By Julian Mann, Virtueonline

Orthodox bishops in the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, meeting this week in London, are gathering in a capital city where the Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson has just banned this statement from London buses: “Not gay. Post-gay, ex-gay and proud. Get over it.”

Such censorship of these advertisements, responding to the earlier “Some people are gay. Get over it.” campaign by the highly politically influential homosexualist lobby group Stonewall, is disturbing enough. But the reasons Mr Johnson has given for the ban in the UK capital city are even more alarming.

His latest rationale frighteningly exposes the dry-rot in the edifice of democratic freedom.

At a mayoral hustings last week at St James’s Piccadilly, Mr Johnson declared that he banned the ads on London buses by Christian groups, Anglican Mainstream and Core Issues Trust, because “the backlash would be so intense it would not have been in the interest of Christian people in this city”.

His initial stated reason for banning the posters was his desire to protect Londoners from being exposed to the suggestion of gay therapy: “London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest being gay is an illness someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses.”

Whilst his latest reason at the hustings does not contradict his earlier one, it is a significant development. It emits an even stronger whiff of democratic putrefaction.

What ‘backlash’ exactly against Christians is Mr Johnson afraid of? Is he concerned that the bus ads would have unleashed violent disorder against the Christian community? Church services disrupted? Vicars jostled? Or worse?

And a backlash by whom? Gay stormtroopers?

Or was he worried that Christians might get upset by people disagreeing with the idea of gay conversion?

I’m linking to a short bio by Dick Hewetson, a former Episcopal priest.

Just a few observations and a question:

—It appears that this man functioned as an Episcopal priest for nearly 15 years, while not believing even in the existence of God, much less the tenets of the Christian faith. Indignation for the people whom he deceived and hurt and who trusted him is hardly the right word for my thoughts on this conman functioning as a priest.

—My, isn’t he perfectly shallow!

—Note that he was a deputy to General Convention and a participant in Integrity. Perfect.

—And to my questions: how many Episcopal priests do you think have functioned as conmen and conwomen over the past 50 years?

Is it possible that, of the rectors and bishops you and I have sat under there were such people as Dick Heweston, and that that explains their clueless, shallow answers to questions, their clear lack of knowledge about the Christian faith, their revisionist and deconstructionist rhetoric about Holy Scripture, tradition, and reason, their vague, waffling sermons, and their feckless, failed parish leadership?

I wonder.

Incompetence and failure is one thing. All of us are incompetent in one way or another and all of us fail.

Being simply a fraud and huckster, like the Duke and Dauphin, is quite another.

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org

It was a bitter sweet day for 65-year old the Rev. Dr. John Yates. Bitter because a long drawn out legal battle was finally coming to an end, and the day was soon coming when he and his flock could no longer stay in property they had loved and cherished, learned, listened and spiritually grown up in, having contended for several generations for ‘the faith once for all delivered to the saints.’ It was sweet because the transition was going relatively smoothly with the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

Yates himself was ebullient with joy as he stood before his flock of nearly 4,000 evangelical Anglicans on Easter Sunday, many of whom had been with him for his 33 years of ministry at The Falls Church. Now, three decades of gospel ministry in a church founded in 1732 was finally coming to an end. Crowds were so dense at six services that there was standing room only. Services were videoed to overflow locations. A CANA bishop told VOL that he and his wife were forced to stand at the back of the main sanctuary; there were simply no seats available.

Tears of loss might have been expected as emotions ran high, but it was not so. Yates was ebullient with resurrection joy at the Spirit that filled the worship space on Sunday morning. “It was a joyous time, he preached five different sermons, something he had always wanted to do…it was all magnificent,” Senior Warden, Sam Thomsen told VOL.

“In the main sanctuary and the overflow accommodations in the Fellowship Hall, 3,160 people attended in three services where the usual capacity is 850, and the Fellowship Hall was maxed out. The remaining 800 attended one of the other three services, two of which were in the historic church.”

Virginia became the nation’s epicenter of Episcopal parish battles for the soul of Anglicanism. More than a dozen parishes, some mega church size believed The Episcopal Church had gone too far and had fallen off the cliff over the place and authority of Scripture and unscriptural innovations on human sexuality. It was a bridge too far for this and many orthodox Episcopal congregations around the country.

Here in Northern Virginia the heaviest price was being paid with tens of millions of dollars worth of properties. Yates knows that the eternal destiny of his people transcends buildings. The loss of one soul is more heart wrenching to God than bricks and mortar and a theologically corrupt and morally compromised denomination. With millions of dollars having been spent on legal fees and fruitless appeals to the courts, it was nearing time to move on.

Yates came to The Falls Church in 1979 when it had a congregation of 500. 33 years later the church can boast nearly 4,000 members with eight clergy and a staff of 60. The church’s annual budget is $6 million. No small achievement. His is one of the top five most successful parishes in The Episcopal Church of nearly 7,000 congregations. The church’s outreach in many directions is spectacular.

Among its many ministries, the church initiated an exciting church planting effort called Timothys program. It selects talented young men who have finished seminary and are interested in church planting to go through a testing process for three years to see if they are made of the right stuff to start a church of their own. A strong faith and entrepreneurial skills are a must.

Today several church plants have been established within 10 miles of The Falls Church with more are planned, some geographically further afield. Gracious in defeat, Yates noted, “Having served as rector of the Falls Church Anglican since 1979, I have witnessed first-hand this congregation’s spirit of generosity to the local community and beyond.

