The high cost of unbiblical diversity

The high cost of ‘true’ diversity

from Episcopal Life Online by By Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

[Episcopal News Service] With the Summer Olympics underway, we’ll be hearing and reading a steady stream of stories extolling diversity. Beginning with the opening ceremony, in which athletes from each country parade around a track before taking their positions alongside fellow competitors, the games provide a visual metaphor for the way many Americans think of diversity. We dress up in costumes, act impressed by our differences and surprised by our similarities: we stand next to each other for a while — always smiling and waving — and then we go home.

Those of us in the Episcopal Church, however, know that the reality is never so tidy. Diversity is difficult. It calls for acknowledging — and learning to live with — our differences. This can be messy and uncomfortable; disagreements and divisions occur regularly and we are perpetually at risk of falling apart altogether.

This issue of diversity is one of the reasons that, as Ross Douthat of The New York Times recently pointed out, typically homogeneous evangelical megachurches often thrive while mainline denominations, many of which, like the Episcopal Church, have taken up the charge of diversity and inclusiveness, have seen their attendance numbers steadily decline. While no one disputes the numbers, not a lot of people seem to question whether attendance should be used as a measurement of a church’s vitality, as Douthat suggests.

It should not. The Christian message is inherently countercultural. While the Gospel provides respite for people who struggle and suffer, it also challenges the status quo. The Episcopal Church, in particular, has become famous (and in some places infamous) for ruffling feathers as it strives to wider open its doors — from its active role in the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s, to its decision to ordain women in the 1970s and more recently its acceptance of LGBT persons, the church’s efforts to embody Jesus’ model of radical inclusion have each been met with resistance and strain. Over time, as these efforts have led to desertions and divisions, they have also resulted in the increasing diversity of the Episcopal Church, making it a place where those who have been denied access elsewhere are welcomed.

The process of opening hearts and minds is difficult, but challenging the status quo has always been a fundamental facet of true Christianity. And, at times throughout church history, persecution and death, not sparsely populated pews, has been the consequence.

I don’t worry about declining church attendance; in fact, in the parishes I’ve been a part of, I haven’t seen it. But where it is happening, let’s not assume it’s the result of failure, let alone of an attempt by the church to merely “adapt itself to contemporary liberal values,” as Douthat suggests. Rather, attribute the Episcopal Church’s declining attendance to the fact that true diversity, the kind that welcomes differences and looks for sparks of the divine in others, can feel uncomfortable at best and undesirable at worst.

While for three weeks every couple of years the Olympic Games model a kind of glossy-sheen diversity, wars still rage over what seem to be irreconcilable differences that threaten to permanently rend humanity. And yet, in the midst of this strife, many find the Episcopal Church to be that rare place wherein a common faith compels us to learn to live with our differences, to become, if not at ease then at least at peace with the grey, and to model a kind of counter-cultural diversity that we believe will find its completion in Kingdom Come.
– Jonathan D. Fitzgerald is a college educator and editor at Patrolmag.com. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Religion Dispatches,The Huffington Post, Killing the Buddha, and Sojourners. He is a member of St. James’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Washington National Cathedral Announces New Dean—Canon Gary Hall

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

The Cathedral Chapter is pleased to announce the nomination of the Rev. Canon Gary R. Hall as the tenth dean of Washington National Cathedral. Hall has been an ordained minister for more than 35 years and currently is serving as rector of Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. A search committee recommended him from among a diverse pool of candidates from across the country in a process that spanned more than seven months....

Read it all.

ECUSA Walks Apart, Where the Faithful Cannot Follow

from Anglican Curmudgeon by A. S. Haley

In 2003, the Episcopal Church (USA) said to the majority of the Anglican Communion: "Goodbye -- it's been nice knowing you." The bishop whom ECUSA chose to confirm and consecrate, over the uniform objection of all the Anglican primates at the time, could not be admitted to the 2008 Lambeth Conference, or be licensed to preside at the eucharist in ECUSA's parent church, the Church of England. Likewise, he still cannot be welcomed as a bishop in twenty-two of the thirty-four provinces in the Anglican Communion (not counting the extra-provincial and united churches).

In 2006, the Episcopal Church (USA) said to the rest of the Anglican Communion: "We will urge our bishops and standing committees to 'exercise restraint' in confirming bishops who might upset you, but we cannot do any more than that. Nor can we be sorry if you were offended by our actions -- that is your problem." Some of the dioceses in ECUSA still were very piqued, and announced they would not elect or confirm any more bishops, straight or gay, until the voluntary "moratorium" requested of them by the Lambeth Commission was declared to be at an end.

By 2009, the Episcopal Church (USA) had abandoned any vestiges of its so-called "moratorium." Two more clergy in same-sex partnerships were elected as bishops, and despite a personal plea from the Archbishop of Canterbury, General Convention approved them for consecration. They, too, may not officiate in the Church of England, or in any of twenty-one other provinces of the Anglican Communion.

At the same time, ECUSA in 2009 decided (without advertising the fact in the least) to change the rules, and to make, starting in 2011, its diocesan bishops subject to the pastoral supervision and authority of the Presiding Bishop.  When they learned what the new disciplinary canons purported to do, a number of dioceses, starting with the Diocese of South Carolina, refused to recognize General Convention's authority to change the rules without going through a formal amendment to the Church's Constitution.

