We've all heard one horror story or another about progressives destroying the sacred liturgy. People, for various reasons (sheer ignorance being chief among them), take something that is supposed to be an act of lifting the heart and soul up to God and turn it into a frightening attempt at pulling the divine down to our level.Catholics who live in the western U.S. know this all too well, as the above photo from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles demonstrates (we're pretty sure that's supposed to be a Catholic Mass, though the only grounds we have for such a suspicion is that the photo is from the LA Catholic Worker). But this travesty is not confined to Catholicism. Other Christian faiths share the pain of perverted liturgy, including the more orthodox of the Presbyterian, Lutheran, and high-Church Anglican groups, as well as most Episcopalian groups.
Their reach is far and wide. They have corrupted the young:
The middle aged:
And the old:
No, we didn't make this stuff up.
These pictures speak for themselves, and unfortunately this isn't a joke. Typifying everything that is wrong with the modern Christian outlook on God, worship, sacred music, decorum, ministry, iconography, and pretty much everything else, these images show us what happens when an ignorant flock and invertebrate clergy combine. The results are disastrous and heinous.
Those clergy and church leaders who simply allow or tolerate the perversion of sacred liturgy will spend eternity in The Vestibule, home of the indecisive. Their proudly lukewarm affirmation "I'm in the middle of the road" will serve them well here. Those who actively promote liturgical perversions will, however, be scattered throughout Circle Seven for violence against God and Art. Some will descend much further into Circle Eight, home of the falsifiers.
