A Perspective on What Happened in the Diocese of New Hampshire

I am a parishioner at St. Paul’s Church in Concord, New Hampshire. I have been there since the 1980s, and have served on the Vestry in the past. My belief is in Jesus Christ, as the Savior and Lord of my life, and I consider the mission of the Church to be what we state as the Great Commission. The purpose of the Church is to preach the gospel and to heal. We all should pray to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength and to love others as God has loved us.

I was devastated and shocked by the election, then confirmation, then consecration of Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire. I attended the alternative service. I also continue to attend St. Paul’s, although I have looked for another parish or another church. At this point God has not led me to leave. I feel that at the moment I have been called to monitor what is going on and what is being taught, and I have committed to continuing to work with the Alpha Program, which is Biblically based and sound, and in teaching some in depth Bible studies. I have withheld the majority of my pledge since the election, and given to the programs that I support (as I was advised that I could not designated the money not go to the Diocese).

As Gene Robinson sometimes attended my parish in the past and sometimes preached, I have a sense of him for some time that has not necessarily been obvious to everyone. I also have heard the preaching, teaching and talking of Canon Marthe Dyner, recently sent by Bishop Theuner in to “control” what is going on at Redeemer in Rochester. While Bishop Theuner has mostly been at our parish on Christmas Day service and once a year, I was not particularly aware of his beliefs. I do, however, see a commonality in what Marthe Dyner has said and what Gene Robinson has said, preached or alluded to.

I never in a million years thought Gene Robinson would have been elected. At the insistence of some (my priest David Jones included), the video used to explain the diocese was expanded over the words of those who wanted a Bishop to be a “world figure” and spokesperson on social issues, to include what appeared to be an emphasis on Christian witness and spiritual development, at least making it look more of that type of search. There were some excellent candidates brought in. I thought Gene was just the local who was being spared the ignominy of being ousted before the final vote. How wrong I was, and in shock, I have been really intensively praying and reading my Bible and listening to God with regard to these events since the election here in June.

The election of Gene Robinson was not open and fair. The Holy Spirit did not produce his election, despite what has been said by some. I know of people who were delegates, who prayed and considered everything, and prayed intently, yet the Holy Spirit led them to vote for others-even when there was a move to try to make it more “unanimous”. The clergy that could be gotten in line before the election were ready to vote for Gene Robinson for some time. There was a lot of lobbying by Theuner. I have considered (as I am a lawyer) whether a suit against the Diocese for wasting nearly $180,000 on the sham of bringing these others in, when it was set up for Gene Robinson to be chosen, should be brought to bring this out. From those in the know, including some retired clergy, I believe that the set up was made at least a year in advance, with steady work on those clergy who were not in favor of this, and then with some special handpicking where possible of parishioners as delegates. The sham of the open and spirit centered election was important, however, for it was used in the news to tout what a great candidate Gene was, so openly and lovingly chosen overwhelmingly by the New Hampshire Church. Not so, but it certainly was made to look so.

I have prayed daily for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1: 17) and for the gift of discernment that I might have knowledge of God’s truth. God showed me within a few days after the election, and also within a few days of the confirmation (when I was starting to question whether I really heard God correctly), the same scripture about the lying spirit sent by God to fool King Ahab (I Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 18, daily readings for those days in the One Year Bible) that the spirit that caused this election was a lying spirit. In those weeks God also showed me many of the prophecies about the end times and the rise of the Anti Christ and the False Prophet. I have always wondered how it was that Church and believers might be fooled into worshiping the false leader and how that leader would ever rise to world popularity and status. God told me it will be like this was done, the rise of Gene Robinson, on the supposed wings of this cause of homosexuality “acceptance”, to world news. (If you missed it, the papers did pick up on some of the “worship” aspect of how people were dealing with Gene Robinson and how he viewed himself as “changing the gospels” for modern times.)

For any of us who have trusted completely in God and Jesus Christ, through the periods of silence and hardship, we have come to the knowledge that God is not just occasionally involved in our lives, He is intimately involved in the details of our lives, on a daily basis. Nothing is coincidental. I have come to look at my days and the people I meet in my law profession and my consulting as appointments God has made for me. For those of you reading this who do not know Oswald Chambers and “My Utmost for His Highest”, I strongly recommend the daily readings and wonderful insight from God that this man had in his lifetime. I cannot tell you how many days the readings from the lexionary, the One year Bible, and that book were right on target, not only with what was happening here, but what was wrong with what was happening. There were other things brought to me to, including one day an article on a website that explained all the talk of “inclusion” and the importance of that to this election.

