A priest speaks his mind

Washington Times ^ | 8/11/03 | Julia Duin

[RightWinger]

When your denomination abandons the Bible, it's time to find another church.

[gsrinok]

Amen to that. I believe that the Episcopal Church will lose at least 25% of its membership over this.

[Elkiejg]

When your denomination abandons the Bible, it's time to find another church.

AMEN. Satan must be laughing his head off at these fools as they start down the road to Hell.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The really ironic part is that they will be losing the 25% that take their church seriously. You know, ones that do the volunteer work and the tithing.

[Caipirabob]

Amen to that. I believe that the Episcopal Church will lose at least 25% of its membership over this.

I shudder to think that they will attempt to make up for the loss by "cruising" the local Sunday schools...

[nickcarraway]

I think their attitude is ``good riddance.''

[bets]

My old church was just gettin' ready to ditch it's "owner" for the very same reason, when the governing elite stepped in and "early retired" the 21 yr pastor of the church. Then it hijacked the board, and now they have in place a very well programmed NEW minister who lines up w/their liberal doctrine. What makes me really mad, though, is the number of people who stayed w/the church after all that. Cowards and lukewarm bodies is all they are. They deserve what they get.

[freebilly]

The US Episcopal Church will lose very few members overall. The individuals who actually read the Bible in the Episcopal Church will be replaced by gays and by straight liberals who will use out of context quotes to justify gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia, and any other human activity that places convenience before righteousness.

The word "sin" will only be used when describing right wing conservatives who are "judgmental". Indeed, I foresee a time when the US Episcopal Church updates the Bible to rid it of any negative references to homosexuality.

Verses in Leviticus and Deuteronomy regarding punishment for homosexuals will be deleted or re-translated. The "sin" of same sex relationships will be replaced by the "sin" of non-consensual sex between men and men, women and women, adults and children, adults and animals. As long as the man, woman, child, or sheep is a willing participant in any type of "loving" sexual relationship, then Episcopalians can be expected to support such behavior.

The Bible, after all, is a "living document" in the way that the Constitution is a "living document". Times change, and the prohibitions against homosexuality, bestiality, and infanticide in the form of abortion must be updated to reflect a more enlightened world outlook.

Naturally, God wants us to change with the times, too. He wants us to replace the Book of Romans with the Book of Vermont. Corinthians shall be replaced by 1st and 2nd San Franciscans. The Gospel of John will be updated to the Gospel of John and Bruce.

God can hardly wait for the rest of His Church to become so enlightened....

[jatfla]

"Yesterday at the National Cathedral, Washington Bishop John B. Chane told reporters that the decision to confirm Mr. Robinson's election had been "centered in prayer" and that before voting, bishops had been "anointed" with holy oil as an aid for decision making. "I've never prayed this much in my life," he said. The anointing "was an unbelievably powerful experience."
   
Anointed with "holy oil"??? It sure wasn't the Holy Spirit!! These people bear no resemblance to the "Body of Christ" in the Bible. And to think that that "bishop" goes to ST. PAUL'S!!

Can't you just imagine how these folkes celebrate "Communion"? Ugh. It reminds me of Baalism, and the sex cults of the Greeks and Romans worshipping their gods. Old heathenistic/hedonistic religion with a collar on.

[Paul_B]

God bless Steven Randall.

Church splits suck, but sometimes the alternative is worse.

May God heal his church.

[Cronos]

This entire farce is going to have repercussions outside of the US -- the Nigerianprelate warned thatChristians there would suffer at the hands ofMuslims because of this barbarism conducted by supposedChristinas in the US. This "person" will have the bloodof thousands on his hands.

[N3WBI3]

Sadly I dont think so, If there have not already been mass defections I have no reason to think they would start now..

Like most sects in America they have been hypnotised to think that tolerance equals love..

[sobieski]

This is an old Anglican story. Henry didn't like the Church's rules on marriage, so he started his own "church", which now doesn't like the rules on gays. Hey, change it it's the Anglican way. Henry looted the convents and monasteries; the new gay Episcopals will remove prelate like this one and take the properties. Nothing to see here, folks. History continues on the same path.

[wideawake]

Exactly.

The Anglican Communion began with the sexual immorality of a king who wanted the Church to validate his relationship with his lover. When the Church refused, he took over the Church in his kingdom, threw the loyal ministers out of their parishes and monasteries and used the property of the Church to appoint ministers after his own mind to justify his lusts.

Now a new split begins over the sexual immorality of a bishop who wants the Church to validate his relationship with his catamite. And the ministers who refuse will be cast out of their parishes and livings and they will be replaced with ministers after his own mind to justify his deviant lusts.

[niteowl77]

"I think there is a lot of work to be done there pastorally as well as professionally," he said. "It's a conservative congregation, so this does not surprise me. It has been one torn by strife and a lot of conservative feeling over the years."

Just the kind of loving, unbiased response one expects from the swinging, progressive Episcopalian hierarchy.

Conservatism does tear things apart, you know. Contrast that kind of congregation-rending conservatism with the healing, homosexual-affirming love that throbs and pulsates within the new Episcopalian church (with or without anointing oil). No, you can't say enough about that kind of love these days. Sure, they will always have the Bible to fall back on (if worse comes to worse), but I believe that The Captain and Tennille put it so beautifully - and spiritually - when they sang, "Love will keep us together." Amen! The love so radiantly displayed by Vicki Gene Robinson and his/her supporters is the very glue that bonds all loving, forward-looking Episcopalians together as they bravely march into their New World Ecumenicalism. Count on it.

As Brother George Michael said, "You gotta have faith, a-faith, a-faith!"

[JesseHousman]

...the decision to confirm Mr. Robinson's election had been "centered in prayer" and that before voting, bishops had been "anointed" with holy oil as an aid for decision making. "I've never prayed this much in my life," he said. The anointing "was an unbelievably powerful experience."

Their prayers were directed in the wrong direction, and satan was listening.

It seemed as though, instead of being anointed with holy oil, they had gotten oiled with firewater.

[mel]

I used that very same number in talking with my friend about the situation. In addition, it will certainly slow the growth of the church if in fact there has been any growth in the church. Families will certainly not be attracted to a church that promotes deviant sexual behavior especially after the Catholic priest scandals.

[Paul_B]

Not sure which "person" you refer to which will bear responsibility. I suspect you mean the gay bishop, but now that he's been ratified, the church body at that level takes culpability unto themselves.

Ironic that the African Christians, whose faith has been derided as "a mile wide and an inch deep", are the leading ones holding the Biblical line, and have been so for at least a decade.

I can see, though, how muzzies would look at a severely compromised church/denomination and extrapolate it to Christianity in general. After all, we ourselves are told that a tree is known by its fruit. God help us to become without spot or wrinkle, just as He intends (and just as He will indeed fully do.)

15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot.
16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
17 ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.

[jazzlite]

You are right. These churches house authorities which, in my opinion, are not far from those controlling Soddom and Gomorrah in the day of Lot. Genesis 19 tells of an event where Lot had invited two men to spend the night at his house. It just so happened that the two were not men but angels. Anyway, the news got out that they were there and in the evening men we have to assume were homosexual surrounded the house and demanded that Lot turn the two visitors over to them so that "we may know them." Lot went outside and tried to negotiate with the mob by offering his daughters to them for their sexual pleasure (which tells us more about the decadence of the time). However, they would have nothing else but the two men inside and pressed forward to break down the door. The story ends with the angels taking charge and striking the men with blindness so that they could not find the door. After that the men/angels told Lot to prepare to flee the city because it would shortly be destroyed because of it's wickedness.