Posted on 01/15/2007 6:40:08 PM PST by sionnsar
In one of the most venomous op-eds on the Anglican controversy that I've ever seen, someone named Steve Gushee thinks he's got the Episcopal right figured out:
The breakaway parishes in the Episcopal Church make all the right noises about their struggle for theological orthodoxy, biblical purity and traditional Anglican values.
Cut through all the verbiage, and their issue is sex, specifically homosexuality in the church’s leadership, with a side order of bias against women.
The clergy in Truro Church and Falls Church in northern Virginia led their flocks out of the American Episcopal Church last month. In an extraordinary expression of self-righteousness, they aligned themselves with the Anglican Church of Nigeria and created a jurisdictional nightmare.
They joined a renegade mission of the Nigerian church called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America that now boasts 21 parishes, according to The New York Times.
The group is under the insensitive direction of Nigerian bishop Peter Akinola, who reads Scripture literally and claims it says what he wants it to say.
Instead of what we want it to say.
He wants to bring his prejudices to this country. To that end, he has consecrated an American priest, MartynMinns, rector of the Truro Church, to be a bishop in the Convocation. Minns will work under the authority of his Nigerian master in the vineyard of the American Episcopal Church.
That is the height of ecclesiastical arrogance borne of mind-numbing hubris. Bishops of different jurisdictions do not muck about in another bishop’s territory, but this sanctimonious crowd observes no such niceties. They alone, they claim, know the truth and read Scripture accurately.
We think words mean what they say, Gush. You can make words mean whatever the secular culture wants them to mean.
The great danger in all this — apart from the disgraceful treatment of homosexuals — is the growing power of bigots to use the Bible to condemn those who are different. Christians have long done that against Jews, blacks and women.
They use their religion "as a fig leaf to cover their naked prejudice," said the Rev. Peter Gomes, preacher to Harvard University who is a black, Republican, Baptist, gay minister.
So much for honoring our differences. It says here that Gush has been a TEC clergyman for 37 years. And Susan Russell liked what Gush had to say. Both of which raise the question of why any of us over here on the orthodox side should wish to share a church or anything else with people who think that libel is a Christian virtue.
If you'd like to e-mail Gush with your views on his article, you can do so by clicking here. Be sure to tell him I sent you.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. ...from what God says?
But his most recent day job seems to have been as a newspaper reporter. " was the religion writer for the Palm Beach Post for five years until July 1999". So, doing the math, he would have been ordained 49 years ago, after his naval career and his jobs in the insurance industry.
"They exchanged Truth for a lie and worshipped the creation rather than the Creator"- St Paul the Apostle
That pretty much sums up all liberalism
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