LEARNING LESSONS FROM THE DUTCH

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue

The Dutch Roman Catholic Cardinal Adrianis Simonis of Utrecht believes that the "spiritual vacuity" of Dutch society has left the Netherlands open to an Islamic cultural takeover.

In a blistering attack on the state of the spiritual state of the country, the Cardinal said the nation was disarmed in the face of the Islamic danger. The rise of Islam, said the Cardinal is related to "the spectacle of extreme moral decadence and spiritual decline that we offer" to young people. Nowadays political leaders ask whether the Muslims will accept our values," the Dutch cardinal observed. "I ask, 'What values are those? Gay marriage? Euthanasia?'"

Today Dutch society is known for its permissive attitude toward social issues, with laws that allow euthanasia, same-sex marriage, widespread use of recreational drugs, prostitution, and adoption by homosexual couples.

Cardinal Simonis said that the best prospect for recovery would come if the younger generation returned to Christian traditions. "That is my hope, and I do see signs that young people are rediscovering the faith," he told a Dutch newspaper.

There is a major lesson here for the Episcopal Church. Recently the Diocese of Colorado announced the employment of an Imam in the cathedral in Denver, and the Dean of the cathedral in Philadelphia said he would happily worship with followers of Mohammed who wanted to come into his cathedral. There is no conflict in their minds about the fundamental theological differences between the two religions. What is there about the words "another gospel" that the apostle Paul talked about that they don't understand?

And gay marriage? The cardinal sees this as part of the moral decline of his nation, while the Episcopal Church endorses and encourages such acts with same-sex rites to boot!

And what is the destination of this moral slide for the United States? It is where Holland is today. And this past week a well known Dutch film-maker was murdered - a wakeup call to America. It is not America's fundamentalists that are shooting anybody, it is Islamic fundamentalists that are calling the shots, and doing the shooting. However abhorrent some aspects of American Fundamentalism might be, I have never seen, nor could I imagine Jerry Falwell, walking through Lynchburg, Virginia toting a submachine gun. I can imagine the Taliban doing that. And America's Evangelicals are not Fundamentalists despite what Jack Spong says. They are far more tolerant on a wide range of issues; have a deep concern for the environment with many having experienced the trauma of unasked for divorce and much more. They also have this odd belief in repentance and forgiveness.

The cardinal is hopeful that a new generation of Dutch will turn itself around. He might be whistling Dixie bearing in mind that Europe is infinitely more secular than America and the Vatican is not about to ask secular Europeans to sing three verses of 'Just as I am without one plea…' at the local soccer field.

But the U.S. is not far behind Holland in cultural decline. Our culture still heads towards the gutter and old mainline denominations like the Episcopal Church are bending over backwards, in the name of inclusivity, diversity and tolerance to legitimize bizarre sexual behaviors that contribute to the moral decline, happy it would seem, to put themselves out of business.

And in the Episcopal Church's case, it is aided and abetted by a morally defunct House of Bishops.

The last elections proved that point when America's evangelicals, (derisively called the Taliban by some secular commentators), and a goodly portion of Roman Catholics made it clear to spiritually blind Democrats that they would no longer tolerate the moral decline in America and they put their man back in the White House, with most viewing moral values as being of greater importance than unemployment, money and Iraq.

But it was not just a Dutch cardinal that weighed in on the continued secularization of Europe, but a leading contender for the papacy itself one Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who opined this week in an Italian newspaper that "the sexual act has lost its meaning and purpose. . . to the point that all kinds of sexuality have become the equivalents of each other. The main consequence is the placing of homosexuality and heterosexuality on equal terms," he said.

And this is precisely what the Episcopal Church has done by passing resolutions D039 and C051. Homosexuality is no longer a compulsive addictive behavior; it is now on an equal footing with heterosexuality complete with its own rites, made secure with its very own homoerotic bishop.

And you wonder why the Roman Catholics and Russian Orthodox Church will no longer sit down and talk unity with Frank Griswold. Why should they? ARCIC is dead and should be given a decent burial.

And this is precisely why both Evangelicals and Roman Catholics are being drawn together in common cause over a wide range of moral and social issues.

For sure they are being hard pressed to reach agreement on such difficult theological doctrines as justification by faith and the nature of salvation, though serious efforts have been tried by Anglican theologians like J. I. Packer, but the two groups can make common cause on serious moral issues like abortion and gay marriage.

The problem for the Netherlands, the cardinal continued, is a "lack of identity." The time is long past, he observed, when Christians "would fight and die for their faith." Today Islamic radicals are prepared to fight and die for what they believe.

Now ask yourself, would you die for what Frank Griswold and what some 100 plus revisionist Episcopal bishops believe? Would you honestly go to a cross for pluriformity, inclusivity and diversity? Is this a trinity that you would take a bullet for? If you would you are a fool, but not for Christ's sake.

Would you face a firing squad and die for Spong's Twelve Theses or Griswold's pluriform god that has more in common with Sufi the Rumi than Jesus Christ!

Part of a journalist's job, albeit difficult, is to speak truth to power, and to say with as much clarity as he or she can muster, that a church which endorses the culture will be orphaned in a generation.

The Episcopal Church is slowly orphaning itself. The hope many of us had that the Windsor Report would give teeth for the orthodox to fight back and find a safe place in a now advanced heretical institution has not materialized. Will it? Our hopes must now rest with the Primates.

Orthodox bishops in the Episcopal Church have their backs to the wall. Look at what is happening to Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan. He heads the Network, faces multiple lawsuits from two of his own clergy and faces daily hostility from the heretical PEPboys in his diocese, and is out of favor with the bulk of the HOB and much more.

The Episcopal Church like the rest of America is watching what is happening to a Europe that has lost its Christian moorings. Tragically the ECUSA is aiding and abetting precisely the same decline in the U.S. What sort of wake-up call do Episcopalians need to realize the good ship ECUSA is taking on water, and if its theological bilge pumps are not repaired, will in a matter of time sink.

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