Contributors
Carol Platt Liebau - Columnist

Carol Platt Liebau is a senior member of the CaliforniaRepublic.org editorial board. She is an attorney, political analyst and commentator based in San Marino, CA, and has appeared on the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Orange County News Channel, Cox Cable and a variety of radio programs throughout the United States. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Carol Platt Liebau also served as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. [go to Liebau index]

Needed: More Praying, Less Politics
The Episcopal Church Is Slowly Driving Out Traditionalists
[Carol Platt Liebau] 2/2/04   

Increasingly, it’s becoming an anachronism to define oneself as a political conservative who is an Episcopalian. For a church that constantly proclaims the merits of “unity” and “inclusion,” too many clergymen are doing an excellent job of alienating those who disagree with them on the political issues of the day. As a result, their more traditional congregants are increasingly finding that, in a real sense, they are no longer welcome in the Church they love.

When I moved from the Midwest to the Golden State five years ago as a bride, I was struck by the warmth and welcome extended by Californians. Acclimating was easier than one might ever have predicted – except when it came to finding a new church home.

Most memorably, several years ago, I arrived at a local Episcopal Church (in fairness, one well-known for its left-wing activism) for the Good Friday vigil. The churchyard was filled with little crosses. Knowing the political leanings of the clergy and the church, I suspected they didn’t symbolize the lives of unborn babies lost to abortion. Was I right about that! In fact, each of the little crosses represented a commemoration of a duly convicted murderer who had been executed by the state – with, almost as an afterthought, a list of his victims below each name. Nearby was a table with volunteers inviting worshippers to sign up to participate in anti-death penalty activism. Aside from any offensive implicit equation between multiple murders and the crucified Christ, the intrusion of politics into a holy day was jarring.

Even at the church my husband attended as a youth (reputedly the most conservative locally), politics too often interferes with worship. The Sunday after September 11, 2001, the sermon was more condemnatory toward Rush Limbaugh than toward the suicide hijackers! What a squandered opportunity for the Church to touch the sore hearts of the believers in the pews.

These days, when strident leftist policy pronouncements come from any Protestant denomination, it seems that they emanate from Episcopal clergy. Just last week, the Rocky Mountain News reported on a talk delivered by a Rev. Katherine Ragsdale to Naral/Pro Choice Colorado on the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. Ms. Ragsdale, an Episcopal priest, called on churches to join all aspects of the abortion rights fight, including opposition to “conscience clauses” that would allow physicians morally opposed to abortion to decline to perform them. As part of her talk, Ms. Ragsdale characterized conservative, pro-life Christians as a “small and wacko fringe” and reportedly opined that pro-choice opinions are natural for a Christian. Her absolutist views – and decidedly uncharitable way of expressing them – are an embarrassment to Christians.

Obviously, Episcopal clergy in the United States, like all other Americans, are entitled to hold whatever political conviction they please. But when those convictions are brought into the pulpit with the intent to impose radical changes to long-held mores in both the Church and society more generally, something is very, very wrong.

Last year’s Episcopal General Convention made headlines, of course, when it endorsed the election of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire – the first time in Church history that a practicing homosexual had been named a bishop. At that time, the Convention also passed a resolution decreeing that “local faith communities are operating within the bounds of our common life as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions.”

As a result of Gene Robinson’s election, churches including the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church have suspended dialogue with the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A., and along with the worldwide leaders of the Anglican Communion, have expressed solidarity with the orthodox Episcopalians who opposed Gene Robinson’s consecration. Nine provinces within the Anglican Communion (representing over 38 million Anglicans – a majority), have announced they are in some form of impaired or broken communion with the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Liberals like the American priests who supported the ordination of Gene Robinson, who proselytize for abortion, and who lead movements opposing the death penalty have repeatedly invoked the principle of “inclusion” and “unity.” But by forcing political controversies into the sanctuaries of Episcopal Churches across the country, they have done nothing but split their Church into warring factions, separated it from the majority of fellow sectarians across the world, and provided the media with a priceless opportunity to ridicule and undermine the respect that religion – of any denomination – needs in order to survive in a secular and often hostile world.

The actions of too American Episcopal clergymen have sent a message to Episcopalians of all political stripes – informing them that their Church is now dominated by priests with a leftist ideology that they are determined to impose at almost any cost. In doing so, these priests have exploited, and ultimately undermined, the sacred Anglican/Episcopal tradition of tolerating constructive diversity among its parishes – and, in the process, they are producing a Church that is steadily turning its back on the souls of its more traditional members.

CRO columnist Carol Platt Liebau is a political analyst and commentator based in San Marino, CA.

copyright 2004

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