"Just don't call it a divorce!", pt. 2 - As discussed elsewhere, there has been considerable turmoil within the Episcopalian Church as of late, with concerns expressed among certain congregations about the "leftward drift" within the denomination, as reported in the NYT.

Two large and influential Episcopal parishes in Virginia voted overwhelmingly yesterday to leave the Episcopal Church and to affiliate with the Anglican archbishop of Nigeria, a conservative leader in a churchwide fight over homosexuality.

Five smaller churches in Virginia also announced yesterday that they had voted to secede, joining four others that have already left and three more expected to announce their decisions soon. Some affiliated with other archbishops in Africa.

According to a press release issued yesterday, both of the Virginia churches supported the decision to secede from the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) by over 90 percent, with 70 percent being the minimum required for the measure to pass.

Over the years while this situation was simmering, church leadership suggested that the church was large enough to accommodate diversity of opinion on matters such as the installation of an openly gay bishop. But it appears that the rifts were built on more that the issue of homosexuality. According to an article by Dr. Robert Sanders found on the Falls Church website, the "leftward drift" of the ECUSA was more comprehensive.

What is their work? At present their aim is to subvert the entire Anglican Communion to their doctrine. What is their doctrine? -- that diversity and inclusiveness is always a good thing and that we in the Anglican Communion can tolerate and even celebrate all sorts of behaviors and beliefs.

Dr. Sanders posits that the ECUSA has refused to affirm the Lordship of Jesus Christ (which is an odd thing for an erstwhile Christian denomination), failed to discipline heretic and publicly immoral behavior, and does not "duly celebrate" Christian sacraments. Sanders is also concerned that "a major portion of [the church's] preaching is not the 'pure word of God' but experience dressed up in religious language."

So as long as the priests of the ECUSA are busy protesting the Iraq War, they need not concern themselves with the centrality of Christ's dominion over the Church. All of this serves to reaffirm what the Christian Left shows us at every opportunity. They are liberals first, and they are as Christian as is necessary to use their "faith" as a weapon against anything that does not comport with their politics.