In 2012, the Episcopal Church said to the Diocese of South Carolina: "Goodbye -- it's been nice knowing you." They adopted more changes to the rules, which they already knew that the Diocese of South Carolina could not, and would not, accept. Most of that Diocese's deputation to General Convention walked out of the gathering in Indianapolis, and its bishop, the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence, informed the House of Bishops that he could not, in good conscience, remain in their company any longer.

The problem with ECUSA's actions over the past nine years is that it refuses to regard what it has done as in any way disruptive to the one, true, holy, catholic and apostolic church of Christ. It has asserted its power to annul and set aside the holy orders of bishops, priests and deacons who were each ordained, not into ECUSA particularly, but into that one catholic and apostolic church. And as if in retaliation for the fact that its gay and lesbian partnered bishops cannot be recognized by most of the other churches in the Communion, or invited to the Lambeth Conference, ECUSA has refused to allow clergy from other provinces to serve in its dioceses without their first renouncing their allegiance to the churches which licensed them, and then swearing a new oath of obedience solely to the "doctrine, discipline and worship" of the Episcopal Church (USA).

In sum, ECUSA has acted as though it was not in any shared relationships with the other provinces of the Anglican Communion. And recently, as pointed out above, it has begun to act as though it is no longer in any kind of shared relationship with its own member dioceses (except for those who agree with what it is doing internationally and domestically).

But to listen to those in ECUSA, it is the ones who reject its actions as unscriptural who have "departed from tradition," and certainly not ECUSA itself. Here is a dissident within Bishop Lawrence's Diocese of South Carolina who publicly puts the blame on him for the separation that has happened (my emphasis):

There are some who feel that the Episcopal Church has “left” the traditional church doctrines and polity. I am of the opinion that the leadership of this diocese over the past few decades has moved away from mainstream, traditional Episcopal doctrine and discipline. 

For an Episcopalian to maintain such utter nonsense is to show plainly how far removed from reality are those who are in charge of the Church, as well as all those who support the leadership's non-scriptural agenda. Oh, to be sure, they go through the motions of claiming that they are the only ones who are properly interpreting scripture, according to today's understanding of God's holy words, and they deck out their contentions with pseudo-scholarship and citations to pseudo-authority. But in the final analysis, all of what they are pleased to call "theology" comes down to this: "We know better than the rest of the church catholic. We understand the Holy Scriptures far better than those antiquated and hidebound church fathers ever did, or could have -- and the Holy Spirit is guiding us, not you."

Whatever could motivate a churchgoing and God-fearing Christian to jettison two thousand five hundred years of theology and orthodoxy in such an obstinate way baffles me. Their attitude leaves the rest of us with no choice: if we play along with them, we compromise our faith irretrievably; therefore, we must refuse to recognize what they do. They are fully engaged in writing their own judgment-book, and the rest of us can have nothing to do with it.

This is the dilemma currently facing Bishop Lawrence, and no doubt a good many (but alas, not all) of the clergy who serve under him, as well. As the chosen leader of his flock, Bishop Lawrence has the heaviest responsibility -- but the responsibilities of priests for their parishes are, though not as all-encompassing as the bishop's, nevertheless still every bit as solemn, and severe. As a lay person, I do not envy them the burdens imposed upon them by ECUSA's perverse and poisonous obtuseness.

Man is a fallen creature, and ECUSA -- just like any other branch of the church catholic -- is a fallen church. One cannot find perfection on this earth, no matter which church one joins, but perfection, as such, is not the standard. Rather, faithfulness to Scripture and tradition is. And by that measure, ECUSA falls far short of the mark. It is led by the false teachers of whom first Jesus Christ, and later his apostles, warned their first disciples, who then handed down those warnings to us.

Where can Bishop Lawrence go from here? Where can the Diocese of South Carolina go from here?
ECUSA has purposefully and heedlessly left them both with very limited choices. ECUSA simply does not care what it is doing to them. (It has far more important things to concern itself about -- things such as these.)

First, Bishop Lawrence could simply resign (but not without first obtaining, paradoxically, the consent of the apostate bishops who are driving him out of their fellowship). I do not believe he will do this.

Why not? Because it would leave his Diocese -- his flock, whom he has sworn to guide and protect -- at the mercy of ECUSA, who will seize any such opportunity to install someone much more to their liking. (Perhaps, just to rub it in, they would push forward one or more of their transgendered clergy from other dioceses, who so rejoiced at the remarkable contradiction which they maneuvered General Convention into making: "Every creature of God is good; hence partnered gays and lesbians make good bishops; but when it comes to transgendered persons, God somehow erred, and they know better than He does what they should have been.")

Well, what will Bishop Lawrence do, then? Although the responsibility for the spiritual welfare of his diocese lies heavily on his shoulders, the one thing Bishop Lawrence cannot do is to reach a decision on his own about the next steps for it to take.

