Round up the usual suspects

The Bishops vs. America (from The Weekly Standard)

Mark D. Tooley writes that a report from the Church of England asks the United States to apologize for the Iraq War (be sure to read the whole thing here).

“IN A NEW REPORT bishops of the Church of England have urged Western Christians to apologize for the Iraq War as an "act of truth and reconciliation." The committee of bishops, chaired by the bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries, also linked U.S. "imperialism" to the influence of U.S. evangelicals, who seemingly pose the real threat to world peace: "No country should see itself as the redeemer nation, singled out by God as part of his providential plan," the bishops warned America, which is ostensibly consumed with religious zeal for conquest.

That liberal British bishops do not like U.S. foreign policy and its reliance on "brute power and fear" is fairly predictable. But their efforts to connect U.S. military actions to the alleged "end-times" theology and the influence of U.S. evangelicals is somewhat of a new twist.”

“Twist” is a good word to use when discussing the fluff that passes for thought and theology among the hierarchy of the COE. They can’t manage to hold on to the flock God entrusted them with, but they feel competent to direct the rest of the world in proper conduct. They seem far more threatened by the evangelical churches of the USA than by bomb-wielding Moslem fanatics in their own country. And, in the same report, they ask us to offer an “incentive package” to bribe the Iranians to give up their bombs.

The comparison with the Communist authorities of the old Soviet Union is amusing. The Red hierarchy was far more concerned with other left wing competitors that might beat them on their own turf than with those on the right. Stalin’s purges were directed primarily at other Bolshies, not at fascist spies. He put an axe into Trotsky, but shared vodka with Churchill.

Similarly, the lowerarchy of the COE is way more upset about US evangelicals who might be a challenge their social status as God’s representatives than they are with non-Christian enemies that might actually kill them. Dictators tend to worry more about their necks than about their countries, and bishops tend to worry more about their positions than about their churches.

I’m not an evangelical; heck, I can’t even really claim to be protestant anymore in terms of theology. But I have a lot more in common with the folks at First Evangelical Free or Bannockburn Baptist than I do with the Lord High Bishops of the Anglican Communion – at least with those in the west.

The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops – I’ve seen that attributed to both Athanasius and Chrysostom. Whoever said it, they had a point.