Episcopalians: The New Shakers?

This interesting tidbit from Mark Steyn, is originally from what Mark Levin calls the "New York Slimes" on his radio talk show. The Slimes' reporter is interviewing the new "Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to run a national division of the Anglican Communion...":

Bishop Kate gave an interview to the New York Times revealing what passes for orthodoxy in this most flexible of faiths. She was asked a simple enough question: "How many members of the Episcopal Church are there?"

"About 2.2 million," replied the presiding bishop. "It used to be larger percentage-wise, but Episcopalians tend to be better educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than other denominations."

This was a bit of a jaw-dropper even for a New York Times hackette, so, with vague memories of God saying something about going forth and multiplying floating around the back of her head, a bewildered Deborah Solomon said: "Episcopalians aren't interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?"

"No," agreed Bishop Kate. "It's probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion."

This sublimely asinine observation causes Steyn to riff on Fatma An-Najar, the Palestinian grandma who blew herself to smithereens recently, probably earning her a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest female homicide bomber ever, except that all she did was slightly injure a few Israeli soldiers:

Here's the question for Bishop Kate: If Fatma An-Najar has 41 grandchildren and a responsible "better educated" Episcopalian has one or two, into whose hands are we delivering "the stewardship of the earth"? If your crowd isn't around in any numbers, how much influence can they have in shaping the future?

Good point, Mark, except that confirmed leftist idiotarians like Bishop Kate aren't listening, except to themselves. This typically smug garbage is the primary reason that the Episcopal Church—which Wonker once came close to joining many years ago—is rapidly dying in this country.

Referencing simple demographics, Steyn concludes:

If you measure the births of the Muslim world against the dearth of Bishop Kate's Episcopalians, you have the perfect snapshot of why there is no "stability": With every passing month, there are more Muslims and fewer Episcopalians, and the Muslims export their manpower to Europe and other depopulating outposts of the West. It's the intersection of demography and Islamism that makes time a luxury we can't afford.

We can argue about exactly what this trend means, but not that it means nothing. At the very minimum, I'd suggest, it means the Episcopal Church is irrelevant to "the stewardship of the earth..."

Addressing the same point, TigerHawk, an Episcopalian himself, is a bit more pointed:

I'm sorry to say, but my Church has chosen an idiot as its presiding bishop. What are we, Shakers? The point of virtually every Christian denomination worth its salt is not merely to replenish its ranks, but spread its particular beliefs. Indeed, if a church's message is not worth spreading, why bother believing in it at all?

Indeed.