Continuing its central role in fomenting hatred and bigotry, organized religion is heaeded for another win in the United States. This time, the Anglican Church (Episcopalians in America) is rising up in righteous indignation to defend its hatred and prejudice against homosexuals in a move that likely will sunder the denomination in two. The more tolerant (and to my way of thinking, more “Christian” of the two, cleaving as they do more to the message of love and tolerance of Jesus' ministry) is experiencing a hemorrhage of less tolerant and, well, hateful homophobes.

And it appears that the churches that are stepping in with an attractive message of intolerance to attract the homophobes are--surprise--African Anglican churches. I listened to a National Public Radio article that described white Episcopalians flocking to traditionally black Anglican churches to listen to the rantings of a Ugandan “rock star” archbishop. Archbishops from Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda are also making inroads in American Episcolpalian denominations. The message from these conservative Anglican churches is that the liberal Episcopalian church must die and be reborn into this hateful conservatism.

The supreme irony is that this has happened previously in America. In the 19th century, the Baptist churches of America were coming to the realization that trafficking in human slavery might not be a practice in accordance with Jesus' teachings. There were many Baptists living primarily in the American South that didn't really see a problem with buying and selling human beings, and clearly saw some loophole in the Christian gospels that supported their beliefs. So a little over 160 years ago, the Southern Baptist Church was born to provide a conservative haven for “good Christians” who trafficked in human slavery.

So it has come full circle. The Southern Baptist Church was born out of a desire to exclude African-Americans. Now the African Anglican Churches are providing Americans with an alternative to exclude homosexuals. I guess no one ever learns from the past--not even the victims.