VirtueOnline Digest, Vol 17, Issue 26
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Today's Topics:
1. Table of Contents (David Virtue)
2. VIEWPOINTS: July 14, 2017 (David Virtue)
3. Episcopal bishop loses appeal of order not to sell Newport
church (David Virtue)
4. NC Episcopal priest in red Corvette pulled gun during road
rage, Florida troopers say (David Virtue)
5. Criminal investigation to be launched into St. Paul's School
(David Virtue)
6. WHEATON, ILL.: Anglicans Find "Mission on our Doorstep"
(David Virtue)
7. GAFCON Chairman says Church of England is in Grave Spiritual
Danger (David Virtue)
8. New Scottish Primus Gives Lie to Immutability of Sexual
Orientation (David Virtue)
9. Church of England Synod puts sex before the horrors of
Christian persecution (David Virtue)
10. Church of England bishops 'delaying same-sex equality' move
(David Virtue)
11. Church of England: Welcoming Transgender People (David Virtue)
12. Church of England demands ban on conversion therapy (David Virtue)
13. U.K.: Leading Anglican Evangelist Berates Welby over Carey's
Forced Resignation (David Virtue)
14. Lord Carey's forced resignation is an injustice: he, too, was
a victim of Peter Ball (David Virtue)
15. Church of England says you can choose to be gay but not to be
straight (David Virtue)
16. SCOTUS Power Threatens Religious Liberty (David Virtue)
17. Medical and Mental Health Professionals File Groundbreaking
Joint Complaint Against Gay Activists with the Federal Trade
Commission (David Virtue)
18. Study finds the nonreligious can be more close-minded than
the religious (David Virtue)
19. A Tale of Two Communions (David Virtue)
20. William Campbell-Taylor, the Bishop Peter Ball Report and
Clergy Abuse of Power (David Virtue)
21. Sin at Synod- How the Church forbad forgiveness (David Virtue)
22. What Does It Mean to be a Mature Christian Disciple? 4.
Self-Control (Titus 2:1-15) (David Virtue)
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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:35:04 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Table of Contents
Message-ID:
<1500053704.3643738....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
VirtueOnline Weekly News Digest - Desktop & Mobile Edition
www.virtueonline.org
July 14, 2017
*************************************
VIEWPOINTS
*************************************
1. Church of England Synod kicks talk of Homosexual Marriage down the
road, okays Transgendered Liturgies...
http://www.virtueonline.org/church-england-synod-kicks-talk-homosexual-marriage-down-road-okays-transgendered-liturgies-ignores
*********************************************
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
*********************************************
2.Episcopal bishop loses appeal of order not to sell Newport church
http://www.virtueonline.org/episcopal-bishop-loses-appeal-order-not-sell-newport-church
3.NC Episcopal priest in red Corvette pulled gun during road rage,
Florida Troopers say
http://www.virtueonline.org/nc-episcopal-priest-red-corvette-pulled-gun-during-road-rage-florida-troopers-say
4.Criminal investigation to be launched into St. Paul's School
http://www.virtueonline.org/criminal-investigation-be-launched-st-pauls-school
**********************************************
NORTH AMERICAN ANGLICAN NEWS
**********************************************
5.WHEATON, ILL.: Anglicans Find "Mission on our Doorstep
http://www.virtueonline.org/wheaton-ill-anglicans-find-mission-our-doorstep
**********************************************
GLOBAL ANGLICAN NEWS
**********************************************
6.GAFCON Chairman says Church of England is in Grave Spiritual Danger
http://www.virtueonline.org/gafcon-chairman-says-church-england-grave-spiritual-danger
7.New Scottish Primus Gives Lie to Immutability of Sexual Orientation
http://www.virtueonline.org/new-scottish-primus-gives-lie-immutability-sexual-orientation
*********************************************
CHURCH OF ENGLAND NEWS
*********************************************
8.Church of England Synod puts sex before the horrors of Christian
persecution
http://www.virtueonline.org/church-england-synod-puts-sex-horrors-christian-persecution
9.Church of England bishops 'delaying same-sex equality' move
http://www.virtueonline.org/church-england-bishops-delaying-same-sex-equality-move
10. Church of England: Welcoming Transgender People
http://www.virtueonline.org/church-england-welcoming-transgender-people
11.Church of England demands ban on conversion therapy
http://www.virtueonline.org/church-england-demands-ban-conversion-therapy
12.U.K.: Leading Anglican Evangelist Berates Welby over Carey's Forced
Resignation
http://www.virtueonline.org/uk-leading-anglican-evangelist-berates-welby-over-careys-forced-resignation
13.Lord Carey's forced resignation is an injustice: he, too, was a v.
http://www.virtueonline.org/lord-careys-forced-resignation-injustice-he-too-was-victim-peter-ball
********************************
CULTURE WARS
********************************
14.Church of England says you can choose to be gay but not to be
straight
http://www.virtueonline.org/church-england-says-you-can-choose-be-gay-not-be-straight
15.SCOTUS Power Threatens Religious Liberty
http://www.virtueonline.org/scotus-power-threatens-religious-liberty
16.Medical and Mental Health Professionals File Groundbreaking Joint
Complaint Against Gay Activists
http://www.virtueonline.org/medical-and-mental-health-professionals-file-groundbreaking-joint-complaint-against-gay-activists
17.Study finds the nonreligious can be more close-minded than the
religious
http://www.virtueonline.org/study-finds-nonreligious-can-be-more-close-minded-religious
********************************
AS EYE SEE IT
********************************
18.A Tale of Two Communions
http://www.virtueonline.org/tale-two-communions
19.William Campbell-Taylor, the Bishop Peter Ball Report and Clergy
Abuse of Power
http://www.virtueonline.org/william-campbell-taylor-bishop-peter-ball-report-and-clergy-abuse-power
20.Sin at Synod- How the Church forbad forgiveness
http://www.virtueonline.org/sin-synod-how-church-forbad-forgiveness
*********************************
DEVOTIONAL
*********************************
21. Self-Control: What Does It Mean To Be A Mature Christian Disciple? -
Titus 2:1-15
http://www.virtueonline.org/4-self-control-what-does-it-mean-be-mature-christian-disciple-titus-21-1
END
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:36:43 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: VIEWPOINTS: July 14, 2017
Message-ID:
<1500053803.3644011....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
What kind of Christianity? In my own conviction, the visible unity of
the church (in each region or country) is both biblically right and
practically desirable, and we should be actively seeking it. At the same
time, we should ask ourselves a simple but searching question. If we are
to meet the enemies of Christ with a united Christian front, with what
kind of Christianity are we going to face them? The only weapon with
which the opponents of the gospel can be overthrown is the gospel
itself. It would be a tragedy if, in our desire for their overthrow, the
only effective weapon in our armoury were to drop from our hands. United
Christianity which is not true Christianity will not gain the victory
over non-Christian forces, but will itself succumb to them. --- John R.
W. Stott
On the Church of England: There must come a new episcopal jurisdiction
to whom the faithful can look for comfort, fidelity and leadership -- a
new Anglicanism that is in fact the old Anglicanism recaptured from the
secular civil servants who serve this new religion. -- Rev. Dr. Gavin
Ashenden
The Christian population [of China] is guessed at between 80 to 130 (or
more) million. --- Brian C. Stiller
False teaching is restless and relentless, and the Church of England
itself is in grave spiritual danger. It is much to be regretted that
there has been far more concern about alleged 'boundary crossing' than
about the contempt of God's Word that made a missionary bishop [Andy
Lines] necessary --- Archbishop Nicholas Okoh
"...I am talking about the common tradition of Christianity which has
made Europe what it is...It is in Christianity that our arts have
developed...that the laws of Europe have -- until recently -- been
rooted. It is against a background of Christianity that all our thought
has significance......I do not believe that the culture of Europe could
survive the complete disappearance of the Christian faith...If
Christianity goes, the whole of our culture goes. Then you must start
painfully again, and you cannot put on a new culture ready made. You
must wait for the grass to grow to feed the sheep to give the wool out
of which your new coat will be made. You must pass through many
centuries of barbarism.... ---T.S. Eliot
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
July 14, 2017
THE foundations of the Church of England are cracking and with it the
Anglican Communion. This week at the Church of England's General Synod,
the fissures opened even wider over a number of hot button issues.
Church of England Synod delayed same-sex equality notions; instead they
created new working groups to address the issue, as leaders were accused
of "waffle".
Justin Welby said the intention of the working groups was to "map, to
set out clearly where we agree and where we disagree, to help us
understand better the issues and the points of conflict."
Church of England bishops have been accused of kicking the issue of
same-sex equality into the long grass by offloading the topic to a
series of working groups that will not report until 2020 at the
earliest.
Notice the date. This will be after Lambeth Conference 2020 so no one
can accuse Welby and Sentamu of changing the Church's teaching.
Reporting to the C of E's synod meeting in York, Justin Welby said the
processes "aim to take a reasonable time for profound thought by a large
number of people across a wide range of views, and during that time
provide pastoral guidance".
Other issues included the repeal of reparative therapies for homosexuals
who voluntarily seek to change their same-sex attractions, being
unanimously passed by people who have never examined the evidence, but
have listened to the emotional appeals of a handful of people without
examining any of the available medical, ethical and theological
evidence, along with the testimonies of tens of thousands who have
benefitted from such therapies.
It is quackery at best and theological and spiritual rubbish at worst.
The Synod debated services for transgender people and ignored the plight
of persecuted Christians, while holding out hope for homosexuals that
one day, God willing (or whoever), in the not too distant future, when
the can, can no longer be kicked down the road, the Church of England
will fully embrace activist homosexuals who desire not only to get
married in a church, but also be allowed to be priests and bishops.
The playbook for all this has already been written by the Episcopal
Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Church of England is
hell bent on emulating their brothers and sisters across the Atlantic.
The results will be the same and just as disastrous.
There seemed to be little real theology taking place at this Synod. The
appalling prospect of a special liturgy to mark gender transition has no
basis in 'sound teaching', especially as someone called Nicholas Land,
declared: "It is absolutely right we seek to help people with gender
variance... But at present it is difficult to see how this can be
achieved in the absence of clear theological opinion." Therefore they
passed a resolution without doing any theological homework. Amazing.
There was a ton of irony in the opposition of sexual conversion therapy,
when a Mr. Ed Shaw, himself a homosexual, rose up and said he voted
against the motion to ban conversion therapy because there was no clear
definition of what exactly they were banning. "Plenty of appalling past
practices were movingly shared and if the motion had been specific
enough to give me a chance to clearly condemn such damaging behavior I
would have gladly taken it."
As one blogger noted, "The absence of theological reflection is
disturbing. The Rev. Mark Lucas -- a usually mild-mannered and irenic
evangelical Synod member -- was moved to thunder on his blog: 'The
debating chamber has been, almost solely, a pink fluffy, theology-free,
Bible-mocking, sin-affirming, solipsism of multitudinous,
anthropocentric anecdote!'"
Stephen Lynas, Senior Chaplain to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, wrote:
'There was little theological reflection (apart from a few nods to
Scripture, Tradition and Reason). He opined that while Synod was
intensely pastoral, they were not as analytical as befits a major Synod
with carefully-designed processes of scrutiny and decision-making.
Perhaps the final irony is that one of the last items Synod discussed
was clergy stress. How appropriate indeed, given that for many of us
ordinary church ministers, at least some of our pressure comes from
trying to explain to our wondering parishioners what is going on during
these debates, queried another blogger.
In the same debate, Synod, again led by the Archbishop of York, John
Sentamu, rejected the following amendment:
"Urge all bishops, clergy, and lay people at this time of anxiety and
uncertainty to take every opportunity to commend to all the people of
England faith in Jesus Christ, who is King of kings, the Prince of peace
and the Hope of every nation."
The motion was rejected on the basis that taking every opportunity was
inappropriate and rather "silly", and that it would encourage
antisemitism and groups like Britain First. REALLY!
This is nothing short of spiritual adultery. The Church of England can
no longer proclaim the uniqueness of Christ and the salvation he offers
to Jews and an archbishop calls it "silly"! St. Paul may well have
ordered a public stoning just to relieve the Church of yet another
apostate bishop.
How ironic. Sentamu grew up in Uganda, saw and experienced persecution,
knows the history of the Martyrs of Uganda who gave their lives rather
than bow to a sodomite king because they did believe in the uniqueness
of Christ! And he calls "silly" a statement reaffirming the faith. Now
you know why GAFCON ordained a bishop for England and Europe. A new
Anglican branch not affiliated with the Church of England is surely on
its way. Think ACNA. It's only a matter of time.
Several REFORM members spoke in favor of the motion.
*****
A story from the Christian Post says that two African bishops plan to
snub an October summit with the Archbishop of Canterbury over homosexual
marriage because Justin Welby is seen as too liberal on homosexuality to
orthodox Anglicans, is not quite accurate.
A source told VOL that all the GAFCON primates will not be attending the
summit, realizing that, while the CofE still has it on the books
opposing homosexual marriage, the blessing of same sex couples is going
on, and the ban is only temporary until the next Synod, when such
measures will surely be passed and the ban lifted...in the name of
inclusion. The triumph of lesbian activist, Jayne Ozanne, will be
complete.
Welby felt obligated to apologize to homosexuals following a primates'
gathering in Canterbury last year, after sanctions were imposed on The
Episcopal Church because it allowed, ordained and changed its marriage
canons on sexuality to embrace pansexuality.
The heat was turned up with the consecration of a "missionary" bishop by
GAFCON primates to minister to orthodox Anglicans in England and Europe
following the Scottish Episcopal Church's changing of its canons to
allow homosexuals to marry.
I have posted several stories on the CofE Synod, including some
excellent commentary that I hope you will take time to read.
*****
To cement the madness of transgenderism in the Church of England, the
Diocese of Ely recently ordained to the diaconate, someone called Diane
Johnson (formerly a man). While ordaining trannies is not new to the
Church of England, he was, according to my source, the first military
person to turn his gender around (or try). The madness continues.
*****
GAFCON chairman and Nigerian Primate, Nicholas Okoh, issued a blistering
letter to his followers this week, blasting the church of England,
saying that it is in "grave spiritual danger."
In a strongly-worded letter to GAFCON followers and fellow primates,
Okoh accused Archbishop Justin Welby of being more concerned about
alleged 'boundary crossing' than about the contempt for God's Word that
made a missionary bishop [Andy Lines] necessary.
Okoh ripped Church of England leaders for inviting the Bishop of
Edinburgh, who strongly supported the Scottish Episcopal Church's
adoption of same sex "marriage" to the Church of England's July General
Synod meeting as an honored guest. False teaching is restless and
relentless.
"Although the Church of England's legal position on marriage has not
changed, its understanding of sexual morality has. Same sex
relationships, which were described by Lambeth Resolution I.10 of 1998
as 'incompatible with Scripture' now receive approval at the highest
level." You can read the full report in today's digest.
*****
The Episcopal Church continues its Gadarene slide with a trio of
notable, but hardly surprising of acts of stupidity and venality.
The first was the case of the Rev. William Rian Adams, 35, a former U.S.
Air Force Chaplain, now serving as the rector of Calvary Episcopal
Church in Fletcher, North Carolina, who was arrested and charged in
Florida with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon last Wednesday,
after he allegedly pointed a handgun at another vehicle.
A Florida Highway Patrol report said Adams was driving a red Chevrolet
Corvette when he attempted to brake check a Chevrolet Silverado pickup
that was closely following his vehicle, according to the Palm Beach
Post. The driver of the pickup then tried to go around Adams' vehicle,
which caused the priest to point the gun, authorities charge.
Adams' vehicle was pulled over by troopers in St. Lucie County shortly
after his accusers, a 24-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman from St.
