L.A. Times mangles some Anglican lingo

http://www.getreligion.org/?p=2872

[GetReligion] 20 Nov 2007--This weekend, I went out of my way to praise a Washington Post story covering the Anglican property and doctrine wars here in the greater Washington area. The discussion of that post rolls on and you can follow that by clicking here.

However, let me flip the coin over and briefly note an article that I think does a rather bad job of covering some similar territory. This article by Rebecca Trouson ran in the Los Angeles Times under the headline “Episcopal leader seeks to mend church rift — In the face of defection threats, the bishop urges members to look beyond divisive issues and focus on helping people in need.”

This is a perfect example of a story that covers the Episcopal/Anglican wars only from the perspective of the national church and from those who share its viewpoints. What made the Washington Post story so good was the attention it gave to all four levels of the combat — local, regional, national and global. In America, the rebels are a small band of traditionalists, defending what they see as the Anglican approach to 2,000 years of Christian doctrines and moral theology. Obviously, the left disagrees with that stance.

As I have said before, if you view the story from the national perspective only, the rebels are small and the U.S. Episcopal Church is big. But, viewed from the global perspective, the liberals are a small — but very, very rich and powerful — segment of the global Anglican Communion. Both of these facts, both of these perspectives, need to be included.