to see the slow, lingering death of western Protestant liberalism and the possible break-up of Catholicism that we urge a note of caution. When things get this bad, there is usually a backlash, and we detect signs of this throughout the country. Entropy cannot be reversed, but minds and hearts can change.

New churches are emerging full of the same old fundamentalist rhetoric. Some even recite ancient creeds and liturgies long thought antiquated and dead. The Bible is making a comeback, and there are all sorts of people pushing "discipleship courses" that have Our Father apoplectic. This Rick Warren fellow was able to make inroads into the Vatican recently by talking about the family alongside the strong Catholic family-oriented voices who had Our Father gnashing his teeth in anguish. We much prefer The Poisonwood Bible over The Purpose Driven Life as the main entree.

We have been unable to overthrow Warren's faith, even with the recent death of his son, which we felt sure would have cooled his celebrity heels and his evangelical faith. It hasn't. We failed. He cannot even be seduced by the health and wealth prosperity gospel crowd. His focus on the gospel and changed lives is an unmitigated disaster.

Now, we must warn you, Wormwood, that as the North American culture continues its Gadarene slide, we should expect a backlash sometime soon from the Other side. There is talk of a Third Great Awakening. We are not sure where this is going to come from or who the instigator will be. Watch for a layman or laywoman. It won't come from the clergy. This sort of revivalism always comes from the bottom up, never from the top down. But it will come. And woe unto you if you don't nip it quickly in the bud. As you well know, Our Father's wrath knows no bounds.

We have noticed a rise in your Twitter and Facebook readers, a sure sign that Dawkins and Hawkins still draw crowds. Atheism is not dead, but agnosticism is on the rise, and post-modernism has killed off whole generations' openness to any sort of transcendence. Remember it was the tortoise who won.

Keep up the good work.

I remain your affectionate Uncle

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