Cloud, called police. No word on whether he has been inhibited by his
bishop.
The second issue is the case of St. Paul's School, the elite New England
Episcopal boarding school in Concord, NH, that has been dogged in recent
months by allegations of past sexual abuse and misconduct. It is now the
target of a criminal investigation by local and state authorities.
In a statement released this week, New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon
J. MacDonald announced investigators will examine whether the school
engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of a child.
"Protection of children is a paramount priority for law enforcement,"
MacDonald said in the release. "I am confident that an institution such
as St. Paul's School will be fully cooperative with this investigation
as it has pledged."
The attorney general's office stated the investigation was triggered by
a series of issues that have come out at the school. How ironic that all
the talk of "safeguarding" by high minded TEC bishops and homosexualists
only reveals how farcical all the talk is. The sodomite fox has been in
the TEC henhouse for so long now, that we will only see it erupt more
and more over the coming months. Is it any wonder that certain Episcopal
homosexualists want to lower the age of consent!
Then there is the ongoing saga of Los Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno, who
makes your school yard bully look mild by comparison to his bullying.
This week he got yet another rap on the knuckles when he lost an appeal
of an order not to sell St. James the Great, Newport Beach.
A disciplinary board for the Episcopal Church upheld a lower panel's
order blocking the bishop of the Los Angeles diocese from completing a
planned sale of the property. An ecclesiastical hearing panel had warned
him in June not to sell the property before that panel reaches a
decision on misconduct allegations related to a separate attempt to sell
the church site in 2015. The result was that Presiding Bishop Michael
Curry had to jump in and issue a similar sale-blocking order.
The diocese now has a new bishop lined up to take over from Bruno. He is
John H. Taylor and he takes the helm now. If Bruno is not officially
booted out, he's a dead duck anyway.
Of course, none of these stories feature in the official TEC news
briefs. Way too explosive and might lead people not to go on supporting
a moribund church that long ago abandoned the faith once for all
delivered to the saints.
*****
>From New Zealand (the land of the long white cloud) we learned that the
Church there has issued an Interim report in a (vain) effort to keep the
NZ church from splitting.
The Archbishops (they have three) released the interim report of a small
working group charged with seeking "structural arrangements" to allow
people who hold differing convictions about the blessing of same-sex
relationships to remain within the church.
The idea here is to avoid any debate by a General Synod resolution by
allowing dioceses to make changes to church law to safeguard theological
convictions" and to create a space for theological debate about
sexuality. Rather than forcing the issue the Motion 29 working group
argued that as there was no clear way forward, they would let the matter
lie on the table. They were to steer clear of theological debate, and
instead look for structures that would allow people who hold strong
convictions about the blessing of same-sex relationships (in the working
group's own words) "to coexist peacefully in same church".
It's not going to work. These compromises never do. A source told VOL
that next year GAFCON plans to plant a gospel flag in New Zealand, which
really puts an orthodox cat among the liberal pigeons. Only the diocese
of Nelson is truly orthodox in faith and morals in New Zealand. Watch
for more in this space.
*****
There are two new bishops in Polynesia, including a first-ever bishop
for Tonga, according to a news release from Anglican Taonga
Archbishop Winston Halapua, the diocesan Bishop of Polynesia, says the
Rev. Dr 'Afa Vaka will become the first bishop of the newly-constituted
episcopal unit of Tonga -- and Archdeacon Henry Bull is to be the next
bishop in Vanua Levu and Taveuni in Fiji.
The Rev. 'Afa Vaka's election as Tonga's first constitutionally-mandated
bishop, is the fulfilment of long-held desires among Anglicans in Tonga
for a greater level of autonomy within the Diocese of Polynesia. His
election follows the decision taken by the Diocese of Polynesia synod in
May to establish the Archdeaconry of Tonga as an episcopal unit.
*****
The close-fisted hand of the state erupted in Sweden this week when the
Prime Minister of Sweden, Stefan L?fven, said that if priests in the
Church of Sweden--a Lutheran national church--don't want to perform
same-sex "marriages," they should "do something else." He went on to say
that a willingness to participate in a gay wedding "should be a
requirement for ordination", and his party "is working to ensure all
Church of Sweden priests will 'marry' same-sex couples."
Priests Who Don't Want to Marry Same-Sex Couples? "Do Something Else",
screamed a newspaper headline.
Although the Church of Sweden is quite liberal (for example, they allow
gay "marriages" and openly gay or lesbian clergy), they do allow priests
to choose whether or not they want to perform a gay "marriage." Half of
the bishops in this denomination signed a letter "condemning the
introduction of same-sex 'marriage' into the church."
You want to be a Lutheran priest in Sweden, then ignore the Bible and
agree with the Government!
Of course, it is only a matter of time when the Episcopal Church will
make sodomite marriage mandatory for its priests. It happened with
women's ordination. There is no stopping the sodomite steamroller in
TEC. Nothing.
*****
We urgently need funds to spread the word. Recent trips have depleted
our resources, and we must have money to continue. If American
Christians (many of them evangelicals) will shell out tens of millions
of dollars on a single political campaign and throw pennies at upholding
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, what does this say about us as a
"Christian" nation.
Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution through PAYPAL at
the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/
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In Christ,
David
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:37:09 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Episcopal bishop loses appeal of order not to sell Newport
church
Message-ID:
<1500053829.3644032....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Episcopal bishop loses appeal of order not to sell Newport church
By Hillary Davis
www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-me-bishop-appeal-20170710-story.html
July 10, 2017
A disciplinary board for the Episcopal Church has upheld a lower panel's
order blocking the bishop of the Los Angeles diocese from completing a
planned sale of the St. James the Great church property in Newport
Beach.
The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno appealed to the Disciplinary Board for Bishops
after an ecclesiastical hearing panel warned him in June not to sell the
property before that panel reaches a decision on misconduct allegations
related to a separate attempt to sell the church site in 2015.
The Most Rev. Michael Curry, the top bishop of the Episcopal Church in
the United States, issued a similar sale-blocking order late last month.
The hearing panel, acting on a tip from a congregation member, issued
its restriction not knowing whether Bruno had in fact entered a new sale
contract. However, an attorney for Bruno eventually confirmed that he
contracted with Newport Beach-based developer Burnham-Ward Properties in
May. The price and plans for the property were not disclosed.
"By contracting to sell the St. James property while the conflicts
involving that property were still under review and consideration by the
hearing panel, (Bruno) disrupted and interfered with the integrity of
the process of the (disciplinary) proceeding," the Rt. Rev. Catherine
Waynick, president of the Disciplinary Board for Bishops, wrote in a
decision issued Friday. "(Bruno's) actions undermined what the canons
intend to be a process of reconciliation."
A call to the Los Angeles diocese seeking comment was not immediately
returned Monday.
The 2015 sale attempt was the focal point of a three-day hearing in
March to determine whether Bruno acted deceptively and unbecoming of a
clergyman when he tried to sell the property. Opponents of the effort
also argued that he didn't have permission of the diocesan government to
sell. The hearing panel has yet to issue a decision on those
allegations.
Bruno changed the locks on the church after committing to selling the
site for $15 million to Legacy Partners, a developer that wanted to raze
the church to build luxury townhomes. The congregation filed an
ecclesiastical complaint not long after its eviction.
The sale fizzled after Legacy's investment partner dropped out, but the
church remains locked. Members now worship in a community room at
Newport Beach City Hall.
END
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:37:36 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: NC Episcopal priest in red Corvette pulled gun during road
rage, Florida troopers say
Message-ID:
<1500053856.3644564....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
NC Episcopal priest in red Corvette pulled gun during road rage, Florida
troopers say
CBS Newspath
July 9, 2017
STUART, Fla. Road rage, a gun, a priest and a red Corvette.
Those are words that don't seem to go together.
But that's exactly what Florida Highway Patrol Troopers say was involved
when a North Carolina priest was arrested Wednesday.
William Adams, 35, a priest from Fletcher in the North Carolina
mountains, is facing two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon.
WPEC-TV reported that Adams is a priest at Calvary Episcopal Church. The
TV station also reported that Adams began there in September 2016 after
he spent 10 years in the military as a chaplain before a helicopter
accident injury forced him into retirement.
The Florida Highway Patrol says the night of July 5, Father Adams pulled
his red Corvette in front of a pickup truck -- and started hitting the
brakes.
Troopers say the truck tried to pass him.
That's when they say Adams pulled out a gun and pointed it at the truck.
"You would think that being of the cloth, we would have better control.
Just kinda comical but sad in the same sense," said motorist Kevin
Brown, who was driving on the Florida Turnpike from Palm Coast.
Troopers say Adams told them the truck pulled alongside him -- and
started yelling and screaming -- and threw a soda at his car.
"I think it's kinda weird, because I wouldn't expect a priest to be the
angry one," said Dori Angel, another Turnpike motorist.
Adams says he never pulled out his gun, a Glock 22, according to a
report.
Adams was released on $15,000 bond.
*****
911 call released in Episcopal priest road rage case
Al Pefley
http://cbs12.com/news/local/priest-road-rage-911-call-released
July 11, 2017
MARTIN COUNTY, FLORIDA -- Highway horror!
For the first time, we're hearing a dramatic road rage incident play out
in a panicked 911 call.
A mother and her son tell cbs12 they were terrified for their lives July
5 when a priest in a red corvette pulled up and pointed a gun right in
their faces.
Dispatcher: "911. Fire, police or ambulance?
Caller: We're on the Turnpike. This guy in a red Corvette slammed his
brakes in front of us and we pulled up to him and I said what are you
doing? And he pointed a gun at me.
A woman and her son couldn't believe their eyes when she says they were
staring down the barrel of a gun on the Turnpike last week in Martin
County.
Troopers say the guy who was waving the gun around---threatening the
mother and her son in a pickup truck---was a priest, William Rian Adams,
35, a priest at Calvary Episcopal Church in Fletcher, North Carolina.
Dispatcher: Pointed a gun at you?
Caller: Yes. He held it up in the air and he started cursing me and
everything else.
According to the woman, Father Adams pulled his red 2014 Corvette in
front of her pickup truck in the left lane of the Turnpike northbound
near Stuart, slammed on the brakes, and then Adams drove back over into
the right lane.
As Adams pulled even with her pickup truck, she says Adams pulled a gun.
She rolled down her window and tried to ask what he was doing.
Caller: It's him and some girl in the car. And I just asked, I said why
did you slam on the brakes? And he cursed me and everything and then he
just pulled this gun out.
Dispatcher: Okay. Did you see a tag number on his vehicle?
Caller: No I couldn't. He won't let us get close to him. He's just
zoomin' up the road.
Troopers stopped Father Adams a few miles later the Turnpike where he
was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Troopers say
they found a Glock handgun in the priest's car.
Road rage victim Sharon Hughes of St. Cloud, FL CBS12 by phone quote:
"We didn't do anything wrong. I just don't understand what on earth he
was thinking. He just pulled up and cut us off. I would really love to
know why."
We called Father Adam's church, his attorney, and the Episcopal Diocese
of Western North Carolina---which oversees his church. None of our calls
were returned. Father Adams is now free on bond.
END
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:38:02 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Criminal investigation to be launched into St. Paul's School
Message-ID:
<1500053882.3644594....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Criminal investigation to be launched into St. Paul's School
By Danny McDonald
http://www.bostonglobe.com/
July 13, 2017
Following new reports of sexual misconduct at St. Paul's School,
authorities in New Hampshire Thursday announced a criminal investigation
into the elite boarding school.
New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald's office, Concord
police, and New Hampshire State Police will conduct the investigation,
authorities said in a statement released Thursday night.
The investigation will initially focus on whether the school engaged in
conduct that endangered the welfare of a child, the attorney general's
office said in the statement. That office will also investigate whether
the school violated a law that prohibits obstructing criminal
investigations.
"Protection of children is a paramount priority for law enforcement,"
said MacDonald in the statement. "I am confident that an institution
such as St. Paul's School will be fully cooperative with this
investigation as it has pledged that '[t]he safety and well-being of all
students remains [its] highest priority."
MacDonald's statement cited several recent disclosures at the school,
including a 2017 report of past sexual assaults by St. Paul's teachers
on their students and more recent allegations of "sexual conquest
rituals'' involving students.
St. Paul's Rector Michael G. Hirschfeld said Thursday night that the
school would "fully cooperate.''
"We have been in close contact with local law enforcement regarding
recent incidents of concern, and we will continue to fully cooperate
with any inquiries we receive,'' Hirschfeld said in a statement. "We
also intend to work closely with the attorney general's office to answer
any and all questions regarding the independent report issued last
month. Our goal is and always will be the health, safety, and well-being
of our students. We will work tirelessly to meet that goal and
strengthen the public's faith in St. Paul's School."
The announcement by the New Hampshire attorney general comes just two
weeks after the school said it had hired its own outside investigator
when "students came forward and alerted (St. Paul's School) faculty to
behaviors that were concerning to them."
The Concord Monitor had reported that eight boys in a dormitory competed
in a "game of sexual conquest" where the winners would get their names
on a crown. The newspaper's account broadly mirrors the "senior salute"
sexual contest among St. Paul students that played a role in the sexual
assault case against former student Owen Labrie.
Labrie was acquitted in 2015 of raping Chessy Prout -- who was 15 years
old at the time -- but convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault and child
endangerment and was sentenced to a year in prison.
Amanda Grady Sexton, a spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Coalition
Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, welcomed the attorney general's
announcement.
"They are right to shine a light on the darkness that continues to
surround this school," she said in a statement.
Sexton said the school administration's practice of hiring outside
investigators to probe possible criminal activity "points to a culture
that places the school's reputation far above the health and safety of
the children entrusted to its care."
She said the new investigation was "an opportunity for the school to
assess the reality of sexual misconduct on their campus and take the
proper steps to craft model policies, establish a prevention plan, train
faculty, and connect students to support services."
Eric MacLeish, a Boston attorney who has represented hundreds of sexual
abuse victims, also applauded the attorney general's announcement,
saying the school had lost the moral authority to police itself. He said
the school has a history of "not preventing foreseeable sexual
assaults."
"There have been too many horrific mistakes that have been made," he
said.
According to a report released in May, 13 former faculty and staff
members at the school engaged in sexual misconduct with students over
four decades. The report faulted administrators for being more
interested in preserving the school's reputation than protecting
students.
Several prep schools have investigated claims of misconduct following a
2016 Boston Globe Spotlight story that reported on allegations of abuse
by about 200 victims at 67 New England private schools.
*****
Press release from the N.H. attorney general on St. Paul's School
Authorities in New Hampshire Thursday announced a criminal investigation
into the elite boarding school
Date: July 13,2017
Contact: Jane E. Young, Associate Attorney General, (603) 271-3671
Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald announces that his office, in
conjunction with the Merrimack County Attorney's Office, the Concord
Police Department, and the New Hampshire State Police has initiated a
criminal investigation into St. Paul's School, a coeducational
residential high school in Concord, New Hampshire.
The investigation has been initiated as the result of a 2017 report
concerning sexual assaults by St. Paul's teachers on their students;
earlier information about student sexual conquest rituals such as the
"senior salute," a practice which led to the highly publicized arrest,
trial, and conviction of a St. Paul's student in 2015; and allegations
of a similar ritual reported in June of this year.
The investigation by the Attorney General's Office will focus initially
on the issue of whether the School engaged in conduct constituting
endangering the welfare of a child, contrary to RSA 639:3; and
violations of RSA ch. 642, the Obstructing Governmental Operations
chapter of the criminal code. This office will investigate any other
crimes as dictated by the evidence.