He has to involve his clergy and his faithful parishioners in that process. (Those who are his adversaries, like Melinda Lucka quoted above, will refuse to view things from his perspective. Instead, they will continue, ad nauseam, to play the victim to the willing ears of the national Church.) Any decision for the Diocese as a whole can be taken only by the whole Diocese, and that will require time for reflection, deliberation, and careful listening.

The decision has to be the Diocese's as a body, but Bishop Lawrence has the responsibility to guide it into theright decision. They elected him as their bishop, and he must consequently advise and lead them. No doubt that is why he has first taken some time off to ponder the options in prayer and solitude.  He must be firm and steadfast in his own resolve before he can inspire others.

There are of course many faithful leaders in his Diocese who will make themselves available when he is ready to hear and meet with them. And my hope is that some of his fellow bishops who voted against the unscriptural measures approved by General Convention will extend their hands to him, as well. Indeed, it would be far better if some other dioceses expressed their solidarity with South Carolina, and if they together faced down ECUSA's apostasy as a determined group, rather than just one of them by itself.

The days ahead will be momentous for the Diocese of South Carolina -- and for any other dioceses that undertake to find their way along the same path. All of us who can perceive the dilemma into which the activism of General Convention has put them must be ready and willing to help in any way we can, as well.

For my part, I pledge to use my legal abilities, and understanding of Church law and history, to assist anyone caught in this dilemma to gain a better understanding of its parameters, and of the options available for consideration. In the weeks and months to come, I will devote more and more of this blog to that endeavor (while not omitting, of course, to blog about and comment on the equally momentous choice facing the entire Nation this November).

There is much work to do. Let not your hearts be troubled -- for we know, if we work together in the abiding faith of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, that God's will shall be done.

ADVENTURES IN MISSING THE POINT

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Washington DC’s new Episcopal Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar NotChane, is a realist.  She knows as well as anyone that the Episcopal Organization is circling the drain:


And yet [Ross] Douthat’s question haunts me: can our church be saved? No matter how wonderful the Episcopal Church at its best can be and how many individual congregations are doing well, the harsh truth remains: we are a church whose vital signs hover somewhere, in Douthat’s words, between decline and collapse. The decline began in the 1960s and has accelerated precipitously in the last decade. Since 2003, we’ve lost 23 percent of our church attendance.

Not because of any of our innovations, mind you.


Why? Because we allow women to hold positions of authority, celebrate the full inclusion of gays and lesbians, have an expansive understanding of God, and value insights of other faiths? I don’t think so.

After all, we did the theology and stuff.


I’ve lived with the reality of decline all 25 years of my ordained life. I’ve heard all the reasons why those who disagree with recent positions we’ve taken cite for our demise, and I simply don’t see it. And even if it were true, it wasn’t as if we decided to make these changes on our own. Hard as it is for some to believe, we felt led by God to change, much the same way that others before us felt led by God to change their views on slavery or the subjugation of women, and more recently, on the prohibition of divorce, all of which have biblical justification.

What should the Episcopal Organization do to get people like me to start calling it a church again?  Basically, Bishop NotChane recommends that TEO keep doing what it’s been doing since the 1970′s but work in the terms “Jesus” and “Holy Spirit” more often.


In the Diocese of Washington we’re devoting time and resources to developing our spiritual lives. We’re encouraging people to participate in small group study, contemplative prayer, and spiritual retreats, and so far, they are responding. We talk freely now about how the power of God changes our lives, about the healing presence of Jesus and the movement of the Holy Spirit. We’re strengthening existing congregations and planning for new ones in immigrant communities and among university students and young adults. We’re engaged in the public arena not simply because we want to relevant, but because at our baptisms we promised, “to strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being.”

And for the love of Vague, Ambiguous, Infinitely-Malleable, Inclusive, Affirming, Open-Minded And Tolerant Deity Concept, liven things up a little.


Contrary to the conservative critique, it isn’t what we’ve changed that is weakening our congregations, but rather what we’ve been unwilling to change. For all our liberal theology and progressive politics, we’ve remained rather stodgy in worship, wedded to unwieldy structures, and resistant to growth. When I ask young people what keeps them from attending church, the answer, predictably, is that it’s boring. And they’re right! But we’re committed to changing that, both in the Diocese of Washington and across the country, so that all our congregations will be vital centers of Christian worship, learning, community, and service.

We’re done here.  Bishop NotChane may think that she’s come up with a new and innovative insight.  But anybody’s who’s been an Episcopalian for any length of time knows that there is no older or more futile idea in the Episcopal Organization.

For crying out loud, we had that conversation when I was in my teens and twenties.  How do we make church interesting and relevant for the Young People^TM who are the future and crap?

I think I mentioned a while back that my own parish, Emmanuel, Webster Groves, once went the guitar mass route.  My mom and I even sang in one of those choirs, knocking out Godspell songs and similar dreck(we never sang it but one book we used even had John Lennon’s “Imagine” in it; insert John Shelby Spong joke here).
That choir didn’t bump up our numbers and nobody was all that impressed anyway so we eventually dropped it and went back to being high-church Anglican.  Membership went up a good bit after that.  Know why I think that was, Bishop NotChane?

