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DIVIDED CHURCH
By C. FitzSimons Allison
The troubles facing the Episcopal Church (and other denominations) have to do with being divided between two faiths.
A new religion has arisen that uses the terminology of Christianity but is a serious alternative to it.
Oxford Professor V. A. Demant in 1947 described it as "...an unsupernatural and unevangelical religion. It equates Christianity with good ideals. It attaches no vital meaning to sin, grace, redemption or to the church as a divine society."
This religion paid no attention to the psychiatrist Karl Menninger when he warned the churches about ignoring the essential human problem in his book "Whatever Became of Sin?"
E. Brooks Holifield's "A History of Pastoral Care in America: From Salvation to Self-Realization" sums it up in his subtitle.
Individuals can be reconciled but these two faiths cannot.
Those who are substituting good ideals for Christian hope are so unconcerned with Christian doctrine that they do not notice its prevailing denial among our leaders and seem undeterred by its shrinking numbers and repudiation by the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The churches that acknowledge the reality of sin and persist in their trust in forgiveness, redemption and salvation will not only survive but prevail.
---The Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina (Retired). This article first appeared in the Post & Courier, Sept. 12, 2006.
