Internet research lands me on many posts where the authors are atheists finding every opportunity to mock and attack the Christian faith.
Looking over the leadership of the Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and Lutherans, I am tempted to call them atheists too - but that would be too kind.
They are really apostates, who once believed in the basics of the Christian religion but now hate those articles of faith. Apostasy means "falling away" so the only people who qualify are those who once believed.
This falling away is a sign of the End Times. 2 Thessalonians 2.
KJV 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there
come a falling away [apostasy] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
The groundwork was laid with textual criticism from several frauds - Wescott, Hort, Tischendorf. From that came free-form paraphrases of the Bible in the name of dynamic equivalence. Various agendas, such as evolution, feminism, and pan-sexualism were attached. All this was excused under the guise of everyone being forgiven whether they believed anything or not, a religion for apostates but not much of an attraction for atheists.
This sound theory is easily tested in the religious marketplace. Try quoting Luther to a Lutheran leader today. He will begin with this kind of rant, "We believe in Jesus not Luther." More quotations will arouse even more wrath. What does he love? - marketing the Gospel. What does he read? - Napoleon Hill, Craig Groeschel, all the latest but nothing so Medieval as the Book of Concord.
Or - call upon an Episcopalian presiding bishop to recognize the most basic concepts of church, worship, and the faith - according to Episcopalian tradition and teaching, which is rather broad and tolerant. That presiding bishop, known as the goddess Kali the Destroyer, will file suit using your offering money and send you into Episcopal hell, with the help of her lavender friends.
Oh. Oh. There is a new pope. A Jesuit. Protestants are falling on their knees to pray for the latest Antichrist. That looks good on a blog, if someone has undergone brain or spine removal. The modern papacy is based upon the quasi-universalism of the Protestant Left (known to the Synodical Conference as UOJ).
Let me put my years of graduate school in modern theology at your disposal. Ever since Schleiermacher (Halle University) and his Pietist pals revised Christianity to define it as faith without belief, theologians have used stained glass words as a disguise to cover up their philosophical agenda. Like Schleiermacher, they believe almost nothing, but that does not sell books to the gullible public or generate endowed chairs.
Some call it modern theology. Catholics call it New Theology ( Rahner, etc). SynCon Lutherans calls it UOJ. In spite of minor differences, it is all the same bucket of Dreck. They all work together because they are united by the same disbelief. Pope Francis is a Jesuit, an order known for its disbelief and man-love. His PR machine is working full-time, and the media is busy leveraging his lies.
Therefore, when dealing with any denominational leader, begin with this concept. He hates the very thing you wish to revive or preserve. He will tell any lie to stay in office, because he is highly paid and lightly worked. He is not only deceptive, but mean and vindictive. There is no crime--whether child rape or spousal murder--that he will not cover up if it serves Holy Mother Church. If the cardinals are not example enough, look at your own Synod President.