To not make this any longer for now, I am going to capsulate what has become apparent to me from all these sources, including sermons and talking of Gene Robinson and also the other Canon, Marthe Dyner:

1. Homosexuality is only the surface issue here. Nevertheless, look how this election has spawned an extraordinary amount of acceptance of this lifestyle as normal, with TV, government, etc. all developing the worldview that this is normal and great. (Biblical truth and biological evidence are totally against this as normal, but the latter is subject for a later writing).

2. In trying to overcome the strict prohibition against homosexuality as a sin, however, the proponents:

a. Compared it to the ordination of women (particularly in saying that the Bible opposition to this was considered out of touch with modern times).

b. said that what is explicitly described, a man lying with a man as a man lies with a woman, is “not what they do” (statement from Marthe Dyner).

c. Said that this applies to the Old Testament only, which was written by a bunch of old men who did not really understand any of this (what happened to all Scripture is God-breathed?)

d. The references are only to temple idolatry, or promiscuous sex, not to long term committed partners (who did not exist then, they say?)

f. Paul railed against it, but perhaps because that was his “thorn in the flesh”

3. It was not until after the objection was raised (that if God wanted to do a new thing here, which He certainly could do, announcing it at something new), and considering nearly two thousand years in which this was clearly prohibited and accepted by Churches as being sin, that some started acting as if God had now announced He really has done this as a new thing (acting through the Holy Spirit to vote Gene in). Yet, if this is the new thing God is doing in His Church, why don’t the rest of us seem to get it? Why haven’t many around the world had this revealed to them?

4. The “gospel of inclusion” is what underlies this, and it is a heresy. This belief says: God loves everyone (correct), God sent Jesus to die for everyone’s sins (also correct), God is not willing that anyone should perish (also correct as it is stated in the Bible), THEREFORE, Everyone is “saved” (HERESY). Marthe Dyner believes this, I believe Gene Robinson believes this and it has been reported to me that this is being taught in a number of Episcopal Divinity Schools. There are lots of people in my Church who now believe this. As a result, if everyone is “saved”, we make fun of those “evangelicals” who make a big deal about salvation, being saved, being “born again”. As a result, it really doesn’t matter what you do, sin or not, because in the end everyone is going to heaven! (???) What about all the other Scripture about that, including the many who call Jesus Lord, but are told to depart from Him at the Judgment. THINK ABOUT THIS. THIS IS A BIG THING. If the belief is spread, then when will people be asked (other than in the “rhetoric” of the baptismal covenant, which will obviously have to be changed at some point) to repent from their sins, to turn to God and ask forgiveness and then to have a “new life” in Jesus Christ. Isn’t that the true gospel message???????!!!!!!

5. Along with this “inclusion thing”, billed as inclusion of homosexuals (by including a Bishop, so that they will feel welcome in the Church-where all of us are sinners and all are already welcome), they believe there is NO EVIL, NO SATAN. This has been taught by Marthe Dyner, and is just what Satan would like us to believe, particularly in the Church.

6. If we don’t need salvation by Jesus’ death on the Cross-and our decision to accept this and follow Jesus, then we won’t need to turn our lives and will over to Jesus Christ to be our Lord. This raises the question of why be in the Church at all? What has been done here is to replace Christianity with what I call “Theistic Humanism”, a “belief” that talks about God, does not know Him as a personal entity, and merely tries to invoke His name for the masses who believe there is a God, even if impersonal, etc. Actually, think about it, how many did Satan hook by atheism, or by humanism itself (we are all gods?)? Not many takers. But by talking about God, and then going about doing public projects deemed by the world to be good, such as AIDS awareness, school funding equality, helping the poor get medical coverage (and whatever else Gene Robinson is announcing from the pulpit), has some appeal. If the churches (as mine did this Sunday) talk about being inside the Church as the way you get to be children of God, but no “salvation” is ever mentioned, it does not require people to change their lives, see sin as opposed to God. We want their money only (which by the way, IS causing some problems, as it is not coming in as needed by the Church), and have them be happy about God, without having to make a sincere commitment of our lives. This “theistic humanism” is a belief which has form, but is without content and without the power of the Holy Spirit.

7. The Holy Spirit is not in this. There is a spirit all right, but it is one meant to destroy the Church from within. Yet God has promised that the true believers will know and will see this, while those who are not really believers (but may be members of the church) will not.

