It seems that everyone (except me) has posted about
Ross Douthat's opinion piece in the New York Times and
Jay Akasie's thoroughly mean-spirited column in the Wall Street Journal.
From Akasie:
General Convention is also notable for its sheer ostentation and
carnival atmosphere. For seven straight nights, lavish cocktail parties
spilled into pricey steakhouses, where bishops could use their diocesan
funds to order bottles of the finest wines.
I was in Anaheim for GC2009, and I was obviously not on the A-list for an invitation to the parties. Akasie says he is Episcopalian, and I'd like to know which Episcopal church he attends.
Others have said that Ross Douthat's column in the
NYT was thoughtful and reasonable, but I can't agree. True, he was not as nasty as Akasie, but still... Not that TEC is above criticism - I've been critical - but neither columnist paints a fair or accurate picture of the church. I didn't have the heart to take on either of the columnists, but others did, many others. Scroll though the posts at
The Lead to find the responses.
I'd like to point to posts by a pair of friends of mine, not because the two are my friends, but because I like what Doug Blanchard and Elizabeth Kaeton say about The Episcopal Church, my church. My friends paint a much more realistic picture of the church I love than either of the writers in major media outlets.
In his post titled
"What Ever To Do About the Episcopal Church", Doug says:
September of this year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of my
confirmation into the Episcopal Church. I've joined or participated in
congregations in Missouri, Texas, Michigan, Italy, Kentucky, New Jersey,
and New York. In those three decades, I've been pleased to be part of
congregations that were never large, but were full of people happy to be
there, people from many different generations and classes. Religious
life was always a serious matter of education and prayer with Sunday
school, adult education, Bible classes, pastoral training for laity,
hospital partnerships, prison ministries, food pantries, hot meal
programs, programs for homeless kids, Benedictine spiritual groups,
prayer groups, house congregations, etc. These congregations were
always busy and full of life. Most striking about all of them is that
the majority of their members, including the clergy, were converts.
'Tis true; 'tis true. Many of the members of my congregation also
chose to be members of the Episcopal Church. Read it all.
Next Elizabeth's post titled
"Postcard from Nineveh". Already, I like the title.
The main thesis of the recent attacks have to do with holding up the
recent actions of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church -
authorizing liturgical blessings for the covenants made between people
of the same sex, changing our canons to disallow discrimination based on
gender identity and expression, etc. - as an example of why
Christianity is in decline.
Elizabeth paints a picture of the church of the future, which I believe is spot on.
I don't think the church of the future is going to look anything like it does now.
I
suspect it's going to look smaller, less bound to buildings and
structures, more directed to caring for others than maintaining
ourselves, more committed to following an unknown path to the future
than cherishing dusty old maps that lead us over and over again to the
past.
Of course, you should read the entire post.
UPDATE: And if you want even more on Ross Douthat, Paul (A.) says...
Our friend Slacktivist has posts on Douthat responses here, here, and here.
The second of these posts posits an interesting proposition:
Automobile-shaped development has produced an automobile-shaped
ecclesiology. All are worth perusing.