The claim quoted below is one of the many self-delusions that fuel the conservative movement. Lets take a look at them.

1. It's about Truth not Power:

   Of course it is about power, why else would they have been playing power games and using threats and ultimatums? To paraphrase Jesus, no king goes to war without counting the cost and if he sees his army is small and his opponents large he makes peace. We are at war because those for whom you have so much sympathy failed to count well. They believed that a series of self-delusions they have shared amongst themselves as they isolated themselves for thirty years would actually win the day. They believed that a series of position papers and lobbying over time (for the 4 IU and patronizing African Primates) would give them the leverage to win. They believed that a series of financial maneuvers, pre-planned and well hidden would bring them a bonanza of assets that were not theirs. They even believed that bringing together all the previous schismatics into a big tent of schismatics would somehow appeal to the ++ABC when none of the schismatic groups had previously held any interest on the ++ABC or Anglicanism. Most despicably, since they universally now admit this was not about gays, they used homophobia as the launching pad for their war.

   In each case they counted wrongly. Apart from the paid Primates, their point of view has steadily lost ground over the past six years.

2. "The Faith Once Received (or Once Given)" This should be prefaced with "Once upon a time," and relegated to the shelf with other fairy tales next to the Donation of Constantine. It could be true if taken as a minimalist proposition, "Christ has died, Christ has Risen, Christ will come again," but of course it is simply a convenient satchel into which to place all those things you believe while conveniently ignoring the rest. It is a fiction perpetrated to manipulate those whose bigotry and anger at not having power can be manipulated by the power seekers. Spell out that "Faith Once Received and lets see how well it stands up to historical analysis.

3. "What was once believed by All Christians Everywhere" This one is even more fatuous and linked to the previous one. Any basic student of early Church history should be able to blow holes in it immediately. Show me that moment when that was true or extended beyond the kergyma stated above. 100 years after Nicea Rome was invaded by Arians, the Orthodox never bought into all of Rome's claims, Paul and Peter battled, the Circumcision party nearly won, Arianism nearly won, Nestorianism might have won had it not been for Islam, Augustine did not wipe out Pelagius, but in time semi-Augustinians and semi-Pelagians found a balance of power. Show us the moment that a COMPLETE systematic theology was accepted by All people everywhere. Otherwise it is a lie to perpetuate it as "truth."

4. "God's revelation is found only in the Bible" That is true perhaps if you are a Presbyterian, Baptist or other biblical protestant fundamentalist, but it has never been true for Anglicans. Read Richard Hooker for heaven's sake. God's Second Divine Law is revealed in Nature, Divine Law (including Scripture) and Reason. All of these are sources for revelation of what God is about in the world. Those in the Anglican Communion who seek to put all things on Scripture instead of those few things required for salvation are violating Anglicanism's core values. That is the truth.

5. "The Bible is inerrant, or dictated, or plenary verbally inspired" They never have been Anglican beliefs. That they have been the beliefs of those who wished to take over Anglicanism for 400 years is true, and that they are seeping in now among those disgruntled is true. That they are true as required or even accurate doctrines of transmission is not now nor ever has been Anglican.

Finally the phrase of seeing this church morph is a polite but thin euphemism for "become alien, pagan, foreign and unchristian." The Episcopal Church has been true to the call to "Wrestle with God" (ye with ears will hear Israel in that phrase). That wrestling has led us to places that those who have embraced self-deluding notions about our Christian heritage have found unacceptable. Too bad. It is they who must demonstrate that the flaccid fatuous phrases they use to fire up those among whom they have perpetuated these delusions have any real historic credence. But since they bank or people's ignorance and their biases and bigotries, they are unlikely to ever do more than perpetuate further their lies.

So it is not as it always has been: It's about Power. Some people only delude themselves and we only have to inspect their actual behavior and the materials they present and those who follow them most passionately (well armed and ready) to understand how far from any sort of truth, much less Christian truth, they have wandered.

Michael Russell, Rector
All Souls' Point Loma
San Diego