Whilst I no longer confess the faith of my younger days, I’m certain that I’m not smart enough to be, or to call myself, either an atheist or an agnostic.

But I am also certain that I am smart enough to have lost all faith in the Christian Church given what’s going on within it in these times (I shall save all theological, cosmological, and teleological discussions for -- maybe -- another post).

Case in point is Stanford University’s Dean for Religious Life, The Very Reverend Dr. Jane Shaw, for she believes that the:

…church needs to focus more on art and less on religion and converting people in an effort to become less “churchy,”….

The Very Reverend Dr. Shaw, an LGBT activist and lesbian, avows the above notwithstanding that her charge as “the school’s Department of Religious Studies…dean and professor of religious studies” is to:

…provide spiritual, religious and ethical leadership to the university community, serve as minister of Memorial Church and also teach undergraduates and graduate students as a professor of religious studies.

Dr. Shaw is:

… hailed as a “champion within the LGBT community” by the Palo Alto Weekly, (and) was a founding member of the Chicago Consultation, a think tank made up of Anglican and Episcopal bishops, clergy, and lay people who support the full inclusion of LGBT people into the church and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

But that’s not the problem with The Very Reverend Dr. Shaw.

The problem with The Very Reverend Dr. Shaw is that she apparently is far more interested in her vast congregation’s interest in art, inclusion, empathy, and “climate change” than in their souls. 

This year (and probably for the predictable future) The Very Reverend Dr. Shaw will be:

…teaching a class on empathy…in an attempt to “almost train ourselves to begin to walk in another’s shoes,” which she called the “great wonder of a liberal arts or humanities education.”

Shaw said that greatest current crisis is “climate change” and as a proponent of “practical religion,” everyone should work to raise awareness of the issue and bring change on a local, national, or global front. 

“I think the great crisis of our day is climate change and the environment….(s)o I rather hope that more people would take that seriously and begin to think and reflect on what they are doing with their own lives and how they can bring some pressure to bear to change things.”

The Very Reverend Dr. Shaw came to Stanford:

… from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco (as)…not only the first woman to head the church, but the first openly lesbian dean, (and where she)….said she brought art and public education to the church and hopes to do the same at Memorial Church….

Domine, serva!  

We, sure as Hell (as it were), shall not be saved (in any meaning of the word) by the likes of The Very Reverend Dr. Jane Shaw! 

Dr. Shaw is not (yet) a bishop, and she may not be an Atheist, but her priorities seem to me to be confused.  Our friend, the brilliant painter, cartoonist, and illustrator, John Cox, has this to say on the subject of confused people:

However, I do not mean to imply that The Very Reverend Dr. Shaw and the Anglican Communion are unique in infamy with respect to The Church’s Fall from Grace! 

Bar its Evangelical wing -- and sometimes even many among the Evangelicals -- The Church is increasingly concerned with Gay Rights, Civil Rights, “Climate Change,” Gaia worship, evil Zionist and non-Zionist Jooooze, and countless other secular idiocies.

Conversely and depressingly, The Church is decreasingly concerned with John 3:16, the extinction of Middle-Eastern Christianity, and the genocidal actions committed around the world by followers of The Religion of Peace! (And the Evangelical community has elements that espouse truly unbelievable beliefs!)

Attendance at Daily Chapel was mandatory at the college I first attended as were classes on various Bible Books, Religion, and Philosophy.  Hence, I came away from there with the firm conviction that the first, and primary, obligation of Clergy was to live, preach, and bring people to The Word as enunciated in John 3:16.  Full Stop.  And, as a steamboat captain would ring on his Chadburn, “Finished With Engines.”

You tell me, for I know not, whether the worldwide decline in Religious attendance and spirituality (in Christian, Hebrew, and other non-Mohammedan creeds and ideologies) are causes or effects of the doings and decisions of the Divines who govern the various and sundry faiths. 

But such doings and decisions certainly are factors in those realities.

I was raised as a practicing, if not fervent, Presbyterian, and, after a few years riding steamboats and otherwise laboring, I enrolled at a small college affiliated with The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

In so doing my intellectual and spiritual lives were changed forever, and for the better, by those who taught and attended with me at, and by those who administered, it.  For those changes, I shall be eternally grateful to that school and to those people.

However, for reasons better discussed at another time, I can no longer recite The Apostle’s Creed nor accept an Invitation to Communion. But, were I again to do either or both, it would not be amongst members of PCUSA or any other Mainline Church.

And I am infirm and aging fast.  I shall leave a not-insignificant estate behind, but nary a penny of that estate will go to the hopelessly PC and terminally anti-Semitic PCUSA nor to that college because of its continuing relationship with that loathsome body.

And I am absolutely certain that large numbers those readers who have come thus far herein share my sentiments with respect to their non-secular connections.

Domine, serva!

h/t El Rushbo.  If you’re not a subscriber, there’s little better value for dollar around.

The author is retired, his profile may be found on LinkedIn, and he usually replies to comments sent to bilschan@hotmail.com.