If you can think of a single instance when an attempt to make worship more interesting for the Young People^TMresulted in growth for any Christian church, I’d really like to know what it is.  Adopt that mindset and you willeventually run into one big-ass brick wall.

Young People^TM eventually become Old People.^TM

I listened to a lot of rock and roll when I was a kid and scorned people like Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Louis Armstrong(I was, of course, a blithering idiot; a lot of the garbage I grew up loving bores the hell out of me today but if I had nothing but Louis Armstrong in my music collection, I’d be a happy man).

Age taught me that.  Age also made me realize that if my Episcopal parish had ever decided that “worshipping” to the music of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, REO Speedwagon or Pat Travers was a good idea, I might have enjoyed it for a while but I would have bailed out of the Episcopal Organization long before I eventually did.
I care about eternal things, Bishop NotChane.  Ephemeral things don’t interest me.

PHILADELPHIA: Association of Anglican Musicians Gathering Features Drag Queen

from VirtueOnline

PHILADELPHIA: Association of Anglican Musicians Gathering Features Drag Queen, Mocks Gospel Hymns

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
July 30, 2012

A gathering of nationally recognized Episcopal organists met for a series of concerts in Philadelphia area churches recently under the title Blessed Liberty: Honoring Our Past and Imagining Our Future. The occasion featured "Ramona" a drag queen, a gift of $10,000 from PA Bishop Charles E. Bennison to underwrite the "Clergy Day expenses, and a disastrous Panel Discussion. The events caused some 70 clergy and musicians to walk out in disgust.

The Association's Journal in review of the daily events described "Ramona" as the "First Lady of the Hammond". (See foto) Reports from the floor of the Exhibit hall described "Ramona" as "she" held forth on a Hammond Organ leading those gathered in a mockery of gospel hymns including "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," "[There is] Power in the Blood," and "Wonderful Grace of Jesus".

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

(Sightings) Martin Marty on the Episcopal Church, Ross Douthat, and the responses thereto

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

Read it all.

Good riddance

THE RIGHT WAY

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Apparently it’s not just the Episcopalians who have only one sin left:


A national environmental advocacy group has sent a letter to the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina complaining about the diocese’s opposition to gay marriage and stating its intention to stop patronizing Camp St. Christopher, a Seabrook Island retreat center affiliated with the diocese.


The July 3 letter from the Sierra Club was sent to Bishop Mark Lawrence “on behalf of the 1.4 million members, supporters and staff of the Sierra Club.” The letter notes that the conference center has been used twice recently by the national organization and is occasionally patronized by the state chapter.


“Unfortunately we have learned that the owner of St. Christopher’s … has adopted positions regarding sexual orientation which do not reflect the values of our organization,” the letter states. “Given that the diocese holds views we find objectionable, … we must inform you that the Sierra Club will no longer patronize St. Christopher’s.”

Because you might as well not save the environment at all unless teh gheys are happy.

PAWLEYS ISLAND: All Saints Church Joins ACNA

from VirtueOnline

PAWLEYS ISLAND: All Saints Church Defects to ACNA
Flagship AMIA Parish asks Rwandan Archbishop for three month extension to make affiliation final

July 27, 2012

Dear Parish Family,

In December of last year, the churches of the Anglican Mission in America, of which All Saints is a part, stepped into a season of reorganization as the majority of our Bishops decided to come out from under the oversight of Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje, thus stepping away from the Anglican Church of Rwanda, which had been our church home within the Anglican Communion since we left the Episcopal Church. The Anglican Mission had decided to explore the concept of a "Missionary Society" as a vehicle for continuing its important work of planting churches and furthering the Kingdom of Christ in North America.


Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

Catholic marriage chief Cordileone sent to San Francisco

from GetReligion by Mollie

On Friday, the Vatican announced that Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone would become the archbishop of San Francisco, succeeding Archbishop George Niederauer who hit retirement age last year.

Cordileone is notable for his work with immigrants, his canon law expertise, his work on the traditional Latin Mass and his leadership in the bishops’ national effort to defend the traditional definition of marriage. So in an era where roughly 65% of all news must be pegged to something dealing with homosexuality, you will not be surprised by the headlines:

Gay marriage ban supporter named SF archbishop
New SF Archbishop is Staunch Same-Sex Marriage Opponent
Oakland bishop, noted Prop. 8 supporter, named archbishop of San Francisco
Vatican’s controversial choice for new SF Archbishiop introduced
Same-sex marriage opponent named SF archbishop

The reader who sent in these headlines wrote, “You get the point.” And yes, we get the point. (Have you ever noticed that people on one side of an issue get called staunch but if they take a mirror opposite position, they’re not called staunch?) It’s really all that matters these days, right? Of course, Cordileone’s support of traditional marriage laws is exactly what you’d focus on in a headline, too, right? What I hoped for, however, was a bit more information in the body of the stories on Cordileone and his work. Whispers in Loggia, for instance, emphasized the same-sex marriage issues while also giving tons of other information about Cordileone and the San Francisco archdiocese.

