Now I Lay Me Down to...Die As Chesterton observed: we need not a church that is right when the world is right, but a Church that is right when the world is wrong. For right or for wrong, the Churches of the Reformation have been wedded to Western culture. When John Locke decided Christianity needed to be more "rational," the Reformation Churches obliged him by making it less mystical and sacramental. When the enlightenment decided even that was too "superstitious," the Reformation churches decided all that "superstition" stuff was optional. When the modernist West decided man was too good to be damned, the Reformation churches said: "hell, what hell?" When Western culture decided that divorce was liberating, the Reformation churches gladly tore asunder those whom God had joined together. When the Western feminist movement said women should do anything men do, the Reformation churches went out of their way to accomodate the feminists, even against 3000 years of Judeo-Christian tradition. When the Western cultural elites decided that no modern person could believe this whole Christianity thing, the mainline Reformation churches gutted the faith so that one or two elitists would stay in the pews. When the West suddenly decided homosexuality was not sinful but something to be embraced and blessed, the Reformation churches feigned a backbone, but gave secular society every demand. Sure, the Reformation churches haven't officially embraced homosexuality yet, but does anyone think the current leadership of any mainline churches will say no to the constant badgering of gay activists? I wouldn't bet on it. Something curious has happened in the last 30 years, however. Through lack of children, a culture of death, and a willful policy of euthanasia by many in the academic elite, Western culture is slowly dying. I can tell you from firsthand experience that many seminary professors use the freedom and tolerance Western culture provides to denounce the same culture as repressive and intolerant. Yet there is a great irony in the Reformation churches seeking the death of Western culture. The mainlines --like the siamese twin who kills his brother only to come to the horrific realization he cannot live separately-- will have to face up to the fact that unless something dramatically changes they too will die with Western modern culture. Since the Reformation churches have dutifully followed every Western cultural trend, they will ultimately follow its current trend toward oblivion. Those in seminaries who seek to destroy Western culture are unwittingly and ironically committing ecclesiacide. In 2017 we will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. If trends continue, by then the Reformation may be a quaint memory in the West's many retirement homes or on plaques in buildings formerly housing vibrant congregations that will then be either rotting or selling vague, spiritualist New Age paraphernalia. It gives William Inge's quote--"whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next"-- an eerily literal quality. I was raised in a Reformation Church. I am currently fighting for the survival of a Reformation Church. The Eames Commission is meeting now to decide the future of the Anglican Church. I am anxiously waiting its results. I believe this is Anglicanism's last chance to assert its catholic identity or to be forever (in the West anyway) a dying, "has been" institution. It is the last chance the Anglican Church has to turn down the amorous advances of the spirit of the age and assert its timeless place in the Church Catholic. If the Anglican Church, the Reformation Church with the strongest claim to catholicity, cannot break the trend of capitulation to Western culture, the Reformation tradition as a current Christian phenonmenon will be dead. I am exploring Roman Catholicism while praying for the Commission. More of the same won't cut it this time. If the Commission cannot stand up for the eternal truths--to be right when the world is wrong-- and wishes to die, I don't wish to die with it. This is a theme I'll explore from time to time in this blog as I struggle with my calling to faithfully serve God.