Kagen and the Decline of the American WASP

Some facts and ideas from two articles in the Wall Street Journal today are worth considering.

The first article "That Bright, Dying Star, the American WASP" directly discusses the absence of Protestants on the Supreme Court.

Of the 111 Supreme Court Justices who have served, 35 have been Episcopalians, making them the largest religious group on the court, according to court historians. The court's first non-Protestant was Catholic Justice Roger Taney, appointed by President Andrew Jackson in 1836.

Whether the court's religious makeup even matters in today's legal world has become a subject of hot debate. Yet by ushering in a Protestant-free court, Ms. Kagan is helping to sweep away some of the last vestiges of a group that ruled American politics, wealth and culture for much of the nation's history.

"The fact that we're going to zero Protestants in the court may not be as significant as the fact that her appointment perfectly reflects the decline of the Establishment, or the WASP Establishment, in America," said David Campbell, associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.

The article goes on to note that other groups are now wealthier than Protestants:

In old-money enclaves like Palm Beach, Fla., Nantucket, Mass., and Greenwich, Conn., WASPs are being priced out of their waterfront estates and displaced on their nonprofit boards by Jewish, Catholic and other non-Protestant entrepreneurs.

A survey by Pew Research found only 21% of mainline U.S. Protestants had income of $100,000 or more, compared with 46% of Jews and 42% of Hindus.

Then in her column "The Lamest Show on Earth", Peggy Noonan describes what she sees as "the great class marker of the age":

The ones on top now and in the future will be those who start off with the advantage not of great wealth but of the great class marker of the age: two parents who are together and who drive their children toward academic excellence. It isn't "Mom and Dad had millions" anymore as much as "Mom and Dad made me do my homework, gave me emotional guidance, made sure I got to trombone lessons, and drove me to soccer."

I think historically mainline Protestants were providing their children with "two parents who are together and who drive their children toward academic excellence." Mainline Protestant churches used to be places where parents could take their children to be surrounded by others who shares the values of two-parent families who valued education. The sexual morality of the Bible emphasized the two parent family. And the Protestant tradition was based on every family being able to read their own Bible, so literacy was emphasized.

These days, mainline Protestants are more concerned with "social justice" and personal gratification. The parents in the churches can get divorced and still be beloved members of the community because divorce is no longer stigmatized. Episcopal priests now celebrate the move to authenticity when men divorce their wives to live authentically in gay relationships. Morality is now about helping in soup kitchens or organizing a protest for some public issue (health care, immigrant rights, etc.) And the ones who are being short changed are the children of the church.

Minneapolis: Harassment by Episcopal High School Students

At least four recent students of the elite Episcopal High School named The Breck School have been caught for the latest in two years of harassment of a former Breck student, Caleb Dayton. Caleb had attended the Breck School since kindergarten, and the harassment began when he transferred to another elite school, Blake, in junior year. The acts of harassment are described by the New York Times:

The house, its owners say, was festooned in toilet paper. It was bombarded with eggs. Pumpkins were smashed. Human waste was deposited on the front stoop, grease was smeared on a car, tampons were left behind. All the while, they say, taunting notes and phone calls arrived.

The Breck School explains its affiliation with the Episcopal Church here:

Breck was founded in 1886 by, and is still affiliated with, the Episcopal Church. The Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota chairs the Board and presides at the most important events of the year, such as Baccalaureate and Commencement. Breck often hosts the most important Diocesan events, such as the election of a new Bishop. Neither Breck nor the Diocese supports the other financially in any way.

The students learned the values of the Roach Motel Episcopal Church well: You can check out but you can never leave.

San Francisco: Buddhist monks lead prayers at Episcopal Grace Cathedral

Grace Cathedral seems to be getting in to the act late on having Buddhist monks come in to make prayer mandalas, but the San Francisco Chronicle thought it was news. What interests me is the way the activity is spun as cultural preservation rather than religious indoctrination.

Mandalas grace Grace Cathedral

Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, September 26, 2009

Protractors and pencils in hand, four Tibetan monks silently drew precise lines on a table inside Grace Cathedral.

They flew to San Francisco from Nepal to build intricate sand Shi-tro mandalas - ancient Tibetan circular artworks that symbolize peaceful awareness.