“We continue to exemplify Christ in this way. Our congregation rearranged its worship schedule to provide an Easter service time for local Episcopal worshippers despite litigation that has been brought against us.

“The death and resurrection of our Lord this Holy Week reminds us us that even though we are facing legal obstacles, He continues to work through the Christ filled hearts of our congregation. Our prayer is that this historic site will continue always to be a place where the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed and lived.”

The properties with an estimated worth of $25 million plus some $3 million in liquid assets (but no interest) are currently scheduled to be turned over to the diocese.

Falls Church has already been the recipient of substantial ecumenical support. “When word went out that we would have to get out, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington graciously made space available and offered us an auditorium of a local Catholic high school for our main worship services. It can seat 1,400″, Thomsen told VOL.

“We have three locations for worship available to us in all. An Arlington County Middle School will allow us to use their attractive auditorium and the staff has gone out of its way to be helpful. Three Baptist churches have given space and other support and the Presbyterians have offered help. There are scheduling issues as we have multiple services but these will not stop us.”

There are signs and indications that the challenging circumstances have already spiked church attendance. “This Easter Sunday had the largest attendance on any single day we can remember,” Thomsen said. “We hope and pray that we can carry that forward.”

The continuing Falls Church Episcopal parish of the diocese drew some 350 in its service in the historic church, which filled the structure that George Washington helped to build. Half of them may have been visitors in support of the congregation, VOL was told.

From Cranmer

What price freedom of speech? Freedom of expression? Freedom of association? Freedom of contract? As His Grace foresaw (because it was tediously predictable), The Guardian jumped (with unseemly haste) on the Anglican Mainstream and Core Issues Trust plans to advertise a challenge to Stonewall’s claim that being homosexual is innate and unchangeable. For his own ashes, His Grace is not inclined to megaphone advertising and is no fan of sound-bite soteriology, but is respectful and tolerant of those who wish to spend their money in this way. Richard Dawkins’ did not create one new atheist with his bus-side ‘There’s probably no God’ campaign, and doubtless the ‘No God’ slogan irked or offended more than a few people of faith. But the Christians responded in like fashion (again, without news of mass conversions), and there was a healthy and entertaining debate. And debate requires the proposition of (at least) two opposing viewpoints, or it is simply an imbalanced presentation of a singular thesis.

Christians are called to proclaim the Good News, and whether that vocation be in a pulpit, upon a television screen, or walking up and down Oxford Street with a sandwich board, it ought to be tolerated in a free society. Now, while some might preach the wonders of heaven, the Way of Salvation and the boundless love of Jesus, others choose to focus on sin and damnation. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive – it takes all sorts. In 1999 Lord Justice Sedley championed the rights of people to express such views, and quoted Socrates and two famous Quakers in doing so. There is no breach of the peace if what is said is merely offensive. He said: “Free speech includes not only the offensive, but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative, providing it does not tend to provoke violence.”

Read here

April 11th, 2012 Posted in News |

It is often said that there are two remaining socially acceptable prejudices left. (“Socially acceptable” is defined as, “won’t get you pilloried by the mainstream media, academia, or other bastions of liberal elitism.”) One is anti-fundamentalism, which is usually assumed to include evangelicals. The other is anti-Catholicism, which we’ve seen a lot of from the left in recent weeks. The latest edition of the latter comes from Unitarian minister Debra Haffner, a “sexologist” who runs The Religious Institute, an organization dedicated to getting people of faith behind almost any sexual practice you can imagine. Kristin Rudolph of the Institute for Religion and Democracy has more:

On March 21, 2012, Haffner discussed her dissatisfaction with traditional Christian teachings on sexuality on the radio show, Culture Shocks with Barry Lynn. Lynn is a United Church of Christ minister whose group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, opposes orthodox Christian expression in public life.

Much of the discussion centered around the Health and Human Services (HHS) provision in the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare, requiring most employers, including those who object on moral and religious grounds, to provide health insurance coverage for contraception and abortifacients. Haffner asserted, “The argument that this [debate] is about religious freedom is a complete smoke screen. The fact that it’s now about birth control shows that it’s much bigger than a concern about embryos,” and supposedly, “about the Catholic hierarchy.” According to Haffner, opposition to contraception is not about genuine religious convictions, but “really about women and their sexuality. It’s about sexuality for pleasure, not just for procreation.”

Haffner ignored the possibility that Catholic believers still accept long-standing teachings on sexuality and contraception, and said “the science is very clear that modern methods of contraception do not act by causing women to miscarry fertilized embryos.” She questioned, “When is it that the Catholic hierarchy, because it’s not about the Catholic laity, it’s clearly about the Catholic hierarchy, is going to understand that we live in a different world than 100 and 200 AD?”

Let’s review, shall we? Haffner is a Unitarian, which means she stands for tolerance, inclusion, acceptance, diversity, and all other things wise and wonderful. Apparently, all those good things do not prohibit her from 1) questioning the motives of other religious believers; 2) asserting that said believers are primitives; 3) denigrating the intelligence of said believers; 4) imputing bad faith to those who disagree with her; 5) claiming that the religious beliefs of others are just a smokescreen for politics (any possibility of projection there, Rev. Haffner?); 6) contending that said believers are actually misogynists. Did I miss anything?

One of these days, I suppose I’ll stop being annoyed when prominent religious liberals make clear that tolerance, et. al, are only for those who agree with liberal politics and ethics. Ditto regarding their willingness to distort, impugn, denigrate, condescend to, and just generally disrespect anyone who dares disagree with their peculiar form of bigotry orthodoxy. I’ve long since stopped being surprised.