The American Spectator

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Francis X. Rocca’s general comments on religious conservatism allude to many important additional issues. I would like to make three points:

1. Mr. Rocca writes of Anglicanism (Episcopalianism in the U.S.) and Catholicism in the spirit of one being the peer of the other. It is a healthy attitude, for Anglicanism, although “protestant,” is not Protestant. In fact the two have so much in common that, in this more “cooperative” era, one validates that other … or in the case of the “progressives,” one can help destroy the other.

2. Should any person actively engaged in any sexual relationship, outside of a marriage between a man and a woman, be knowingly ordained to the deaconate or priesthood, thus affecting “liberalization” of church-wide policy such a church, by one self-indulgent move in the guise of “fairness,” ceases to be a Christian church.

3. In the case of the Episcopalians in the U.S., holding to religious tradition is fundamentally serious. It was the Episcopalian communion (pre-Revolutionary Anglican) that exerted far-reaching influence on the ethics and norms that undergird the cultural foundation of our Republic. For our country to continue on into the future, such values must be continued in the lives of a significant number of citizens — citizens who depend upon their religious communion to be truthful, regardless of strong destructive social norms to the contrary.

p>4. For more on No. 3 above, read The Way of the WASP: How It Made America and How It Save It … So To Speak by Richard Brookhiser. br> — Carl G. Pyper br> Monett, MO /p> p> Mr. Rocca’s article on religion once more shows his complete ignorance of what Christianity is really about. Not once in his diatribe did he mention Jesus Christ, the Apostles, or even the Bible. Instead he launches into a conservative/liberal schism centered around homosexuality. Mr. Rocca seems to forget that God condemns sin for what it is and that homosexuality is an abomination unto the Lord, as stated in the Bible, which while written by man, is the word of the Lord. Therefore the “Third World Christians” are not conservative per se, but follow their faith according to its tenets. On the other hand, the “white European and North American Christians” have fallen into sin and away from the tenets of their faith, which they try to pass off as progressiveness. The Christian faith is not subject to populous whim but to what is stated in the Bible. It’s about time a supposedly intelligent man like Mr. Rocca realized that. br> —