Gimme That Old Time "Middle Ground"

Don't you just love the way that radical revisionists stake out a revolutionary, anti-Christian position way out there on the left and then send their institutional enablers out to proclaim the necessity of the Church occupying the middle ground between orthodoxy and heresy?

The Rev. Fred Hiltz of the Anglican Church of Canada, which is an organization for people who get vertigo when they sense themselves standing on one side or another of an issue, was at it again this week in the run-up to the Church's triennial meetings in Halifax. As this story from Virtue Online reports:

The head of Canada's Anglican Church appealed Friday to hun­dreds of bishops, priests and laity not to let talks on the thorny issue of same-sex unions further divide the church or take on the rancour of the past.

Most Rev. Fred Hiltz said at the opening of the General Syn­od that there are still varying opinions in the church about homosexuality, but that a new, more conciliatory approach might dull the passions around it.

"My hope clearly is that we will be able to continue this conversation, live with some difference and to do it with a degree of grace," he said at the triennial gathering in Halifax.

"I know that our deliber­ations on these matters will be watched by many within Cana­da and around the world. I hope they see no evidence of rejec­tion, condemnation or demon­ization but every evidence of respect, charity and patience."

It seems that the Rev. Hiltz is under the impression that with enough respect, charity and patience, it is possible to sanitize heresy, apostasy, sodomy and schism. The important thing is to do it "with a degree of grace." Just be civilized about it; sure we are in the process of undermining traditional marriage and handing a propaganda victory to those who wish to destroy the family, but this can only be pulled off if enough passions can be sufficiently "dulled." True that.

The worst thing you can be called these days is an extremist, so whoever gets to define the extremes wins automatically. In my student days in parliamentary debating it was a huge advantage to be able to define the terms of the debate and we took delight in doing so unscrupulously to our opponents' disadvantage. In church politics it is a huge advantage to be able to define the extremes and the radicals have a built-in unfair advantage. The conservatives have a basically fixed (or in some cases slow moving) position, but the radicals have a very easily movable one. Therefore, it is easy to take up a pose to the left of what you really want and then compromise at the last moment, thus simultaneously attaining victory and appearing moderate, because the most important thing (other than winning) is to be "moderate."

When you can no longer sing "Gimme that old time religion" with conviction, you begin to sing "Gimme that old time middle ground" instead. But it just doesn't have the same ring to it.