Times-Dispatch Discusses Virginia Diocese Split

2 February, 2007. 443 words.

Mrs. Krehbiel pointed me to these two Richmond Times-Dispatch articles with opposing viewpoints on the recent Episcopal Church split here in Virginia: . . . What Sort of Realignment? and In The Episcopal Church.

I don’t think I’ve spoken on this topic before, but in a nutshell, I don’t mind those congregations splitting from the Episcopal Church. In fact I’m actually quite happy to be rid of the whole closed-minded bunch of them. Their views don’t sound very Episcopalian, at least the way I’ve experienced it. I do have a problem with them trying to take Church property with them, but that’s a battle for the lawyers, and I fear the Church will lose. But I’ll definitely be hoping the folks from Truro and Falls Church end up having to meet in an elementary school gym.

But I digress. The first article above discusses the possibility that the Episcopal church is not so much splitting over the issue of homosexuality, but rather that it is in the midst of another Spiritual Awakening. I don’t have nearly enough knowledge to agree or disagree with that, but it’s an interesting concept.

I found the second article kind of amusing in its attempt to spin the decision to leave the Diocese of Virginia as something broader than just the issue of homosexuality (“the authority of the Bible (which is very clear on the subject of sexual ethics) and the Lordship of Jesus Christ”). (I also couldn’t help but notice that the author parenthetically pulled the debate back to the very issue he was trying to rise above.) The conflict may be broader for some people, but I would speculate that the majority of people voting to leave were just thinking about gay issues.

Incidentally, I disagree about scripture being “very clear”-on homosexuality or any other issue. If it was very clear about everything, there wouldn’t be so many different branches of Christianity.

I’ve never before heard the charge of Episcopal bishops “who deny the deity of Jesus Christ, deny His resurrection, and deny His being the unique and essential Savior for the whole world,” so I can’t comment much about it. It sounds like a legitimate complaint, but I’ve never been exposed to any bishops making any such claims. In any case, my personal feeling (based on a lifetime of observation of small Episcopal congregations) is that bishops and clergy are just as varied and flawed as anyone else. I wouldn’t expect anyone in the Church hierarchy to be perfect. (It’s safer to expect them to be imperfect, actually.)

Thomas Krehbiel writes The Krehbiel Strikes Back, a generally centrist commentary on news, media, politics, and culture.

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