The Episcopal Church House of Bishops is meeting. They are considering the proposed Anglican Covenant presented during the Primates’ Meeting in Tanzania a few weeks ago, along with the Primates demands of and timetable for the American Church.
This House of Bishops meeting is for “listening.” The September meeting will be for decision making. Here are two essays presented to the Bishops concerning the proposed Anglican Covenant and the demands.
By Ephraim Radner (who writes for the Anglican Communion Institute, among other things)
By Katherine Grieb for the House of Bishops
Monthly Archives: March 2007
Just wear a patch – take the gay away
The Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, has become a prominent voice in conservative Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christianity in the U.S. I have seen him quoted not only by Southern Baptists or Pentecostals but even by conservative Episcopalians. He is articulate and unapologetic concerning his particular view of what Christianity is and what is not – and along with that who is and who isn’t a Christian. He is a Fundamentalist.
Last week, we wrote an article in which he seemed to acknowledge that homosexuality will probably be proven to have a genetic or physiological link – not just a decision made by sex-crazed guys. This caused quite a stir in-and-of-itself among a slue of conservative-religious-politicos. He also stated that while he will probably be against some sort of gene-tinkering or therapy, he might be inclined to support a “hormone patch” to be worn by the mother during pregnancy in order to change the unborn baby’s homosexuality.
The Washington Post reports that Mohler in a Friday interview stated:
In an interview on Friday, Mohler said that Christian couples “should be open” to the prospect of changing the course of nature — if a biological marker for homosexuality were to be found. He would not support gene therapy but might back other treatments, such as a hormonal patch.
“I think any Christian couple would want their child to be whole and healthy,” he said. “Knowing that that child is going to be a sinner, we would not want to make their personal challenges more difficult if they could be less difficult.”
Since it will be a terrible thing to know that one’s child is going to be a “sinner,” then we should do all we can to make sure that doesn’t happen. Imagine, being able to weed out the sinfulness of us all! Wouldn’t that be great – we will no longer be “sinners.” If we can do it for the sin of homosexuality, why can we not do it for all sins? Lying, adultery, hypocrisy, murder, gluttony, pride, sloth, not loving God with our whole heart nor loving our neighbors as ourselves – all could be done away with through a patch or genetic/hormonal tinkering. Man will truly be his own salvation at that point, right?
I wonder what that will do with the whole issue of the necessity of Grace, Salvation, and the Passion-death-resurrection of Jesus. God should have just waited until our science progressed to the point where we could genetically or hormonally “change nature” to rid us of sin, rather than Jesus’ self-sacrifice on our behalf. Oh well. I know this is not what he means or intends, but it is a logical progression of the idea, is it not?
Link to the Washington Post article
Link to Truth Wins Out commentaries over this issue. TWO was founded by Wayne Besen, author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth†(Haworth, 2003).
Link to Albert Mohler’s original article: Is Your Baby Gay? What If You Could Know? What If You Could Do Something About It?
Link to Albert Mohler’s follow-up article
The first place for Christian formation is in the home (or should be, anyway)!
There is an organization called “Christian Worldview Network,” and the do all kinds of stuff. They offer a “World-view Test” to see how Christian or how worldly one is. I took the test, and I came out as a Secular Humanist. Now, that is absurd and it will give an indication of how far-right politically and socially and spiritually this group is or has become.
Now, I will be the first to say that it is vitally important that Americans, really all people, understand the concept of “world-view.” We all have one. Americans tend to not understand that one’s world-view colors their thinking and understanding of everything. World-view is the colored glasses we see through. To the point that this group strives to help people understand the concept and reality of world-view, I’m happy. The problem is what they then present as THE “Christian World-view.”
So, I get their e-mail updates and announcements. Today, they have an opinion piece written by a father of four and youth paster. The title of the essay is, “Don’t Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church.” This is one time when wading through a bunch of less-than-rigourous stuff (or crap, depending on your perspective) you find something good.
