Monday, May 18, 2009

You WILL Be Episcopalian!

All right, everyone, I want you to try this simple experiment on your own.  First, copy the link below into your browser, hit "Enter ["Return"]", and see where you end up:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/

Next, try Googling the words "Episcopal Church", and see what site comes up first. (Please don't click just yet on the link.)

Now comes the best part. Here is the link that ECUSA is trying so hard to make certain that you see---I will spell it out first, before giving you the hyperlink:

http://iamepiscopalian.org

OK, now either copy that link and paste it into your browser, or, if you trust me not to be tricking you, click directly on this link below (I promise, I have not changed the URL):


Do you see how they now have you both ways? To reach the Episcopal Church's official website, either you must first visit their "I am Episcopalian" website (as a result of trying to go to the traditional URL "www.episcopalchurch.org"), and then click "Continue", or you must type in  "Iamepiscopalian.org" (or Google "I am Episcopalian") in order to get to their Website!

They may not be hierarchical in fact, but they sure are "hierarchical" on the Web---they positively dictate how you have to approach them. (It was supposed to be this way only through Lent, and now we are almost to Pentecost.)

So ask yourself: do you feel more "Episcopalian" as a result of learning this?

If you answer "Yes," you are part of the problem.



 

12 comments:

  1. Ha ha ha ha ha. I'm sure that because of my clicking that link, my household has been added back into the ASA of the episcopal church nearest my ISP's zip code (not that they ever officially removed my membership anyway).

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  2. Heh. A couple of months ago, I was at an archeological site - Nan Madol - and to get into the throne room, you had to go through a teeny, tiny entrance that forced one to enter, bowing. I imagine that will be a future feature at 815.

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  3. I cannot visit either website from work. My office's web filter blocks both sites, citing that visiting the site is against our Acceptable Use policy!

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  4. Resistance is futile! You will be assimilated!

    Oddly, I had never (prior to typing the above comment) realized the contemporaneous existence of the two Borgs—Marcus Borg (an Episcopalian) and THE BORG (from Star Trek, and who attempt to become, in a sense, immanent). This is particularly strange given my proclivity for making unexpected word associations (generally twisted) as a major component of much of my sense of humor.

    Of course, I hadn't realized until I just checked on Wikipedia, that the former Borg had become an Episcopalian.

    Pax et bonum,
    Keith Töpfer

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  5. Oh yeah, that would really make me want to join an Episcopal church if I weren't already in one. If I were web shopping for a church, and came across this tomfoolery, I would dismiss this bunch as either incompetent or devious.

    I am afraid that I too have added to their "hit" stats.

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  6. Narrow entrance for a narrow and ever narrowing "church".

    Great work, Mr. Haley!

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  7. IT'S A TRAP!!! You have to click **continue**??? They're trying to lure in the unwary and make them CCONTINUING Anglicans on their terms! Flee!

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  8. The photos are not a true representation of the racial diversity of the membership of the Episcopal Church. We are overwhelmingly a Whitey White White church with a side of white and white for dessert. Not that that's a great thing, nothing I'm proud of really...but it's a true thing. We go out of our way to put all the people of color that we can find in our propaganda but it's a lie. oh well.

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  9. Whythewall, I never realized how true that is until I started to worship at an Antiochian Orthodox Church with Croats, Palestinians, Serbs, Bosnians, Russians, Greeks, Germans, Syrians and Americans of every ethnic and racial background. A foretaste of the Kingdom of God!

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  10. It's worth mentioning that (in the common parlance) "Episcopalian" is used as a noun. One is AN Episcopalian. Saying "I am Episcopalian" is much like saying "I am lawyer," or "I am Yankees fan." YOU might be Methodist, or Presbyterian, but I am AN Episcopalian. Too bad the Church couldn't get this right. Looks like more pandering to the great and ill-informed unchurched whom we're trying to make feel "comfortable."

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  11. I too have been somewhat put off by the redirection - it takes me a bit more clicking to get to the page I want. But is it any different from the other websites that have an elaborate intro - sometimes with music and a slideshow - when you first get to them. I would find the desire of some folks to see a conspiracy behind every action by the Episcopal Church Center staff amusing if it weren't so sad.

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  12. I'm not looking for conspiracy, Fr. I simply don't trust TEC's leadership and for good reason. They have shown themselves unworthy of trust.

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