In announcing this investigation, Attorney General MacDonald stated,
"Protection of children is a paramount priority for law enforcement. I
am confident that an institution such as St. Paul's School will be fully
cooperative with this investigation as it has pledged that '[t]he safety
and well-being of all students remains [its] highest priority. "-1-
Any person with information regarding criminal conduct at the school is
urged to contact Investigator Mark Myrdek at 271-1263 or e-mail
Mark....@doj.nh.gov.
END
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:38:31 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: WHEATON, ILL.: Anglicans Find "Mission on our Doorstep"
Message-ID:
<1500053911.3644708....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
WHEATON, ILL.: Anglicans Find "Mission on our Doorstep"
By Jeff Walton
https://juicyecumenism.com/2017/07/07/anglicans-find-mission-doorstep/
July 7, 2017
Immigrants, study-abroad students and those in need of healing from
addiction all constitute a mission field "on our doorstep" according to
speakers at the 2017 Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) Provincial
Assembly.
"God didn't save you to sit in a pew," Archbishop Ben Kwashi of Jos,
Nigeria pointedly declared in a fiery address before approximately 1,400
lay people, clergy and bishops gathered for the denomination's
Provincial Assembly June 27-30 on the campus of Wheaton College in
Wheaton, Illinois.
Speakers portrayed a mission field ripe for harvest, but also beset by
both pervasive false teaching and disagreement among faithful
Christians. ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach called for Anglican Christians
to pray earnestly and to send laborers to churches, communities, cities,
and nations. Preaching that the harvest described in Luke Chapter 10 is
"on our doorstep," Beach declared that the mission of God "is in front
of us" with people suffering in many different ways and in need of good
news, love, care, healing, and forgiveness.
'A Family on Mission for Jesus'
At nearly 1,000 congregations in 49 states and 10 Canadian provinces
(plus congregations in Mexico and Cuba), ACNA has grown significantly
since its launch in 2009. According to Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of
the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton, ACNA should no longer
consider itself a lifeboat to rescue Anglicans, but as an amphibious
landing craft to grow the Kingdom of God. Anglicanism, Stetzer proposed,
is not about "the feels" but instead is "a family on mission for Jesus."
The denomination formally welcomed the Diocese of South Carolina -- the
oldest religious jurisdiction in the United States -- one of nine
founding dioceses of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, which immediately
becomes the largest ACNA diocese measured by attendance.
The gathering had an unmistakable international flavor, with bishops
from Chile, Nigeria and several other provinces of the worldwide
Anglican Communion speaking and participating. At the Assembly closing
Eucharist, Andy Lines was consecrated a missionary bishop for
congregations in Europe. Lines is initially expected to provide
oversight for congregations departing the Scottish Episcopal Church
after it changed its canons to redefine Christian marriage.
Unlike most Mainline Protestant governing conventions, the ACNA Assembly
is primarily a mission conference with only a short business session
devoted to governance changes. Resolutions weighing in on public policy
proposals are eschewed, but topics in the life of the church that
overlap with the current U.S. political conversation -- such as race
relations and migration -- did feature prominently in some sessions.
Points of ongoing tension within the denomination were either lightly
addressed or unmentioned. The Provincial Council, which preceded
Assembly on June 27, received a 300-page report from the Task Force on
Holy Orders, which outlined different views on the ordination of women
to the priesthood, but the report was not discussed during Assembly. The
delicate choreography of women in public worship events during Assembly
illustrated attempts by the leadership to, in the words of retired ACNA
Archbishop Bob Duncan in 2009, "keep the main thing the main thing" and
not detract from the points of common agreement.
ACNA continues to find its identity sometimes uncomfortably straddling
both mainstream American Evangelicalism and traditional, liturgical
Christianity. Sessions featured both the language of church growth
(replete with corporate strategy diagrams and market research) alongside
discussions of the church's sacramental ministry, catholicity and
monastic orders.
That seems fine with Stewart Ruch, bishop of the ACNA Diocese of the
Upper Midwest, host of the Wheaton Assembly. Ruch spoke of Pauline and
Petrine views of church growth -- named for their respective Saints.
Speaking jointly with Canon William Beasley of the Chicago-based
Greenhouse Movement, Ruch testified to overcoming different outlooks and
frayed relationship to unify around the need to grow the church for the
sake of the lost and the least. Displaying Caravaggio's altar-framing
paintings of the images of Saints Peter and Paul, Ruch called for
goal-focused persons in the church who gravitate towards building, then
catalyzing, to acknowledge and respect those whose strategy is adaptive
to immediate needs -- and in return for those to acknowledge and respect
those who catalyze first and then build.
Who is my Neighbor?
Today there are over a million international students studying in the
United States, an opportunity for Christians to show hospitality.
"We open our door so that God's glory will be made known among the
nations," explained Lisa Espineli Chinn, former National Director of
International Student Ministry of InterVarsity/USA. "We bring delight to
God when we love our neighbors."
Chinn was one of several speakers to examine how the Biblical command to
"love your neighbor as yourself" could be followed.
"They will always remember a home cooked meal. Unfortunately, the vast
majority has never been invited into an American home," Chinn reported
of international students. "Our worldviews are in dire need of
expansion, and befriending internationals [students] will do just that."
Sharing about the small St. Matthew's church in South Carolina, Chinn
told of their experience hosting international students, even though
they were "in the middle of nowhere" -- but their hospitality was used
by God "to be the center of his heart for internationals."
Global migration was also presented as an opportunity to minister to
newcomers.
"Foreigners understand what it is to be strange," Wheaton College
Professor M. Daniel Carroll Rodas said. "We need migration to learn how
to be better Christians again."
Rodas portrayed the story of Old Testament as migration and mission
coming together. Old Testament narratives about building and
fortification, such as the Book of Nehemiah, were not raised. Combined
with the diaspora movement in the Book of Acts, Rodas cautioned against
making immigrants a "target or trophy" but to embrace migrants as
people.
Gospel-centered apprenticeship was highlighted by Author Dave Ferguson
of Chicago's Community Christian Church. Ferguson explained that
Christians are learning in order to take on more kingdom responsibility.
Advising churches to create "an apprentice-making culture" Ferguson
defined culture as spontaneous, repeated patterns of behavior.
"Teach the values, tell the stories old and new, but do it yourself,"
Ferguson advised. "Find someone you can apprentice."
A Serious Task
Among the most impassioned addresses were those from Global South
speakers, emphasizing inevitable suffering in the present life and final
judgment in eternity.
Archbishop Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria and Chairman of the Global Anglican
Future Conference (GAFCON) warned about false teaching: "It is not true
and never will be true when we water down the Gospel that more people
will come to Jesus Christ. The opposite is true because the Gospel
without repentance is not Christianity."
Kwashi reminded the Assembly about the reality of Hell, imploring people
to take seriously the need to witness about the Gospel.
"Pastors, you hold the key to salvation: if you lock the door, they
perish, but if you open the door, they can eat," Kwashi gravely stated.
"Listen, I have no business being a bishop, it is useless if people are
not coming to Christ. I'm going to stand before Jesus one day."
The Jos, Nigeria archbishop asserted that "the revival we are asking for
is already on the ground."
"Can't you hear God talking to us, can't you hear God saying 'you need
to move'?" Kwashi asked. "We cannot go back to our dioceses and churches
the way we came here," he exclaimed, inviting people to pray with one
another and to repent.
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:39:01 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: GAFCON Chairman says Church of England is in Grave Spiritual
Danger
Message-ID:
<1500053941.3644751....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
GAFCON Chairman says Church of England is in Grave Spiritual Danger
By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
July 12, 2017
False teaching is restless and relentless, and the Mother Church -- the
Church of England -- is in grave spiritual danger, says GAFCON chairman
and Primate of all Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh.
In a blistering letter to GAFCON followers and fellow primates, Okoh
accused Archbishop Justin Welby of being more concerned about alleged
'boundary crossing' than about contempt for God's Word that made a
missionary bishop [Andy Lines] necessary.
Okoh ripped Church of England leaders for inviting the Bishop of
Edinburgh, who strongly supported the Scottish Episcopal Church's
adoption of same sex "marriage" to the Church of England's July General
Synod meeting as an honored guest.
"Although the Church of England's legal position on marriage has not
changed, its understanding of sexual morality has. Same sex
relationships, which were described by Lambeth Resolution I.10 of 1998
as 'incompatible with Scripture' now receive approval at the highest
level."
Okoh cited the case of Vicky Beeching, a singer, songwriter and lesbian
activist who advocates homosexual marriage to receive the Archbishop
Thomas Cranmer award for Worship in a ceremony at Lambeth Palace.
"The need for GAFCON to safeguard the integrity and clarity of global
Anglican mission is as urgent as it has ever been. Our calling is not to
be conformed, but to be transformed. A watching world needs to know that
Anglicans are defined first and foremost by faithfulness to the Word of
God. By God's grace, we will demonstrate that resolve as we gather in
Jerusalem to be heralds of the good news of Jesus, God's Son and our
Saviour."
Okoh praised the recent General Assembly of the Anglican Church of North
America, in Chicago, describing the gathering of some 1,400 bishops,
clergy and laity "as a truly historic event."
"In less than ten years, a new strong, united and spiritually vigorous
Anglican Province has come into being. It has become the launch pad for
a new work with the consecration of Bishop Andy Lines as a missionary
bishop for Europe." He cited GAFCON's initiative in making this happen.
Okoh said Chicago was a foretaste of what can be expected in Jerusalem
in June 2018.
GAFCON began in 2008 by Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, who described
it as a "rescue mission" for the Anglican Communion. That rescue was not
limited to North America. "There is still much to do because history is
repeating itself in other parts of the world, as the recent capitulation
of the Scottish Episcopal Church to secular ideas about marriage has
demonstrated," he said.
END
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:39:28 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: New Scottish Primus Gives Lie to Immutability of Sexual
Orientation
Message-ID:
<1500053968.3644797....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
New Scottish Primus Gives Lie to Immutability of Sexual Orientation
Church of England synod votes to ban reparative therapies
By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
July 9, 2017
The myth of homosexuality being "innate and immutable" got its biggest
exposure as myth and pushback when the new Primus of Scotland, Bishop
Mark Strange, admitted he was once in love with a man, but is now
married, with three kids, to a woman. The Scottish Episcopal Church then
went on to become the first major UK church to permit homosexual
marriage with his support, without seeing the irony that change is
possible.
The Anglican Communion, including and especially provinces like The
Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, The Scottish Episcopal
Church, Wales and (inevitably) the Church of England, will finally have
to admit that 'born that way, stay that way' is a myth and a lie. A
leading primate has now publicly admitted it is not true.
Of course, some gay activists will probably yell and scream that he was
not really gay at all, but that argument won't wash. Bishop Strange
publicly admitted he loved a man, but then fell in love with a woman.
A recent headline in USA Today recently challenged the prevailing
zeitgeist announcing, "'Born this way'? It's way more complicated than
that.'" Indeed, it is. Some gay activists now admit that sexuality is
fluid.
"Getting America to believe that people are born gay -- that it's not
something that can be chosen or ever changed -- has been central to the
fight for gay rights. If someone can't help being gay any more than they
can help the color of their skin, the logic goes, denying them rights is
wrong. But many members of the LGBTQ community reject this narrative,
saying it only benefits people who feel their sexuality and gender are
fixed rather than fluid, and questioning why the dignity of gay people
should rest on the notion that they were gay from their very first
breath."
The Church of England this week decided at its Synod to kick the can
down the road on the issue of full inclusion and acceptance of
homosexuality and homosexual marriage calling for more working groups to
examine the issue. The archbishops said a "radical new Christian
inclusion" is needed in the church" along with "a proper 21st-century
understanding of being human and being sexual".
But Alan Wilson, the bishop of Buckingham, accused his bishop colleagues
of "well-meaning temporizing waffle."
At the synod, a private member's motion by LGBT activist, Jayne Ozanne,
called for a full ban on helping for those with unwanted same-sex
attraction.
Ms. Ozanne claims that valuable ministries like Core Issues Trust (CIT),
led by Dr. Mike Davidson, are "spiritual abuse". Other ministries she is
targeting include Ellel, Living Waters, Alpha and even prayer ministry
offered at churches such as HTB and Soul Survivor.
As events transpired, the Synod did pass, overwhelmingly, a resolution
demanding a ban on reparative therapy aimed at changing sexual
orientation after hearing experiences of "spiritual abuse" in an
emotional debate. The church's governing body a motion saying conversion
therapy had "no place in the modern world".
Before the vote, Andrea Williams, president of Christian Concern,
warned; "We must recognize Jayne Ozanne's Private Member's Motion for
the deception that it is, and the existential threat that it poses."
"Love does not mean celebrating our neighbor's behavior no matter how
much it offends God's Word. Love sometimes means flipping a few money
changers' tables in the temple," she said.
Over the past fortnight, several items of correspondence were sent
regarding Ms. Ozanne's motion, with CIT's Dermot O'Callaghan standing in
defense of therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction and sending a
science briefing in rebuttal of Ms. Ozanne's claims. Nonetheless, the
Church of England synod voted overwhelmingly, calling for a ban.
Another argument is that some people are born gay, and isn't trying to
change who you are going to be damaging - like a black person trying to
be white?
Black evangelicals in America have openly repudiated this argument with
the comeback, "don't confuse your sin with my skin." One is born black,
no one is born gay. There is not a shred of evidence for the gene
argument; the oft repeated canard 'born gay' gets repeated so often it
becomes the "truth" by repetition.
Sexual orientation is not the same as race. There is no fundamental
genetic basis for it. Most research and testimonies of many gay people
and LGBT advocacy organizations admit that sexuality can be 'fluid'.
Some people can and do change.
In the U.S. there have been virulent attacks on ex-gay ministries with
the result that several have been legally closed down, including, Love
Won Out, Exodus International and JONAH.
But as Michael Brown of Townhall.com noted; "the ultimate reason Exodus
closed was because it lost sight of its mission, which was helping men
and women deal with unwanted same-sex attraction. That's why the most
important organizations that were affiliated with Exodus left before it
closed. And that's why those organizations are still going strong to
this day." Brown says that, ex-gay is here to stay.
"The reality is quite the opposite. It is true that some specific
networks and ministries no longer exist. But it is more and more common
for local churches to help individuals struggling with same-sex
attraction, meaning that this is not only a specialist ministry," he
says.
The New Jersey-based JONAH organization was actually run by a Jew not a
Christian, and he had had enormous success over many years with those
afflicted with same-sex attraction. The courts shut him down.
Other groups have come into place to fill the hole left by Exodus. One
is Restored Hope Network. Restored Hope is an inter-denominational
network dedicated to restoring hope to those broken by sexual and
relational sin, especially those impacted by homosexuality. "We proclaim
that Jesus Christ has life-changing power for all who submit to Christ
as Lord; we also seek to equip His church to impart that
transformation," says its mission statement.
Until his death, Joseph Nicolosi was an American clinical psychologist,
founder and director of the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in
Encino, California, and a founder and president of the National
Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. He was a
passionate believer in conversion therapy and saw thousands changed over
the course of 35 years in counselling. Individual professional
counselors and therapists have also seen great results too, and they
continue to network together to help those who struggle with same-sex
attraction.
There are others, including priests like Sam Allberry, an Oxford vicar,
self-described as same-sex attracted, who says that, despite his
attractions to men, he believed that to be a true follower of Christ
then one had to be celibate, just as our Lord was. He said that his
sexuality was not a matter of identity and that has become news. "Jesus
Christ never married or had a romantic relationship and never had sex.
If we say sex is intrinsic to human fulfillment then we say Jesus was
sub-human. My church has not become a safe place for me, I was bullied
at school and am now being bullied by Synod"." He said the CofE was in
the process of pastorally undermining the church's official teaching.
