Brain Drained

As institutions and nations decline it is typical for individuals of ability and intelligence in them to decamp for more favorable climes, thus further hastening the decline; recall the infamous "brain drain" of 'fifties England as socialism worked it magic spell throughout the economy and the academy. Stateside, we see something similar in the Episcopal Church, an institution where most people with half a brain or more have left or will do so, sooner or later. A most unfortunate example of the intellectual atrophy affecting that once grand institution took place this weekend at the annual convention of the Diocese of Maine, where delegates passed a resolution that calls for

the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Queen of England to disavow and rescind the 1496 Royal Charter issued to John Cabot and his sons. The charter authorized the Cabots "to find, discover, and investigate whatsoever islands, countries, regions, provinces of heathens and infidels...which before this time were unknown to all Christians." The Charter also reads in part, "John and his sons or their heirs may conquer, occupy and possess, as our vassals and governors lieutenants and deputies therein, acquiring for us the dominion, title and jurisdiction of the same towns, castles, cities, islands, and mainlands so discovered."

This "doctrine of discovery" set forth by King Henry VII was relied upon as justification for the dispossession of lands and the subjugation of non-Christian people. The resolutions further requires that Bishop Knudsen officially convey the expression of the resolution to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England (Queen Elizabeth II), presumably when she is in England in the summer of 2008 at the Lambeth Conference. The resolution also requires that a similar resolution is submitted to the General Convention in 2009 for its consideration.

That splendid bit of blather was (big surprise) a sop offered by the guilt-laden white Episcopalians to the Indians as partial atonement for the unpleasantries committed by their forebears two hundred years ago (and three three hundred years after Cabot's peregrinations). To those of normal intelligence, of course, it is hardly necessary to point out had Cabot and his progeny not received the odious royal charter and gone exploring there would be no guilt-laden liberal white Episcopalians today calling for its revocation but we are dealing with seriously challenged folk here. I await to see how this resolution fares in the General Convention next year: if it passes, and there's a fair chance it might--there's nothing foolish liberals love more than the empty gesture, than I would say the Episcopal Church is, without question, flat-lining and no extraordinary procedures should be employed to revive her.