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I notified Stand Firm of your catch and added the following: So much for the heartland, but then again TEC represents the elites with 0.2% (2/10ths of one percent!) of the population in an Episcopal church on an average Sunday. Out of a population of 1,783,432, Average Sunday Attendance is around 3,400. Pitiful.
/snark
I’m not sure what wisdom we get from determining what percentage of the population of Nebraska attends an Episcopal Church on Sunday; Nebraska is not exactly the heartland of the Episcopal Church. The chart shows a little more than 8,000 baptized members in Nebraska, so an average Sunday attendance of 3400 seems pretty good.
I’d just add that “elites-at-prayer” are mainly on the splenetic left; requiring the frisson of Om-mane-padme-hum to alleviate the bourgeois tedium of another “Our Father.”
Let the little people “rattle off” their Our Fathers…”we” know better: that the point of religion is a sense-of-connectedness and continuingness thing that’s um, for all sentient beings and stuff. Plus, we make better coffee. Ommmmmmm.
And consider: with an average Sunday attendance in the mid-hundreds, the Diocese of Northern Michigan is hardly “heartland” either. Considering its choice of bishop, it’s also not “brainland,” but I’ve expressed my views on that before.
Genpo reminds me of Friday, the manservant to Robinson Crusoe. Late in his life, Friday begged to go up the mountain so he could say “O” to Benamucke, his god. Friday’s simple faith statement was “All things do say O to him.”
O: a letter, and a number!
Defoe’s point was not to ridicule, but to show compassion and respect for the millions of people who have never heard the name of Jesus, but who have a sense of divine presence–indeed, on a mountaintop!–and who tremble to offend their god, or perhaps (by His grace)God Himself.
What a pity that Defoe’s descendants in this corrupt age are too grand to practice his compassionate Christianity. The compassion of Jesus exceeds anything Siddharta Gautama could ever know. Defoe knew this: and he was one of those “unloving” Puritans!
All Genpo has gotten for his mistake is a Benamucke to say O to. He has truly bought a mess of pottage at the cost of his birthright. He will receive O in return. And the Church should give him O in the current consent process.
May 21st, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Frank–Thanks for your reportage.
I notified Stand Firm of your catch and added the following: So much for the heartland, but then again TEC represents the elites with 0.2% (2/10ths of one percent!) of the population in an Episcopal church on an average Sunday. Out of a population of 1,783,432, Average Sunday Attendance is around 3,400. Pitiful.
/snark
See the following for attendance charts for TEC
http://12.0.101.92/reports/PR_ChartsDemo/exports/ParishRPT_521200945449PM.pdf
P.S. A very reliable fellow is reporting bishop of W. N. Carolina as No.
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/22575/#365561
May 21st, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I’m not sure what wisdom we get from determining what percentage of the population of Nebraska attends an Episcopal Church on Sunday; Nebraska is not exactly the heartland of the Episcopal Church. The chart shows a little more than 8,000 baptized members in Nebraska, so an average Sunday attendance of 3400 seems pretty good.
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:50 am
Heartland of America; we don’t reach it. TEC is well along the way to being elites-at-prayer in places along the coasts and in other urban areas.
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 am
Gator, you have a good point.
I’d just add that “elites-at-prayer” are mainly on the splenetic left; requiring the frisson of Om-mane-padme-hum to alleviate the bourgeois tedium of another “Our Father.”
Let the little people “rattle off” their Our Fathers…”we” know better: that the point of religion is a sense-of-connectedness and continuingness thing that’s um, for all sentient beings and stuff. Plus, we make better coffee. Ommmmmmm.
And consider: with an average Sunday attendance in the mid-hundreds, the Diocese of Northern Michigan is hardly “heartland” either. Considering its choice of bishop, it’s also not “brainland,” but I’ve expressed my views on that before.
Genpo reminds me of Friday, the manservant to Robinson Crusoe. Late in his life, Friday begged to go up the mountain so he could say “O” to Benamucke, his god. Friday’s simple faith statement was “All things do say O to him.”
O: a letter, and a number!
Defoe’s point was not to ridicule, but to show compassion and respect for the millions of people who have never heard the name of Jesus, but who have a sense of divine presence–indeed, on a mountaintop!–and who tremble to offend their god, or perhaps (by His grace)God Himself.
What a pity that Defoe’s descendants in this corrupt age are too grand to practice his compassionate Christianity. The compassion of Jesus exceeds anything Siddharta Gautama could ever know. Defoe knew this: and he was one of those “unloving” Puritans!
All Genpo has gotten for his mistake is a Benamucke to say O to. He has truly bought a mess of pottage at the cost of his birthright. He will receive O in return. And the Church should give him O in the current consent process.
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:37 am
Newark survivor–All I can say is w0w! I may have to go smoke a cigar after that.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Newark, I can tell that you are one of those folks who may often be mistaken, but who is never in doubt.