What it really comes down to is this -- is Scripture the Word of God, intended for all times and places? Or has God changed his mind about the things written in the Bible?

The dispute has played out across the country as those who hold to traditional Christian theological views struggle with those who want to supplant the historical Christian faith with modern social science and liberal political agendas.

This week, it has played out in Pittsburgh.

By more than a two-to-one vote, members of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted Friday in favor of separating from the national church because of a theological rift that began with the consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003.

The vote sets the stage for what could become a protracted legal battle between the diocese and the Episcopal Church U.S.A., which had warned Pittsburgh’s bishop not to go forward with the vote.

After passionate appeals from both sides of the debate, clergy members and lay people voted 227 to 82 to “realign” the conservative diocese.

If Friday’s vote is approved again in a year, the diocese will begin steps to remove itself from the American church and join with another province in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

After the vote, Bishop Robert W. Duncan of Pittsburgh, who is also moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, an alliance of conservative dioceses and parishes, defended the decision.

“What we’re trying to do is state clearly in the United States for the authority of Scripture,” Bishop Duncan said after the vote, taken during the diocese’s annual convention in this city about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The vote was necessary, he said, because the more liberal bishops now in the majority in the national church “have hijacked my church, and that’s how most of the people here feel.”

Interestingly enough, the leadership of the national Episcopal Church, which rejects the authority of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, insists upon its own authority being respected by the Diocese of Pittsburgh and other dissidents. So much so that they have indicated a plan to take the dispute into the civil courts.

I guess that stuff in the New Testament about not suing fellow Christians over religious issues in government courts is so first-century. As with what was written about homosexuality, it doesn't apply today -- what God meant was "hire a good corporate lawyer and sue your enemies". After all, God is so much smarter today than he was back then, so anything written in the Bible has to be taken with a grain of salt. He'd agree with the liberals on this one -- just ask them.