Brad Drell On Standing Firm In The Faith
Why Louisianans of Both Dioceses Must Stand Firm in the Faith
By Brad Drell

Recently, the Diocese of Louisiana and the Diocese of Western Louisiana celebrated 200 years of the Episcopal Church in Louisiana. Our two dioceses share much in common - a long standing heritage of 200 years, Camp Hardtner, Cursillos that still number themselves from a common reckoning, a Bishop, Leonidas Polk, who founded the University of the South (and I’ve attended church and practiced law with Polks right here in Central Louisiana), Kairos Prison Ministry, and the culture of our state which is unique - highly Catholic, highly Evangelical (read Bible Belt), yet, a state which has extremely high rates of sexually transmitted diseases, divorce, incarceration and poverty. In short, it is good there are a lot of churches in Louisiana, as there are many in need of redemption, and what is a church but a hospital for sinners. In Louisiana, the Church is much needed.

In my personal experience, there are very few Louisianans who would deny the existence of God, or challenge the notion that God loves us and plays a role beyond imagination in all our lives. Bishop Spong’s concept of a non-theistic God just won’t fly in Louisiana. We know better. In the past, we just didn’t worry about the wingnut fringe of the Episcopal Church - like our country, we thought it was confined to California and the North East.

Many of us Louisiana Episcopalians experienced shock and dismay at the actions of the General Convention of 2003 which essentially endorsed homosexual behavior as normative. We had basically been about our business of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our own backyard, and attempting to make Jesus Christ present in the broken and hurting backyard of our own state. The affairs of the national church were none of our business. Feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, evangelizing the lost - these were and are our tasks, for which the resources held by the Episcopal Church in Louisiana or any church were inadequate, and resources were not to be wasted on the navel gazing of the national church. While all this was going on, our properties were mortgaged to the national church via the Dennis Canon, and the theology of the Episcopal Church drifted so far from what we knew here in Louisiana.

So why do I, a churchman from the Diocese of Western Louisiana, whose focus prior to GC2003 was prison ministry, now spend time on the affairs of the national Episcopal Church?

The rest: http://www.louisiana.standfirminfaith.com/archives/000769.shtml