First misogynistic then homophobic, now potential killers! No wonder people are leaving the Church in droves

♫Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue

 And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true....♫

From some recent reports as Synod prepares for the LGBT battle:

 "The Church is driving homosexual people to suicide because of its negative and discriminatory attitude towards same-sex relationships, a major Christian charity has concluded" (here).

"Church of England 'not listening to gay Christians', say retired bishops". "In an open letter published online, 14 leading retired bishops wrote that a recent report on same-sex marriage failed to include the “authentic voice” of the LGBT community and was instead focused on talking about them rather than to them" (here).

"The Bible doesn’t have anything to say about lesbians but they need to be included in order to make statements about the group who really disturb the men. These are the men, who are men, but do not behave like men when it comes to sex and they need to stop it" (here).

The onslaught* is gaining momentum. Lies, damned lies and statistics to 'prove' that the House of Bishops has it wrong by defending traditional marriage. Previously accused of homophobia, now defenders of the Christian faith are charged with driving homosexuals to suicide  because of its negative and discriminatory attitude towards same-sex relationships.

This charge has been shot down on the Psephizo blog which refers to the work of Anglican priest and statistician, the Rev Peter Ould:

What the authors have demonstrated here is that their research shows that, contrary to the claims that Oasis make with no evidence to support them, LGB people do not have worse mental health outcomes when in “non-affirming” church environments and indeed there is some evidence to suggest that attending a conservative church actually improves mental health for LGB people, even when they have significant internalized homophobia.

The 14 retired bishops protest too much. After three years of "shared conversations" with the LGB community and other Christians they write that the bishops' report on same-sex marriage published last month failed to include the “authentic voice” of the LGB community. It was, they complain, focused on talking about them rather than to them. Some of the 14 are readily identifiable as homosexuals but how many of the others are waiting to come out if they have the stamp of approval of the Church?

Their conclusion appears to be that LGB people have been discriminated against because the official report did not come out in favour of gay marriage. A common complaint used by the feminist movement, if you are not for them you are prejudiced and discriminate against them.

As for WATCH perhaps I should let 'The Chair’s thoughts' speak for themselves but I would have thought the statement "The Bible doesn’t have anything to say about lesbians" would be a great comfort to WATCH wimmin. After all, a similar spurious argument helped to secure the ordination of women priests. It will be interesting to see how many more variants of that argument will eventually be employed to create even more diversity in the  Church taking her ever further from her spiritual roots even if it "risks further alienating the church from wider society" as the Guardian report put it.

Learning from the feminist movement, Church of England gay activists such as Changing Attitude are taking the Church down the same path as WATCH did with the same disasterous results. Nothing matters but their own selfish desires. Hence last year's headline: Gay Marriage Support From Christians In The Church Of England Is Now Outstripping Opposition, New Poll Reveals. If the LGBT activists are as successful as the feminists, the Church be will full of lesbians, gays and the gullible.

Referring to "Mr Welby", the Guardian opines in its Editorial that "It is generally accepted that about one in 10 of the Anglican clergy are LGBT (three times the proportion of non-white clergy...hence anguished protests by 14 retired bishops at the weekend)." It is understandable that a newspaper would offer a secular view, but for the Church? Is there nothing that is sacred or spiritual?

So, the Church of England is set for "a renewed clash" this week when Synod votes on a key report from the Bishops on the "divisive question" of gay marriage and same sex relationships mired in gay propaganda and false information. No wonder people are leaving the church in droves.

Feminizing the Anglican Church has been damaging enough, queering the Church for 1.7% of the UK population or 10% of the clergy based on figures in the Guardian  would be a disaster even if it were not contrary to scripture .

Postscript

* The onslaught gains more momentum. Martin Bashir, BBC Religious Affairs Correspondent, writes:

'Fireworks and faith at general synod'
 As members arrive on Wednesday morning, they'll be greeted by a vigil organised by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and Changing Attitude with the support of the Peter Tatchell Foundation and Out and Proud African LGBTI.

This is the well tried strategy:

• Exploit the “victim” status;
• Use the sympathetic media;
• Confuse and neutralize the churches;
• Slander and stereotype [traditionalist] Christians;
• Bait and switch (hide their true nature); and 
• Intimidation.

See also  Anglican Mainstream: "Manipulative, domineering revisionists must be opposed, not appeased".

 

More lies, damned lies and statistics

WATCH: "To choose a bishop based on one specific view, held by only a small group, can only serve to be divisive."                                       Photo Credit: PA

Following on from Saturday's entry, Just about Eve, a response from Women and the Church (WATCH) to the announcement of a 'headship' bishop has been published (here) - HT to Anglican Mainstream.

The Chair of WATCH, Hilary Cotton, said: "We have never accepted the appointment of any bishop on the grounds of a particular minority belief: this is distinctly un-Anglican and unorthodox. This goes far beyond disagreement about the ordination of women: it is about bishops recognising each other as bishops. If we lose that, what kind of unity are we demonstrating as a national church?"