Read the essay. I think it gets at an important issue. It is about the failure of the Church in dealing with young people, and that failure begins by not calling parents to be the primary disciplers of their own children.
I find it interesting that my parish, a city-parish in its Anglo-Catholic tradition, had no “Christian Education” space. The presumption was that kids were brought up in the faith at home first, and through the regular rhythm of Daily Offices and Eucharist.
Don’t Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
By Ray Baumann
America saw the days of manufacturing leave us some time ago. We live in a truly global economy. Look at the labels on your clothes right now. My shoes were made in China, my shirt in India, and my pants in Macau. Pick up a few items around you and see where they were made. My assumption is that most were made in China. Does America make anything? There are few things for which Americans actually have to labor to make anymore. I guess we figure why make the effort if someone else will do it for half the cost? All in the name of cheap labor.
I want to address another outsourcing epidemic happening in our churches. I know you’re trying to figure this out. No, I’m not talking about bringing in preachers from overseas and paying them less money than your current pastor. I’m talking about the church taking away responsibilities (labor) from parents.
Episcopal Election declared void
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has declared “null and void” the election of the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence to be the 14th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. (Episcopal News Service)
Read the entire article from ENS.
Statement from the Diocese of South Carolina
The way this has transpired is plainly and simply wrong. If New Hampshire can choose a priest to be bishop whose election has prompted the presenting troubles within the Anglican Communion, after nearly ever other Christian entity asked that it not be done, then the people of South Carlina can elect the bishop of their choice. I supported the prerogative of the people of New Hampshire to elect who they felt God called them to elect. I support the prerogative of the people of South Carolina to elect the person they believe God is calling them to elect.
Many people on the left said that his election should not be consented to because of statements he has made that suggest he may – let me say this again, may – view favorably his diocese aligning itself with groups that seek to remove themselves from The Episcopal Church. Fr. Lawrence has publicly stated that he will remain loyal to TEC, despite that certain groups do not believe him.
What makes this particularly grievous is that the denial of consent may be a result of technicalities. These are not the times when the denial of consent is based on only a couple lacking votes that could be the result of sending the consents electronically, without a “signature,” rather than sending paper consents with a signature of ink sent through the U.S. Mail. “Several dioceses, both on and off American soil, thought that electronic permission was sufficient as had been their past accepted practice.” (Statement from the Diocese of South Carolina)
Regardless of where I may stand on the various issues we are fighting over, I cannot support what I know is gleeful rejoicing in some quarters. Fr. Lawrence pledged to remain loyal to The Episcopal Church. Why should we not take him at his word? If he is lying and if he attempts to pull South Carolina out of TEC, a presentment can be made against him.
My hope is that the people of South Carolina will elect him, again.
For the sake of security…
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 1:1-3)
Something that we want, but we cannot have?
Security!
It is common to desire to be secure, to be safe, to be free (or at least according to what we can conceive of “freedom” being). An expectation has been perpetuated among the population that we have a RIGHT to be secure and to have no harm beset us. This expectation plays on our desire for security, but has been used to perpetuate political and legal careers, economic wealth, and ideologies. The problem is, we will never be secure or safe from harm. We demand it, but we do not receive it because it is outside the realm of possibility to live into such an expectation. We demand it and temporally do stuff in our attempts to have it, but we do with wrong motives – in order to benefit only ourselves, our own “pleasures.”
We cannot demand that soap will not cause us to fall in the bathtub, resulting in a broken pelvis. We try to demand such things, and we sue the soap manufacturer and the distributor and the packaging company when such things happen and wonder why no warning was on the label, “CAUTION: This product is slippery and if you step on it in the bathtub dire consequences could result.” What we want is to not be held responsible for our own actions. What we want is millions of dollars that we think we can get because of “their negligence.” …never our own fault, never simply an accident, never our own negligence.