The Associated Press story tells us nothing about Cordileone other than his views on same-sex marriage. And the tone of the piece is what I’d call “seething.” We’re told he “was instrumental in devising an initiative to strip same-sex couples of the right to wed in California and then raising Catholic dollars to qualify it for the ballot.” The only outsider quoted in the piece is the president of the Human Rights Campaign.

Or how about this odd lede from the Mercury News:

SAN FRANCISCO — Oakland Bishop Rev. Salvatore Cordileone — an active opponent of gay marriage — will become the archbishop of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties, it was announced Friday, prompting disappointment by same-sex marriage activists and delight from their opponents.

Isn’t polarization fun? At least the News expands beyond same-sex marriage. Can someone explain to me why the word “but” is here in the middle of this paragraph?:

Cordileone is known as a theologically conservative bishop faithful to the Catholic orthodoxy. He supports abolishing the death penalty but called on Catholics to vote for an initiative on the November ballot that requires parental consent for minors seeking an abortion.

That makes no sense to me. It reads like “He supports a Catholic position on one issue but then he supported Catholic teaching on another issue.” We also get a wider range of critics weighing in on this story. It’s not just people who support redefining marriage but also Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Readers noted that the San Francisco Chronicle’s initial story (at the same url) was barebones, to understate wildly. But it got fleshed out late that night.

And I think this lede says it all:

The Vatican on Friday named a prominent religious official who has been a leader in the fight against same-sex marriage as San Francisco’s new archbishop, the latest in a string of conservatives to lead Catholics in one of the country’s most liberal areas.

Salvatore Cordileone, 56, organized religious leaders and helped raise significant sums of money to get Proposition 8, the 2008 initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California, on the ballot and spoke forcefully in support of it. He is also chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

In his first statements after the Vatican’s announcement, Cordileone, the current bishop of Oakland, touched on a range of topics, from cultural diversity to immigration reform. But reporters barraged him with questions about same-sex marriage. His response was resolute.

“Marriage is the union of a man and a woman, because children can only come about with the embrace of a man and a woman together,” he said. “I don’t see how that’s discriminatory against anyone.”

It might still focus on same-sex marriage but it’s less angry than the other reports. And it fully admits straight up at the top that the single-minded obsession on same-sex marriage comes from reporters, not Cordileone. (And it’s so much better than this sister story in the Chronicle, which I believe is supposed to be straight news and not opinion.)

I mean, it’s still the Chronicle, which means you get a really weak quote from a supporter of traditional marriage laws followed by a thoughtful quote from an opponent of same. But then this:

Cordileone said he wouldn’t shy away from the struggle of being a conservative voice in a liberal area, but it left him perturbed that marriage would be so much of a focus of his appointment.
“To be honest, I’m kind of frustrated,” he said. “I wish I didn’t have to expend so much time and energy on something that should be self-evident.
“But this is the high-profile issue,” he said. “It’s a foundational issue. For whatever God’s reason, it’s the issue he’s given us at this point in history, so I’m not going to run from it.”

Then we learn a lot about how Cordileone’s predecessor was also pivotal in California’s support for retaining the definition of marriage as a heterosexual institution. We get the obligatory quote from the Rev. Thomas Reese talking about marriage laws. That makes sense since the Georgetown University prof was probably the closest priest available for comment. Ha.

But the story includes other tidbits, such as that Cordileone delivered a speech in both English and Spanish just hours after he was named as well as why that’s important given the demographics of the area. He’ll be the first fluent Spanish-speaking archbishop there since Joseph Sadoc Alemany was named archbishop in 1853. We learn about which dioceses he will oversee. And we get some nice background about his extensive ties to San Francisco. Also, I was glad that the story picked up on the significance of his installation date, which is how the story ends:

Cordileone will be installed Oct. 4, the feast day for St. Francis of Assisi, for whom San Francisco is named.

If you’re going to focus extensively on same-sex marriage, it’s nice to be somewhat transparent about who is driving the focus. But it’s also true that while journalists seem to believe that support for same-sex marriage is the most important doctrinal test any citizen must pass, there is actually much more to a person than his or her belief in retaining a definition of marriage as a conjugal union of husband and wife or opposition to same definition. And for Catholics in California, even if that is an important issue, there are many other issues of importance. Let’s hope that the media calm down a bit in their drive to politicize everything or make everything about same-sex marriage and open up their range of interest just a tad.

Alex Sanders and Peter Moore Debate the Inevitability of Same Sex Marriage (II)

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

Peter Moore says no--read it all also.

Alex Sanders and Peter Moore Debate the Inevitability of Same Sex Marriage (I)

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

Alex Sanders says yes--read it all.

THE BEST POLICY

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Ross Douthat would REALLY love it if the left would stop lying to his face:
The words “freedom of belief” do not appear in the First Amendment. Nor do the words “freedom of worship.” Instead, the Bill of Rights guarantees Americans something that its authors called “the free exercise” of religion.


Contra those modernists who insist that the Founders were nothing more than a bunch of Enlightenment deists who got lucky, the people who started this country understood what religion really meant.


It’s a significant choice of words, because it suggests a recognition that religious faith cannot be reduced to a purely private or individual affair. Most religious communities conceive of themselves as peoples or families, and the requirements of most faiths extend well beyond attendance at a sabbath service — encompassing charity and activism, education and missionary efforts, and other “exercises” that any guarantee of religious freedom must protect.