You can see a two-minute clip of his testimony here:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/two-minute-clip-homosexuality-every-christian-should-watch
There are countless testimonies of ex-gays that never make the light of
day in the media because of false and absurd charges of "hate" and
"homophobia" pushed by homosexual activists. All ex-gays will tell you
that they are no longer defined by their sexuality. That is who they
were. It is not who they are.
But still the LGBTQ community believe they are right, even if the sad
statistics on sexually transmitted diseases among the HIV/AIDS community
at the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) website say otherwise.
As Brown notes, "Old myths die hard, but they do eventually die."
But a new gaystapo force has arisen that brooks no opposition, "Thou
shalt be gay, like it or not."
Still and all, those people who want to end unwanted same-sex
attractions will find someone out there who will gently lead them into
all truth. St. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 13:8, "For we cannot do
anything against the truth, but only for the truth."
END
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:40:33 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Church of England Synod puts sex before the horrors of
Christian persecution
Message-ID:
<1500054033.3644955....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Church of England Synod puts sex before the horrors of Christian
persecution
By Jules Gomes
http://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/
July 10, 2017
General Synod is the Church of England's highest decision-making body.
It holds congress twice a year--in Westminster and in York. It is
copulating (in the original Latin sense) this weekend in York. Over 400
bishops, clergy and laity will attend its sessions. Members may propose
motions, ask questions, discuss positions and raise issues for debate.
It is their chance to table the most serious issues facing Christianity
and therefore society today.
What are they? The list surely is long from a catastrophically declining
church membership and the concomitant collapse of Christian marriage
(the very building block of Christian culture) to the sanctity of life
(threatened by the normalisation of abortion) to pressure for
euthanasia. But of the greatest urgency, surely, is the genocide of
Christians in the Islamic world and the persecution of Christians in
countries like India, which is ruled by a fascistic Hindu government.
Two months ago, in Civilisation sleeps while a Christian Holocaust takes
shape, a response to A Manifesto for Persecuted Christians launched by
Barnabas Fund, I set out how Christians today are the world's most
persecuted religious group. The statistics are truly shocking: A
Christian is killed every six minutes and 500,000 Christians around the
globe are unable to practice their faith freely. No, these are not
alarmist statistics provided by advocacy groups. These are understated
figures supplied by The Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) an
independent international network that engages in scholarly research and
provides accurate information to the public on new religious movements.
That is the considered assessment of the liberal Berkley Center for
Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University.
In the Book of Revelation the great enemy of the church is personified
as the Whore of Babylon. This is the whore who seeks to destroy the
church. She is portrayed as 'drunk with the blood of the saints, the
blood of the martyrs' (Revelation 17:6). Does this knowledge make the
slightest difference to General Synod? Do Archbishops Welby and Sentamu,
the over 80 bishops and bishopettes, the archdeacons and deans, priests
and priestesses, and the laity at the heart of the 80 million strong
Anglican Communion attending this bi-annual shindig, even raise an
eyebrow over the genocide of their fellow-Christians?
The nitpicking left-wing hierarchy of the British church even seems to
have difficulty when it comes to using the word 'genocide' to describe
the persecution of Christians. Last year, neither the Church of England
nor the Catholic Church in the UK were willing to openly advocate for
the use of the word. Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, said it was
'complicated as many Muslims had been killed too.' Welby was willing to
concede the reality of Christians facing 'elimination' at the hands of
ISIS but refused to use the word 'genocide.'
Yet when it comes to defending Muslims in a BBC Radio 4 response to the
London Bridge terror attack, Welby was quick to highlight the massacre
of Muslims in Srebrenica as evidence for the Christian equivalent of
Islamic terrorism. Although the Genocide Convention came into force in
1948, this was the first-ever conviction by the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide. The massacre was
designated as 'genocide'. It was a contested and controversial decision
even though the numbers killed amounted to between 7,000 to 8,000
military-aged Bosnian Muslim men. By comparison to this, the 'shy'
Archbishop might note, some 90,000 Christians were murdered for their
faith in 2016.
The British House of Commons does not share his reticence. They voted
unanimously (278-0) in favour of declaring the attacks against
Christians as genocide. Similarly the US House of Representatives made a
unanimous declaration in March, and likewise the European Parliament did
so in February 2016. The Church of Ireland also unanimously adopted a
motion at its General Synod in Dublin expressing solidarity with
persecuted Christians across the world.
What has the Church of England done? Nothing.
While their Christian brethren-- bishops, priests, nuns, evangelists and
congregation members - are raped, stoned, crucified or machine-gunned to
death, while their churches are bombed or burned down, while modern day
Neros are throwing Christians to the lions, what the members of General
Synod are suffering from is a preoccupation with sex.
As the veteran conservative blogger Adrian Hilton observed earlier this
week regarding this week's Synod: 'Of the 85 listed Synod questions, not
one -- not one -- is concerned with the plight of the persecuted church
worldwide. There are questions about sex, sexuality, sex, LGBT, sex,
LGTBQIA (what?), sex, LGBTI, sex, same-sex marriage, sex, "gay cure"
conversion therapy, sex, sex, and sex. Oh, there's a question on
'Monitoring air quality', too. That's diversity of obsession. Welcome to
the General Sex Synod of the Church of England.'
'Sex' is to General Synod what the 'bell' was to the Russian
psychologist Ivan Pavlov's salivating dogs. The Church of England has
sex on the brain. Four African nations face one of the worst famine
crises since World War II yet all the Church of England can obsess about
is what lies below, not above, the belt.
So why this fixation on sex? And at a time that Justin Welby is facing
serious questions regarding two of the most significant sexual abuse
scandals in recent archiepiscopal memory? Could this be another
diversionary virtue-signalling media tactic as was scapegoating the
former conservative ABC George Carey, while letting the former liberal
ABC Rowan Williams get away with a rap on the knuckles?
Last week, another skeleton came tumbling out of the C of E closet when
'Michael,' a victim of sexual abuse shed his anonymity and revealed his
identity as Fr Matthew Ineson. Fr. Ineson says he was molested, raped,
and tortured by an Anglican priest, that he complained to a whole
platoon of bishops, including Bishop of Oxford Steven Croft, Bishop of
Leicester Martyn Snow and Archbishop of York John Sentamu, and finally
that. he wrote to Archbishop Justin Welby 12 times in 2016, all
ignored,' he states. Fr Ineson will make his protest in full view of
General Synod this weekend. The media will be agog - but not perhaps if
Welby feeds them a diversionary sex agenda.
There is perhaps another more disturbing reason. The Church of England
in recent years has begun to worship at another altar - the Unholy
Trinity of Nietzsche, Marx and Freud. 'It's all about power,' said
Friedrich Nietzsche. 'It's all about sex,' said Sigmund Freud. 'It's all
about class warfare,' said Karl Marx. General Synod is all about power
politics.
Discussing pansexuality in a manner that would frazzle even Freud, the
mania with sex keeps General Synod stimulated. The Marxian thesis of
class warfare has morphed into a cultural Marxism of identity politics
where the division is not so much between bourgeois and proletariat but
between pansexualists and those who prefer the traditional position on
sex.
Instead of having Bibles in the pew, it is likely members of General
Synod will be given an illustrated copy of the Kama Sutra! Watching the
antics of the General Synod Sex Circus, the Hungarian-born British
journalist George Mikes, would have to rewrite the chapter on sex in his
very funny book How to be an Alien. 'European men and women have
sex-lives; English men and women have hot-water bottles,' he wrote in
1946. Not any more! And certainly not if you are on General Synod! You
are more likely to get a sex therapy session.
The Rev'd Dr Jules Gomes is pastor of St Augustine's Church, Douglas, on
the Isle of Man
------------------------------
Message: 10
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:41:15 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Church of England bishops 'delaying same-sex equality' move
Message-ID:
<1500054075.3645522....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Church of England bishops 'delaying same-sex equality' move
Synod members say creating new working groups fails to address issue as
leaders accused of 'waffle'
Justin Welby said the intention of the working groups was to 'map, to
set out clearly where we agree and where we disagree, to help us
understand better the issues and the points of conflict'
By Harriet Sherwood
THE GUARDIAN
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news
July 8, 2017
Church of England bishops have been accused of kicking the issue of
same-sex equality into the long grass by offloading the topic to a
series of working groups that will not report until 2020 at the
earliest.
The archbishops of Canterbury and York, the two most senior figures in
the church, have established two main groups and four subgroups to
advise on pastoral issues and produce a new teaching document on human
sexuality.
Reporting to the C of E's synod, meeting in York, Justin Welby said the
processes "aim to take a reasonable time for profound thought by a large
number of people across a wide range of views, and during that time
provide pastoral guidance".
The intention, he added, was to "map, to set out clearly where we agree
and where we disagree, to help us understand better the issues and the
points of conflict".
He said he hoped a document would be available for discussion at the
synod in early 2020 "though on a process this complicated we cannot be
pinned down relating to time".
Welby was challenged from the floor of the synod on whether bishops were
"sufficiently aware of the urgency of this matter". Joyce Hill, a lay
member of the synod and former pro-vice-chancellor of the University of
Leeds, said: "There is a lot of long grass potentially growing."
In response, the archbishop of Canterbury said: "Many people think it
should take a lot longer, many think we should come to a quick decision
now. All of us would like a magic wand to wave ... [but] there's no
magic wand.
"We believe very firmly that a timescale of two and a half to three
years both does justice to the depth and range of questions that need to
be addressed ... and to the need to begin to draw some conclusions for
the church. This clearly will not satisfy everyone."
The working groups were established after February's synod meeting
narrowly threw out a bishops' report that upheld traditional teaching on
marriage.
In response, the archbishops said a "radical new Christian inclusion in
the the church" was needed, founded in scripture, tradition and faith
while also based on "a proper 21st-century understanding of being human
and being sexual".
But Alan Wilson, the bishop of Buckingham, accused his bishop colleagues
of "well-meaning temporising waffle" while society moved on. "The fact
is we've been going round this mulberry bush regularly for almost 30
years. Each new iteration consists of a grand announcement that the
bishops will lead the way forward," he said.
"The only way forward is mutual personal respect that acknowledges
difference. Instead, the House of Bishops attempts to synthesise a
single grand approach to impose top-down. People aren't looking for
bishops to teach about this. They want us to shut up for a change,
listen to someone other than ourselves and learn."
Speaking after Saturday's synod session on "next steps in human
sexuality", Hill said that "while the bishops need to be thorough about
developing a clearer understanding on these issues, there is a lot of
potential for things to be sidelined, postponed and delayed".
Society had moved on in its understanding of sexual relationships, and
the state had followed by legalising same-sex marriage, "but the church
doesn't seem to adequately address these issues in a way that can be
understood by the nation".
The church's difficulties in moving forward was "damaging, especially in
relationship with the younger generation -- people in their 20s, 30s and
40s. We have a real problem."
Acknowledging the profound disagreements within the C of E and global
Anglican communion on sexuality, Hill added: "Every now and then, if you
can't get consensus, you have to say: 'Let's provide leadership.' If it
causes division, that's sad but sometimes necessary."
There was a growing anxiety among lay members of the church that bishops
were stalling on the issues, she said, "and I hear a lot of impatience
in the pews".
The issue of same-sex relationships and whether the church should allow
same-sex marriage has dominated synod proceedings in recent years.
Conservative Anglicans have threatened to leave the church if it changes
its traditional teachings.
Last month, Scottish Anglicans voted overwhelmingly in favour of
allowing same-sex couples to marry in church in a historic move that set
their church on a potential collision course with the global Anglican
Communion.
------------------------------
Message: 11
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:42:32 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Church of England: Welcoming Transgender People
Message-ID:
<1500054152.3645962....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Church of England: Welcoming Transgender People
https://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2017/07/welcoming-transgender-people.aspx
July 10, 2017
The General Synod of the Church of England has passed a motion on
welcoming transgender people.
Members of Synod, meeting in York, supported a call for the House of
Bishops to consider preparing nationally commended liturgical materials
to mark a person's gender transition.
The motion also recognises the "need for transgender people to be
welcomed and affirmed in their parish church".
It was moved by the Revd Christopher Newlands on behalf of the Blackburn
Diocesan Synod.
Opening the debate, he said: "I hope that we can make a powerful
statement to say that we believe that trans people are cherished and
loved by God, who created them, and is present through all the twists
and turns of their lives."
Speaking during the debate the Bishop of Worcester, Dr John Inge said:
"Our response needs to be loving and open and welcoming and the passing
of this motion would be a very important factor in that."
An amendment to the motion, moved by Dr Nick Land of the Diocese of
York, calling instead for the House of Bishops to consider the
theological, pastoral and other issues around gender transition, was
rejected by all three houses of Synod.
The votes in the House of Bishops were 30 for and two against, with two
abstentions.
In the House of Clergy 127 backed the motion with 28 against and 16
abstentions.
In the House of Laity 127 supported the motion with 48 opposing and
eight abstentions.
The motion passed reads:
FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TRANSGENDER MOVEMENT click here:
http://www.virtueonline.org/truth-about-transgender-movement
------------------------------
Message: 12
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:43:20 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Church of England demands ban on conversion therapy
Message-ID:
<1500054200.3646165....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Church of England demands ban on conversion therapy
Synod calls for government to ban practice aiming to change sexual
orientation after hearing experiences of 'spiritual abuse' in emotional
debate
The church's governing body overwhelmingly backed a motion saying
conversion therapy had 'no place in the modern world'
By Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/08/church-of-england-demands-ban-on-conversion-therapy
July 8, 2017
The Church of England has called on the government to ban conversion
therapy and has condemned the practice, which aims to change sexual
orientation, as unethical and potentially harmful.
At the end of an emotional debate in which two members of the C of E
synod described their experiences as spiritual abuse, the church's
governing body overwhelmingly backed a motion saying the practice had
"no place in the modern world".
Conversion therapy is usually described as an attempt to change a
person's sexual orientation or gender identity. Some churches in the C
of E and other denominations have encouraged LGBT members to take part
in prayer sessions and other activities to rid them of their "sin".
Proposing the motion, Jayne Ozanne -- who underwent conversion therapy
resulting in two breakdowns and two spells in hospital -- said
conversion therapy was "abuse from which vulnerable adults need
protecting".
It was "discredited by the government, the NHS, the Royal College of
Psychiatrists, the Royal College of General Practitioners and many other
senior health care bodies," she said.
Quoting from a statement issued earlier this year by the UK Council for
Psychotherapy and other bodies, she said: "Exclusion, stigma and
prejudice may precipitate mental health issues for any person subjected
to these abuses."
Ozanne quoted an online survey she recently conducted in the LGBTI
community, in which just under 40% of her 553 respondents said they had
undergone some form of conversion therapy.
More than two-thirds said they had chosen to do so because they believed
their sexual orientation to be "sinful". Just under three-quarters were
under the age of 20 when they began conversion therapy.
Ed Cox, of the C of E's youth council, struggled to maintain composure
as he spoke of his personal experience of being told his sexual
orientation was a lifestyle choice or phase and needed prayer.
"This fundamentally says I was made wrong," he told the synod. As a
result of what he described as spiritual abuse, he suffered severe
depression.
John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, said conversion therapy was
"theologically unsound, so the sooner the practice of [it] is banned, I
can sleep at night".
Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, said LGBT orientation was neither a
crime nor a sin. "We don't need to engage people in healing therapy if
they are not sick."
Fenella Cannings-Jurd, a student at Durham university, said she found it
hard to believe that "in 2017 we are seriously debating the pros and
cons of conversion therapy". It was "by and large" seen as a violation
of basic human rights, she said.