We cannot reasonably expect that we can be completely safe from terrorist attacks (whether homegrown or foreign) or that citizens of other nations will not do to us what we do to them. We want safety, but we do not want to do what is necessary to secure the highest level of safety genuinely possible. Instead, we demand that the world and cause-and-effect work the way we want them to, not the way they really do. So, in order to try to delude ourselves into feeling more secure or safe, we give up some of our own freedom, we invade other countries, we destroy other societies, we exploit other peoples, and yet we never realize our desires – security, safety, peace, freedom. As a matter of fact, we make things worse.
We ask, but do not receive because we ask in order to please ourselves. We demand security. Why? What are our motives? To perpetuate a nation-state? To secure the notion that we can be happy by buying more stuff? To protect our mountain-o-things? To protect our families from harm – that I can see, but the others above, I cannot accept as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Our security, our peace, our freedom, our life can be found in God, but we delude ourselves if we think they can be found in guns, wars, envy, pride, arrogance, selfishness, nationalism, and the like. Let’s invade more countries. Let’s invade Iran or North Korea or Venezuela or Cuba or Syria or maybe even Russia, and let’s see how much more secure we become.
James writes that there are two kinds of wisdom.
“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:17-18)
We don’t hear too much about these kinds of attitudes or this kind of living from hawks seeking empire or the Religious Right. We want security, so we wage war. We want safety, so we send armies to kill in order to be safe. “Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.” Perhaps, if we took responsibility for our own actions, if we did not live only for our own pleasures, if we found true inner security by way of the true source of security, rather than through manufacturing means of self-deception, we would not need wars to attempt to be “secure.”
I’m not naive. I know that there are loads of people out there who are willing and wanting to kill every one of us even as they destroy themselves, too. It is reasonable to try to stop them. BUT, what caused them to want to kill themselves in order to kill us in the first place? As a Christian, it ultimately makes no difference to me whether the U.S. continues to exist, whether certain economic theories continue to rule, whether I live in plenty or want.
What makes a difference is that I love God with my whole self and, and, and that I love my neighbor as myself! What makes a difference is my motive for wanting or asking for anything. What makes a difference is whether I ask for my own pleasures or for the betterment of humankind, made in the image of God.
Into Great Silence
I’m going to see Into Great Silence this evening. I am so excited! Watch the trailer here. The ending gives me goose bumps.
Anyone left out?
I like this cartoon.
From the CartoonChurch webiste
Kendall Harmon’s Mother
Canon Kendall Harmon’s mother passed away yesterday. Please pray for the repose of the soul of Mary Ann Harmon. Pray, too, for Kendall and his family. We know it is a hard time.
Kendall posted her obituary, here.
As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives and that at the last he will stand upon earth. After my awaking, he will raise me up; and in my body I shall see God. I myself shall see, and my eyes behold him who is my friend and not a stranger. (491, BCP)
Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding: Deal graciously with the Harmon family in their grief. Surround them with your love, that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your goodness, and strength to meet the days to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. (494, BCP)
Millstones, anyone?
I’ve been sick all week. Just a bit ago, the school bus that picks up and drops off kids rolled up after a hard day at school. The engine rumbles as it idles, red lights flashing, cars backed up, as kids stream off.
I can hear the commotion in my apartment – two sides face out over the street where the bus stops. A clear, exited voice raised up, “Mama! Mama!” He was so exited about something. The trust and love – the innocence, the excitement to see his Mama.
I just started crying. I don’t know why. Not a bad thing.
Then, I started thinking…
It is so hard for kids growing up in these times. Growing up has never been easy, but in these times, well. So many kids – so innocent, so hopeful, so trusting – are being so harmed and their young lives bent and destroyed by so much of our culture. A culture that we allow. (Does poetic license cover using sentence fragments to make a point, or am I adding to the problem?)
