The Catholic Church, and the Protestant denominations, provide perfect examples of what happens when liberals take over. We see clearly that the left destroys what it touches.
According to a recent article from a Pittsburgh paper: “The 2011-12 Diocesan budget was $23.2 million, but officials knew last year that income for 2012-13 would be just $21 million.” (No one in the Diocese mentioned that the decline began as Vatican II kicked in. Neither did anyone suggest that the decline could be reversed by returning to traditional Catholicism.)
“The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is by far the largest religious body in the region, with 635,000 parishioners in six counties, down from 815,000 in 1993, for a loss of 22 percent.” (Catholics give an average of 33.00/year) “The Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had 97,000 members in nine counties in 1993 and has 78,000 today, for a loss of 20 percent.” (20.51/Lutheran/year) “Pittsburgh Presbytery, which covers Allegheny County for the Presbyterian Church (USA), had 59,000 members in 1994 and has 35,000 now, a loss of 41 percent. “($51.43/Presbyterian/year.)
“The presbytery has run six-figure deficits for years, (emp. added), said the Rev. Sheldon Sorge, pastor to Pittsburgh Presbytery. The presbytery had a budget of $2.8 million in 2009 and has cut at least $300,000 each year since. If that holds, the presbytery will have cut $1 million, more than a third of it budget, since 2009.
“The presbytery lost three congregations, among them one of its largest, to schism (conservatives fleeing liberals) in 2007. Currently four more churches, including two large ones, have asked to explore the possibility of leaving with their property. (The denominations that leave are bailing out for one reason: they don’t like what the liberals are doing to them. They found out that the left destroys what it touches.)
“Many presbyteries are going through this, and many are taking a larger hit than we are,” Rev. Sorge said (Proud that his group wasn’t as badly decimated by leftists as it could have been? Please note: There is no mention of returning to basic beliefs to stop the bleeding, much less trying to bring the disaffected back! Liberal vanity is such that they would rather see their institutions destroyed than admit they went too far left! Their God is vanity, they worship themselves.
“The Lutheran synod has had similar problems with attrition and schism, losing 18 of an original 201 congregations since 2008. The synod received $2.4 million from its congregations in 2008 but just $1.6 million in 2011. (20.51/Lutheran/year) The Rev. Blair Morgan, synod director for evangelical mission, said that forced the synod to make hard choices.” (As with the Catholics and Lutherans, none of those “hard choices” involved saying, “We were wrong to move so far left. We are returning to the basics our faith.” )
