Sanctified Sodomy
by Charley Reese.
Source: The Valley Independent - Date: August 13, 2003

The confirmation by the Episcopal Church of a practicing homosexual as bishop of New Hampshire is just one more example of the deconstruction of Christianity by people determined to have the benefits of both sin and salvation.

The scriptural condemnation of homosexual behavior is explicit and unavoidable. The fact that the Rev. Gene Robinson paraded around the convention with his partner on his arm says about everything you would want to know about liberal Episcopalians.

The problem causing the demise of Christianity is wider than these liberal Episcopalians. The basic cause is what I call cafeteria Christians. They pass along the line of Christian scripture, pick up what they like and ignore what would inconvenience them. There's no doubt that many modern so-called Christians find both chastity and the condemnation of greed mighty inconvenient.

To the liberal, though, nothing is more inconvenient and repellent than the prospect of standing up against the latest fashions and cultural aberrations. Had the liberals been born in another time, they would have tripped over each other in a rush to kiss the rear end of the Roman emperor. No martyrs they.

C.S. Lewis summed up the situation years ago: Christianity is a religion. To earn the name "Christian," one must believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, performed miracles, was crucified and rose from the dead. If you don't believe that, then the whole religion is a fraud. Stripped of its divinity, all you have left is a mishmash of altruistic maxims that are by no means unique or original.

The problem is that the only source of information on these divine aspects of Jesus is in the Scriptures. If you take the position of modernists that the Scriptures are only partly true and are not divinely inspired, then, of course, you undermine the divinity of Jesus and therefore destroy the religion.

A friend of mine who amassed 400 hours of college credits while majoring in scotch once remarked that nearly all the atheists and agnostics in the philosophy department planned to go into the Christian ministry. Their explanation was simple: Where else could a guy with a doctorate in philosophy knock down a six-figure salary? That in part explains the gradual destruction of Christianity.

Christianity, of course, has been under steady and persistent attack in the modern age by both secularists and its traditional enemies. Except for Catholics, it appears to be dead as Hector in Western Europe. All of those beautiful cathedrals are mostly empty, except for tourists.

In America, of course, some of the evangelical cults have both politicized and militarized the religion, preaching hate and intolerance and leading the cheers for warmongers. Nothing could more blatantly contradict the basic teachings of Christianity.

I heard one of the liberal Episcopalians say that if you relied on scripture, you'd have to condone slavery. That is false. Christian scripture neither condones nor condemns slavery. It merely instructs slaves to be good servants and masters to be good masters. It would do modern Christians well to reread their Christian Bible and see if they find anywhere in it a condemnation of the Roman Empire or any of its institutions or practices.

The answer is you won't. Nor will you find any admonitions to lobby the Roman Senate or make any other efforts to reform society. Christianity is directed to the individual. Politicizing Christianity is just one of many modern heresies. So, too, is the effort to turn it into a social activist organization.

The one bright spot is that many people are increasingly turning to the Orthodox Church. There you will find an unadulterated Christianity pretty much as it was practiced in the days of the apostles. It doesn't matter if the sign on the church says Greek or Serb or Russian or Antioch. They are all the same Orthodox Church. I warn you, though - the real religion is not for hedonists.