Notice how the story lede is promoting the claim these are merely artworks of a particular culture although the practitioners are clearly representatives of a particular religion. A simple google search on "Shi-tro" brings up the fact that this mandala image is a "path to enlightenment" and provides other spellings Zhi khro, and Xi tro, shi khro, and xi khro. Wikipedia has interesting information about Shi-tro under the spelling Zhitro which clearly associates the mandala practice with Buddhist religious teaching.

But the SF Chronicle seems to shift back and forth between acknowledging this is Buddhist religious practice and treating this as a cultural artwork activity:

Using metal cones similar to a cake decorator's funnel, they carefully tapped colorful grains of sand into the pattern they had drawn.

The delicate artwork will take about 65 hours to complete, and on Sunday, in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the monks will sweep the mandalas away. They will cast the sand into the bay to remember that everything is impermanent, and so that the prayers the lamas made while creating it will live on in the currents.

For master mandala-maker Lama Thogme, 47, who has created innumerable mandalas, it's his first invitation to make one inside a Christian church.

"It's very meaningful," he said through an interpreter. "Doing this shows that no matter what your religious tradition, we all share a common fiber, a common purpose of peace."

The lamas are being aided by middle school students from San Francisco and Oakland who have participated in a dharma summer camp run by the nonprofit Tools for Peace in Tehachapi (Kern County), which is sponsoring the goodwill visit along with the American Foundation for Tibetan Cultural Preservation.

OK, finally we learn who is behind this. Obviously, Tools for Peace and the Tibetan Cultural Preservation are promoting a Buddhist path to peace. But actually we never learn who in the Episcopal Church is behind this. And then skipping down to the end of the article, in the second to last paragraph, we learn there will be a fundraiser at Grace Cathedral regarding this:

Today, longtime Tools for Peace supporter singer k.d. lang will join the lamas at a gala fundraiser at the cathedral.

Is this a fundraiser for the Episcopal Church? No, searching on line we can find that this is a fundraiser for the Buddhist organization:

k.d lang will perform inside Grace Cathedral for a fundraiser to benefit Tools for Peace, a program that empowers youth and adults through training in motivation, mindfulness, meditation and compassion in camps, classrooms and workshops in California.

Was that International ANSWER at the Episcopal Gen Con Integrity Booth?

Over at Stand Firm Greg Griffith has posted a video of a discussion at the Integrity booth at the Episcopal General Convention in Anaheim. Watching the video, I thought I might have recognized the discussion moderator. Is it Rebecca Gordon, the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) PhD student who promoted communist International Answer events?

Rebecca Gordon attends an Episcopal Church in the Mission District of San Francisco although she still identifies herself as Jewish. I would not be surprised if she belongs to Integrity as she has been in a long term lesbian relationship. I believe her lesbian partner maybe also be the woman with whom she filed the ACLU law suit regarding the federal "No Fly" lists, Jan Adams.

The anti-war paper they run is called War Times and ain an early issue Rebecca was promoting International ANSWER. Rebecca started Seminarians for Peace and had them attending International ANSWER organized events. International ANSWER is a communist front organization run by members of the Workers World Party and other Marxist-Leninists.

Rebecca got an M.Div. from the Unitarian School associated with the GTU, Starr King, and is now a Ph.D. candidate at the GTU in Ethics and Social Theory. She says “In my dissertation,” she said, “I’m focusing on what happens to our national character when we’re encouraged to develop attitudes or tendencies to react violently to events like the September 11 attacks.” and “In my dissertation, I want to look at whether there are places in U.S. society where people are being formed in the kind of virtues that would allow us to say no to the official intentions. One of the theses is the Episcopal Church and its liturgical and sacramental practices. If you belong to a liturgical Christian church, essentially, in every Sunday’s eucharist you are retelling the story of someone who was tortured to death for political reasons. In the process of eating and drinking, we say we’re constituting ourselves as the body of Christ--that tortured body. Then we are sent out into the world to be that body and to resist the logic of torture.”

Friday Afternoon Palate Cleanser

Is this a simple humorous palate cleanser or an oblique reference to the mode of thinking of Episcopal Church deputies at General Convention?


