The first type of "stuck" pig is when a pig loses its seal. Episcopal translation: The Episcopal pig lost its "seal" - godly mandate - a long time ago, and while it has increased its pigging volume over the past 40 years, it has not been enough to propel it anywhere but to the gadarene edge of the cliff.

Even removing the pressure and volume (allowing the pig to recover) has not been successful because the materials most pipeline pigs are made of have memory to their shape. Episcopal translation: The Episcopal Church has, for 40 years, been pushing a pansexual agenda making recovery to orthodoxy impossible and its "memory" has now taken "shape" forever.

The second type of "stuck" pig is the pig that has encountered obstructions that it cannot negotiate. Episcopal translation: Thirty some years of "reconciliation" talks, seminars and a book of "reconciliation" sermons handed to Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold at the recent General Convention (to mark nine years of abject decline) by Republican Lite politico John Danforth, failed to remove the "obstructions it cannot negotiate" and the Episcopal "pig" is now about to get tossed out of the communion or at least accorded second class status. Consider the following.

Seven liberal clergy members of San Luis Obispo County in the Diocese of El Camino Real wrote a letter to the editor of The Tribune newspaper complaining about a column written by conservative columnist Cal Thomas. They didn't like the fact that Thomas vilified the Episcopal Church with such phrases as "biblical illiterates" and "theological dim bulbs."

"The pages of The Tribune are not the appropriate place to engage in a theological or biblical dialogue with individuals such as Cal Thomas," sniffed the 'magnificent' seven.

In a blistering column, Thomas says today's Episcopalians are "less concerned about proclaiming truth and conversion than in not offending anyone."

"How could Thomas say that about Episcopalians who believe in the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people? Where has he been since 2003, when the Episcopal Church first voted to consecrate a partnered gay priest, the Rev. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire? Isn't Thomas aware of how much abuse we have taken in the media and in society? If we were chiefly concerned with not causing offense, we would have taken the safe, easy and non-controversial course, and voted against the consecration of this bishop," moaned the seven. Say what?

Then they said this: "But we follow a Savior who does not ask us to take the safe and easy course ... a Lord, who by his words and actions, challenges each of us to serve others as he served others: with compassion and justice, inviting all to the table, recognizing and affirming that each of us ... and all of us ... were created in the image of God." Really.

Of course there is nothing here about repentance from sexual sin, amendment of life, walking in newness of life, discipleship or even the possibility of hell for flagrant unrepentant behavior, just the usual whine of inclusion without transformation.

Thomas says Episcopalians are afraid to proclaim the truth. He's right. But, said the 'seven', "we firmly believe that the Holy Spirit Jesus promised to send continues to reveal God's truth in order to guide and direct the faithful in our day. God continues to challenge us to be open and obedient to the energizing work of the Holy Spirit in our midst...there are no outcasts."

And so lots of unfolding drama, God in process, changing, mutating, but no obedience to God's revealed, unchanging Word.

But they were not the only ones to bleed inclusivity and vague pronouncements of theological homophobia.

The dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, SC, Dr. Philip Linder, wrote in a column titled, Debate over the soul of the Episcopal Church, that "what is at stake is the very soul of the Episcopal Church and Anglicanism. Our Anglican theology and heritage has held for centuries against radical liberalism or radical conservatism, maintaining that God's truth is to be ultimately found in the tension of those extremes, and not in the extremes themselves. Today, human sexuality has become the front where those seeking to undermine Anglican identity for their definition of truth are waging the battle."

He has it half right. The real problem is obedience to the authority of Holy Scripture not political or theological positions different sides espouse. The liberals have totally undermined Scripture's authority, no longer believe it, and now they shout and scream the platitudes of a post-modern culture bent on destroying itself, with a deconstructed Bible in one hand and the agenda of "Changing Attitude" gays on the other.

Wrote Jim on the faux HOB/D listserv: "I have been hurt and enraged at how what we did in Columbus has been treated by virtually everyone from the ABC to our local paper. We made the very best good faith effort we could make to continue the conversation, to listen to the larger church, and to maintain what integrity we could while doing that. And 75% of us joined in doing that." Numbers don't make it right, and The Episcopal Church's 2% of the worldwide Anglican Communion hardly gives it an overwhelming mandate to change the church's received teaching.

St. Louie (of Crew), the man who has made sodomy the benchmark of the new Episcopal orthodoxy tried to put a bold face on what happened at GC2006 saying that "General Convention did not diminish me by its approval of B033. My worth as a child of God is not within the purview of General Convention, and having received the love of God directly, I would be a foolish disciple indeed to allow others to ration that love."

Translation: We got whacked but I am not feeling any pain. In a cry of desperation he wrote at his Blog: "Gays and lesbians are canaries in this coal mine called the church, and those of us already here will stay here regardless of how toxic the fumes become. We're not going anywhere."

Never mind that he and his pansexual pals actually created the fumes that we all have to smell every time we hear the words and wince; "Oh, you belong to the gay church, do you..."

He then offers the laughable notion that the passage of B033 actually "diminishes The Episcopal Church and severely compromises our witness to a needy world." It does? Poor old Frank Griswold couldn't get it right in this, his "finest" last hour."

Crew writes: "It tells millions who hadn't believed us yet anyway, that our thousands of signs are dishonest, that we fully welcome you only if you are straight, that we will violate our very beliefs when we think it is expedient to do so."

That's odd, an estimated 6,000 orthodox Episcopalians have actually left the Episcopal Church in the past 10 days, precisely because the stench of the fumes went to high heaven and they fear the wrath of God in staying. And there are not millions of gays clamoring at the doors of Episcopal churches looking for a pew these days now that B033 passed at General Convention.

And my Episcopal parish still has the same "Welcome" sign out, and yes we have homosexuals who live celibate lives and they, like all the other sinners in our parish, feel completely welcome. They struggle as we all do, but the difference is; they don't ask anyone to endorse their behavior, and that makes all the difference in the world and in the church, and for all eternity.

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