Shrink the Church to Protect the Earth

Today's New York Times Magazine has an interview with Katharine Jefferts Schori, the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.  There is much worth commenting on in the interview, but I was particularly struck by this exchange:

How many members of the Episcopal Church are there in this country?

About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise, but Episcopalians tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children.

Episcopalians aren’t interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?

No. It’s probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.

I guess this can be read charitably as a creative way to spin the Episcopal Church's dwindling ranks:  "Our denomination is shrinking because we're better educated than those baby-crazy Catholics and Mormons!  In fact, God wants us to shrink -- it's called stewardship!"

Rob