Some synod members expressed concern that the motion would limit the
church's ability to offer pastoral care and prayer for people struggling
with issues of sexual desire and orientation.
The final vote, after a complicated series of amendments, was 298 to 74,
with 26 abstentions. The motion had the backing of all three houses of
the synod, the bishops, clergy and laity.
Speaking before the debate, Ozanne said she wanted the church to make a
clear public statement. As the established church "we can encourage
other denominations and faiths to consider their positions on this", she
said.
Conversion therapy was particularly prevalent in minority ethnic
Pentecostal denominations, and in some extreme cases young people were
sent back to their family's country of origin for "corrective rape".
In a letter to members of synod, Sonia Soans, the editor of Asylum
magazine for democratic psychiatry, recounted the case of Esther, a
British lesbian and Anglican, who was taken to her parents' native
country on the pretext of a holiday a few years ago.
"Very quickly, Esther learned she was being forced into a marriage with
a man she did not know. Her conversion included some religious rituals,
with prayers for her conversion being offered by those around her,"
wrote Soans.
When Esther protested, she was locked in her house, but managed to
escape. "She lives in hiding now, as she fears her family will track her
down and perhaps kill her." She suffers from panic attacks and
sleeplessness.
Ozanne quoted from a letter she had received from a 90-year-old C of E
priest, who said: "I am a celibate homosexual and have suffered a
lifetime of reactive depression resulting from my inability to accept my
sexual orientation ...
"I was brought up an evangelical Christian. The trouble started for real
when in my early 20s a fundamentalist Christian sought to exorcise my
'demon' as he called [it], but failed to do so. This resulted in a
breakdown and hospitalisation where I was administered electric current
therapy. After that I had testosterone injections for a year
administered by my local GP.
"There followed two years of Freudian analysis in the hope that my
sexual orientation would be redirected. I was then given lithium ...
followed by no end of personal counselling, therapy and prayer, all of
which totally failed to make one jot of difference to my sexual
inclinations ... On two occasions, I have contemplated suicide."
HOW THEY VOTED:
Members voted by houses on the amended motion.
The votes in the House of Bishops were 36 for and one against, with no
abstentions.
In the House of Clergy 135 backed the motion with 25 against and 13
abstentions.
In the House of Laity 127 supported the motion with 48 opposing and 13
abstentions.
END
------------------------------
Message: 13
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:44:15 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: U.K.: Leading Anglican Evangelist Berates Welby over Carey's
Forced Resignation
Message-ID:
<1500054255.3646385....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
U.K.: Leading Anglican Evangelist Berates Welby over Carey's Forced
Resignation
By Canon Michael Green
www.virtueonline.org
July 11, 2017
Public executions are ugly. But that is what has happened to Lord Carey.
As a result of his handling of the Bishop Peter Ball pedophile affair, a
quarter of a century ago, he has now not only been criticized in the
Gibb Report and accused in a letter of June 21 by the present Archbishop
of colluding with Ball; he has been forced to resign from the honorary
role of Assistant Bishop in Oxford, and banned from any form of ministry
in any church worldwide!
He did not collude with Peter Ball, who was cautioned by the police,
resigned as Bishop of Gloucester and was in due course imprisoned. Lord
Carey's mistake, for which he has apologised, was failing to put Ball,
by then a sick man, on the Lambeth Caution List, because he did not
think there was any chance of his ministering again. The provincial
Registrar concurred. It is hard to escape the conclusion that Lord Carey
has been made a scapegoat, and Dr. Welby's ban is not only unjust but
petty.
The whole thing seems to have been very badly orchestrated. Archbishop
Welby's letter to Lord Carey came out of the blue -- the same day as the
press conference. It has been suggested that George Carey should have
looked after the numerous victims of Peter Ball, but this is
unrealistic. It is not the job of an Archbishop to be chasing round for
the care of unknown individuals. Care in the C of E is delegated to the
parish priest, if necessary under the guidance of the bishop.
Sincerely,
Dr. Michael Green,
Oxford
------------------------------
Message: 14
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:44:55 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Lord Carey's forced resignation is an injustice: he, too, was
a victim of Peter Ball
Message-ID:
<1500054295.3646547....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Lord Carey's forced resignation is an injustice: he, too, was a victim
of Peter Ball
By Martin Sewell
http://archbishopcranmer.com/lord-carey-forced-resignation-injustice-victim-peter-ball/
July 4, 2017
This is a guest post by Martin Sewell, a retired Child Protection Lawyer
and a member of General Synod. He considers here the wiles and
manipulations of child-abuser Peter Ball, and advances a plausible
defence of former Archbishop George, now Lord Carey.
If one reads the Gibb Report, with the child abuse story organised and
catalogued in a single document, Lord Carey's serious errors and
misjudgements are obvious, especially through the lenses of our modern
understandings of abuse. Life is experienced in a much more haphazard
and diffuse way, however, and the story evolved over a lengthy period.
For substantial periods the name of Peter Ball fell off the agenda, and
when he returned it is of the nature of everyday life that it was not
always the case that 'joined-up thinking' resumed.
We also need to recall that Peter Ball operated in a period when it was
seriously advanced on behalf of abusers of children that 'all children
lie', that they did so for trivial advantage, and quite seriously by
some psychiatrists, that all little girls fantasise about having sex
with their fathers. These were times of a very different mindset, and
Ball lived and operated in a church which simultaneously condemned gay
orientation and acts, yet comprised of men like George Carey who felt
compassion for their plight and vulnerability.
Like Jimmy Savile, Ball's professional reputation and successes within
the Church conferred upon him a degree of untouchability which he knew,
understood, and exploited. Like Savile, Ball worked within a large
institution where many developed collective amnesia, willing to
acknowledge 'rumours' but without a sufficient structurally rigorous
safeguarding regime to collect all the evidence and force the key
question to be asked: 'What does all this mean?'
The comparison with Savile needs to go a stage further.
Both he and Ball were able, by force of personality, to only to dominate
their victims initially, but to hold them, isolate them and silence them
beyond the time of direct influence. For many, it was only upon Savile's
death that the spell was broken and they were finally able to tell those
closest to them what had happened. We rarely speak of the power of evil
in the modern world, but even the sceptical secularist struggles to
explain such a phenomenon in any other way.
If you have never encountered such glib, plausible, manipulative
abusers, it is almost impossible to fully grasp the way in which they
successfully operate. It was especially rare for their brand of
charismatic evil to be appreciated in the public sphere during the
period when Ball was working on Carey.
The first point of defence is to note not simply how naive Carey was,
but how many people were taken in -- not only by Carey, but Ball's own
bishop brother who joined his brother to re-write the narrative. Carey
had two of them working on him over a prolonged period of time
exploiting an innate Christian kindness.
It was not only the Archbishop but nine further bishops who were
ensnared, and countless others. Carey was being pressurised without
independent advisors cataloguing the story, keeping him on the straight
and narrow. The closer you let Peter Ball get to you, the less chance
you had of seeing him for what he was. It is striking that it is mainly
the remoter figures in the story, such as Deacon K, who actually got his
measure at the time. Peter Ball's brother defended him from first to
last.
Even some of Ball's victims spoke of the 'spiritual benefits' they
experienced from his methods of distorting and corrupting spiritual
exercise into abuse. He fooled a Lord of Appeal -- Lord Lloyd -- one of
the most astute judges of his day, together with countless school
headmasters, members of the gentry, and possibly members of the Royal
Family. He persuaded a diocesan registrar to imprudently interpret the
rule against conflict of interest in order to represent him in a
personal capacity whilst simultaneously advising the church. These are
not naive people, but all succumbed in various ways alongside George
Carey.
If you want a model for Carey's ensnarement, think of the abused wife
who is always making excuses for her abuser, or even Esther Rantzen, who
was simultaneously setting up Childline and suppressing her doubts about
Jimmy Savile as all the rumours reconfirmed everything she 'heard' but
did not 'know'. Even now she honestly struggles to explain it. We used
to convict wives who stabbed their abusive husbands because we reasoned
that they could always walk away rather than resort to murder. Now we
have a better understanding of the corrosive power of the emotional
entrapment exercised by the manipulative abuser.
Once having 'got' Carey, Ball would have regarded him as a prize asset
and not let him go.
There are two striking parts of the story that resonate from my own
experience of such abusers.
First, Ball accepts a caution of gross indecency with a 17-year-old boy.
That was plainly an offence at the time. Later he presents it as
accepting a caution involving a 19-year-old, which would not have been a
crime against a minor. That is clever and subtle. It refocuses the
mischief from the plainly criminally abusive to the culturally unlucky.
He implants the notion in a context where it may not matter enough for
Carey to instantly go and check, and having re-ordered the narrative,
Ball can then return and build upon its minimising implication at a
later time. This is textbook manipulative behaviour, like a conjuror
'forcing' an idea or a choice upon a victim.
I do not make false equivalence between the Archbishop and his victims,
whose abuse is infinitely deeper and longer lasting, but Carey is also a
victim of Ball. Many of Ball's victims were persuaded to ignore what
they thought and knew, and by the power of his charisma were induced to
adopt and trust the narrative that has been implanted and developed.
Another familiar technique of the manipulator was his use of the
Diocesan Registrar. Being close to his legal advisor, he might better
hope to avoid receiving clear distanced advice of a challenging kind. He
could build on the respect developed in happier times and thereby retain
a measure of control. He gets the firm to mislead the CPS on detail
about what is agreed, and they refer to a Royal reference which is never
produced: it is easier to suggest that the church should 'pay the
Diocesan Registrar' rather than 'pay my independent solicitor'. If the
Diocesan Registrar is fighting his corner, the Church of England is also
fighting his corner. Drip, drip, drip.
Later, when he decides the time is ripe to challenge the caution --
which he had been very lucky to receive -- he is happy to throw his
solicitor under the bus, claiming that the Registrar was incompetent and
let him down. Ball presents himself as the victim of advice he should
never have accepted. Each step of the way he is exploiting the
proximity, and rightly assumes that neither Carey nor anyone else will
go back, read all the notes and remind themselves, reconnecting to the
actual facts. Carey is only human. There is no computer to say 'No'.
This is classic behaviour which I have seen and encountered many times
from such people.
He develops the tyranny of small concessions. You are hooked and weary,
and just want to get on with other more important things. He wants to do
confirmations? He tells you he's already done some, nothing went wrong,
where's the harm? You can either go through it again or just give in
because it probably doesn't matter, and he is a great inspirer of
vocations and it was only a police caution: if it had been serious they
would have prosecuted him over that 19-year-old... ( see what I did
there?).
His brother Michael is a bishop who described his brother's behaviour as
merely 'silly' and, according to the report, behaved in a way 'close to
perverting the course of justice'. He tried to secure the status of an
assistant bishop for his brother, petulantly declining one for himself
if his brother were not similarly honoured.
Michael Ball has not suffered a penalty akin to that of George Carey,
although his role in keeping Peter Ball within the church fold was
crucial.
Archbishop Carey was ultimately responsible, but his brother bishops and
the church structures of the time gave him scant help. Every institution
of the time was making similar catastrophic judgements. Individualising
the responsibility is not helpful because the very function of the
scapegoat is to remove the sin from others. To coin a current phrase,
the inadequacies from this time were of the many, not the few.
We must be careful to ensure that such reports continue to usefully
inform us. George Carey co-operated with the Gibb Inquiry, and so, to
his credit, did Bishop Michael Ball. These reports are improved by the
frank and willing engagement of those who remember, though when there is
delay, several of those who could have added perspective have died. They
will include some who might have added to the indictment of George
Carey, but also those who might have aided his defence. Justice delayed
is indeed justice denied.
I offer the suggestion that it may be best for society if these kind of
inquiries are regarded as more akin to the South African 'Truth and
Reconciliation Commission'. Used in this way, we gain better insights
and have a better chance of understanding how to avoid these problems in
the future.
George Carey has been forced to resign. If he is now prosecuted, as some
are now demanding, what message will that give future potential
witnesses, and how might that distort our future ability to be informed
and to learn? Pour encourager les autres has some coercive value, but it
is not an obviously moral impulse when applied to a witness who has
agreed to engage with his failures, only to find that his honesty paves
the way to prosecution. We gain more from George Carey and Michael Ball
testifying than from Peter Ball 'taking the Fifth Amendment'.
The Gibb Report is but the start of the problem from the Church of
England's point of view. The Carlile Report into errors of the church in
its handling of historical abuse in the case of Bishop George Bell will
almost certainly add to our woes and the clamour for reform. The two
reports deal with separate issues, but they have one thing in common:
the current Bishops shaped the agenda. I say that as a structural point
and in no way to personalise criticism of people doing their very best.
That may not, of course, be enough in this context.
Very few in the Church want or wanted abuse to go undetected. That
included George Carey.
The lesson that surely screams from the pages of the Gibb Report is that
those who manage complaints must be much more professional, organised,
and above all must not retain any personal connection with the person
under consideration. The case for the out-placing of the investigations
is becoming unanswerable. Unfortunately, if we direct our ire at the
hapless Archbishop, we are almost certainly taking our eye off a much
bigger picture.
------------------------------
Message: 15
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:46:52 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Church of England says you can choose to be gay but not to be
straight
Message-ID:
<1500054412.3646964....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Church of England says you can choose to be gay but not to be straight
By Jules Gomes
https://www.julesgomes.com/
July 12, 2017
Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, is suffering from chronic insomnia. He
reminds me of Eric Lederer, the perpetual insomniac in the novel The Boy
Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had to. He also reminds me of Evan Michael
Tanner in the novel The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep. Tanner hasn't slept in
more than a decade since a shard of shrapnel invaded his skull and
obliterated his brain's sleep centre. Like Lederer and Tanner,
Archbuffoon Sentamu cannot sleep.
Pity the poor man! He hasn't slept a wink. His mind is on the blink.
What ails his anguished soul? What racks his troubled body? Swarms of
mosquitoes from the pestilential swamp of his fellow bishops? Shadowy
nightmares about Robert Mugabe cutting his arch-episcopal throat after
Sent-to-moo cut his dog collar on the Andrew Marr show? Nay!
So, what is keeping him counting sheep at night? The terrible scandal of
the poor white working class girls from Rotherham who were groomed for
rape and sexual abuse by Pakistani Muslim predators while police and
social workers turned a blind eye? The blood-curdling persecution of
Christians in the Islamic world? Muslim converts to Christianity being
cold-shouldered by the CofE in dioceses like Bradford and Leeds under
his very own nose in the Province of York? Nay!
Tell us, please! The cause of his chronic insomnia must be very serious.
We'd like to pray for the poor soul. Surely it must be the Vicious 'Viv'
Foul bell-ringing fiasco in York Minster? Or perhaps the mutiny led by
feminazi priestesses and their supporters, who refused to accept Bishop
Philip North as Bishop of Sheffield because he does not ordain women?
Stop the guessing game! We are dying to know! Why can't His Holiness
Sentamu get his hard-earned dose of forty winks? Could it be the
collusion at the heart of the Church of England that led to the
continued abuse of so many boys and young men that is keeping him awake
- his and others' disregard of their complaints?
Conversion Therapy is keeping Archbuffoon John Sentamu awake at night.
No. What is keeping John Sentamu awake at night is Conversion Therapy,
also known as Elective or Reparative Therapy. At the bi-annual gabfest
of the Church of England General "Sex" Synod last week, it was this that
the Archbishop of York trumpeted as the cause of his chronic insomnia.
'The sooner the practice of this so-called therapy is banned, I can
sleep at night; so let's encourage the government to do it,' he said,
alleging that the practice was 'theologically unsound.'
