Thursday, May 3, 2007

What about this blog?

This might be the hardest part, trying to describe what I intend to accomplish, other than pleasing myself by expressing honest opinions. I'm not sure that the world needs another reasserting Episcopalian blogger, but here I am. This as a selfish endeavor, to be sure. I plan to be up front about my opinions and feelings, so several readers (assuming that there are any) will be deeply offended. Tough. I have read the US Constitution, and I find no right to not be offended. I read once that Martin Luther was known to argue points of theology loudly and in vulgar street language. He was a passionate man, no doubt. I will probably use some salty language to describe people and situations who I believe richly deserve it. I will also praise people who deserve it.
I am a traditionalist, reasserting Episcopalian. I joined the church at my wife's encouragement. She has been Episcopalian since adolescence, and, I must admit that the beauty of the worship was what first attracted me. I grew up in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and love worship in a liturgical church. I read the Articles of Faith, noted that Episcopalians used the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, so I thought it would be a short leap from LCMS to TEC. Apostolic succession, while not scriptural, is still a neat thing, and the idea of bishops is neat,too. I have always been drawn to Roman Catholic liturgy (especially the Tridentine Rite, pre Vatican II) and its hierarchy, but I can't abide a number of doctrinal issues. Pardon me for digressing. I found out a few years ago that the church I joined didn't exist. TEC is a shadow of what it has been, both in terms of membership and influence in the USA, and its practices. TEC, since Bp. Pike, Bp. Righter, and Bp. Sping, Women's Ordination, and the 1979 BCP, has watered down its teachings and by now has become more like the Unitarian-Universalist church with liturgy. There are bright spots here and there, especially the Anglican Communion Network, the American Anglican Council, Forward in Faith- North America, and the Dioceses of Ft. Worth, San Joacquin, Quincy, South Carolina, Dallas, among others. There are parishes trying to maintain orthodox teaching and worship in the midst of heterodoxy, in dioceses led by apostate and heretic bishops. In fact, the presiding bishop of TEC is exposed by her own words as a heretic, espousing at least three in her first interviews as PB: pelagianism, gnosticism, and syncretism. Whenever I hear her speak or read what she has written, I am reminded of the old SNL routine, when Dan Akroyd would say to Jane Curtin "Jane, you ignorant slut!"
I don't recognize the pb, or any female "bishop", for that matter, of having valid orders. Therefore, when I refer to the pb by name, I'll use her academic title, Dr. , as she has an earned Ph.D.in marine biology. I may even call her the "squishop" or "her squidness", as her speciality was squids.
I don't think that traditionalists or reasserters in the blogosphere could have asked for a better choice for pb, or "the gift that keeps on giving".
In fact, I'm not sure she even has a clue. I suspect that her chancellor, David Booth Beers, really runs things. Pluriform Frank Griswold ("the Grizz"), her prececessor kept a leash on DBB, but it appears our Kate is putty in his hands. Speculating further, Louis Crew, or "Queen Lutibelle", founder of Integrity (the fag lobby in TEC)is probably an eminence gris to the pb-ess, pulling some strings himself.
I will surf blogs and post items of interest here, always with source attribution, and make a few editorial comments. Watch this space.

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