This double speak is designed to fool the man or woman in the street who has little if any interest in religion by appealing to their ignorance. According to the Church of England's own estimates of attendance in their self-congratulatory Facts & Stats, 'one million participate each Sunday'. That is just 1% of Anglicanism. For the vast majority of the 80 million Anglicans who hold to the Apostolic faith of the Church, unity really does matter so selfish desires are put aside in the interests of genuine Church unity.

WATCH, along with ECUSA, the Church in Wales and other marginal, liberal dominated Provinces,  hold to a specific, divisive view which gives them dominance in their national church. But that is to the detriment not only of  the Anglican Communion but to the unity of the Holy Catholic Church which is again gathering pace following the declaration signed on the feast of St Andrew (20 Nov 2014) by Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. As Erasmus succinctly put it in The Economist - Hello ladies, goodbye Communion?

As feared, these disgruntled feminists cannot help rubbing salt into the wounds which others have been trying to heal. As Erasmus pointed out, to get the women bishops legislation through "the feelings of low-church evangelicals who oppose women bishops have to some degree been assuaged by a promise that one of their number will be appointed to high office". Just as the bishops of the Church in Wales have done these women and their supporters were prepared to go along with any procedure which guaranteed them victory, saying anything, promising anything to get their own way, then renege. The statement added:

"In a separate development, we are keen to know whether the Archbishop of York will consecrate the newly appointed Bishop of Burnley, Rev Philip North, who opposes the ordination of women. It would seem to us bizarre if a suffragan bishop declined to be consecrated by his own archbishop and even his own diocesan bishop, because he did not recognise them as bishops."

Conscience is not a word that has any resonance for the duplicitous. While the Church of England strove to achieve an honourable solution to resolve conscientious differences, WATCH along with Barry and his bench sitters in the Church in Wales remain determined to achieve unity by exclusion.

This is "distinctly un-Anglican and unorthodox".

The test of faith

Upon this rock I will build my church

'But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God'. In my book you either believe that or you don't. If you believe it, talk about Jesus being a man of His time is just rubbish churned out to persuade the gullible that the ordination of women is something to be decided by popular vote, including the votes of unbelievers. 

Ten years ago between a quarter and a half of Church of England clergy surveyed did not believe in the virgin birth and a third doubted or disbelieved in the physical Resurrection. Given those figures it not surprising that many clergy regard Jesus simply as a man of his time. So what are they doing in the church? The answer appears to be that they are carving out careers for themselves at the expense of those who believe that the Son of the living God must be the man of all time.

The revisionists are doing such a good job at pushing their secular values that in the first test of public opinion after the synod vote on the measure for women bishops, 76% of adults said that the Church is out of touch with society. Today's Telegraph has some uncomfortable reading in showing that the number of Christians has fallen by 4 million in the ten years 2001 to 2011 while the number of Muslims has risen significantly from 1.5m to 2.7m.

After the women bishops measure was lost all manner of statistics were bandied about to illustrate that a minority had defied the mind of Synod. Less comfortable reading will be the statistics which show that "the overwhelming majority, 82.3%, believe that those opposed to the ordination of women are faithful Anglicans who should not be forced out of the Church of England". A similar situation exists in the Church in Wales.

There have been suggestions that the Church of England follows the example of the Church in Wales with a twin approach to solving the problem, see here, here and here. So here is the challenge. If the movers of the ordination of women are sincere in their belief and are genuine in their desire to make concessions to achieve their objective, why not show their sincerity by adopting the Church in Wales initiative but reversing the two clauses to ensure that faithful Anglicans are not forced out of the church but are enabled to prosper in common with the overwhelming majority of the wider church? 

As it stands, "The second Bill would refer to the Canon enabling women to be ordained as bishops. We have purposely suggested that the scheme of pastoral provision be included – presumably as a schedule – in a second Bill in order to give as much confidence as possible to those for whom it provides that their genuinely held views are being taken seriously and that the church is being faithful to its declared intent in 1996". Currently that is meaningless to those for whom it is intended because it has been made plain that provision will be determined by the Bench of Bishops, a situation that has existed since the first (and only) Provincial Assistant Bishop retired in 2008. 

If the bishops are serious in their promise 'to give as much confidence as possible' to faithful Anglicans opposed to the ordination of women, such a strategy will test their sincerity. Failure to meet the challenge will lead not only to a weakening of the position of the Anglican Church but to another massive drop in the number of Christians in the 2021 census. 

The death of a Church near you

Back in 2006 a story appeared under the heading 'US Episcopal Church Says More Interested in Decline than Growth'. Some dismissed the story as a joke which backfired. 


Joke or not, their Presiding Bishop rationalised her belief on the basis that “Episcopalians tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children.”


In his 'VirtueOnline' Blog entry David Virtue details the grim statistics which predict the death of the US Episcopal Church in 26 years time. The Church of England and the Church in Wales, have both welcomed Dr Jefferts Skiori as a shinning example of modern Anglican church life. With Christianity on the wane in England and Wales one would have thought that church leaders would take a pause and ask themselves if they really do know better than the history and tradition of the Universal Church. It is not just the US Episcopal Church that is heading for oblivion.


Addendum
Please see this subsequent article in Anglican Mainstream: Two Communions?