He can rest. The overwhelming majority of participants, including 36 out
of 37 bishops, backed Jayne Ozone's motion calling for its ban. Now, no
longer will someone with an unwelcome homosexual urge be able to seek
spirit counselling or therapy. Celebrate it and sanctify it, the Church
might as well say.
How are we to interpret this diktat? It is clear - if you are attracted
to a person of the same sex this is an exercise of your free will, but
if you make an informed choice (as an adult) to ask your vicar for help
or to pray that God will take away your homosexual desires, and if your
vicar does so, it lands him with a disciplinary charge! In a word there
is no choice. You are constrained.
General Synod theology now has it that you are free to choose to be gay
but not to chose to be straight. Homosexuality is immutable.
Heterosexuality is not. And God, meanwhile, is impotent in the matter -
heaven forfend he goes against General Synod or fails to rejoice in
every conversion to homosexuality.
Believe it or not, in order to try to protect God's freedom to intervene
(and the Holy Spirit's freedom to convert a person from homosexual to
heterosexual attraction), the Rev Dr Sean Doherty had to move an
amendment affirming that 'pastoral care, prayer ministry: that
professional counselling were "legitimate means of supporting
individuals who choose them freely, provided that they respect the
property dignity of human beings, and do not involve coercion or
manipulation or make unwarranted promises about the removal of unwanted
feelings.'"
He was roundly defeated for his pains. Synod rejected prayer, pastoral
care, counselling and free choice in favour of the new LGBTIQ gender
orthodoxy.
Will the CofE's new totalitarianism keep Sentamu awake at night?
If this were not perverse enough, in a gigantic leap of oxymoronic
policy-making, General Synod went on to vote for creating new liturgies
to affirm the new gender identity of a person who has 'transitioned.'
Who implored General Synod to vote for such specially designed
'liturgies' to welcome a transgender person under their new name? The
uncritically accepting Sentamu, who appears to have put not Satan, but
science as well as God behind him.
One brave enough to vote against him was Ed Shaw, an evangelical member
of General Synod, worried not simply that no one had defined exactly it
was that was to be banned under the general term 'conversion therapy,'
but also that genuine pastoral care of LGBT people could be badly
affected by the ban. No one else cared. No guarantees were given, no
amendments considered. But will Ed Shaw's fear of the CofE's new
totalitarianism keep Sentamu awake at night? Not, I fear, in a million
years.
Yet Sentamu has yet to tell us why the practice of conversion therapy is
theologically unsound. The ploy not to define it worked magnificently.
With theological illiterate dominating the House of Bishops there was no
theological debate. Nor was there scientific debate, the medical
condition of gender dysphoria presumably deemed irrelevant.
Just as the Holy Office issued a condemnation of Galileo's heliocentric
theory in 1616, General Synod voted to condemn science and scavenge for
scraps in the garbage can of the politics of identity, sexuality and
gender.
Nihil desperandum! Despair not! The most important agent of Sentamu's
chronic insomnia was tamed. Now the Archbuffoon of Dork can pray his
Nunc Dimittis and get a good night's sleep.
(Originally published in The Conservative Woman)
------------------------------
Message: 16
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:47:32 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: SCOTUS Power Threatens Religious Liberty
Message-ID:
<1500054452.3647047....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
SCOTUS Power Threatens Religious Liberty
By HANNAH LUTZ
https://juicyecumenism.com/2017/07/11/scotus-power-threatens-religious-liberty/
July 11, 2017
All eyes were on the Supreme Court's 7-2 ruling on Trinity Lutheran
Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, a major victory for religious liberty
and school choice warriors. The next religious liberty case the Court
will rule on is the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights
Commission. These cases get to the heart of the First Amendment and the
relationship between Church and state.
The First Amendment, freedom of religion, states, "Congress shall make
no laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof."
The Bill of Rights were intended to apply solely to the federal
government because the states already had their own bill of rights.
Federalism was thriving just as the Federalists envisioned. Thus,
regarding religion, the federal government could not establish one
religion on all citizens nor hinder religious communities and
individuals from exercising their beliefs in the public square. However,
as history progressed, the Bill of Rights was incorporated to the states
through the Fourteenth Amendment, thus imposing a set of standards on
all states.
It was not until the Supreme Court enshrined Thomas Jefferson's term
"separation between church and state" in Everson v. Board of Education
that the division carried legal weight. The argument for separation
between Church and state, disputed in all religious liberty cases, is
based on faulty reasoning. The phrase actually appears nowhere in the
Constitution. During the Founding Era, religion was central in society.
Therefore, the result of Everson v. Board of Education ended in the
Court focusing on establishment versus free exercise, thus hindering
religious practices, such as school prayer (in Engel v. Vitale; (1962).
Thus, with a new definition of freedom of religion, the Supreme Court
has continued to be the giver or taker of religious liberty. Instead of
championing federalism, the Court speaks and mandates nation-wide
restrictions on religions.
For religious voters, the open seat on the Supreme Court was vital
during the 2016 election. Many were pleased that President Trump
appointed a justice, Neil Gorsuch, who defends and protects freedom of
the religion. However, religious individuals and communities should not
feel so threatened by appointees on the Court. The Founders never
intended the Supreme Court to become politicized as it is today.
Interestingly, Anti-Federalist author, "Brutus", warned against
judiciary power becoming supreme above other powers. Brutus believed
that the Supreme Court would rule based on "the spirit of the law," in
other words what the judges believe the law should be. Reading Brutus'
work reveals the predicament America is in today: a mighty Supreme Court
that citizens await to determine if they can practice their beliefs or
not.
Alas religious communities will once again be watching the nine rulers
in robes as they decide the fate of the baker, Jack Phillips in
declining to bake a cake for same-sex weddings due to his religion
beliefs. The Court will make a decision in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v.
Colorado Civil Rights Commission case that will affect the consciousness
of millions of individuals across the United States.
Brutus may have been considered extreme in his time. However, it seems
his warnings about an all-powerful court legislating from the bench have
come to fruition. We have no choice but to hope that "the spirit of the
law" will lead the justices to decide based on the original intention of
the First Amendment protecting freedom of religion.
END
------------------------------
Message: 17
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:48:14 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Medical and Mental Health Professionals File Groundbreaking
Joint Complaint Against Gay Activists with the Federal Trade
Commission
Message-ID:
<1500054494.3647658....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Medical and Mental Health Professionals File Groundbreaking Joint
Complaint Against Gay Activists with the Federal Trade Commission
https://www.voiceofthevoiceless.info/category/press-release
July 10, 2017
Complaint to FTC Charges Southern Poverty Law Center, Human Rights
Campaign, and National Center for Lesbian Rights of Engaging in Mass
Fraud in Efforts to Ban Therapy
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Today, a major blow was delivered to three of the
largest gay activist organizations in the United States, as the National
Task Force for Therapy Equality, representing tens of thousands of
licensed psychotherapists, psychiatrists, and physicians and over 1,000
clients and patients, filed a consumer fraud complaint on behalf of
eight organizations with the Federal Trade Commission, charging the
Southern Poverty Law Center, Human Rights Campaign, and National Center
for Lesbian Rights of committing mass deception and fraud in their
efforts to ban counseling by licensed professionals for clients
distressed with unwanted same-sex attractions and gender identity
conflicts.
The report, titled: In Their Own Words--Lies, Deception, and Fraud: The
Southern Poverty Law Center, Human Rights Campaign, and National Center
for Lesbian Rights' Hate Campaign to Ban Psychotherapy for Individuals
with Sexual and Gender Identity Conflicts, which can be accessed here
(In Their Own Words -- Lies, Deception, and Fraud -- National Task Force
Complaint to the Federal Trade Commission), was filed by the National
Task Force on behalf of the American College of Pediatricians, Christian
Medical and Dental Associations, Alliance for Adolescent Health, Family
Watch International, Voice of the Voiceless, Center for Family and Human
Rights, Jewish Institute for Global Awareness, and the Alliance for
Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity. These organizations
represent over 20,000 licensed therapists, psychiatrists, and physicians
and over 1,000 clients/patients experiencing sexual and gender identity
conflicts.
Christopher Doyle, a licensed professional counselor, leader in the
#TherapyEqualitymovement, and co-coordinator of the National Task Force
for Therapy Equality, said the following of the complaint:
"The complaint our Task Force filed today with the FTC reveals just how
deceptive these three organizations (SPLC, HRC, and NCLR) have been
acting over the last five years in their 'hate campaign' against clients
with sexual and gender identity conflicts. Not only have they published
misleading and scientifically inaccurate statements on their websites,
they have raised untold sums of money in the process from unsuspecting
consumers and the general public," said Doyle. "They have also supported
witnesses, in some cases financially, that are guilty of lying and
deceiving lawmakers with false stories of 'therapy torture' by electric
shock and other aversive means. In the process, these organizations have
complicity and implicitly committed mass fraud with these inaccurate
claims and by refusing to correct distortions about the scientific
research regarding therapy. They claim therapy for clients with unwanted
same-sex attraction and gender confusion is harmful and ineffective, but
even the research conducted by their own liberal-friendly trade
organizations, such as the American Psychological Association,
contradict the statements they make on their websites, marketing
campaigns, and testimony in front of law-making bodies."
The complaint to the Federal Trade Commission accuses the three
organizations of:
? Engaging in deceptive and fraudulent marketing practices of the
kind the FTC considers malicious, including those that "cause or are
likely to cause substantial injury to consumers which is not reasonably
avoidable by consumers themselves and not outweighed by countervailing
benefits to consumers or to competition."
? Supporting witnesses on the state, federal, and international
level who have delivered unverifiable and fraudulent testimony in front
of law-making bodies in the effort to persuade legislative action to ban
licensed psychotherapy.
? Actively raising untold sums of money in the effort to ban
psychotherapy by using deceptive and fraudulent practices.
? Actively and knowingly distorting the scientific research to
promote efforts to ban licensed psychotherapy for clients with sexual
and gender identity conflicts.
? Actively distorting the scientific research by promoting the
"Born Gay" hoax (and raising untold sums of money), a notion that has
been disproved and refuted by organizations such as the American
Psychological Association.
? Engaging in smear and defamatory attacks against licensed
psychotherapists and faith-based ministries providing help and
assistance to those who experience sexual and gender identity conflicts.
? Using "opinion-based smears and innuendos" while engaging in
political activities, as though they were being educational, while
hiding behind their non-profit status to shield themselves from
liability lawsuits.
The Task Force report, In Their Own Words--Lies, Deception, and Fraud,
provides extensive documentation and evidence not only disproving the
fraudulent testimony of gay activists trying to ban therapy, but also
presents decades of scientific research that demonstrates sexual
attraction and gender identity are not fixed or innate, but are fluid
and commonly change, with and without therapeutic intervention.
"It's shocking that these gay activists have actually been able to
deceive six states and several cities with their pseudoscientific claims
of 'harm' to ban psychotherapy. It just goes to show you, if you repeat
a lie long enough and loud enough, people will believe it," said Doyle.
"From five years of fighting this war being waged by gay activists, we
have documented conclusive and definitive proof that the SPLC, HRC, and
NCLR are committing mass fraud, and the general public can now see it
for themselves. It's all documented in this report. We even have video
footage of gay activists caught in the acts of lies and cover-ups in
their effort to deceive lawmakers. We hope this report will prompt
outrage from the general public and convince the Federal Trade
Commission tofinally put a stop to these harmful actions and
legislation, and restore therapy rights to minors that desperately seek
help."
The National Task Force for Therapy Equality is a coalition of licensed
psychotherapists, psychiatrists, physicians, public policy
organizations, and clients/patients from across the United States of
America. Their purpose is to secure therapy equality for clients and
patients that experience distress over unwanted same-sex attractions and
gender identity conflicts.
------------------------------
Message: 18
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:48:51 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Study finds the nonreligious can be more close-minded than
the religious
Message-ID:
<1500054531.3647772....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Study finds the nonreligious can be more close-minded than the religious
(Photo credit: Creativa Images)
By ERIC W. DOLAN
http://www.psypost.org/
June 23, 2017
New research indicates that religious believers can be better at
perceiving and integrating different perspectives than atheists in
Western Europe.
"The main message of the study is that closed-mindedness is not
necessarily found only among the religious," the study's corresponding
author, Filip Uzarevic of the Catholic University of Louvain, told
PsyPost.
The research was published April 27, 2017, in the peer-reviewed journal
Personality and Individual Differences.
"The idea started through noticing that, in public discourse, despite
both the conservative/religious groups and liberal/secular groups
showing strong animosity towards the opposite ideological side, somehow
it was mostly the former who were often labeled as 'closed-minded',"
Uzarevic explained. "Moreover, such view of the secular being more
tolerant and open seemed to be dominant in the psychological literature.
Being interested in this topic, we started to discuss whether this is
necessarily and always the case: Are the religious indeed generally more
closed-minded, or would it perhaps be worthy of investigating the
different aspects of closed-mindedness and their relationship with
(non)religion. "
The researchers found that Christian participants scored higher on a
measure of dogmatism than nonreligious participants. The Christian
participants, for instance, were more likely to disagree with statements
such as "There are so many things we have not discovered yet, nobody
should be absolutely certain his beliefs are right."
But two other measures of closed-mindedness told a different story.
Atheists tended to show greater intolerance of contradiction, meaning
when they were presented with two seemingly contradictory statements
they rated one as very true and the other as very false. They also
showed less propensity to be able to imagine arguments contrary to their
own position and find them somewhat convincing.
"In our study, the relationship between religion and closed-mindedness
depended on the specific aspect of closed-mindedness," Uzarevic told
PsyPost. "The nonreligious compared to the religious seemed to be less
closed minded when it came to explicitly measured certainty in one's
beliefs. However, and somewhat surprisingly, when it came to subtly
measured inclination to integrate views that were diverging and contrary
to one's own perspectives, it was the religious who showed more
openness. In sum, closed-mindedness (or at least some aspects of it) may
not be reserved only for the religious. Moreover, in some aspects, the
nonreligious may even 'outperform' the religious."
The study was based on 788 adults from the United Kingdom, Spain, and
France. The majority of participants reported being atheist (302) or
agnostic (143). The remaining participants were Christian (255), Muslim
(17), Buddhist (17), Jewish (3), or identified as "other" (51).
"There are, of course, some limitations to this study. They are
especially important to keep in mind since the psychological study of
nonreligion is still in its infancy, and the findings should be
approached tentatively," Uzarevic said.
"Firstly, we do not know whether the findings are typical only for the
Western European (secularized) context in which the study was conducted,
or it reflects more global tendencies."
"With that in mind, and the fact that the effect sizes found in our
study were quite small, a replication would be due to confirm the
stability of the findings. Again highlighting the importance of
replication, one possible limitation is that the study was done online,
which naturally opens several questions (e.g. possible
non-representativeness of the sample, impossibility to fully control the
structure and the quality of the sample). However, despite these
limitations, the study did offer relatively consistent results, and a
good starting point for future research."
The study, "Are atheists undogmatic?", was also co-authored by Vassilis
Saroglou and Magali Clobert.
END
------------------------------
Message: 19
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:50:57 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: A Tale of Two Communions
Message-ID:
<1500054657.3650066....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
A Tale of Two Communions
By Rob Smith
http://www.australianchurchrecord.net/a-tale-of-two-communions/
July 10, 2017
Whenever a church leader makes an important decision, takes a strong
stand and then explains their action, they not only reveal their own
priorities and convictions but also, more significantly, shape the
future of the church they serve and represent. For good reason, such
steps are often called 'defining moments' and, with the passing of time,
are frequently shown to be, what might be called, 'determining moments'.
A series of such moments seems to have taken place in recent days.
