To believe, or not believe, that is the question

Mark Shea, writing in the National Catholic Register, is explaining that the Catholic Church does not have a position on everything:

And this is the case with the bulk of the Church’s Tradition. There are a few (a very few) restrictions concerning what Catholics may and may not believe and do, but one can be a perfectly faithful Catholic and believe, disbelieve or care nothing about evolution, farm subsidies, tax reform, just war theory, pacifism and smoking. One can hold all sorts of opinions about the duration of purgatory, the music of Spike Jones, the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, the question of whether there is time in Heaven, whether Our Lady died and whether we should have fought the Vietnam War. The Church has no “official position” on these and a billion other questions. She prefers freedom whenever possible. This is why, in 2000 years, the number of dogmatic definitions the Church has formulated is so very, very small.

And then there are Anglicans. One Anglican, alone, “can hold all sorts of opinions” at the same time.  As for Episcopalians, who are Anglicans, we had the late Robin Williams, himself an Episcopalian, to explain, as he did in an HBO special, Top 10 Reasons to be an Episcopalian:

10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.

7. You don’t have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. Church year is color-coded.

4. Free wine on Sunday.

3. All of the pageantry — none of the guilt.

2. You don’t have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the Number One reason to be an Episcopalian:

1. No matter what you believe, there’s bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.

Robin Williams, pictured above, also played the role of an Episcopal priest in the movie, License to Wed.