But thanks to the Puritanism alluded to below, that’s all become a dead letter.


You can see this confusion at work in the Obama White House’s own Department of Health and Human Services, which created a religious exemption to its mandate requiring employers to pay for contraception, sterilization and the days-after pill that covers only churches, and treats religious hospitals, schools and charities as purely secular operations. The defenders of the H.H.S. mandate note that it protects freedom of worship, which indeed it does. But a genuine free exercise of religion, not so much.


A similar spirit was at work across the Atlantic last month, when a judge in Cologne, Germany, banned circumcision as a violation of a newborn’s human rights. Here again, defenders of the decision insisted that it didn’t trample on any Jew’s or Muslim’s freedom of belief. But of course to be an adult Jew in good standing, as The Washington Post’s Charles Lane pointed out, one must circumcise one’s son at 8 days old. So while the ruling would not technically outlaw Jewish theology or Jewish worship, it would effectively outlaw Judaism itself.


Now we have the great Chick-fil-A imbroglio, in which mayors and an alderman in several American cities threatened to prevent the delicious chicken chain from opening new outlets because its Christian president told an interviewer that he supports “the biblical definition of the family unit.” 
Their conceit seemed to be that the religious liberties afforded to congregations (no official, to my knowledge, has threatened to close down any Chicago churches) do not extend to religious businessmen. Or alternatively, it was that while a businessman may have the right to his private beliefs, the local zoning committee has veto power over how those beliefs are exercised and expressed.

Here’s the deal, says Douthat.  I don’t know who first actually said this but it’s true nonetheless.  Don’t piss on me and tell me that it’s raining.


It may seem strange that anyone could look around the pornography-saturated, fertility-challenged, family-breakdown-plagued West and see a society menaced by a repressive puritanism. But it’s clear that this perspective is widely and sincerely held.


It would be refreshing, though, if it were expressed honestly, without the “of course we respect religious freedom” facade.


If you want to fine Catholic hospitals for following Catholic teaching, or prevent Jewish parents from circumcising their sons, or ban Chick-fil-A in Boston, then don’t tell religious people that you respect our freedoms. Say what you really think: that the exercise of our religion threatens all that’s good and decent, and that you’re going to use the levers of power to bend us to your will.


There, didn’t that feel better?

Thanks to the MCJ Chairman-and-CEO.

Only traditionalist ABC can save Anglican church, warn primates

from VirtueOnline

Only traditionalist Archbishop of Canterbury can save Anglican church, warn primates
THE worldwide Anglican Church risks a permanent split unless someone committed to traditional values is chosen as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the leaders of 55 million churchgoers have warned

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/
July 26, 2012

In a major intervention in the selection process, an alliance of archbishops and bishops from four continents has written directly to the selection committee urging them to choose someone prepared to halt a drift towards liberal values on issues such as homosexuality.

The next Archbishop must be willing to "uphold the orthodoxy of the Christian faith" in order to secure the "future and unity" of the church "at a foundational level", they say in a letter seen by The Daily Telegraph. Only someone with an understanding of the more traditional views of Anglicans in Africa and elsewhere and the ability to gain their "respect" would be acceptable they add.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

The History of Women clergy in the Anglican Communion

from VirtueOnline

The History of Women clergy in the Anglican Communion

THE ROYAL GAZETTE
http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20120714/ISLAND08/707149995
July 14, 2012

Here is a look at the issue of the ordination of women priests and bishops in the worldwide Anglican Communion:

1968 - The Lambeth Conference, the meeting of all Anglican church leaders once every ten years, recommended that women be involved as much as possible in worship at services pending resolution of the female ordination issue that had been debated with increasing intensity during the 1960s.

1971 - The Anglican Church in Hong Kong ordained two women priests and confirm the status of a third women priest who was originally ordained in 1944 during the Japanese occupation but stepped down from her post after the Second World War ended.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

Global South Primates: next ABC must 'address the ecclesial deficit' of Communion

from The Lead by Torey Lightcap

A letter to Lord Luce of the Crown Nominations Commission from the Global South of the Anglican Communion expresses Global South Primates' desires for traits they wish to see in the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
In a widely released communiqué issued the day after writing to Lord Luce, the Primates write:

We have written to the Crown Nominations Commission with concerns from the Global South and important principles for consideration as it nominates candidates for the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury.

In cooperation with the Telegraph, which offered coverage of the letter this week - making allusion to its contents and partially quoting from it - Episcopal Café has obtained a copy of the letter, whose text appears in full below.
Two brief notes apply: (1) material in boldface simply preserves the original of the letter; and (2) although there is a signature block for The Right Reverend Peter Bartlett, "Representing the Primate of Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America," Bishop Bartlett for whatever it is worth has not signed the copy of the letter we saw although others listed as "representing" the primate of their province did.
__________
20 July 2012

The Rt Hon the Lord Luce KG, GCVO
Chairman
Crown Nominations Commission


Appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury

The Global South of the Anglican Communion, comprising more than fifty-five million of the eighty million members of the Anglican Communion, deeply appreciate our historical relation with the See of Canterbury. We therefore commend the following to the Crown Nominations Commission for your serious consideration.
It is the reality of the Anglican Communion in the 21st Century that the majority of Anglicans are found within the Global South, especially in Africa. Resulting from the faithful witness of Western missionaries over the past two hundred years, Anglicans today stand in worship and witness amidst diverse cultures, among ancient traditions and often in inter-religious tensions.

