Nullification Revisited: An interesting read made more interesting by noting when it was written

Bishop Mathes is the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego.He wrote this in the Fall of 2010, two years before the Diocese of South Carolina disassociated from the Episcopal Church.  It caught my eye because I am a born and raised South Carolinian who grew up less than one mile, as the crow flies, from Ft. Sumter. I have made frequent references to South Carolina's role in Secession in comparison to the Diocese of South Carolina's disassociation in November of 2012. The little village on a tiny peninsula directly across from our family homestead on James Island is called "Secessionville". It is replete with Civil War battlements and earthworks, among them most notably Ft. Lamar. There must be something in the water around here.

From the "Daily Episcopalian" section of "Episcopal Cafe", originally posted by Jim Naughton on October 15, 2010. Be sure to read the 27 comments if you follow the link to "read it all" for a pro and con perspective...Also, when you get there, be sure to page down a bit until you see the article....CH +

Nullification revisited

By James R. Mathes
The Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence wrote the essay, “A Conservationist among Lumberjacks,” inThe Living Church, published online on October 1, 2010, which attempts to paint the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina as a protector of the Constitution of the Episcopal Church.
It is true that there are no new plots.
What Bishop Lawrence postulates is simply a twenty-first century reprisal of the 1828 nullification crisis in which the state of South Carolina attempted to nullify federal tariffs.

Bishop Lawrence feigns great sorrow at the changing landscape of the Episcopal Church. He writes, “I have grown sad from walking among the stumps of what was once a noble old-growth Episcopalian grove in the forest of Catholic Christianity.” Donning the mantle of ecclesial conservationist, Bishop Lawrence even quotes environmentalist, Aldo Leopold, “a conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke [of the ax] he is writing his signature on the face of his land.” The bishop adds, “far too many leaders in our church have never learned this lesson.” Indeed.

read more...Bishop Mathes on Nullification Re-visited in SC