“We need to remember that tolerance is not a Christian virtue, and it is never an end in itself. In fact, tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of evil.”
— Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
Chaput is a major thinker and has quite a history. From Infogalactic (my replacement for Wikipedia which has been taken over by bureaucrats - a la Pournelle's Iron Law)
Charles J. Chaput
Charles Joseph Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. (pronounced "shuh-poo") (born September 26, 1944) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He is the ninth and current Archbishop of Philadelphia, installed on September 8, 2011. He previously served as Archbishop of Denver (1997–2011) and Bishop of Rapid City (1988–1997).
Chaput is a professed Capuchin and has a reputation for orthodoxy. A member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe, he is the second Native American to be consecrated a bishop in the United States and the first Native American archbishop. His Potawatomi name is “the wind that rustles the leaves of the tree” while his Sioux name is "good eagle".
I keep waiting for a major (and much needed) reformation of the Episcopal Church. They used to have a moral backbone and with overall declining church attendance (and revenues), they have opened the floodgates to anyone willing to sit through a homily, listen to some pretty music and drop a few shekels into the collection plate. Meanwhile, due to competition in the market (from most other denominations specifically UCC, overall attendance is down everywhere and they are left with a smaller and smaller market share. I bet that if they went back to the original ball-buster 1940 prayer-book, hymnal and sermons, they would find themselves back in business big-time.
Barring that, it might be worth checking out the Catholics - the idea of an infallible Pope really sticks in my craw but the rest of their doctrine seems to be pretty level-headed. Not afraid to call a spade a spade...
Speaking of Hymns, this one from 1845 still gives me goosebumps:
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