As noted in the media release of the Church of England on the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, one of his responsibilities is to be "the Focus of Unity of the Anglican Communion... primus inter pares among the bishops." This role calls for the new Archbishop of Canterbury to always act in a conciliar and collegial manner with his fellow Primates because his decisions will affect the life and witness of Provinces worldwide.
The new Archbishop of Canterbury should have the experience and cross-cultural sensitivity to understand the concerns and conflicts in the worldwide Communion. He has to be able to communicate effectively with, and gain the respect and confidence of, his fellow Primates in the Global South. He has to be able, together with his fellow Primates, to more effectively restructure the Anglican Communion Office and the Anglican Consultative Council to better serve the Communion.

At a time when the Christian faith faces challenges from other religious as well as secular worldviews, the new Archbishop of Canterbury must be committed to uphold the orthodoxy of the Christian "faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3). To fulfil his calling and vow as Guardian of Faith, he must have the capacity to collectively put into effect the decisions taken at Lambeth Conferences and Primates Meetings, especially on issues that have led to the present crisis in the Communion.
To secure the future and unity of the Communion at a foundational level, the new Archbishop of Canterbury has to work with his fellow Primates to address the ecclesial deficit of the Anglican Communion highlighted in the report of the Windsor Continuation Group.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is also responsible to work with ecumenical partners for the unity of the "one holy catholic and apostolic Church". The new Archbishop of Canterbury must be able to build upon the work of his predecessors while avoiding any further actions that may widen the gap between us and these partners.

In conclusion, the Global South Primates expect to be consulted on this decision of great importance for the Communion, and look forward eagerly to the new Archbishop of Canterbury to uplift God's people in the Anglican fold worldwide in obedience to God's Word.

We wholeheartedly pray and hope that the unity of our beloved Anglican Communion will be restored and strengthened.

Faithfully in Christ,

Most Rev Dr Mouneer Anis
Primate, The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & Middle East
Chairman, Global South Primates Steering Committee

Most Rev Nicholas Okoh
Primate, The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Vice-Chairman, Global South Primates Steering Committee

Most Rev Ian Ernest
Primate, The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean
Honorary Secretary, Global South Primates Steering Committee

Most Rev Bolly Lapok
Primate, The Church of the Province of South East Asia
Honorary Treasurer, Global South Primates Steering Committee

Most Rev Stephen Than
Primate, The Church of the Province of Myanmar (Burma)
Member, Global South Primates Steering Committee

Most Rev Henri Isingoma
Primate, Province de l'Eglise Angicane du Congo
Member, Global South Primates Steering Committee

Most Rev Daniel Deng
Primate, The Episcopal Church of the Sudan
Member, Global South Primates Steering Committee

Most Rev Dr Eliud Wabukala
Primate, The Anglican Church of Kenya
Member, Global South Primates Steering Committee

Most Rev David Vunagi
Primate, The Church of the Province of Melanesia

Most Rev Joseph Kopapa
Primate, The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea

Most Rev Onesphore Rwaje
Primate, Province de l'Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda

Most Rev Bernard Ntahoturi
Primate, The Anglican Church of Burundi

Most Rev Valentino Mokiwa
Primate, The Anglican Church of Tanzania

Right Rev Dr Chad Gandiya
Representing the Primate of The Church of the Province of Central Africa

Right Rev Dr Johannes Seoka
Representing the Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa

Right Rev Matthias Medadues-Badohu
Representing the Primate of The Church of the Province of West Africa

Right Rev Peter Bartlett [not signed -ed.]
Representing the Primate of Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America

cc: Most Rev Dr Barry Morgan
Primate representing the Anglican Communion, Crown Nominations Commission

We can hope

AUSTRALIA:Liberal theology in decline, says new UCA president

from VirtueOnline

AUSTRALIA: Liberal theology in decline, says new UCA president

ByJohn Sandeman
http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/liberal-theology-in-decline-says-new-uca-presidentnity Newspaper
July 25, 2012

The new President of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA), Reverend Professor Andrew Dutney says that liberal theology is in decline.

Andrew Dutney recently spoke to Eternity on the decline of liberal theology, and an update from UCA's national assembly

"There is no question that the liberalism with which the Uniting Church and its predecessors were associated with in the past is very much in decline," Dutney told the ABC's Andrew West.

"As horizons have been broadened by the contact that different kinds of Christians are having with each other, people who might formerly have been liberal are discovering that there are other ways of reading the Bible that are not liberal. That you don't try to explain away all the difficult stuff, but you can sit with some of the paradoxes and read the Bible more directly into your own life and your own situation."

