Heresy in the Cathedral

http://www.almohler.com/blog_read.php?id=989


Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2007 at 4:40 am ET

The Rt. Rev. Peter Jensen, Australia's Archbishop of Sydney, is making
headlines for denying a heretic access to the pulpits of the churches under
his care. The heretic is the retired bishop of Newark, New Jersey, The Rt.
Rev. John Shelby Spong -- a man who has denied virtually every major
Christian doctrine.

Heretics are rarely excommunicated these days. Instead, they go on book
tours. Bishop Spong is visiting Australia at the invitation of Australia's
Anglican Primate Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane. When Archbishop Jensen denied
Bishop Spong access to the pulpits of Sydney, Archbishop Aspinall extended
an invitation for Spong to preach in Brisbane's St. John's Cathedral.

As the The Australian reports:

A row has erupted within the Anglican Church over a visit to Australia by an
American cleric who has being accused of modernising Christ to the point of
stripping him of all divinity.

Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen has taken the extraordinary step of banning
John Shelby Spong, a fellow member of the Anglican communion who arrives in
Sydney this morning, from churches in his diocese.

By contrast, Anglican Primate Phillip Aspinall has invited Bishop Spong, a
leader of the church's liberal wing, to deliver two sermons in Brisbane's St
John's Cathedral.

John Shelby Spong has written a series of books attacking the central
doctrines of the Christian faith. As a matter of fact, he has basically run
out of doctrines to deny. He has repudiated the Christian faith as treasured
by the faithful Church for two thousand years -- the faith of biblical
Christianity. This faith is the faith for which the martyrs died.

Mark Thompson, responding to Bishop Spong in the newspaper of the Sydney
archdiocese, noted correctly that "one cannot imagine anyone willing to be
martyred for Spong's Jesus."

Even the secular press understands the depths of Bishop Spong's denial of
Christian truth. The Sydney Morning Herald noted that Spong has denied that
Jesus was born of a virgin, that Joseph ever existed, that Jesus performed
miracles, that He died for our sins, and that He was raised from the dead.
He also denies the deity of Christ and the nature of God as a personal
being, much less the only true God. In other books Spong has suggested that
the Apostle Paul was a repressed homosexual. More recently, he has joined
the chorus of those suggesting that the death of Christ was necessary for
the salvation of sinners amounts to "divine child abuse."

So how would Archbishop Aspinall defend his decision to allow a heretic to
preach two sermons in this cathedral? Here is his answer:

Dr Aspinall defended his decision to welcome the American bishop. "Bishop
Spong speaking at St John's Cathedral is not particularly extraordinary," he
said.

"That Bishop Spong holds views which some Anglicans might find challenging
is no reason to exclude him from speaking.

"Our church has thousands of members and widely diverse views on a wide
variety of subjects. I am sure Anglicans will listen respectfully to the
bishop's views and make their own minds up."

Not particularly extraordinary? Given Archbishop Aspinall's own theological
liberalism, that might be frighteningly accurate. What kind of pastor would
invite his people to hear a denial of the Christian faith from his own
pulpit and then encourage them to "make their own minds up?"

This controversy in Australia is indicative of the situation we now face in
so much of Christianity worldwide. Archbishop Jensen defends the faith and
protects his people and is treated as a divisive figure. Archbishop
Aspinall invites a heretic into his pulpit, explains that this is "not
particularly extraordinary," and is seen as a portrait of magnanimous
ecclesiastical leadership. Bishop Spong gets to sell more books, and the
public gets to see a spectacle.

How profoundly sad . . . and how utterly predictable.



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