Hat Tip: Comment from Michael at Midwest Conservative Journal

TEC Gen Con D025, Yes, Many Are Called , But Few Are Chosen

I agree with part of the controversial sections of D025;

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention recognize that gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships have responded to God's call and have exercised various ministries in and on behalf of God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and are currently doing so in our midst; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church, which call is tested through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church;

I do believe that many gay and lesbian persons are called to exercise various ministries, including ordained ministry. But I think it is like Matthew 22: 1-14, we are called as we are, but we are expected to put on special clothes for the occasion:

1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4"Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'

5"But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' 10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.

13"Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

14"For many are invited, but few are chosen."

I think this means that people living unholy lives may be called, but they are to put away those unholy ways when they respond to the call.

Episcopal Ubuntu Logo -- Genetically Altered Male Fruit Fly "Love Chain"?

As Peter Ould points out, the words "I in You and You in Me" in The Episcopal Church's 2009 General Convention "Ubuntu" logo are not Christian.



Maybe in a much larger size one can see a "swirl of dancing figures", but in the size of the image I have seen, it just looks to me like a circle of linked tassels or wings, a sort of flying winged circle. When coupled with the words 'I in you and you in me, I am reminded of the famous experiment with the genetically altered fruit flies forming an all male sexually linked circle.

The insects' mating mischief started after he and Zhang took their genetically engineered flies, housed in large bottles, and warmed the insects to 37oC for an hour. Afterwards, says Odenwald, "we began to see very long courtship chains traversing throughout our bottles." Some chains even turned back on themselves, forming long-lasting circles or intertwined chains of fruit flies.

That in itself was unusual. In normal mating, says Drosophila researcher Laurie Tompkins of Temple University in Philadelphia, a courting male fruit fly pursues a female, rubbing his genitals upon her from behind, licking her, and singing a "love song" by vibrating vibrating, using quivering hand motions made across the client's body for therapeutic purposes.

When Odenwald and Zhang took a closer look at their frenzied insects, a bigger surprise emerged. The lead flies in most of the chains were male. In fact, almost all the courting behavior they observed involved only males. Females avoided the male-dominated courtship chains, tending instead to cluster at the tops and bottoms of the bottles.

Hmmm, that last sentence about the female behavior is interesting. That is how I feel about The Episcopal Church -- I'm avoiding it, trying to stay away from those male-male courtship chains.

(My apologies to to all who value the African Ubuntu tradition.)

Episcopal Community Services to be Beneficiary of the Folsom Street Fair

The official poster for this coming September's Folsom Street Fair has been released by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Folsom Street Events. The theme seems to be mocking traditional marriage and family life, I suppose in response to the passage of Prop 8.


If you click on the image you get a large version. You can see at the bottom that one of the beneficiaries of the event is Episcopal Community Services. The money will go to the local branch, which does good work. But I am disappointed to think that the Episcopal Church would be in any way affiliated with this event. Clearly by doing so, the Episcopal name goes on the official poster, which is making a mockery of traditional marriage.

The Folsom Street Fair is one of the few occasions when sadomasochistic activities are encouraged and performed in public and people publicly engage in sexual behavior. Here is the link to the ZombieTime photo essay of the 2007 Folsom Street Fair. You may remember that the 2007 Folsom Street Fair Poster was infamous for its mockery of the The Last Supper:


(Again, you can click to see a larger version, and the beneficiaries are listed on the bottom. As far as I can tell, Episcopal Community Services was not listed on this 2007 poster.)

Every year, our old friends, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence serve to guard the gates of the Folsom Street Fair. (Hmmm, I see Episcopal Community Services of SF is listed among those who have received a grant from "the sisters".)

So, why would Episcopal Community Services allow their brand to be associated with the Folsom Street Fair? Notice that the beneficiary organizations had to submit grant applications to become beneficiaries, so it took deliberate effort to become a beneficiary.

You don't suppose this is part of the new I Am Episcopalian marketing strategy, do you?

UPDATE: In response to a comment/question from Andy, I found that the San Francisco Hotel Tax is used to provide a $22,000 grant to support this event. You can see on the list on the link that the tax is also used to fund the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade to the tune of $77,200.

