Mainstream? Not.

Recent inflammatory and violence-inciting oratory against GLBT folk from Nigeria has been in the news. What makes it newsworthy--as there is no shortage of homophobia in Nigeria, (or in South Dakota)--is that it allegedly came from a Bishop of the Anglican Church in Nigeria, which has a number of American "Anglican" churches under its authority. In blogger Jim Burroway's words:

It is however new and disturbing to see an entire mainstream church movement move in this direction.

I didn't really agree with his take, here is my response:

The truth is that the self-proclaimed “orthodox Anglicans” at Standing Firm, etc, who are affiliating (and providing resources and talking points to) the African churches are not mainstream. In fact virtually all Episcopalians have not been receptive to the calls from these fringe groups to leave our Church. The so-called “orthodox” (who in reality are quite un-Anglican and un-orthodox) are heavily funded from outside the church by a group called the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD). They are loud but not mainstream in any sense.

You can read the rest here at Box Turtle Bulletin.