Idle Thoughts on a Saturday Afternoon

Over at World Net Daily, Les Kinsolving notes that retired Episcopal bishop John Spong has a new book out, and pretty much asks the question, ”should anyone be surprised by the good bishop’s ‘explosive’ new ideas?” The answer, of course, is no. Far from being a radical with his suggestions that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, or that St. Paul was a self-loathing homosexual, Spong is simply the loudest and most self-aggrandizing figure in the push by liberal Protestantism to reinvent itself out of existence. In the quest to create “a more inclusive Christianity,” Jesus is being transformed into an “I’m OK, you’re OK” Buddha with a beard, while Paul, who said all those unkind things about women and gays, has been recast as some kind of villain. Think of Michael Eisner after Disney got ahold of the Muppets, for instance. Oh, and the Old Testament, with all the scary smiting and wars of conquest in the Name of God? Except for some of the nicer psalms, it’ll be getting about as much play as a bluegrass CD in New York City. So where does that leave the liberal Episcopal (and Lutheran, and Methodist, and Presbyterian, etc.,) tradition? Well, once they get rid of all the non-inclusive bits, they’ll still have lots of warm fuzzy ministers who like to dress up in elaborate outfits, and some very pretty buildings where you can listen to music. Seriously, the acoustics are great, especially now that they’re no longer cluttered up with people to deaden the sound.