No Creed In Baptismal Service at Calif Episcopal Church

Father Timothy Fountain has a post at his North Plains Anglican blog with a link to the "Baptismal Liturgy Script" used at St Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. I was interested to see that the baptisms at St Gregory of Nyssa do not use the "Baptismal Covenant" from the 1979 Prayer Book that is said to be the defining feature of The Episcopal Church.

One aspect of the Baptismal Covenant that I do like is the review of the words of the Apostles' Creed. In the 1928 Prayer Book, the Apostles Creed is referred to and assent to it is required, but the creed is not recited.

Minister: Dost thou believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith as contained in the Apostles' Creed?
Answer: I do.

I was surprised to see that, as I understand the linked document, at St. Gregory of Nyssa there is no creed recited at all in the regular 10:30 am Eucharist service. However, for the Baptismal service, there is a "Celebration of the baptismal creed".
Presider:

Let us rejoice with those who have committed themselves to Christ and celebrate the faith of our baptism.

All:

You O God, are supreme and holy.
You create our world and give us life.
Your purpose overarches everything we do.
You have always been with us. You are God.

You, O God, are infinitely generous, good beyond measure.
You came to us before we came to you.
You have revealed and proved
your love to us in Jesus Christ,
who lived and died and rose again.
You are with us now. You are God.

You, O God, are Holy Spirit.
You empower us to be your gospel in the world.
You reconcile and heal; you overcome death.
You are God. We worship you.

Hmmm, this is the same text referred to in Northern Michigan as "An Affirmation of Faith" from "A New Zealand Prayer Book".

No Creed with Communion for Bishop Elect

The Living Church has an article by Doug LeBlanc, Controversial Bishop-Elect Composes Own Eucharistic Texts. Of course, he is referring to the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester, bishop elect of the diocese of Northern Michigan. I was intrigued by his description of the Lenten 2008 Youth Sunday service and, as a follower of the Creedal Christian website, I was particulary intrigued by this:

The same service omitted the Nicene Creed, instead using “An Affirmation of Faith” from A New Zealand Prayer Book.

I wasn't familiar with this "Affirmation of Faith", so I searched the web and found the Service for Lenten Youth Sunday. Here are the words for the "Affirmation of Faith":

You O God, are supreme and holy.
You create our world and give us life.
Your purpose overarches everything we do.
You have always been with us.
You are God.

You, O God, are infinitely generous,
good beyond measure.
You came to us before we came to you.
You have revealed and proved
your love to us in Jesus Christ,
who lived and died and rose again.
You are with us now.
You are God.

You, O God, are Holy Spirit.
You empower us to be your gospel in the world.
You reconcile and heal; you overcome death.

You are our God. We worship you.

It is instructive to contrast this with the Nicene Creed. Preceding the Nicene Creed in the Holy Communion service in the 1928 Prayer Book is a rubric which says that one may omit the Nicene Creed if it has been said at a previous service on the same day:

Then shall be said the Creed commonly called the Nicene, or else the Apostles' Creed; but the Creed may be omitted, if it hath been said immediately before in Morning Prayer; Provided, That the Nicene Creed shall be said on Christmas Day, Easter Day, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday.

I BELIEVE in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And of all things visible and invisible: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God; Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God; Begotten, not made; Being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made: Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man: And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried: And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures: And ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of the Father: And he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, The Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the Prophets: And I believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church: I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins: And I look for the Resurrection of the dead: And the Life of the world to come. Amen.

What first strikes me is that the "Affirmation of Faith" avoids the use of the word "Father" and avoids calling Jesus Christ "Son".

I also notice that the wording avoids calling Jesus Christ "God". One could say this "Affirmation of Faith" without believing in the Trinity.

Was Jesus a Bodhissatva?

As we contemplate the election of a practicing Buddhist to be Bishop of Northern Michigan, see here and here, I thought it might be interesting to consider:

Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, wrote two books, Living Buddha, Living Christ (1995) and Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers (2000) which effectively present Christianity in the language of philosophical Buddhism.

The Dalai Lama wrote The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus (1998) which gives a Buddhist perspective on the Sermon on the Mount. (Note that the Dalai Lama had been careful to emphasize that the belief in reincarnation is a major difference between Christianity and Buddhism.)

