Evil triumphs where men do nothing

Recently the US Episcopal Bishops finished a meeting where they were given a chance to step back from a final break with the Anglican Communion. Of course if they did that would mean they would not be able to preach that homosexuality is morally correct. {Don't bring up any of that Bible stuff; the Bible is such old hat and it really isn't anything but a nice story.}

I am not going down that well worn pathway in this post. I am going to tell you how this happened. As you can expect it didn't happen over night. This is a clear and perfect example of ""All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke).

In the early 1970s those who had led the Episcopal Church since World War II started to pass away. Their children took over. These were the children who never were required to test their metal; except for Vietnam. And then in the face of that challenged they weakened and succumbed to a religion that was not permitted to have boundaries. They brought this new religion to the Episcopal Church. They mouthed the words of an old liturgy until they got a new one that didn’t require boundaries. {Now I actually liked the new liturgy because I never heard the old one. The liturgy isn’t the point; they didn’t like boundaries.} The premise was that “there is no sin”; thus no sinners.

This is called the dogma of openness. “We must be an open church!” So no longer did one have to confess sin and resolve to sin no more because sin was obsolete. And those who didn’t believe the dogma thought that church would always be the same. They did nothing. They didn’t serve on committees or boards or even give oversight to those who did.

The purveyors of this new dogma took control of vestries; which led to control of dioceses, which led to control of general conventions. Finally they had control of discernment committees. These are the portals to the ordained priesthood. If one didn’t ascribe to the new dogma of openness; one was not “discerned” to be worthy of ordination.

The seizure of the church was complete. It is not a Christian church; it is a Open church.

In 1970 the number of people who called themselves Episcopalians was around 11% of the population; in 2000 that number was 0.9%. It continues to drop.

When the Anglican Communion cuts the Episcopal Church off; the openness dogma will have reaped what it has sown.