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St. Paul and the Liberal Agenda
 As
a Catholic, I feel a special sympathy for conservative Anglicans and
Episcopalians.  Talk
about a hijacked religion!
Time was
when the Anglican Church was spoken of as the “via media”
— a middle way between Catholicism and Protestantism, corresponding
approximately to what C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity,”
affirming the basic and central doctrines almost all Christians shared.
Lewis, who
died in 1963, wouldn’t recognize his church today, particularly its
American branch. The Episcopal Church in this country has recently elected
as its presiding bishop a woman named Katharine Jefferts Schori, an
unabashed liberal-and-then-some who favors homosexual clergy and the
blessing of same-sex unions.
Her
election has triggered a worldwide reaction among more-orthodox Anglicans
and Episcopalians, some of whom have been driven to contemplate schism
rather than submit to her leadership. Her nine-year term will begin in
November. Several American dioceses have already rejected her authority,
and the Archbishop of Canterbury has been forced to acknowledge the
turmoil in his church.
Bishop
Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh complains that Jefferts Schori is clearly not
committed to “the faith as delivered to the saints.” In a
typically provocative sermon recently, she spoke of “Mother
Jesus.” She later explained that “all language is
metaphorical,” particularly theological language, but this metaphor
obviously failed to grab some members of her flock. Still, she insisted it was
“straight-down-the-middle orthodox theology.”
Well,
that’s one way to put it. Another would be to say this woman typifies
liberal arrogance in her conviction that her mission is to raise
everyone’s consciousness, even if it means speaking as if she has just
superseded St. Paul, who tried to be “all things to all men.”
![[Breaker quote for St. Paul and the Liberal Agenda: They don't mix.]](2006breakers/060704.gif) A
British satire once parodied her
attitude by depicting a progressive-minded clergyman saying, “I think
we have to get away from this old idea that God is holy or something.”
Exactly. Liberals specialize in superseding everything that came before them,
urging us to “question authority.” It always turns out that they
mean every form of authority except their own. Before that, they demand
that we fall to our knees.
Chesterton
spoke of “the modern and morbid habit of always sacrificing the
normal to the abnormal.” It would be hard to sum up liberalism more
succinctly. Do you still think abortion and sodomy are abnormal? If so, the
liberal is here to set you straight, if we may use the word straight in
this context.
To
liberalism, tradition, which Chesterton called “the democracy of the
dead,” is nothing but bigotry, and may be safely ignored. Liberals want
to be open-minded about everything — except the past. They seem to
think our ancestors got everything wrong.
Liberal
Christians seem to agree that the man who got the most things wrong was
St. Paul. It seems that Jesus founded a simple religion of everyone being nice
to each other and tolerant of everything, and right away, as luck would have
it, this cranky Paul fellow came along and mucked everything up, and the
Church has been haywire ever since, especially on matters of sex and the
sexes. I’ll bet you won’t hear Bishop Jefferts Schori purring
approvingly of “Mother Paul”! “Wicked Stepfather
Paul,” maybe.
What these
liberal Christians never seem to comprehend, if they notice it at all, is the
sheer urgency of Paul’s teaching. Jesus, John the Baptist, Paul, and
the other apostles all stress the spiritual peril the human race faces. The
end of history is approaching, and we must be ready for it. Salvation is
available to everyone, but a total conversion is necessary. It can’t be
delayed. God’s kingdom is at hand; his mercy is infinite. But the Good
News comes with a terrible warning.
This is a
mysterious and unsettling message, and Paul doesn’t water it down.
Did he really think the end of the world was imminent? This is still debated,
but at any rate he certainly tells us to live as if it were. Gay rights and
sensual indulgence are not on the agenda; neither is following worldly fashion.
The only agenda is obedience to God the Father and worship of the Son.
Everything else follows from that.
Liberal
Christians are right about one thing. Their instinctive aversion to Paul shows
they realize that he was no liberal.
Joseph Sobran |
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| Copyright © 2006 by the
Griffin Internet Syndicate, a division of Griffin Communications This column may not be reprinted in print or Internet publications without express permission of Griffin Internet Syndicate 
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