The "Shamscendence" of the Episcopal Church

First Things
Jun 1, 2012
David D. Corey

I’m told that when a man is drowning, just before he succumbs, he sometimes thrashes violently side to side, believing himself to be swimming upward, all the while sinking lower and lower to his death. Something similar seems to be happening with the Episcopal Church today. Its fundamental purpose is to transcend the limits of life on earth by orienting souls upward toward God, but instead of transcendence it deals in “shamscendence,” thrashing sideways from one earthly fad to another as it sinks into decline. Its end must be near.

No one can deny that the Episcopal Church is experiencing a life-threatening decline. According to its own statistics, the past decade alone has seen staggering drops in confirmations (down 32%), child baptisms (down 36%), adult baptisms (down 40%), and marriages (down 41%). According to an outside report, if the Episcopal Church continues declining at its current rate, it will be dead within 26 years.

No doubt the causes of decline are multiple and complex. But let me suggest what is at the core: the theological swindle of ‘shamscendence.’

Shamscendence is bogus transcendence, earthly fads masquerading as heavenly goods. Of course genuine transcendence stands at the heart of the Christian faith. We seek salvation from the futility of earthly concerns, from the corruption of sin, from the finality of death. And the gospel responds to such longings with powerful assurances of eternal life and deliverance. But how often does the Episcopal Church preach the saving message today? It seems rather to say to its flock that such talk of transcendent life is just old-fashioned, “overly sentimentalized” rubbish, and that salvation comes in reality through progressive politics here on earth. the rest image

Isn’t it plausible that the Episcopal Church is declining in large measure because parishioners recognize a theological swindle when they see one?