Bishop Iker's Sermon--Diocesan Convention Eucharist

"Leadership cannot be based on popularity polls – nor can the truth, nor can the discernment of the will of God. The ways of the world are not the ways of the Kingdom of God. The Church must resist the temptation to compromise the Truth in order to attract more members or to be more acceptable to contemporary society. As Dean Inge of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London once said: "He who marries the spirit of the age will find himself a widower in the next."

All of this is especially difficult for Americans, who want to be on the cutting edge of things and tend to see everything in democratic terms. "The majority voted for it and that settles it." And this view creeps into the religious realm as well. But the Church is not a democracy; it is a Kingdom. God is not elected, and He is not swayed by opinion polls. The Ten Commandments are not up for a vote or subject to revision. Divine revelation, the authority of the Scriptures, and the historic doctrines of the Church are not a matter of opinion polls or even convention votes. Sometimes the truth may be very unpopular, indeed. As Isaiah the prophet reminds us: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8)"

The entire address may be found here.