It was a defining moment for TEC. The Episcopal Church has never fully recovered from this exodus and never will. Year after year, the figures show a church in decline, as dioceses juncture, parishes close, parishioners vanished and more and more parishes are held together with non-stipendiary priests. Elevating women to the priesthood and episcopacy has not slowed down the process; it may even have accelerated it.

Then along comes COVID-19 and the world and churches are in an upheaval; the worst in modern history. The Episcopal Church, along with many other denominations, now find themselves in even bigger trouble than they were in before the pandemic.

This time it's about money. Lots of money, millions of dollars in fact, not from faithful parishioners (who apparently are not so faithful as to drop checks in the mail), but from the government and a president they despise. This is money needed to keep churches from closing (even though effectively they have because of COVID) to pay for building maintenance and above all salaries for priests who have betrayed the faith and their vows by denying basic doctrines and blessing a range of sexualities that have no basis in Scripture, history or tradition.

So, when the government offered Paycheck Protection Program bucks, money meant to keep businesses open, especially the hardest-hit small businesses, Episcopal Church bishops and clergy reached out with unholy hands for millions in non-repayable loans to keep their dioceses afloat. Did anyone think to tap into endowment funds? What of the accumulated wealth of generations of Episcopalians who gave money for the saving of souls? Not a word.

What total hypocrisy.

The TEC dioceses are slowly withering and dying on the vine. They don't believe the faith they swore to uphold, they hate Trump and all things Republican, but when they saw their churches dying, salaries evaporating; they came running to the government, cap in hand, demanding money from unbelieving tax payers, when they themselves pay no taxes.

Can you spell HYPOCRISY?

This is the same gang who will ecclesiastically kill a faithful bishop (William Love of Albany) for upholding the faith they long ago rejected while saying they know what is best for the Church as it declines. When that doesn't work, they beg money from the government to keep them afloat.

CAN YOU SPELL HYPOCRISY?

Texas Bishop C. Andrew Doyle backed up a Brinks truck and rode away with $25 million bucks! It's doubtful he would know Jesus if he walked past him in a park in Houston!

Writing from a Roman Catholic perspective, conservative commentator Michael Voris had this to say of his own church; "The Church is cash poor because these men have betrayed the Faith." Ditto for the Episcopal Church.

An analysis by the Associated Press over the weekend reveals that across the nation, the Church collected between $1.5 and $3.5 billion, making it one of the largest overall recipients in the country. Many dioceses and archdioceses around the country should be considered particularly egregious because of their histories, wrote Voris.

The same is true of The Episcopal Church and most mainline denominations. They are now cash poor; they have betrayed the faith and now they want bailing out by the U.S. taxpayer!

This is venality by any other name. The mainline denominations will be gone in two decades or less and no one will grieve their passing. Faithful orthodox Catholics, Baptists, Anglicans and evangelicals of all stripes will still be around; smaller, but more faithful, ready to pick up the pieces, looking more like First Century catacomb churches, but with heads held high, they will shout JESUS IS LORD and mean it.

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