Marcus Borg edited a bookin 2004 titled Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings which sought to show the "original" non-violent teachings of Jesus. The book claimed that "If Jesus and Buddha were to meet, they would recognize one another as fellow prophets because they were teaching the same truths."

This post from last summer in Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal seems to be making the claim that Jesus was a Bodisattva.

The God +Gene Robinson Knows

Kevin Eckstrom at Religious News Service has an interview with +Gene Robinson up today in which +Robinson explains that 'his God' is as well pleased with +Gene himself as God was with Jesus at Jesus' baptism by John. In this excerpt of the interview, they are discussing this NY Times article about Rick Warren:

Q: You told The New York Times that "the God that he's praying to is not the God that I know." What God do you think he's praying to?

A: I think he is praying to a God, at least around this issue, that calls upon God's homosexual children to deny who they are, to deprive themselves of love and intimacy that is permitted every other one of God's children. He's praying to a God who calls on me, as a gay man, to change, to submit myself to the power of Jesus so I can be healed of this `infirmity' of mine.


Q: And how is that different from the God that you pray to?

A: The God I know says to me, just like we hear God saying at Jesus' baptism, that you are my beloved, and in you I am well pleased. That's a very, very different God. Imagine the difference between a parent who loves you for you who are, and one that says I'll only love you if you change.

+Robinson's understanding of God's love is consistent with that of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Schori. +Schori has suggested that all people should do a meditation imagining themselves in the role of Jesus at his baptism experiencing the loving approval spoken by God to Jesus. There are two problems with using the baptism of Jesus as the basis for understanding God's love for all humanity:
1) this conflates love and approval, and
2) this usurps the uniqueness of Christ.

God loves us unconditionally. But God's approval is conditional. We need only look to Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son to understand the difference between love and approval. The father loved the son throughout the son's life, but not one would claim that the father approved of the son's behavior in squandering his inheritance. However, God's forgiveness is infinite and we are not judged by a standard of perfection but rather on our willingness to continue to turn back toward God as we inevitably stray from God's path for us.

Jesus was uniquely without sin. We know that Jesus was not just another human when he came to be baptized by John. John recognized that he was not fit to tie Jesus' sandal and John said that Jesus did not need baptism. The assertion that one is equal to Jesus in God's approval cannot be found in scripture and leads to the heresy that we are equal to Christ. An example of this theological drift into heresy is found in the Diocese of Northern Michigan.

Episcopal Church Membership Statistics

UPDATE: This post has been updated to include Julia Duin of the Washington Times

The membership numbers for The Episcopal Church (TEC) are in the news today with the announcement of the new Anglican Church in North America. But the reporters are reporting different numbers.

Laurie Goodstein in the New York Times is still using a membership for TEC of 2.3 million. Kind of sneaky the way she wrote this sentence to make it seem the number for TEC was provided by the new North American church:

Bishop Duncan will be named the archbishop and primate of the North American church, which says it would have 100,000 members, compared with 2.3 million in the Episcopal Church.

Michelle Boorstein in the Washington Post story is using 2.2 million.

But Julis Duin in the Washington Times story, Duke Helfand in the LA Times story, Michael Conlon for the Reuters story and Rachel Zoll for the AP story all have membership down to 2.1 million.

If we are talking about The Episcopal Church in North America, e.g., the Domestic Dioceses, TEC is officially reporting membership down to 2.1 million for 2007. These 2007 numbers still include all ten thousand members of the Episcopal Diocese for San Joaquin although San Joaquin voted themselves out of TEC and joined the Southern Cone in December 2007, so they should be taken with a grain of salt. And using the 2007 numbers does not reflect the 2008 losses of the dioceses and churches now forming the Anglican Church in North America.


However, the TEC report shows Non-Domestic Dioceses beginning in 2002. As of 2007, the membership in these non-North American diocese raises the TEC total to 2.3 million. But it would not make sense to include the Non-Domestic Dioceses in a direct comparison with the new Anglican Church in North America. If we are looking at TEC including the Non-Domestic Diocese, shouldn't we compare to the total membership in GAFCON? Hmmm, that gets a little embarrassing, what with the large memberships in the Anglican churches in Nigeria, etc.

Perhaps Manya A. Brachear for the Chicago Tribune was wise to just write TEC has "has about 2 million members" and not use a decimal point at all.