8. We should be concerned about the LOST here. There are plenty of them attending the Episcopal Church. We should be concerned (and I believe we in AACNE) about the preaching of the Good News, the real truth that Jesus Christ came to reveal, protecting the Bible as all Scripture that is God-breathed and routing out these heresies (or at least being aware of them and pointing them out) to those in the Church who can be reached.

Gene Robinson preached a sermon about Abraham taking Isaac up to sacrifice him. Gene Robinson said he could not understand why Abraham would do that, perhaps because the pagan religions of the day were sacrificing their children. He showed absolutely no understanding that God had told Abraham to do that, that Abraham who was without children for so long might actually and possibly make his son, the son of the Promise, into an idol.

He did not understand that it was a test of faith in God, which Abraham passed. None of that understanding was there. The sermon was disturbing to me, for I came away thinking, this man does not know that God talks to people-and this has apparently not happened to him.

He also preached a sermon another time about the “weeds and the wheat” and said that he was weeds, and probably wheat also, but nothing was going to happen until the end of the age about that. He concluded that he would continue to be weeds and wheat all his life. Jesus himself explained that the weeds in His parable were the children of the evil one. Is this a clue? Has anyone ever asked Gene Robinson clearly what he believes about Jesus Christ, about salvation, about evil, Satan, sin, etc.? I think you might be surprised.

And he has been groomed (and given a job) for the last 16 years by Bishop Theuner. He has used his time to change the ideas of legislature and church about what constitutes the family and to work on AIDS and make a name in these fields. While “equal rights” and “discrimination” might be words for the world that give some pause before objecting to Gene Robinson, we are not to be of this world. What the world does about these things is not of great concern. I am concerned that the Church gets sucked into having to follow what the world does. Jesus loves everyone, but the Bible (and Jesus specifically) states that not everyone will be saved. It takes a decision and we are to follow him, denying ourselves and taking up the cross that is there for each one of us to bear. I am assured that under this regime no one is going to be asked in this Episcopal Church to make a serious decision to walk away from sin in his or her lives, to accept this gift of salvation and to be a new person in Christ. Believing and being okay is just going to be assumed as a “fait accompli” (the everyone is saved thing).

Marthe Dyner has been sent out to control the opposition. Bishop Theuner is the opposition also. They want complete agreement and compliance with acceptance of Gene Robinson. They also don’t want people thinking about these underlying issues.

In all of my recent Bible study I have come to be convicted of more of my own sins, some of which the Church told me were not sins, such as abortion. I am a sinner, as are we all, but Jesus washed me totally clean and He remembers my sins no more. I try to keep a very short account of sins, seeking forgiveness immediately for my wrong thinking and acting and speaking, and by changing my life with the help of the Holy Spirit. I see most of the deeper changes in my life having really come to fruition after I was finally baptized in the Holy Spirit a couple of years ago. I became a Christian at 13. For those who know what I am talking about, this goes without saying, but for those who don’t: It is possible to be a Christian, to have given your life to Jesus Christ, to have the Holy Spirit living in you in some corner (until you let Jesus be Lord), but to not have had the baptism of the Spirit. Some priests, bishops and ministers have worked for 15, 20, 25 years in their ministries before becoming baptized in the Spirit. It makes a huge difference! You can pray for this!

This is long. I hope you are able to read all of this. There are a number of problems in the Episcopal Church that have developed over the years, imperceptibly, slowly, taking away ground. I am ashamed to think that the Episcopal Church was uniquely ripe for becoming the home for this cunning work of Satan. That is what I see it as. We need to see the Truth of God and go into battle armed with the Truth.

My thanks for posting this. I have wondered for a long time how this happened in the New Hampshire Diocese. The writer well describes the reservations I have with Robinson's elevation, and the enormous angst I feel over leaving a church in which I have spent my life. Those who think that it is an issue of personal prejudice against homoeroticism just don't get it.

It is good to have this inside account from a true believing Epicopalian. Her light shines brightly in the darkness, and she sees very clearly what's going on. This is a powerful must-read.

And he has been groomed (and given a job) for the last 16 years by Bishop Theuner.

Actually, I think it was more than 16 years, and he was hand-picked by Theuner for some very important and influential posts:

Since 1983 he has been Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Province of New England. Five years later, he was named Canon to the Ordinary for the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire and became a member of the Board of Trustees of the General Theological Seminary in 2001.

Theuner was behind this, and it made me curious about him, but I can't find too much. He is very patient, and very devious, though.

Wait, I meant to say that Theuner is the man behind Vicky Gene's promotion, but as this author says, it's a lying spirit that's actually in charge - and they undoubtedly don't know it because they are completely deceived by their personal desires.

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