From the American Anglican Council:
By The Rev. Phil Ashey, J.D.
How much deception is "enough?"
Jesus said, "Again, you have heard it said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, do not swear at all... Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No,' 'No;' anything beyond this comes from the evil one." (Matthew 5:33-37 NIV)
In his commentary on this passage, John Stott rightly observed: "...the real implication of the law is that we must keep our promises and be people of our word. Then vows become unnecessary." In other words, Christians should say what they mean and mean what they say. Our unadorned word should be enough, 'yes' or 'no.' Jesus himself says that anything more than this comes from the evil in our hearts and its fundamental deceit, or from the evil one whom Jesus described as 'a liar and the father of lies' (John 8:44). (1)
The unanimous opinion of most church leaders in the Anglican Communion, from the Archbishop of Canterbury to New Testament scholar and Bishop of Durham N.T. Wright to The Anglican Communion Institute to TEC Bishops Lawrence, Love, Beckwith and other signatories of the Anaheim Statement is that TEC has not kept its promises to observe the Anglican Communion moratoria on gay bishops and same sex blessings. Resolutions D025 (permitting more gay bishops) and C056 (developing rites for same sex blessings) have been analyzed, fisked, and reviewed ad nauseam. Even progressive leaders of TEC recognize that the Anglican Communion moratoria have been overturned as they celebrate the nomination of three openly gay and lesbian candidates for bishop in the dioceses of Los Angeles and Minnesota. Apparently they didn't read the memos to Lambeth Palace from TEC's Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies asserting that "No" to Communion teaching and moratoria really meant "Yes" to the Anglican Communion.
To the leadership of TEC, "No" means "Yes" and "Yes" means "No". This is incomprehensible, incoherent, unbiblical and, let it be clear, unchristian. As the authors of the Anglican Communion Institute's paper "The Anglican Covenant: shared discernment recognized by all" observed yesterday:
"An Anglican church cannot simultaneously commit itself through the Anglican Covenant to shared discernment and reject that discernment; to interdependence and then act independently; to accountability and remain determined to be unaccountable."
So what does the leadership of TEC do in the face of such skepticism about its broken promises, deception and attempts to spin the facts? It appeals to a "vow" that it has made to help fund "The Continuing Indaba and Mutual Listening Project." EpiscopalLife Online describes this listening process as a "gift to the church" (meaning the Anglican Communion) because it will allow clergy and laity in "five pilot conversations" around the Communion to share their experience of homosexual Christians and to study, discuss and reflect on those experiences alongside Biblical and Communion teaching.
Have we not been down this road before? Was this not exactly the same process (endless dialogue and sharing of experiences) used to lead TEC to compromise and ultimately abandon Biblical and Communion teaching on human sexuality and holy orders as defined and reaffirmed in Lambeth 1.10 (1998)?
Moreover, would the representatives of the Anglican Communion gathered at ACC-14 have received this "gift" if they had known its source? Because, you see, they did not know. I was there. They were told the gift was coming through the Satcher Institute. But that is NOT the whole truth-as we discovered through our investigation and report on "Money, Sex, Indaba: Corrupting the Listening Process" at this link.
Rather than offering half-truths and Trojan horses, let's look at the facts:
1. FACT: The $1.5 million dollar gift is the single largest gift ever given to the Anglican Communion.
2. FACT: The Continuing Indaba Project's sole funder is openly in favor of same sex blessings, the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals, sexual activity outside marriage, and abortion.
3. FACT: The $1.5 million is routed through the Satcher Institute before it goes to the Anglican Communion; it does not go directly to the Anglican Communion.
4. FACT: The Continuing Indaba Project will be monitored in part by the Satcher Institute's Center for Excellence in Sexual Health. The leadership of the CESH advocates a view of human sexuality that is grossly incompatible with Scripture and the stated position of Anglican bishops and Communion teaching on human sexuality worldwide.
5. FACT: There is evidence that the Satcher Institute was actively looking for a project in which to use their "consensus process," thus casting further doubt on the impartiality of the Satcher Institute's involvement.
Does this process, from its inception to its likely outcome, even remotely bear the marks of the simple transparency Jesus called for when he said "Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No'"?
Seventy years ago this week, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin found it necessary to declare war on Nazi Germany when it invaded Poland, just weeks after Chamberlin came home from his Munich meeting with Hitler waving a purported agreement for "Peace in our time." He declared war reluctantly. He did so believing a peace agreement still could be achieved. He did so believing that Hitler would not repeat the strategy of "Yes and No" deception and "facts on the ground" with which he had already occupied the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlin's delay in the face of such malignant deception and force almost cost Britain the war.
Even if the Archbishop of Canterbury is privately unconvinced that TEC's actions violate the Bible and Anglican Communion teaching on human sexuality and holy orders, is he willing to swallow the deception and the false gospel that drives it?
How much deception is "enough?"
-----------------
(1) Stott, John R.W., The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1978), pp. 101-102
___________________
No comments:
Post a Comment