Knocking

"There's somebody knocking at the door!"                          Source: Twitter/CinW 

Two tweets from the Llandaff Cathedral enthronement ceremony today:

1. "Bishop June knocks on the west door of @LlandaffCath and is welcomed inside by the Dean for enthronement service." - You can listen to a classic knocking commentary here.

2. "In her enthronement sermon  @LlandaffCath Bishop June pays tribute to her predecessor Bishop Barry and says she will build on his legacy." But Barry's legacy is one of desolation. Numbers have plummeted. Churches closed. Parishes forced into Ministry Areas. Demoralised clergy and laity, those who are left.

Bishop June must have the cause of this mayhem in mind rather than the consequences because it fits in with her established agenda of more women and sexual licence apparent from the long-time buried Osborne Report.

Described as a 'Pioneer' English woman priest, "June Osborne’s ministry has been characterised by her passion for equality and diversity and she was a founder of the Church’s Leading Women programme".

No doubt there will plenty of gender equality clerics knocking at the door to reinforce bishop June's aim of parity. Building on Barry's legacy the door will be open to them, unlike marginalised, traditional Anglicans who continue to be punished for adhering to the catholic faith which is followed by the majority of Christians including Anglicans.

The Good News tells us, knock and it will be opened to you. That Anglican bishops do not receive the message as they mutter between themselves like Minnie and Henry illustrates how far they have departed from the Christian faith.

The lesson from Orlando and Magnanville, confront the Islamic ideology

Within a few days of the Orlando massacre the world has had to come to terms with an awkward reality.

Questions were asked immediately after the mass killings in the Orlando gay club and many made up their minds on the basis of incomplete evidence. Was the shooting a terrorist attack? Was it a hate crime against the LGBT community? Many opted for the latter before it was revealed that the perpetrator was himself gay and had been a regular visitor to the club. So what had Islam to do with the tragedy? That is the question that those in authority refuse to address.

After Orlando there was Magnanville. Two loners with a common cause. The link? Islam. Both killers thought they were doing the work of Allah. So why the reticence? Is it fear, stupidity or apathy?

The man who killed a French police couple at their home near Paris was acting on an order from so-called Islamic State (IS) to "kill infidels". The Orlando killer pledged allegiance to the Islamic State which then claimed responsibility. Does it matter one iota to the slain whether the IS claim was true? The father of the Orlando killer illustrated Islam's attitude to gays when he broadcast a statement that it was for God to punish homosexuals, presumably ignorant of the fact that his son was gay.

Claims and counter claims abounded. In New Zealand their Prime Minister John Key was taken to task because he would not "admit the Orlando attack was a homophobic hate crime". At home gay columnist Owen Jones walked out of a TV debate for a similar reason. His assertion that LGBT people will prevail over Islam is little short of farcical. Of course there are gay Muslims but the penalty for homosexuality in Islam is DEATH.

Continuing their LGBT guilt trip, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York issued a joint statement calling for solidarity with LGBTI people after the attack in Orlando while the Church in Wales offered a prayer composed by the liberal Dean of Southwark.

Only last month the Archbishop of Canterbury told believers not to talk about their faith unless they are asked but clearly there are exceptions. Meanwhile Muslims continue their acts of violence taking authority from the Quran.

One of the most reasoned analysis I have heard so far came from the Rev Peter Ould on Anglican Unscripted in 'Politically Correct Suicide' when he spoke [@7.50] of "not being willing to critically engage with different paradigms, with different philosophies. This unwillingness to say your belief is wrong."

One of the interviewees after the Orlando attack trotted out the usual "Islam is a religion of peace" when clearly it is not based on all the evidence to the contrary. Adding credence to Islamic ideology through silence is not the answer, it must be challenged. A gay Muslim film maker admitted that the Orlando shooting "shows that Islam is 'No Religion of Peace'. Tolerant Muslim leaders say tentacles of Wahhabism have made the claim of peace a joke".

A prominent gay journalist Milo Yiannopoulos wrote in Breitbart: "Remember, the shooter in Orlando was working at G4S and said he wanted to kill all black people. He didn’t get fired. Why? Because he’s Muslim. One was scared. Do they want a world in which Muslims get to do and say whatever they want and these tragedies become common place?" Shades of Rotherham, Rochdale, etc, etc.

If others can see it why can't our spiritual and political leaders? The majority of Muslims are peace loving but their ideology is not. We owe it to them to share the Good News.