The slurs, innuendos and down-right nastiness would send modern safe-spacers into apoplexy. Jefferson referred to Adams 'hermaphroditical' character. Adams responded that Jefferson was the son of a 'half-breed squaw and a Virginia mulatto father'.

The 1828 contest between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson was another known for extreme viciousness. Jackson's wife Rachel was accused of bigamy while Adams was accused of providing illicit favors to the Czar of Russia with an attractive American servant girl during his tenure as Minister to Russia. John Quincy Adams also has the dubious distinction of being the only president to have lost both the popular and electoral college vote, but still having been awarded the presidency.

In 1884 rumors that Grover Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child led to the derisive chant, 'Ma, Ma, where's my Pa, gone to the Whitehouse ha, ha, ha'.

Our current tone is attributed in part to the 24-hour news cycle where there is never a break from the intense contentiousness. This is certainly a factor, but, there is much more. In eradicating any record of past wrongs, we have eliminated the need to profit from the lessons learned through our failures.

Rutgers University Historian Jochen Hellbeck reminds us that in Stalinist Russia, those who learned how to 'speak Bolshevik' went on to have careers and grand futures. Ideological conditioning led to behavior and speech...that was...willful, optimistic, collective minded, and accepting of violence.

This could be a description of our current culture where 'Speaking Bolshevik' has re-emerged as political correctness and violence in the name of tolerance is acceptable. Those who deviate from this new standard find themselves viciously attacked and marginalized.

Standing in contrast is the Christian view of the upside-down kingdom. While the world teaches dominance through power the Gospel teaches that power is gained by giving it away. Jesus proclaimed that in giving we receive. To be first we must be last and to live we are called to die. To the secular culture it makes no sense, but then the secular culture can hardly be touted as a role model of success.

The Episcopal Church has become more a reflection of our cultural failings rather than a redemptive witness. This should be the perfect time for the church to bear faithful witness to the transforming power of Jesus Christ and the hope of the Gospel. Instead the House of Bishops continues to dominate and control Diocesan Episcopal elections though the creation of designer clergy. Race and gender appear to be more important than faithfulness and competence.

Forgotten is Thomas Palermo, the innocent husband and father of two young children from Baltimore who lies dead. His killer's unfitness had been intentionally ignored because her gender mattered more. The designer bishop responsible for his death now serves a prison sentence for vehicular homicide while driving impaired. And yes, her life has been ruined as well.

Rather than celebrate the great racial strides as witnessed by the election of the first African-American President and Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church there are continued efforts to manipulate history in a way that Joseph Stalin would applaud. He perfected photo altering and re-writing history to change inconvenient facts. We see this in recent efforts to remove Washington Cathedral Stained Glass Windows honoring those who fought for the confederacy. Chronological arrogance has blinded us to the reality that we are all products of our time. Future generations may look down on us the same way.

In the 1880's academic scholar and future President Woodrow Wilson would praise the emerging civil service as preferable to the old patronage spoils system. Previously elected victors had rewarded supporters with lucrative government jobs and appointments irrespective of fitness. A century later this very same civil service has become the personification of a spoils system.

Bureaucrats ignore elected representatives and government appointees act with impunity. They are rarely fired or held accountable. The same is true in the Episcopal Church. The senior leadership cannot give a straight answer as to how much money Chancellor David Beers and his law firm have made from the continued lawsuits against dioceses. And sadly, the only sin that will get a bishop dismissed is sexual sin but only if it is heterosexual.

What is unmasked is that our institutions whether sacred or secular have become vehicles for intense politicization. As Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali recently reminded democracy can all too quickly move from majority rule with minority rights to the 'tyranny of the majority'.

The truth is I still love the Episcopal Church; I just don't like it very much. There have been so many lost opportunities for a genuine Christian witness of tolerance and respect. There was a time when orthodox Christianity was the standard, but conformity has replaced faithfulness as the measure for acceptance

One way or another in a few short weeks we will know exactly what we have gotten ourselves into. I cannot imagine there is anyone who truly believes the election results will make things better.

Only the Christian Gospel can save us now. But then should this come as a surprise.

Ladson F. Mills III is a priest with over thirty years' pastoral experience. He is retired and lives with his wife in South Carolina. He currently serves as Scholar in Residence at the Church of Our Saviour, Johns Island. He is a regular contributor to VIRTUEONLINE