The consecration of Canon Andy Lines
On June 30, 2017, Canon Andy Lines was consecrated as the Missionary
Bishop of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) to provide
spiritual oversight to Anglican churches in Europe that exist outside
the current Anglican structures. As well as the principal consecrator,
The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach (Archbishop of the ACNA), 11 Primates, 3
Archbishops, and 13 other GAFCON-linked Anglican bishops were involved
in Lines' consecration.
The consecration was a response to the recent decision of the Scottish
Episcopal Church (SEC), a member church of the Anglican Communion, to
amend their canons to change the definition of marriage in order to
allow for the 'marriage' of same-sex couples. Importantly, the
consecration took place at the request of Anglican Christians in Britain
who feel alienated from their bishops by such departures from biblical
orthodoxy. The service, which was held in Edman Chapel, on the campus of
Wheaton College, Illinois, was attended by over 1,400 Anglican leaders
from around the world.
Among those involved in the consecration were three Australian Anglican
bishops: The Most Rev. Dr. Glenn Davies (Archbishop of Sydney), The
Right Rev. Dr. Richard Condie (Bishop of Tasmania) and The Right Rev.
Gary Nelson (Bishop of North West Australia). Their reasons for
accepting the invitation to attend and participate were straightforward.
As Bishop Condie wrote in a letter "To the Bishops of the Anglican
Church of Australia" (dated 26 June 2017), it was "to protect the
precious gospel of Jesus Christ, his authoritative word in the
scriptures, and faithful Anglicans who have been marginalised by this
schismatic behaviour." And as Archbishop Davies wrote in a "Letter to
the College of Bishops" (also dated 26 June 2017), it was "an act of
solidarity with those who contend for the faith once for all delivered
to the saints."
In fact, at the end of his letter, Archbishop Davies expressed the hope
that his fellow bishops "would all rally to defend the Bible's teaching
on marriage, not merely for the sake of correct doctrine, but that we
might preserve the message of the gospel for the salvation of all."
Rather than heeding Archbishop Davies' call to rally behind the Bible,
the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia (ACA), The Most Rev. Dr.
Philip Freier, has instead offered a stinging rebuke to his colleagues.
In a letter addressed "to the bishops of the Anglican Church of
Australia" (sent 1 July; posted online 3 July 2017), Archbishop Freier
argues that "participation by our Episcopal colleagues in the
consecration of Canon Lines, with or without the support of their
respective dioceses, is contrary to the spirit of the canons of the
Council of Nicaea and, most importantly, outside of the authority of our
National Constitution. It may also be outside the authority of the
Consecration of Bishops Canon, 1966 of the Anglican Church of
Australia."
Let's examine these three allegations one by one.
Allegation 1: Acting contrary to the 'spirit' of the Nicaean Canons
The Primate's first allegation is that the participating bishops have
acted in a manner "contrary to the spirit of the canons of the Council
of Nicaea." This curious charge was first levelled by Archbishop Justin
Welby (Archbishop of Canterbury) in a letter to "Primates of the
Anglican Communion & Moderators of the United Churches" (dated June
2017). It is curious because the canons of the Council of Nicaea in 325,
among other things, forbid Christians entering military service (Canon
12) and discourage kneeling in prayer (Canon 20).
Whatever the wisdom of such canons in their day, neither the ACNA nor
the ACA is bound by them. Archbishop Freier is aware of this, as he
candidly acknowledges that "these canons of themselves do not apply as
canonical law in Australia." The canons, then, do not apply 'in letter'.
But what about 'in spirit'? What is the 'spirit' of Canons 6, 15 and 16
-- the particular canons that Archbishops Welby and Freier have in mind?
What relevance might it have to the consecration of Andy Lines?
According to Dr. Mark Smith, a specialist in Patristics at the
University of Cambridge, Canons 6, 15 and 16 "address a growing problem
in the church of the early fourth century. Some bishops (and, as Canon
16 notes, other clergy too), tempted by the prospect of greater wealth,
influence, or prestige, sought to move from less important sees to more
important ones ...What is condemned in Canons 15 and 16, then, is
translation for improper motives, rather than translation per se."[1]
Indeed, if it were the latter, then both Archbishops Welby and Freier
would fall foul of "the spirit of the canons" -- the former for having
moved from being the Bishop of Durham to become Archbishop of
Canterbury, and the latter for having moved from being Bishop of the
Northern Territory to become the Archbishop of Melbourne.
But translations such as these are not a problem as far as the 'spirit'
of the Nicaean canons is concerned. Therefore, the only way either
Archbishop could have acted contrary to that 'spirit' is by moving for
"improper motives" -- i.e., to get more money and/or gain more power. Of
course, one should charitably assume that such motives played no part in
either man's decision.
Given that "translation for improper motives" is the concern of the
relevant Nicaean canons, is Archbishop Freier suggesting that such
motives played a part in the decisions of those who participated in Andy
Lines' consecration? If so, what is the Primate alleging: that his
episcopal colleagues are guilty of some sort of Simony? Presumably not.
Such an allegation would be uncharitable in the extreme! Yet if this is
not his charge, how can it fairly be claimed that they have acted in a
way "contrary to the spirit of the canons of the Council of Nicaea"?
The fact of the matter, as Dr Smith rightly concludes, is that the
Nicaean canons "have little, if anything, to say on the issue of Andy
Lines' consecration," and to suggest otherwise is to make "a specious
appeal to ancient rulings that neither condemn, nor even envisage, the
situation we now face."[2] This means that the participating bishops
have not acted in a manner contrary to either the spirit or the letter
of the canons.
The Primate's first allegation, then, is without foundation.
Allegation 2: Acting outside of the authority of our National
Constitution
What of the Primate's second allegation -- that the participating
bishops have acted "outside of the authority of our National
Constitution"? What elements of the National Constitution might render
such participation problematic?
The Primate bases his criticism on the argument that because the ACNA
"is not a member of the Anglican Communion," it "is not in communion
with the Anglican Church of Australia." Now, depending on how he is
using the word 'communion', this argument appears quite sound. No one is
claiming that the ACNA is part of the 'Anglican Communion' (i.e., the
international association of Anglican Churches). Membership in this
'Communion' is determined by the Anglican Consultative Council, and no
such determination has yet been made. So, in that sense, the ACA is not
in 'communion' (formal, structural fellowship) with the ACNA, any more
than it is in 'communion' with various other 'Anglican' churches that
are, likewise, not part of the 'Anglican Communion' -- e.g., the Free
Church of England (FCE) and the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of
South Africa (REACH).[3]
It is this fact that gave the participating Australian bishops
confidence that they could express spiritual solidarity with the ACNA
without in any way acting contrary to the National Constitution of the
ACA or behaving inappropriately toward the Anglican Communion. In fact,
according to Archbishop Davies, it is precisely because the ACNA is not
part of the Anglican Communion that the consecration of Andy Lines "can
no more be called 'border crossing' than the ministry of other Christian
denominations in the UK." That is, Lines' ministry will not take place
inside the Anglican Communion, but outside it.
Given the clarity with which Archbishop Davies made this point in his
letter of June 26, what could possibly account for the Primate's second
allegation? The answer may lie in the second paragraph of his letter of
July 1. Here he says that "communion -- koinonia, is a gift of our Lord
to his Church." By 'communion' the Primate appears to mean informal,
spiritual fellowship, not (or, at least, not merely) formal, structural
fellowship. If so, this would explain why the fact that the ACNA "is not
in communion with the Anglican Church of Australia" appears to carry,
for him, the implication that no bishop or diocese within the ACA is at
liberty to express even spiritual solidarity with the ACNA.
But can the Primate really mean this? Does he genuinely believe that
members of the Anglican Communion can only enjoy the Lord's gift of
koinonia with other members of the Anglican Communion? Is it really not
possible for bishops and dioceses within the ACA to express solidary
with other Anglican churches (like the ACNA), which not only affirm all
four elements of the Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888,[4] but
wholeheartedly agree with our Fundamental Declarations? Is the Primate
really advocating such sectarian isolationism? This would seem unlikely.
But, again, it is difficult to see what other possible basis there could
be for his charge.
Whatever the case, it is true that the Constitution of the ACA both
determines and delimits our communion (both spiritual and structural)
with churches or dioceses inside the Anglican Communion. But it does not
follow that the Constitution thereby excludes expressions of spiritual
communion with churches or dioceses outside the Anglican Communion. If
it did, it would contradict the first of its own 'Fundamental
Declarations', which states that the ACA is "a part of the One Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ." It would likewise constitute a
rejection of the 1930 Lambeth Conference's description of the Anglican
Communion as a "fellowship, within the one holy catholic and apostolic
church." It would further make nonsense of the whole history of
ecumenical discussion and cooperation going all the way back to the
period of the Reformation. But, of course, none of this is either stated
or implied by our National Constitution.
Therefore, on either meaning of 'communion' (structural or spiritual)
the Primate's second allegation is also without foundation.
Allegation 3: Acting outside the Consecration of Bishops Canon, 1966
We come then to Archbishop Freier's third allegation: that the
Australian bishops who participated in Andy Lines' consecration may have
acted "outside the authority of the Consecration of Bishops Canon, 1966
of the Anglican Church of Australia."
The Primate rightly notes that this canon "provides expressly for the
circumstances of a bishop consecrated to serve in Australia being
consecrated in a Church in communion with the Anglican Church of
Australia in accordance with s6 of the Constitution and stipulates the
manner of that consecration."
What then is its relevance to the consecration under discussion? None it
would seem. The Primate seems to be aware of this, acknowledging that
the canon "does not appear to provide expressly as to the current
circumstances." In fact, the canon is even clearer on this point,
stating in Clause 3 that "this canon affects the order and good
government of the Church [i.e., the ACA] and shall not come into force
in any diocese unless and until the diocese by ordinance adopts the said
canon." In other words, it has absolutely no bearing on the ACNA and
says nothing either for or against bishops of the ACA participating in
the consecration of a bishop outside the ACA.
Therefore, the third (albeit tentative) allegation is also without
foundation.
So what does this all mean?
It would not be inaccurate to call these three allegations an exercise
in misdirection -- even if not intended as such. For there is, quite
literally, nothing to them.[5] This is disturbing enough. What is more
disturbing still is the fact that although the Primate makes mention of
the decision taken by the Synod of the SEC regarding same-sex marriage,
he offers no criticism of it. His overriding concern is with the ACNA's
action, the Australian bishops' participation in Andy Lines'
consecration, and the fact that "[n]either the Archbishop of Canterbury
(who has responsibility for Europe) nor the Primus of the Scottish
Episcopal Church has given their concurrence to the consecration or the
proposed Episcopal ministry."[6]This missing of the wood for the trees
is made all the more glaring by the fact that, earlier in his letter,
the Primate quotes the following words from Chapter 2, Section 6 of the
Constitution of the ACA:
"This Church will remain and be in communion with the Church of England
in England and with churches in communion therewith so long as communion
is consistent with the Fundamental Declarations contained in this
Constitution."
The second of the 'Fundamental Declarations' of our Constitution commits
us to a Reformed doctrine of Scripture (in that we affirm "all the
canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as being the ultimate
rule and standard of faith given by inspiration of God and containing
all things necessary for salvation"). The third commits us to a Reformed
practice of ministry (in that we promise to "ever obey the commands of
Christ, teach His doctrine, administer His sacraments of Holy Baptism
and Holy Communion, follow and uphold His discipline"). What all this
means is that our 'communion' with other members of the 'Communion' is
entirely dependent upon them upholding similar commitments.
On these grounds, the ACA can no longer be in 'communion' with the SEC.
For the SEC has not only thumbed its nose at Lambeth Resolution 1.10
(1998), but pronounced decidedly against the teaching of canonical
Scripture. The action of the ACNA may well be deemed "an emergency
measure" (as Bishop Condie has called it), but it is an entirely
appropriate one. For it is not the ACNA that has created the emergency,
but the schismatic action of the SEC. It is the SEC, then, who deserve
to be rebuked, not those who participated in the consecration of Andy
Lines. Therefore, Archbishop Davies is to be commended for calling upon
his episcopal colleagues to "rally to defend the Bible's teaching on
marriage, not merely for the sake of correct doctrine, but that we might
preserve the message of the gospel for the salvation of all." To do
anything else is unfaithfulness, as these words (often, mistakenly,
attributed to Martin Luther) remind us:
"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every
portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point that the
world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing
Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle
rages is where the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on
all the battlefield besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches
at that point."[7]
Unity by itself is not a virtue. The unity which Scripture calls for is
"the unity of the Spirit" (Eph 4:3), which is "the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God" (Eph 4:13). The ACA
Constitution, therefore, is right: godly communion is entirely dependent
upon our united trust in the word of God, given to us in Scripture, and
our united obedience to that same word. As the prayer for "the whole
state of Christ's Church militant here in earth" in the BCP's "Order of
the Administration of the Lord's Supper" reminds us, living in unity and
godly love, requires that we "agree in the truth of God's holy Word."
This means that we cannot be in communion (either spiritual or
structural) with those in the Anglican Communion with whom we lack such
agreement. Conversely, it also means that we can enjoy communion
(spiritual fellowship) with those outside of the Anglican Communion with
whom we have such agreement.
The question, then, for all Anglicans -- both leaders and laity -- is
with whom will we display solidarity in this present hour? Our answer
will not only define us but determine our future.
-------
[1] Mark Smith, "Topical Tuesday: Loose Canons? Andy Lines and the
Canons of Nicaea," Church Society (20 Jun 2017). For those unfamiliar
with the terminology, 'see' refers to an area of episcopal jurisdiction
(i.e., a diocese) and 'translation' simply means moving from one see to
another.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Previously known as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA). It
is also important to note that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York
recognise the orders of all three of these Churches -- FCE, REACH and
ACNA -- under the Overseas and Other Clergy (Ministry and Ordination)
Measure 1967.
[4] The four elements of the Lambeth Quadrilateral are: (i) the Holy
Scriptures as "containing all things necessary for salvation," and as
being the rule and ultimate standard of faith; (ii) the Creeds (and in
particular the Apostles' and Nicene) as a sufficient statement of faith;
(iii) the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion as being ordained by
Christ; and (iv) the historic episcopate, locally adapted.
[5] In fact, when the nature and constraints of the Constitution of the
ACA are properly examined, there is even more to be said in defence of
the actions of the three participating bishops. See Andrew Bruce (on
behalf of the ACL Council), "Primate admonishes Archbishop Glenn Davies
and Bishop Richard Condie -- Anglican Church League statement," Anglican
Church League (6 July, 2017).
[6] This concern for 'concurrence' is puzzling. Earlier in his letter
the Primate unambiguously declares that Andy Lines' consecration "is not
on any view an act in communion with the Anglican Communion and its
member churches." Formally or structurally speaking, this is correct.
And this is precisely why the concurrence of the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Primus of the SEC was neither sought nor needed.
[7] On the search for the origins of this quote, see Mark Thompson,
"Evangelical Courage," Theological Theology (Nov 17 2010).
Rev. Rob Smith is a presbyter in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and
works for its Department of Ministry Training & Development. He also
lectures in theology, ethics and music ministry at Sydney Missionary &
Bible College.
------------------------------
Message: 20
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:51:40 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: William Campbell-Taylor, the Bishop Peter Ball Report and
Clergy Abuse of Power
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William Campbell-Taylor, the Bishop Peter Ball Report and Clergy Abuse
of Power
By Alan Jacobs
Special to VIRTUEONLINE
www.virtueonline.org
July 11, 2017
It could be argued that, in essence, the story of the Church of England
and of the wider Anglican Communion is the eternal Great Dilemma of two
utterly opposed gospels (Galatians 1:6-10). On the one hand stands a
rude faithfulness to Christ's truth, whatever the cost to earthly
religious institutions and, on the other, the Clericalism of the Church
for whose dog collar-wearing bureaucrats it is the politics of
protecting ecclesiastical power which matters more than the Cross.
