Talk about historical precedents. Looks like compromising one's commitment to the Gospel in The Episcopal Church is nothing new:
In 1763, the peaceful settlement of Conestoga Indians near present-day Millersville, Pennsylvania (Lancaster County) was attacked by a group of Pennsylvania frontiersmen known as the Paxton Boys. Angry over the lack of help from the colonial government in the defense of their homes and farms for Indian raids, the Paxton Boys massacred a number of Indians at the village before riding on to Lancaster and killing the rest of the tribe, which had been placed in the Lancaster Jail (today the Fulton Opera House) for their own protection. Pennsylvania’s governor John Penn condemned the attack and local Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin published a pamphlet defending the Native Americans and attacking the Paxton Boys for their murderous spree. In response, Barton published his own pamphlet – supporting the actions of the Paxton Boys and attacking the Native Americans. Many historians have debated why Barton defended such a murderous bunch as the Paxton Boys and betrayed those very Native Americans he was offered spiritual guidance to.
(Past History Examiner writings: "The Paxton Boy Massacure [sic] and Working Towards Forgiveness")
Myers writes in his new book that Barton, despite his success as a minister, was a extremely insecure man, unwilling to take a stand against some of the same people he had minister too [sic] in his early days (a.k.a. the Paxton Boys) in the western territories. Driven, so claims Myers, by a “profound need to be liked” Barton gave into peer pressure and threw his Native American congregation “under the bus” so-to-speak in order to maintain his image as popular frontier minister. Myers also makes the accusation that Barton’s writing of the pro-Paxton Boy pamphlet was motivated by financial incentives as well. After the massacre of the Conestoga Indians, 400 acres that had once been their village became part of Barton’s personal farm.
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