Headline of the Day

To say I highly respect former Dean Robert Munday would be an understatement.  But I did not think he had it in him to pull off a brilliant lampoon.  But he did that yesterday with this headline:

Bigoted Progressive Church of Sweden Refuses To Call God By His Preferred Gender Pronouns

To troll gender lunacy and the Church of Sweden at the same time like that takes talent! 

And/or perhaps, as he notes, reality has become so absurd, it transcends humor and satire.

Do read the rest of his post, too.

A Correlation Between Politics and Morality?

I remember, decades ago, a Christian Right group put out an election guide with the stands of various candidates. It was labeled a “Morality Scorecard” or the like.  I apologize that I cannot remember more details nor find them via internet search.  (Those search engines can be close to useless when it comes to obscure details of history.)  If anyone remembers or finds more, feel free to comment.  I also apologize and warn that I will be speaking in generalities here.

With those caveats, what I do remember is that the group in question was excoriated for implying that one’s votes and political stands are a good measure of morality.  How dare they say politicians who vote wrong somehow are immoral! How dare they say that there is a correlation between one’s politics and one’s morality!

Well, although the group may have been a bit crude in the way they stated there is such a correlation, recent events seem to be proving them right in more ways than one.  It is hard to miss that the recent sexual harassment scandals blowing up here in the U. S. overwhelmingly involve Democrats - Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, John Conyers, Al Green, etc.

I can hear the reflex rebuttals now.  “What about Republicans like Roy Moore?”  If there were as many Republicans who mistreated women so blatantly, the Democrat News Media would surely be trotting them out and fast.  As for Roy Moore, the allegations against him smell increasingly like a pre-election dirty trick that is getting more debunked by the day.  But trust me, I think a lot of Republicans are scum, too.

And, to anticipate another question, the correlation I see is general not specific.  In other words, there are Leftist Democrats who are otherwise good people, and there are conservative Republican who are stinkers.  Heck, I once engaged in political combat against a few of them.

But to think there is no correlation between morality in public life and morality in private life is fantasy.  Someone who attacks freedom of speech, the right to life, basic property rights, the Constitutional rule of law, the right to defend oneself, traditional Christian values etc., etc. is probably going to be a sticker in private as well.

And now that stink is suddenly getting out and becoming public as well.

The Sunday Next Before Advent and Ten Years

The Sunday Next Before Advent has always had a special place in my heart since I’ve become Anglican.  To me, “The Sunday Next Before Advent” just sounds Anglican.  More importantly, it means Advent is just about here.  In fact I am listening to Advent music as I type this.  Hey if the world pushes Christmas since before Halloween, I can begin celebrating Advent a week early.

As I was talking to a friend this past week, it occurred to me that it is ten years since I observed this Sunday in Oxford and at Pusey House.  That was a joyful Sunday for me indeed.

This post four years ago gives a good idea how much that Sunday and this Sunday means to me.  I hope it is special for you as well.

Bishop Iker: ACNA is “in a state of impaired communion.”

Earlier this month, Bishop Jack Iker addressed his Diocese of Ft. Worth in convention.  He was very frank in addressing division in the Anglican Church in North America over women’s ordination.  After discussing the Holy Orders Task Force and the Conclave earlier this year, he concluded:

So where are we? Most ACNA bishops and dioceses are opposed to women priests, but as it presently stands, the ACNA Constitution says each diocese can decide if it will ordain women priests or not. We now need to work with other dioceses to amend the Constitution to remove this provision. 

And he went further (Emphasis mine.):

We are in a state of impaired communion because of this issue. The Task Force concluded that “both sides cannot be right.” At the conclave, I informed the College of Bishops that I will no longer give consent to the election of any bishop who intends to ordain female priests, nor will I attend the consecration of any such bishop-elect in the future. I have notified the Archbishop of my resignation from all the committees to which I had been assigned to signify that it is no longer possible to have “business as usual” in the College of Bishops due to the refusal of those who are in favor of women priests to at least adopt a moratorium on this divisive practice, for the sake of unity.  Bishops who continue to ordain women priests in spite of the received tradition are signs of disunity and division.

The hoary joke about bishops having their backbones extracted at ordination does not apply to Jack Iker!

The bishops and dioceses that ordain women are the sources of so much that is objectionable in ACNA – weakness on the authority of scripture, confusing lib/left activism for ministry, lack of concern for unity for starters – that I am glad to see the Bishop of Ft. Worth take this stand.  I once was sanguine about ACNA and women’s ordination.  Taken by itself, women’s ordination has not been a big issue with me.  But I now see the issues are more than the gender of whom we ordain.  After seeing these bishops and dioceses – and who they ordain – in action since ACNA’s formation, I am with Bishop Iker on this.  Sometimes godly unity requires saying enough is enough.

The Current State of American Catholic Universities

No, this won’t be a long essay.  Anne Hendershott has already written one for us, and it is excellent, the best overview of Catholic higher education today in the United States I’ve come across.  It includes some interesting if distressing history as well.

Yes, I do use the word “Catholic” loosely.  I can be creative in choosing words to describe, say, Georgetown, but “Catholic” is rarely one of them.  “Jesuit” maybe.

As Hendershott writes, there are rays of hope; there are exceptional genuinely Catholic universities out there.  But the larger ones have invariably taken the “Catholic” and the “education” for that matter out of Catholic higher education.

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Personal Note:

Speaking of higher education, I have completed my Patristics course.  So I may torment you more often for a couple months or so.

Presiding “Bishop” Curry and The Episcopal “Church” Attack Freedom of Religion

. . . Because freedom of religion is only for those who agree with Social Justice Warriors and enlightened liberals.  All you bigots can pound sand.

Yes, I am angry about this, and I am posting before sleeping on it because I do not want to wimp out and tone it down.  An alleged church which enjoys freedom of religion and then turns around and attacks the religious freedom of a Christian small business owner is an outrage.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has joined the leaders of other major religious groups in signing an amicus brief in support of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission in the Supreme Court Case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

The case focuses on a baker who declined to make a cake for a reception after a same-sex wedding, an action that Colorado courts determined violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

And who are these other “major religious groups” attacking the religious freedom of a Christian baker? The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the General Synod of the United “Church” of Christ, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (It’s safe to say the Southern Baptists have nothing to do with these tools anymore.).   These are all shrinking and hardly “major” due to their running off the orthodox with their apostasies.

Phonies and hypocrites abusing the name of Christ to attack the freedom of real Christians is why there needs to be a Hell.

(By the way, studies are going well, thank you.  The way the fathers went after apostates and heretics is proving a godly example for me today.)