Greetings to you all,
The picture is from this past Wednesday, May 10th, at The Abbey at Pawley's Island, SC.
At the head of the table is Bishop Fitzsimmons Allison, formerly the Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina and prior to that professor at Sewanee, The University of the South, and then Virginia Seminary. To his right is Archbishop Kolini. To his left is Bishop Sospeter and Bishop Aaron from Tanzania. Not seen in the picture are Bishop Edmond from Ghana, Bishop William from the DRC, Bishop Gerry Schnackenberg from Colorado, and me. Bishop Fitz is lecturing to us on the religion of secularism and illustrating why it is such a weak but insidious religion.
During the discussion time I asked him about a new book entitled The Benedict Option. My question was, is MTD (see below) how the religion of secularism has been creeping into the Christian faith and hollowing out our churches?
We live in a world where those who consider themselves religious, and a lot of, those who call themselves Christians, and even their churches, are now following "a mushy pseudoreligion the researchers have deemed, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. MTD has 5 basic tenets:
1 A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth period.
2 God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3 The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4 God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.
5 Good people go to heaven when they die."
Taken from: THE BENEDICT CODE by Rod Dreher.
You might ask yourself, "What's wrong with this?"
AND HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
Where Moms Fall Short: The Club of the Velveteen Moms
Please be praying as tomorrow is Kevin Donlon's consecration as Bishop. I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday!
