I don't understand why some people are anti-Episcopalian

[Anonymous]

Agree that this is not a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This...is not a thing.

The only criticism I’ve heard is that they are so ecumenical that they basically have no beliefs. They encourage sometimes questioning God’s existence. And they basically shy away from any controversial positions other than being kind to all and believing in all. It may be laudable but I think people like a religion with a little punch to it. Maybe? Just a thought.

This sounds good to me! Where’s a nice Episcopal church in Bethesda?

https://stjohnsnorwood.org/

[Anonymous]

OP, I think these people are anti-organized religion, not specifically anti-Episcopalian.

[Anonymous]

I grew up Catholic and attended an Episcopalian church for a few years as an adult. It felt like a country club with communion thrown in once a week. I was originally drawn to it for its lack of extreme positions on anything, but it all just felt pretty bland after a while. Lots of rich old white people who live in the nicest neighborhood of a very segregated city trying by really hard to appear to care about contemporary social issues and happy to throw money at them, but ultimately just looking for opportunities to trade business cards under the guise of fellowship.

But that’s an isolated impression and obviously all Episcopalian churches are not like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up Catholic and attended an Episcopalian church for a few years as an adult. It felt like a country club with communion thrown in once a week. I was originally drawn to it for its lack of extreme positions on anything, but it all just felt pretty bland after a while. Lots of rich old white people who live in the nicest neighborhood of a very segregated city trying by really hard to appear to care about contemporary social issues and happy to throw money at them, but ultimately just looking for opportunities to trade business cards under the guise of fellowship.

But that’s an isolated impression and obviously all Episcopalian churches are not like that.

Definitely not all are like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think these people are anti-organized religion, not specifically anti-Episcopalian.

That could be. And that is a thing, definitely. Why they’d choose a religious school if they were anti-religion? Do you know these people, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up Catholic and attended an Episcopalian church for a few years as an adult. It felt like a country club with communion thrown in once a week. I was originally drawn to it for its lack of extreme positions on anything, but it all just felt pretty bland after a while. Lots of rich old white people who live in the nicest neighborhood of a very segregated city trying by really hard to appear to care about contemporary social issues and happy to throw money at them, but ultimately just looking for opportunities to trade business cards under the guise of fellowship.

But that’s an isolated impression and obviously all Episcopalian churches are not like that.

Yes, I agree. A lot of phoning it in. Going to church for the social aspect, and the sake of going, but nothing too deep.

I decided I didn't need a social gathering and stopped organized religion altogether. I still believe in God, grew up Catholic (13 years Catholic school), then tried many other religions before scrapping church altogether.

As far as school goes, some people send their kids simply for the education, with a big emphasis on ignoring the religious aspect of education. Parochial schools are more affordable private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up Catholic and attended an Episcopalian church for a few years as an adult. It felt like a country club with communion thrown in once a week. I was originally drawn to it for its lack of extreme positions on anything, but it all just felt pretty bland after a while. Lots of rich old white people who live in the nicest neighborhood of a very segregated city trying by really hard to appear to care about contemporary social issues and happy to throw money at them, but ultimately just looking for opportunities to trade business cards under the guise of fellowship.

But that’s an isolated impression and obviously all Episcopalian churches are not like that.

Yes, I agree. A lot of phoning it in. Going to church for the social aspect, and the sake of going, but nothing too deep.

I decided I didn't need a social gathering and stopped organized religion altogether. I still believe in God, grew up Catholic (13 years Catholic school), then tried many other religions before scrapping church altogether.

As far as school goes, some people send their kids simply for the education, with a big emphasis on ignoring the religious aspect of education. Parochial schools are more affordable private schools.

That's funny because it was exactly the opposite to my experience.
I grew up Catholic, and felt like everyone was going to church and CCD and recieving the sacraments because they "had to" or because grandma would be mad or whatever.
I finally switched to a wonderful Episcopalian church and for the first time, met people who were at church and Sunday school beacuse they *wanted* to be there and truly cared about growing and living out their faith.

Clearly.... every parish is going to be different in that regard, I'm sure.

But OP, my guess is those people chose the school because they wanted the academics (or sports facilities, or private classes, or whatever....) and didn't think too much about the faith aspect, and now that they're actually living life in the school are regretting their decision in going to a religious school.

[Anonymous]

Them people send their kids their cause to that Episcopalian school cause they got they money to put their kids in private school not cause they got strong religious beliefs.

[Anonymous]

I am Episcopalian and sent my daughter to an Episcopal school. Mostly I loved it, but there was this one time in chapel when a little kid got all alarmed and said, "GOD DIED?!!!!" and the chaplain said "No, God didn't die, Jesus died" which is blasphemy, I think, but moreover I realized that maybe it's a scary religion for little kids. But 99% of the time the chaplain was mostly saying things like "God loves you" and "Be nice to your neighbor." The gore is an issue with all of Christianity though, not just the Episcopalian faith in particular. No one at the Episcopalian school was trying to scare the children on purpose.

[Anonymous]

I’ve known some very fine Episcopalians. I love to discuss faith and doctrine with others (I’m Catholic). My only issue is that many don’t know why they believe what they do, despite having a well formed, recorded theology. The ones I’ve ran into tended more toward deism or pantheism but were kind and good people nonetheless. As for the original question, the only people who were speaking poorly (too strong of a word IMO) of Episcopalians were RCIA candidates from the Episcopalian Church.

[Anonymous]

Historically they discriminated against Catholics which is the whole reason why Catholic schools exist.

[Anonymous]

That is confusing OP and wierd and rude on the part of those families. If you see this across the number of people I wonder, is the school explicit enough with prospective families about its religious identity and expectations that flow from that?

[Anonymous]

My priest doesn't question the existence of God, but he openly welcomes the presence of those who do. I appreciate that he is welcoming to everyone, regardless of where they are on their spiritual journey. On the big holidays, he makes a point of saying, whether you believe or not, whether you come every week or twice a year, we are glad you are here. I think there are a number of people at my Episcopal church who aren't necessarily hardcore adherents to Episcopal dogma, but who are simply people who want to be part of a group that is trying to do good in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up Catholic and attended an Episcopalian church for a few years as an adult. It felt like a country club with communion thrown in once a week. I was originally drawn to it for its lack of extreme positions on anything, but it all just felt pretty bland after a while. Lots of rich old white people who live in the nicest neighborhood of a very segregated city trying by really hard to appear to care about contemporary social issues and happy to throw money at them, but ultimately just looking for opportunities to trade business cards under the guise of fellowship.

But that’s an isolated impression and obviously all Episcopalian churches are not like that.

Definitely not all are like this.

There are some Episcopalian church is that are more Catholic like but there certainly are a lot of the country club ones!