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

Pope’s Appointment to Archdiocese of San Francisco is Strong Defender of Marriage

from Stand Firm by Greg Griffith

From Whispers in the Loggia:

A “major announcement on the future of the archdiocese” already set for 10am local time at St Mary’s Cathedral, at Roman Noon the pontiff named Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, 56—the San Diego-born head of the neighboring Oakland church since 2009, and lead hand behind the US bishops’ national effort to defend the traditional definition of marriage—to succeed Archbishop George Niederauer, who reached the retirement age of 75 in June 2011.

After a half-century of occupants accused by conservatives of soft-pedaling church teaching in favor of a more conciliatory approach toward constituencies ranging from gays and lesbians to Nancy Pelosi—a group of prelates among which even the recently-retired lead guardian of church doctrine,

Cardinal William Levada, was not exempt from stinging criticism—the move delivers the long-desired “Holy Grail” of the American Catholic Right firmly into the faction’s hands, in the form of a prelate already known widely both for his forcefulness and a stringent doctrinal cred almost unequaled among his confreres on the national bench.

For liberal Catholics, meanwhile, the appointment is likely to be received as something akin to the city’s Great Earthquake of 1906, or even more apocalyptic events. In a nutshell, an appointment of this dramatic, potentially explosive nature is enough to make even last year’s blockbuster move in the States—likewise a final US move of the Curia’s annual work-cycle—appear almost mild by comparison.

Backbone-less Pastor Brings Shame on the Church

from Stand Firm by David Fischler 

This kind of thing just makes me want to scream. According to the Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger:

A Jackson couple had their wedding rehearsal last week, two days before their scheduled big day at the Crystal Springs church where they were planning to get married.

But the couple’s dream of exchanging vows in the church they had been attending was dashed when the church pastor relayed to them that some members had complained about the black couple getting married in the predominantly white First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs.

Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson said it was devastating having to move their wedding to another church only days before the July 21 wedding.

Insiders say five or six members went to the Rev. Stan Weatherford after seeing the couple’s wedding rehearsal the Thursday night before their Saturday wedding.

The church pastor said he was surprised by the reaction of some church members.

“I didn’t want to have a controversy within the church, and I didn’t want a controversy to affect the wedding of Charles and Te’Andrea. I wanted to make sure their wedding day was a special day,” Weatherford told WLBT-Channel 3.

Sorry, Pastor, you blew it. The right thing to do was to tell those “five or six members” where they could put their racism, and make clear that the First Baptist Church upholds the truth of Galatians 3:28 and Ephesians 2:1—22. Instead, you chickened out in the face of hostility to the gospel, and allowed yourself to be intimidated by people your church would probably be better off without anyway. Stand up for the gospel, man!

I have no doubt that this will soon be on the newswires, if it isn’t already, and the tongue-cluckers in the chattering class will take the opportunity to bash all Mississippians or all Southern Baptists or even all Christians with the race bat. All because of a handful of genuine bigots in one church (which, amazingly, has African-American members, including the bride’s father!). Lord Jesus, preserve us from the snarling wolves among us.

The end of the church as we know it

from VirtueOnline

The end of the church as we know it
While the institutional church is in decline, possibilities abound for new ways of producing faithful followers of Jesus Christ

By Amy Butler
ABP NEWS
http://www.abpnews.com/opinion/item/7648-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know#.UBQr66AyCSo
July 26, 2012

Has anybody out there noticed that church attendance has been lower lately? The church budget is stretched thin because fewer people are giving? You can't get a commitment out of people who are so busy they are already making summer plans -- for next summer? Welcome to the reality of church decline.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

CANADA: The collapse of the liberal church

from VirtueOnline

CANADA: The collapse of the liberal church

By Margaret Wente
The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/the-collapse-of-the-liberal-church/article4443228/
July 28, 2012

[Dear VOL readers. Substitute the Episcopal Church for the United Church of Canada and you will see the same result.]

Two weeks from now, the United Church of Canada will assemble in Ottawa for its 41st General Council, where it will debate church policy and elect a new moderator. The top item on its agenda is a resolution calling for a boycott of products from Israeli settlements. Fortunately, nobody cares what the United Church thinks about Israeli settlements, or anything else for that matter, because the United Church doesn't matter any more.

For many years, the United Church was a pillar of Canadian society. Its leaders were respected public figures. It was - and remains - the biggest Protestant denomination in a country that, outside Quebec, has been largely shaped by centuries of Protestant tradition.

But today, the church is literally dying. The average age of its members is 65. They believe in many things, but they do not necessarily believe in God. Some congregations proudly describe themselves as "post-theistic," which is a good thing because, as one church elder said, it shows the church is not "stuck in the past." Besides, who needs God when you've got Israel to kick around?

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

U.S. Protestants lose ground to other faiths

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

A new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reports that the U.S., once a stronghold of Protestantism, is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country. The number of Americans who report being members of Protestant denominations now stands at barely 51%.

Moreover, the Protestant population is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, with hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three fairly distinct church traditions: evangelical (26.3% of the overall adult population), mainline (18.1%) and historically Black (6.9%). Mainline churches include such established denominations as Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, northern Baptists and Presbyterians; historically black churches include such bodies as the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the National Baptist Convention.

Read it all.