So much of culture is degrading. I spent yesterday wondering through MySpace and so many of the high school and college age people, well, their pages are full of sexualized images of themselves or their language and descriptions of themselves is jarring. They mimic the adult MySpace pages. These kids are Paris Hilton, Nicole Richy, and Justin Timberlake wannabes. This is the impression they are fed and accept – image is everything; the image is sexualized; to be someone you have to be sexualized by exposing as much as you can get away with and having ripped abs. No substance. No depth. Only image. And we let it happen.
What are we doing and allowing to be done to our children?
South Park did a perfect job exposing all this in their typically rude, crude, and particularly gross way through this episode – “8.12 – Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset,” originally airing Dec. 1, 2004 (I think). You can read a synopsis of the episode from Wikipedia. Here is the script, if you want to read it. It isn’t for the easily skweemish – it is typically South Park. And, here is the final video of the “South Park Whore-off.”
At the conclusion of the Whore-off, Mr. Slave says, “People, don’t applaud me. I’m a dirty whore. [the crowd falls silent] Being spoiled and stupid and whorish is supposed to be a bad thing, remember? Parents, if you don’t teach your children that people like Paris Hilton are supposed to be despised, where are they gonna learn it? You have to be the- [feels something in his stomach] ooohooho, Jezuth Christh. You have to be the ones to make sure your daughters aren’t looking up to the wrong people.”
I don’t know. We spend less and less money educating our children well. We spend less and less with them, period. We give them over to other people to raise and to the culture, which is not the way to maturity, self-respect, sanity, freedom, peace, joy, or wholeness. It is the way of manipulation, deception, and making lots of money for some corporations and certain people. God, save us from ourselves, and save the little children. Who will be wearing a millstone around their necks?
More battles, less faith
It seems there is a fight brewing between a couple dozen Religious Right organizations lead by James Dobson and Jerry Farwell and the National Association of Evangelicals, representing approximately 30 million American Evangelicals. The Religious Right organizations are demanding the resignation or firing of the Rev. Richard Cizik, who directs the NAE’s Washington office, because of his “relentless campaign” against global warming.
You can read the article on Christianity Today online.
“The issue that is dividing and demoralizing the NAE and its leaders is related to global warming,” wrote the leaders, none of whom are members of the association. “If he cannot be trusted to articulate the views of American evangelicals on environmental issues, then we respectfully suggest that he be encouraged to resign his position with the NAE.”
I thing the Ted Haggard incident may be a bit more demoralizing that global warming. None of the Religious Right organizations are members of the NAE, yet they demand the NAE abide by their demands. The NAE is moving in directions that these Religious Right groups do not accept. Since they believe that they themselves define who and what American Evangelicalism is, then a departure from their political, social, and moral agenda cannot be tolerated, especially when the challenge comes from the organization that represents far more Evangelicals than do the Religious Right organizations. Of course, there is cross pollenization.
Regrettably, some of the comments are just comical.
“The letter’s signers, who included American Family Association Chairman Don Wildmon and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, charged that Cizik has a “preoccupation” with climate concerns. Referring to a January USA Today article on evangelical identity, they said, ‘We believe that some of that misunderstanding about evangelicalism and its ‘conservative views on politics, economics, and biblical morality’ can be laid at Richard Cizik’s door.'”
Now, the accusation that Cizik is preoccupied with anything is laughable considering the Religious Right’s decade’s long preoccupation with same-sex marriage, with homosexuality, or with sex period. Then, to assert that the general public misunderstands evangelicalism because of Cizik’s emphasis on global warming is just absurd. If there is a general misunderstanding of evangelicalism, is comes directly from the Religious Right organizations who have abandoned their spiritual mandate and have take up nationalism, right-wing politics, and laissez-faire economics.
The battles between the fundamentalists and the more progressive-evangelicals for the soul of American Evangelicalism have begun. Who truly represents American Evangelicals? We shall see whether the NAE gives in to the bullying tactics of the Religious Right demagogues. Anglicanism is not the only faith tradition with looming battles. Anglicanism may pull itself apart, but we are not the only ones.