Posted on 05/22/2006 2:54:04 PM PDT by sionnsar
Conservatives (I mean evangelicals, traditional anglo-catholics, and just plain conservatives) will lose the battle at General Convention. There never really was any doubt, but some events drive the point home.
And let me say that the connotation of “conservative” to me relates to the root “conserve.” Conservatives are usually slow to change, but the motive is often (not always) to conserve something valuable.
The official Episcopal News Service is easily seen to be an organ for promoting the institutional cause of ECUSA. Significant news highlighting the conservative cause is often ignored, as is news that reflects poorly on the liberal cause. I won’t bother you with my useful definition of “liberal.”
But news and talk that sparkle for the institutional cause of ECUSA go immediately to the “Top Stories” tab on the website. As I write this, the top story is Desmond Tutu receives Union Theological Seminary's highest honor. The subtitle is: “Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town delivers timely message of tolerance.”
More on this, but first, let me note the second feature—'What Witness Will We Make?' (subtitle: “Episcopal Divinity School president looks toward General Convention”). This is not a news item, but a speech given by the Right Rev. Steven Charleston, Episcopal bishop and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was speaking at an alumni function and (as ENS puts it) “raised what he considers the most important question facing the Episcopal Church today.”
I don’t expect to see a verbatim of any speech by an Anglican Communion Network Bishop between now and General Convention.
While Bishop Charleston takes shots at zealots on right and left, the thrust of this eloquent speech is clearly in the direction of the steps taken at General Convention 2003 of full inclusion of all baptized persons in all the liturgical blessings and all orders of ministry of ECUSA.
Now, back to the lead story. Archbishop Tutu is an icon of courage, conviction, and faith. He was affirmed with “thunderous applause when he was honored with the highest award of Union Theological Seminary (N.Y.). His speech on the occasion moved from the battle over apartheid to the cause of those “oppressed” because of their “sexual orientation.”
A sidenote: Maybe one thing we will see in the aftermath of our loss at General Convention is that gay advocates don’t agree with us that sexual orientation is not the point. For them, it is all one piece of cloth. While a relatively small number of people with homosexual inclination remain celibate, the majority say, “It is my nature (orientation and more) and, by God, I will live it out.”
The punch for the Anglican world in Tutu’s speech came with these words, invoking our Lord:
"And if we really believed that our worth is intrinsic, not dependent on extrinsic attributes, would we really get so hot under the collar, threatening to breach communion over sexual orientation, because like ethnicity, like skin color and gender, it is a variable that does not affect the worth of a person?" he asked.
He said he "cannot stand silent when persons are penalized about something I believe they can do nothing about—their sexual orientation."
"I do not believe that the Jesus who was on the side of the weak and the persecuted would accept the treatment generally being meted out by us Christians to an already persecuted minority," Tutu said. "Inasmuch as you have done or not done it to the least of my sisters and brothers, you have done or not done it to me? Who are these least?"
Conservatives will lose the battle at General Convention because speeches like those of Archbishop Tutu and Bishop Charleston will capture the high ground in the hearts of Deputies and Bishops. Conservatives will appear reactionary, narrow, and stuck in the past—trying to conserve an outlook on the Bible and tradition that ECUSA long ago left behind.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. "I do not believe that the Jesus who was on the side of the weak and the persecuted would accept the treatment generally being meted out by us Christians to an already persecuted minority," Tutu said.
No wonder Tutu never shows up in any meeting of all the other African Anglican leaders. They won't put up with him. Tutu thinks it's all about HIM, and what HE believes. The Bible is useful for plucking random verses to use out of context, and the verses he doesn't like don't mean anything.
First, Conservatives always try to win in one fell swoop at General Convention, but they haven't got sufficient political acumen to achieve it, and no longer have the votes, either.
In contrast, the revisionists have long followed a pattern of patient incremental gains within the bureaucratic structure of the church, each of which is then formalized at convention -- by their conveniently placed delegates -- as a fait accompli.
The Conservatives are guilty of several things. First, they've fallen into the trap of "not wanting to seem mean," and thus allow people to fudge on the truth -- which is the precondition for the revisionists' strategy of incremental gain. Conservatives tend also to be too busy with other things, to pursue incremental gains of their own; and they're generally predisposed to desiring a Big Win, and thus refuse to accept incremental gains when they're available.
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them" (Leviticus 20:13)
"For this cause God gave them up into vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet" (Romans 1:26, 27)
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
So... what am I missing that Tutu is apparently enlightened of??? I read: homosexuality is clearly a sin. Nonetheless, homosexuals are just as capable of receiving grace through Christ as the rest of us sinners.
Their problem: they do not accept that they are sinning, and Tutu and others like him sanctify their misconception.
The result: Tutu is a false prophet and non-repentant homosexuals are damned.
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