From South Carolina-If you think politics rocks and rolls only at the State House, take a look at church politics.
Episcopalians, known around the country for acceptance and tolerance, are facing mighty frustration and confusion in the lower part of the state following a schism late last year that has pitted parish against parish, priest against priest, and a bishop against the national church.
The headline-grabbing schism in what until recently was a united body known as the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina today is fueled by a spiritual and historical stream of secession, a menacing aquifer of greed, disdain, money, power and sanctimony. It has spilled from the pulpit into state courts. It has caused churches and parishioners to pick between church leaders who have left the national Episcopal Church and those who remain with it.
Some see it as a bunch of ecclesiastical nonsense because they don’t really care which governing organization they’re aligned with. But others see the split as a hurtful squabble brought on by conservative clerics who are negatively impacting the worship lives of church members. And some are even gloomier, viewing the break as sinful lust by those leaving to grab as much as they can by using rhetoric, strategies and tactics worthy of the best negative political campaign that Lee Atwater ever ran.
More here-
http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=11012506084548046&ShowArticle_ID=11010502131854535
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