At Last, The New York Times Finds A Church It Can Support

A love affair with the fallen American Episcopal Church has begun, as evidenced by The Times taking on their new love's enemies:

As the Episcopal Church begins to shed parishes like a dried-up Christmas tree sheds needles, it must have been comforting to the denomination to receive a sizeable Christmas present from the New York Times.

What could more clearly say "Merry Christmas" to the denizens of 815 Second Avenue, the church's national center, than the total trashing of the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Peter J. Akinola, on the front page of newspaper's Christmas Day edition?

With the headline "At Axis of Episcopal Split, an Anti-Gay Nigerian," the Times story spins the crisis in the Anglican Communion as a simple pro-gay/anti-gay issue. But it wasn't just differing views of homosexuality that led nine parishes in the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Virginia to affiliate with the Province of Nigeria. And it wasn't just an "anti-gay bishop" that brought about the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).

The root cause the Times ignores is a theological one concerning differences over many tenets of the faith: the nature of sin; the authority of Scripture; whether Jesus is the only way to God; whether God is a Father, or as the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church would have us believe, a Mother. The Times portrayal is guaranteed to make the Nigerian church and American traditionalists appear ignorant and hateful.

That's why the paper seems alarmed by the size of Akinola's flock -- there are more than 17 million members of the Anglican Church of Nigeria. (Think of the potential number of homophobes being indoctrinated!) And whereas the Times' pet Episcopal Church is diminishing more with each passing year, the Nigerian province continues to grow in spite of persecution. In 1998, there were 61 dioceses, and today there are 78 -- many of the new ones formed in the Muslim-dominated northern and middle "belt" areas of the country.

At least now we know the answer to the question as to who ranks higher on liberals' priority list, racial minorities or homosexuals.