Why some mainstream religions are shrinking
Truth is often shocking and sometimes it even lands in our laps from a press release put out by a mainstream church. What follows is the dialogue from a video currently circulating on the web. It is not fake news; it is there for you to confirm, and we hope you’ll give it a read:
“The second area we’re looking at is “do it yourself” spirituality, where people are going to take something from one (religion), something from another. There will be new technologies, new apps to help them, but what they will feel they have is a very authentic spirituality that connects them to the divine. Those who have the time and opportunity to study theology, know that there is “feminist” theology, and “queer” theology and so many other facets of theology, but not everyone who’s in church knows about that. What if there was a way, thru an app for example, where they could gain access to that (information), by basically saying, “This is what I’m feeling. Where does God fit into all this?” (The app) would have access to all of the theologies that have been written, and could present this to them, giving them an authentic view of God that meets them. It is making theology accessible, and thus people will be able to use it and implement it in their lives. So what the church needs to do is figure out which of our own traditions, which of our own tools are available from our spiritual chest, can people use to find their authentic way to God. That will be authentic “do it yourself” spirituality.”
Was this script delivered by a scientologist? A wiccan? Perhaps two college sophomores after too much to smoke, trying to come up with a get-rich-quick app idea?
No, this is a video released by The Episcopal Church (TEC) through their Episcopal News Service. It is produced by TryTank Experimental Laboratory, which is “a lab for church growth and innovation. It is a joint project between Virginia Theological Seminary and the General Theological Seminary. TryTank offers inventive approaches to the challenges facing the Episcopal
Church.” This quotation is from TryTank’s own website, which clearly explains their connection to TEC.
There are, no doubt, still Mercury readers who are confused about why so many local churches decided to split from the Episcopal church and subsequently reorganized their parishes as Anglican. Some readers may still believe the split occurred because of disagreements regarding LGBT issues.
The reason for the split is spelled out in black and white above: TEC no longer practices anything remotely resembling Christianity — and as the dialogue demonstrates so clearly, they aren’t even trying to hide it. It is an “I’m okay, you’re okay” spirituality club.
As any Christian knows, “I’m not okay, and you’re not okay.” That is the reason for the very existence of the Christian faith. Without that understanding, one is — by definition — not a Christian. If you’re not a Christian, why bother to attend church, give financial support or volunteer for internal church functions? Citizens are free to make choices about where to worship, but they also deserve truth in packaging; we can reach no other conclusion than that one church just purchased a billboard that says everything about what they are and are not.