No more vividly is this demonstrated than in the Dame Moira Gibb's
Report, "Abuse of Faith", concerning the multiple wrongdoing by the
Church of England in its willful covering up and silencing of vulnerable
adults and teenage victims of homosexual abuse at the hand of Bishop
Peter Ball. Recommendation 4 of Gibb's damning report focuses on the
consistent failures by the Church of England to protect vulnerable
adults, such as those preyed upon in the multiple continuing cases of
gay clergy abuse: "The Church, recognizing that it still has further to
travel in relation to adult victims of abuse, should make a particular
effort to secure a fuller understanding and more consistent good
practice in that area". In fact, of concern to many campaigners is that
while there has been very public horror at abuse cases involving small
children, the prevailing sexualized culture both in society and in the
Anglican establishment itself means cases of homosexual abuse by priests
against young men and vulnerable adults (as opposed to minors) are, in
fact, ever less likely to be treated as criminal offenses or even
"conduct unbecoming of a clergyman" under the Clergy Discipline Measure.
One particularly shocking parallel case to Bishop Ball concerns Rev.
William Campbell-Taylor, a vicar in Hackney in the Diocese of London who
also held public office as a Labour Party Common Councilman in the City
of London Corporation. In 2014, Campbell-Taylor attempted unsuccessfully
to prosecute a vulnerable male who had revealed publicly in the British
Parliament that the priest had groomed the vulnerable adult and asked
him for oral sex.
To the astonishment of those of us who might think that in the land of
Magna Carta and the Mother of Parliaments a whistle blower's freedom of
speech would be protected in relation to speaking out about church
abuse, in fact, Campbell-Taylor was able to make use of an obscure
English legal provision which claimed that by reason of his victim
publishing this true documented evidence of abuse at a parliamentary
meeting in front of legal experts, clergy, and survivors groups, such a
public humiliation had allegedly caused the said vicar emotional
"distress and alarm".
Campbell-Taylor's role as a Hackney police chaplain in pressing the
case, and his exercise of power as a privileged City official to silence
his victim from "making any [public] allegation of personal wrongdoing"
led to an international outcry by survivors campaign groups, various of
whom raised concerns directly with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The
Diocese of London also admits at the time it paid a private scandal
management company, Luther Pendragon Limited, to attempt to intervene in
relation to the survivors meeting in the House of Commons. Luther
Pendragon is also heavily implicated in allegations of sex abuse
cover-up in the Diocese of Winchester.
After I published my original article a year ago concerning this case,
William Campbell-Taylor complained and applied pressure to try and have
it removed. He has now attempted to do so again following the
publication of the Gibb Report, and has threatened to "escalate" this
matter. It since transpires that William Campbell-Taylor has allegedly
expressed some recent interest in standing for public office as a Labour
Party candidate in forthcoming elections to become a City of London
Alderman in the Portsoken ward.
My journalist colleagues and I have therefore examined and referenced
the original witness statements and William Campbell-Taylor's email
correspondence with his victim which are on the public legal record of
the Court, and were reported on at the time by journalists present
themselves at the hearings.
A written witness statement from Ian Burleigh, a church administrator
and former City of London Councilman in the same ward of Portsoken as
Campbell-Taylor states that he had similarly been "betrayed" by the
vicar, and while both were serving officials in the City of London
"William Campbell-Taylor by his own admission threatened me" and "was in
a position to blackmail me."
Another Christian witness, Tanya Dempsey nee Paton, testified in writing
on the Court record about her experience of the cleric's "secretive" and
deceitful behavior with her. She testifies how deliberately "William
sought [the victim] out alone and they left together." Another Christian
witness, Marianne Aston, testifies in her written witness statement to
the Court concerning Campbell-Taylor's prior sexual history that
"William was known to have had a non-platonic relationship with a man in
the past."
The legal bundles on the Court record show extensive intimate written
correspondence from William Campbell-Taylor to the vulnerable male in
which Campbell-Taylor signs off messages with kisses and "love, William"
and "W x" or "yr brother Muffin". The victim writes to Campbell-Taylor
challenging him about "your sexuality and past experience that has
wreaked havoc in our personal relationship" and asks about the time "you
said [to me] 'How about a b**w job then?'". In response, the priest
evades the question and strangely writes back later the same day "you
have been on my mind today because I know it is your birthday" and "I
would like to be in a position to stand in solidarity in public with you
as a friend" and again signs off "love William".
The exhibits on the record of the Court show inscribed gifts given by
Campbell-Taylor to the vulnerable male, and emails sent by the priest to
the victim which announce "I actually see you as a permanent feature of
my life" and "I have various of the objects you have given me which I
treasure", while the survivor's witness statement describes the
incidents which took place at the vicar's apartment, as well as
characteristic phrases used by the clergyman including about his having
"a stirring in the loins".
Sam Stein QC, legal counsel for the Whiteflowers Campaign and Forde Park
Survivors in the UK government's independent abuse inquiry, speaks to
the government investigation about "abuse in plain sight". District
Judge Warner in the case is recorded to have described William
Campbell-Taylor's behavior as "at the very least, in bad taste", and it
is further notable that over decades a number of those raising concerns
about Campbell-Taylor's blackmail, bullying and other behavior towards
different people have included other Christian clergy. Just a cursory
bit of online research on the man brings up examples of some
unscrupulous vicar-politician behavior in multiple contexts and yet,
much as with the Church in the Peter Ball case, the Diocese of London
has repeatedly looked the other way in favor of that Clericalism which
privileges institutional religious power over the counter-institutional
Gospel. And is the British Labour Party likely to follow its own Rule
Book and insist all its candidates "uphold the highest standards of
probity and integrity in public life?". If recent evidence is anything
to go by, we shouldn't be holding our breath there either.
A key recommendation 10 of the Gibb Report is that more visible and
better use be made of the "Archbishops' Caution List", which puts on
record concerns that have been raised about the suitability for ministry
of particular Church of England clergy, and is linked to other Gibb
recommendations about greater transparency and consultation with
survivors about the quality of safeguarding procedures.
At the same time, while the sexualization of the clerical life of the
Church moves forward at pace, one can only wonder how in heaven it is to
be expected that mere bureaucratic procedures are supposed to keep
vulnerable children and adults safe from a carnal Church which in its
heart seems more engaged in the pursuit of worldly power and political
influence, than upholding unpalatable biblical truths and unappealing
standards of ethics and Christian living.
Alan Jacobs is a frequent commentator on various religious blogs and
sites. A retired American Petro-Chemical Engineer from Dallas, Alan is
focusing his attention on the Church and its future in both the US and
UK.
------------------------------
Message: 21
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:57:54 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Sin at Synod- How the Church forbad forgiveness
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Sin at Synod- How the Church forbad forgiveness
By Gavin Ashenden
www.virtueonline.org
July 10, 2017
At the General Synod of the Church of England two decisions were taken
which ripped the Church from its moorings. They launched it secularised,
into a therapy culture from which it has chosen to take its priorities,
and from which is craves affirmation.
In and of itself, neither the motion rebuking and forbidding so called
'conversion therapy' nor the one looking to provide new liturgies for
the transgendered, are theologically nuclear in their wording. The
problem lies in their priorities and their trajectory.
The synod could not be bothered to define what it thought 'conversion
therapy' might be. Perhaps it was simply ignorant that many Christians
would see the confessional as the place where for them, conversion
therapy took place, -- or perhaps in its rush to suck up secular
approbation, it did not care.
A few people tried to read from the Scriptures to remind Synod that
their very identity as Christians depended on both turning and being
healed -- that is both conversion and therapy, or 'therapeuo', in the
Greek text. But so hasty was the rush to want to offer hope for the
romantic and erotic longings of the gay and bisexuals amongst and beyond
them, that there was no sign that these readings were heard.
And here is the central and core issue. All the arguments in favour of
the so-called protection of the gay community from the threat of any
change, or diminution or healing of their biologically frustrated sexual
longings, were repudiated as some kind of threat or oppression to gays.
What escaped the attention of the gay crusaders, was that all human
beings, all straights, gays and 'LGBTI-QWERTY'& other alphabetic
variants, have disordered sexual and other longings.
To be a Christian is to surrender our appetites and longings, ordered
and disordered to Christ. That's what it means to take him as Lord. That
is what he encourages us to do in Matthew 11, when he says "Come unto me
all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My
yoke is easy. My burden is light."
The great travesty committed by the Church of England was to put
forgiveness out of the reach of Anglicans. It did this by insisting that
there was nothing to repent of, nothing to be sorry about, nothing to
ask for help over in the face of sexual desires that were at odds with
our biology or our commitments to Christ.
But the only condition in which one can remain a Christian is to turn to
God in penitence for our wilfulness and dis-orderedness, and ask for
forgiveness, healing and transformation.
What the C of E has done is to put sexual longing -- for a particular
group of people, off-limits to repentance. In which case it is
off-limits to forgiveness, and change.
For a Church honed in the fires of the Reformation and the priorities
the Reformation embodied in being faithful to a Scripture one had access
to, this is an act of disordered identity crisis all of its own -- none
the less crucial for not being about sex; it is an act of careless or
wanton self-destruction.
It creates a new Jesus for itself -- a heretical fake Jesus. One might
call this imaginary Messiah, 'the fake therapist'.
Where the real Jesus saves us from our sins and offers us renewal in the
image and furthers the likeness of God, the fake Jesus offers to make us
comfortable in our skins, cosy with our sexual appetites and untroubled
by having the central areas of who we are off limits to the interference
of God.
This comes under the historic categories of both blasphemy and heresy.
It interferes with peoples' salvation. It replaces faith in the Living
Christ with pseudo-therapy. It is an abandonment of the heart of the
Gospel; and this is done by people who when they use the words "Jesus,
holy, love and acceptance", have twisted the words to mean very
different things from what the Church has always intended.
What will happen now?
Anglicanism is an episcopal Church, and the betrayal is one that lies at
the feet of the bishops of the Church of England, who have preferred
social and secular kudos to the sacrifice and integrity of the Gospel,
and gone along with the replacement of Christ the Saviour with
Jesus-the-fake-therapist.
There must come a new episcopal jurisdiction to whom the faithful can
look for comfort, fidelity and leadership -- a new Anglicanism that is
in fact the old Anglicanism recaptured from the secular civil servants
who serve this new religion.
Leave the civil servants in their legal offices with responsibility for
the upkeep of so many churches that have become museums, and let the
faithful look to new bishops who will guard the orthodox faith, offer
spiritual nourishment, lead the Christian community in its struggle
against the growing anger of the secularists who seek to silence them.
Until the Lord comes, we protect His bride from assaults from without --
and assaults from within.
------------------------------
Message: 22
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:58:39 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: What Does It Mean to be a Mature Christian Disciple? 4.
Self-Control (Titus 2:1-15)
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What Does It Mean to be a Mature Christian Disciple? 4. Self-Control
(Titus 2:1-15)
By Ted Schroder
www.tedschroder.com
July 16, 2017
We need self-control if we want to become a mature Christian disciple.
Self-control or temperance was one of the four cardinal virtues. It
includes restraint, prudence, chastity, sobriety -- to be of a sound
mind, or a sober mind. It was deemed a higher virtue than many others.
"Better... a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city"
(Prov. 16:32). The absence of self-control leads to defeat and ruin:
"Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks
self-control" (Prov.25:28).
St. Paul describes the reasons for lack of self-control in terms of
throwing off the authority of God and wanting to live for the
satisfaction of one's own selfish urges. "Therefore God gave them over
in the sinful desires of their hearts... they worshiped and served
created things rather than the Creator...Because of this, God gave them
over to shameful lusts...he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do
what ought not to be done" (Rom 1:24-26,28).
In what areas of your life do you struggle with self-control? What
addictions and habits prevent us from being mature Christian disciples?
Self-control is often most difficult in the area of one's gifts or
strengths. We tend to indulge ourselves in the area where we think we
are the strongest. For me it is the area of speech. As a young preacher
I felt the need to inject some energy and youthful insight into what I
considered a complacent and reserved congregation. One Sunday, when I
was scheduled to preach, John Stott and I were preparing to enter the
sanctuary. I said to him, "I am praying for liberty." He replied, "I am
praying for restraint." At the time I thought I was right and he was too
cautious. Now I realize that he was right and I was too impudent and
presumptuous. Restraint is an aspect of self-control.
St. James wrote about the problem of controlling the tongue. "The tongue
is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a
great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire,
a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole
person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on
fire by hell.... No man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full
of deadly poison" (Jas 3:5-8).
What can you do about taming the tongue, exercising self-control over
what you say? Early on in my life I memorized and prayed Psalm 141:3,
"Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my
lips." I also reminded myself that I needed to listen more than to
speak. God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we might listen twice
as much as we talked. When criticized we have the tendency to get
defensive and to say things which we later regret. The mature Christian
listens humbly and learns from what is said and ponders it in his heart.
It is better to say nothing than to be speak in anger, intemperately.
St. Paul urges Titus to teach his congregation to be temperate, worthy
of respect, and self-controlled (Titus 2:1-15).
In what areas of your life do you struggle with self-control? Is it
consumer driven? Is it in areas where you seek comfort? Is it in areas
where you seek to escape from your worries and problems? Is it an
inherited addiction?
Randy Frazee writes about a conversation he had with George Gallup Jr.
(who served with me on the Board of Trinity School for Ministry for many
years). Randy writes, "I was pontificating proudly on how Christians
just need to get their act together and be self-controlled. In George's
always kind and gentle demeanor he stopped me and said, 'Randy, you're
not an alcoholic, are you?' Startled by the question, I said, 'No, I'm
not.' He went on to say, 'Well, I am. My father was also an alcoholic.
When I took my first drink, something happened to me that likely didn't
happen to you or many others. I was hooked and couldn't stop. Even as a
Christian, I tried and tried and tried. I felt so defeated, and it was
ruining my life. Then in a moment of quiet desperation, I heard Jesus
whisper to me, 'George, if you never lick this, that is okay. I died for
this struggle in your life, and I still love you deeply.' He paused for
a moment, reflecting on that tender encounter with the Savior, and then
said, 'From that very moment I haven't had a drink. It has been over
thirty years." (Randy Frazee, Think Act Be Like Jesus, p.184f.)
Self-control is only possible when a greater power takes over your life.
Deliverance from defeat requires surrendering to the power of the
indwelling Christ, the authority of God, through the gift of the Spirit.
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of
love, and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).
St. Paul knows all about this from his struggles. "I have the desire to
do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the
good I want to do -- this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not
want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that
does it....What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body
of death? Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom
7:18-25).
It is living in Christ, and Christ living in us, dying to sin and rising
to new life as we abide in him, stay connected to him, let his life flow
through us, that we will produce the fruit of the Spirit....
self-control. This is a daily struggle with our sinful nature. One day
at a time is the motto of recovery from addiction. One day at a time we
let Christ control us through his Spirit. Merle Haggard wrote the lyrics
for "One Day At A Time"
I'm only human I'm just a man
Help me to believe in what I could be and all that I am
Show me the stairway that I have to climb
Lord for my sake teach me to take one day at a time.
One day at a time sweet Jesus that's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength to do every day what I have to do
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine
So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time.
Do you remember when you walked among men
Well Jesus you know if you're looking below it's worse now than then
Pushing and shoving crowding my mind
So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time.
One day at a time sweet Jesus that's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength to do every day what I have to do
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine
So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time.
Yes, just for my sake teach me to take one day at a time...
END
------------------------------
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End of VirtueOnline Digest, Vol 17, Issue 26
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