I could so respond to every one of your points and come up with a comment that is twice as long as your original article. But let me focus on the one in particular that is a favorite of mine. I grew up in the Episcopal Church. It was a big deal to be on the vestry. I guess it made you some kind of super Episcopalian. I can remember making suggestions that were thought to be irreverent or inappropriate at annual meetings. I guess I was too far off the wall. Suggesting that maybe we should invite the people who actually lived in the area where our church was located to worship with us was met with horror. After all we were a well-to-do white group. Some illegal alien wet backs mingling among us? What was I thinking? Of course no one was so impolite as to turn me down flat. The stock response was “let us pray about it and we will get back to you”, which was of course a polite way of saying no way in hell. It was just a device for delaying rejecting the idea out of hand in order to look thoughtful, sensitive and responsible. Yeah, praying about it to come up with an answer. That’s rich. I’ve never seen anyone actually change their mind by praying about anything. I would’ve had more respect for them if at least they had been honest and said “let me think that over. You’ve raised something I haven’t previously considered and I need to see if I am missing something.” That I could’ve accepted — especially if it was later couple with a reasoned explanation for their decision. But leave God out of it. He didn’t tell you to do anything or share his “will” with you.