Holp! I'ze a Cat'lik!

So in case you haven't heard, the lovely and talented new Presiding Bishop of the ECUSA (American Episcopals) was recently interviewed (and I use that term loosely) in The New York Times. Seriously, the interviewer reminds me of one of my all-time favorite episodes of The Simpsons, "Burns Verkauft der Kraftwerk," in which Mr. Burns (my favorite character) gets bored with the power plant and sells it to a German firm. There's a scene where Smithers is learning 'Sycophantic German' ("You looken scharpen, mein Herr."). This could be construed as "Interviewing for Sycophants." Here's a link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/magazine/19WWLN_Q4.html?pagewanted=print

Pay close attention to the following:

How many members of the Episcopal Church are there in this country?

About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise, but Episcopalians tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children.

Anyhoo, there's been quite a fuss about this on St. Blogs, for obvious reasons. Someone even created a coffee mug that mocks this, complete with pics of Thos Aquinas, GK Chesterton, Flannery O'Connor and other smart Catholics on it. Anyway, here's the thing. I was raised ECUSA. I left that joke of a church to swim the Tiber and become a Catholic. So, as a former member of her church, and one of the myriad "dwindlers," I felt that I was in a position to actually say something about her attitude, which is arrogant and self-important and has strains of eugenics wafting around it. Here's what I wrote her:

Your comments in the recent New York Times article regarding the reasons why Episcopalians' numbers are dwindling in this country were ignorant at best, and offensive at worst. I was raised Episcopalian, and I left the Episcopal Church as a young adult. In case you are interested, here's what became of 5 former members of your church. This may actually explain the trends in your church better than your nasty "Catholics and Mormons breed like rabbits" theory. Since there was no real necessity to believe anything in the Episcopal Church, my father and one sister have stopped attending any church, and they are confident that this will present no problems whatsoever upon death. My mother, who was largely attracted to the Episcopal Church for the late 60s "fight the power" priests who were around, left the Episcopal Church to become a Unitarian-Universalist. I became a Roman Catholic (even though I have a college education - imagine that!). My other sister is currently in RCIA. So you see, 2 of us left because, according to the ECUSA, there is no earthly reason why you should have to get out of bed on a Sunday morning, 1 left because the U-Us provide all the same "tearing down the idols" moments, but without having to deal with hierarchy and the structure of church authority, and 2 of us have left to find a more orthodox vision of Christianity.

I find it interesting that, while you needed no incentive to go on the attack with Catholics and Mormons, you neglected to mention both Orthodox Jews and Muslims, who are well-known for having large families. No, that would have been un-PC, and you couldn't have done that.

For someone who claims to be inclusive, your bigotry is showing very clearly.

(End quote.) I'll let you know if I get a response.