Four Phillies of the Apocalypse

Mark Steyn has an interesting piece (as always) in the Chicago Sun-Times regarding four women in the news these days and what they portend for the future. One of the four caught my attention, though you really should read about all four. Here's number 2:

Which brings me to our second Jill: the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to run a national division of the Anglican Communion. Bishop Kate gave an interview to the New York Times revealing what passes for orthodoxy in this most flexible of faiths. She was asked a simple enough question: "How many members of the Episcopal Church are there?"
"About 2.2 million," replied the presiding bishop. "It used to be larger percentage-wise, but Episcopalians tend to be better educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than other denominations."

This was a bit of a jaw-dropper even for a New York Times hackette, so, with vague memories of God saying something about going forth and multiplying floating around the back of her head, a bewildered Deborah Solomon said: "Episcopalians aren't interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?"

"No," agreed Bishop Kate. "It's probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion."

Now, that may or may not be a great idea, but it's nothing to do with Christianity, only for eco-cultists like Al Gore. If Bishop Kate were an Episcogorian, a member of the Alglican Communion, an elder of the Church of Latter-Day Chads, this would be an unremarkable statement. But, even in their vigorous embrace of gay bishoprics and all the rest, I don't recall the Episcopalians formally embracing the strategy that worked out so swell for the Shakers and enshrining a disapproval of reproduction at the heart of their doctrine.

The Episcopal church is in the midst of shattering itself into many pieces with churches left and right pulling out of the Communion due to views like this and many others. It won't be but a few years until that 2.2 million members is reduced by half or more due to churches leaving the demonination and aligning themselves with more conservative groups. It's happening all over Southern California, and other parts of the country as well.

And the other ladies mentioned by Steyn? The 64 year-old Palestinian suicice bomber, actress Scarlett Johansson, and Condoleezza Rice. You wouldn't think the four are connected, but read it all here.

And while Steyn is sure the Muslims will overwhelm Europe by virtue of their astounding birth rates (at least when compared to Europeans), Ralph Peters says that isn't going to happen. He think the Europeans will revert to their checkered past when it came to inconvenient minority groups. Read his thoughts on the subject here.