The Archbishop of Canterbury denounced at General Synod – the governing body of the Church of England – that the Church is institutionally racist. As a result, the state Church set aside £100m for reparations, and recent conversations suggest it may be bumped up to £1bn, which may still not be enough to feed the crocodile.

Not satisfied with being institutionally racist, the Reverend Canon Crispin Pailing has recently launched an attack on his own Church, calling it institutionally homophobic and misogynistic. Surely, someone somewhere is plotting an announcement that the Church of England is, in fact, institutionally transphobic, too, despite recently promoting their first trans-Archdeacon, Mr Mann (I kid you not).

Of course, it is all a load of nonsense. The Church of England as an institution is in free fall; it has been in a rapid, accelerated demise since the early twentieth century, and people who still remain within seemingly have no intention of turning things around. Instead, the hierarchy presides over the managed decline of what they hope to leave behind as a perfectly embalmed liberal corpse.

Rather than focusing on the teachings of the Gospel – spreading the Good News, the Church of England has a new agenda: virtue signalling. After all, it is far easier to appear to be good than to actually do good work. Being good is challenging, and in the twenty-first century Church challenge is seen as a bad thing.

This is not a problem restricted to the Church, we can all take a lesson from this.

Why work on prayer, fasting and almsgiving when we can simply change your profile to a black square in support of Black Lives Matter and instantly be seen as a good person by our friends and followers?

Well, from a Christian perspective, it is not the judgement of everyone else we should be worried about but that of God. If we believe in a judgement day – when our whole lives will be assessed, our thoughts and works measured up, and our eternal fate decided, we should have more fear of God than we do of the world. This is a message the Church should be teaching, but it is one the Church of England seems to have forgotten.

The Rev’d Pailing is no exception. This is a man who strongly advocates against Church teaching in favour of same-sex marriage. This is an opinion anyone can hold in a liberal democracy – anyone except a clergyman, that is. The Church has always taught that marriage is a lifelong union under God between one man and one woman.

Secular society can suggest that it is okay for two men, two women, or multiple men and women to enter into a union, but to call it marriage is disingenuous. Words have meanings, or at least they used to. But for a priest to advocate for the Church to change its teaching on a matter that is clear in the Bible and has been settled for thousands of years is strange. For him to leave the Church over it could suggest something more sinister is at play.

Pailing is quoted as saying, “I cannot, in good conscience, continue to have a representative role in an organization which perpetuates bias and discrimination against sections of society on the grounds of sexuality, race, and gender.” But surely, he knew this when he entered the Church? Christian teaching is explicit in its discrimination, not to be mean or old-fashioned, but because it is God’s intention for us to live good and holy lives according to his order, not our own desires. The Bible teaches that homosexual acts are sinful; that race is unimportant because there is neither Jew nor Greek; that there are two genders, male and female, just as God made us.

All of this stinks of entitlement. The liberal attitude of “I want my way or I will quit”. Pailing knew the Church’s teaching when he entered ministry decades ago. Perhaps he wanted to subvert it and assumed he could have some impact on changing Canon Law, particularly in relation to the Church’s recent conversations on ‘Living in Love and Faith’, a conversation on whether the Church should get with the times. General Synod failed to pass a motion allowing same-sex marriages, although blessings have been approved.

To suggest the Church of England is misogynist and homophobic is ludicrous. If anything, the Church of England is gayer and more effeminate than ever. Recent data shows that although vocations are down dramatically, 60% of applications to the priesthood are from women. Women and homosexuals are being promoted to senior roles, left, right and centre. Perhaps what Pailing meant is that he cannot yet openly marry homosexual couples in a way that he would like, so he is throwing his toys out of the pram. He need not have had a tantrum; one would imagine, given the current trajectory, that the Church of England will be following his lead in no time at all.

It is a shame that the Church of England seems to have forgotten it is the Church’s role to change society, not for society to change the Church. As the old adage goes, “The church that is married to the spirit of this age becomes a widow in the next.”