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Can an atheist lead a Protestant church? A battle over religion in Canada.
Washington Post ^ | September 29, 2016 | Alan Freeman

Posted on 09/30/2016 4:00:54 AM PDT by C19fan

The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a dynamic, activist minister with a loyal following at her Protestant congregation in suburban Toronto. She is also an outspoken atheist. “We don’t talk about God,” Vosper said in an interview, describing services at her West Hill United Church, adding that it’s time the church gave up on “the idolatry of a theistic god.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: atheist; protestant
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To: RoosterRedux

Poker night fundraiser every other Thursday.


21 posted on 09/30/2016 4:36:51 AM PDT by BigEdLB (Take it Easy, Chuck. I'm Not Taking it Back -- Donald Trump)
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To: C19fan

Considering the current pope this is not such an absurd question.


22 posted on 09/30/2016 4:37:56 AM PDT by CrazyIvan (Socialists are just communists in their larval stage.)
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To: circlecity

Not much but the United Church has had a long relationship with the socialist NDP in Canada so this latest kink for them was no surprise.


23 posted on 09/30/2016 4:39:12 AM PDT by xp38
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To: C19fan

Calvinist would not have a female minister.

When you start redifining what the Bible says you end up with this


24 posted on 09/30/2016 4:49:09 AM PDT by Fai Mao (PIAPS for Prison 2016)
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To: C19fan

2 Timothy 3 v 5-7

‘Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.’

says it all in a nutshell.


25 posted on 09/30/2016 4:50:12 AM PDT by Long Jon No Silver
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To: C19fan

Isn’t this what Vanderbilt did to their religious clubs?


26 posted on 09/30/2016 4:50:15 AM PDT by STJPII
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To: Jim Noble; redleghunter; Springfield Reformer; kinsman redeemer; BlueDragon; metmom; boatbums; ...
Protestant reasoning leads (or, can lead) to some unusual places.

Nonsense: your "reasoning" leads (or, can lead) to some unusual places as it means that one can define "Protestant" so widely that you could fly a Unitarian Scientology Swedenborgian Mormon 747 thru it, and here would be more extreme than defining Santeria as Catholic.

Scripture refers to "Christians" as believers as described in Acts (11:26), which, by the way, hardly describes RCs, but means that definitions need to correspond to at least the basic distinctive beliefs. Chief among original Protestants was that of a exalted view of Scripture as the wholly inspired word of God, and of salvific faith as that which effected fruits of obedience and holiness, which excludes both liberals and atheists.

And those who most strongly esteem Scripture as the wholly inspired and accurate word of God are the most unified in core beliefs among religious groups.

You may want to isolate SS from the basic Scriptural interpretive hermeneutic that accompanied it, but which is also historically invalid.

27 posted on 09/30/2016 4:53:55 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: circlecity
And what in the world is the basis for calling it a “protestant congregation”.

See above. For liberals, the media and Catholics it can mean most anything.

28 posted on 09/30/2016 4:55:08 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: C19fan
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:29-30)
29 posted on 09/30/2016 4:55:18 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: C19fan

A State run Church. This is definitely an End Times sign. You can bet that the pastor is a member of the clergy response team.

2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but having itching ears, they shall heap to themselves teachers in accordance with their own lusts.


30 posted on 09/30/2016 4:55:55 AM PDT by grumpygresh (We don't have Democrats and Republicans, we have the Faustian uni-party)
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To: C19fan

This is what christianity is like in many European countries. It’s considered kind of an ethnic group not a belief system. I once argued with a Euro about calling non-belivers “Christians”. He claimed I was using a “no true Scotsman” arguement. I said, “OK, if Christians can be non-belivers, then vegetarians can be meat eaters.” That hits at a serious belief for them. I’ll bet it would for this woman too.


31 posted on 09/30/2016 4:56:05 AM PDT by Varda
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To: CrazyIvan
Considering the current pope this is not such an absurd question.

Some RCs ask, "Is the Pope Catholic? while making atheists Protestant.

32 posted on 09/30/2016 4:59:31 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: C19fan
Rev. Gretta Vosper

I'm starting to see the problem already.

33 posted on 09/30/2016 4:59:35 AM PDT by NorthMountain (Hillary Clinton: corrupt unreliable negligent traitor)
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To: C19fan

Many “Christian” churches are now 100% in the service of atheistic materialism.


34 posted on 09/30/2016 5:08:16 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Lying Media: willing and eager allies of the hate-America left.)
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To: stormhill

Yeah, what kind of dude. A man? She’s a “dynamic” speaker too.


35 posted on 09/30/2016 5:08:28 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed)
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To: C19fan

“We don’t talk about God,”

Then it’s not a church.


36 posted on 09/30/2016 5:09:48 AM PDT by Gamecock (Gun owner. Christian. Pro-American. Pro Law and Order. I am in the basket of deplorables.)
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To: Varda
I once argued with a Euro about calling non-belivers “Christians”. He claimed I was using a “no true Scotsman” arguement.

Which is the fallacy of the no true Scotsman argument, for "this fallacy modifies the subject of the assertion to exclude the specific case or others like it by rhetoric, without reference to any specific objective rule." (WP) Rather than excluding someone from being a Christian based on an arbitrary standard, excluding non-believers or the impenitent willful immoral as being “Christians” is based on the standard of the original descriptive source of that title.

I said, “OK, if Christians can be non-belivers, then vegetarians can be meat eaters.” That hits at a serious belief for them. I’ll bet it would for this woman too.

Fitting. Or calling atheists believers in Deity.

37 posted on 09/30/2016 5:13:22 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: Gamecock

This is the reason LIBERAL Catholics stay in the church..Best way to destroy it..From within.She wants everybodydy to hate God..


38 posted on 09/30/2016 5:19:45 AM PDT by Hambone 1934
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To: C19fan

Can Satan lead a “church”? Yes, and many so-called “Christian” churches are being led by Satan to go against the teachings of the Bible, which is God’s Word to lead people to heaven. Jesus warned us that Satan would be leading many on the broad highway to hell. (Matthew 7:13,14)


39 posted on 09/30/2016 5:21:37 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: daniel1212

Bump


40 posted on 09/30/2016 5:22:01 AM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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