Rearranging the furniture on the deck of the Titanic

Powerful commentary by Canon Gary L'Hommedieu on the Episcopal Church and the destruction of that church and society in general by guilt-driven leftists: I'm Guilty: You Repent - The Spiritual Impulse of Liberalism.

This is not fluff; it is real meat, and deserving of your time. Here's a statement of the problem:

If anyone thinks the present spiritual malaise is mainly about The Episcopal Church, or mainline Christianity in America, then I daresay they're naïve about spiritual warfare - not to mention reality outside their window. The demons that have ransacked TEC (to take a single example) are the same ones which have targeted the West as a whole. Indeed, the assault upon orthodox Christianity only makes strategic sense as part of a massive assault upon civilization as we know it.

The Episcopal Church makes an important study as a group that sold itself to play in a high stakes game before it was clear what the game was. Here we see the promiscuous quality of the affluent American Left that emerged from the Viet Nam era. The time was an eschaton of sorts. Here at last was a generation uniquely qualified to fix and save everything that was broken or oppressed, and it literally jumped into bed with any cause that promised a moment's notoriety.

Here at last was the generation qualified to overhaul a 450-year-old liturgy - one universally acknowledged as embodying the spirit of a global communion. That was just the beginning. From now on the visionaries would declare open season on any aspect of the church's tradition that could be tinkered with in such a way as to leave signs of their tinkering, all in the name of "liberation".

What's driving their tinkering?

Today's liberals live a pretty good life, and they feel bad about it. They have more of everything than any generation before them, and they sense this is unfair. But rather than repent and become Gandhians, they remove Christmas trees from the village green, or put bike lanes on four or five roads in their town. They might tighten up rules on what people can eat, drink, or smoke, and when. Are these the abuses that have been crying out for redress for the welfare of the community? Probably not. More likely they are the result of conscience-stricken busybodies scanning the horizon for opportunities to impose their heightened awareness on others.

Don't forget the name of the disease: I'm guilty; now you need to repent.