“Social Justice” Indoctrination of Youth in ACNA

Last time, I noted that Jemar Tisby wants churches to turn 1 Corinthians 2:2 on its head and “consistently address racial justice for months and years at a time.”  I then hinted that this policy may have infiltrated ACNA.

Aaron Buttery and the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO) has let the cat out of the bag.  It has infiltrated.

Issues of race, injustice and social unrest are not meant to be a one-time topical study or series. These crucial conversations are intended to take place over the course of our ministry so young people know that racism and injustice have no place in the kingdom or in the lives of those who follow Jesus.

Yes, all through a student’s stay in church, keep bombarding him/her about “racism and injustice” (which may be different than real racism and real injustice).  Besides what can possibly be more important for the church to be teaching youth?

·       In what ways are you catechizing your students about racism or injustice—not generically, but directly?

·       How often, through teaching or the prayers, are you shaping students to see racism and injustice through the lens of the Kingdom? For instance, in the prayers of the people?

Should the church really be catechizing about “racism and injustice?”  Is that what orthodox catechesis is about? Yes! And often!  Priorities!

·       Have you spoken with your Rector about equipping parents to discuss systemic racism at home?

Yes, pester the Rector to pester the parents about “systemic racism” so youth can be bombarded at home, too!  And if any youth and families get fed up with all that Woke Church stuff and flee the church, well, they were probably hellbound racists anyway.

In all seriousness, anyone with any contact with youth knows many youth are rebelling against wokeness.  If you do what Tisby and Buttery wants, the church is asking to lose these youth, not to mention families.  And any youth with any common sense know there are at the very least higher priorities for the church.  I can not blame them if they do flee such indoctrination on “racism and injustice.” 

·       How does your ministry communicate the difference and intersection between social justice and Kingdom justice?

Let me make it simple.  There is darn little intersection between “social justice” and Kingdom justice unless by “intersection” you mean a car crash.  

Besides that, Christ will bring in his Kingdom.  We will not bring in the Kingdom by our sociopolitical agendas whether they be woke or Trumpist or whatever.  The church should invite people to join the Kingdom by proclaiming the Gospel . . . the Gospel in the Bible, not some “social justice” gospel.  To think otherwise is pretentious as the Stand Firm podcast recently examined well.

Now before one thinks Buttery’s post is just one of those many goofball C4SO things, he has a position at the provincial level of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) as the Director of Student Ministry in Esau McCaulley’s Next Generation Leadership initiative.

I will leave it to ACNA readers how much they should put up with this.  I can think of some youth who would not put up with this at all.

ACNA’s Next Generation Leadership Initiative – More Wokeness to Come?

The Next Generation Leadership Initiative (NGL) of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has their website up.  This particularly alarms me from the Antioch Clergy Initiative page:

DIOCESAN TRAINING

The leadership of diocese and the churches receiving curates agrees to work with NGL on multi-ethnic ministry training including:

·       Intentional training on multi-ethnic ministry through reading materials related to a multi-ethnic and ethnic-specific ministry

·       Invite speakers to diocesan events who can address issues related to God’s vision for multi-ethnicity and practical tools for organizational change

·       Attending retreats/conferences on multi-ethnicity (through consultation with NextGen Leadership Team)

One unfamiliar with ACNA initiatives may think this reasonable and think me an alarmist or worse. However, the Anglican Multi-ethnic Network (AMEN), another ACNA initiative, while led by Esau McCaulley pushed woke propagandists such as Jemar Tisby and decried "white privilege" for the sake of multi-ethnic ministry, of course.  McCaulley now leads the NGL Initiative.  Although not led by McCaulley, the Gatherings of the Matthew 25 Initiative have featured a lot of woke propaganda, for the sake of “justice and mercy,” of course. 

This seems to be a pattern in ACNA, to create various initiatives with commendable outward aims that become venues for pushing wokeness. 

Also, it is hard to miss that some who have influence in ACNA think “social justice” advocacy is necessary in attracting more young and non-white clergy and laypeople to ACNA. (That would be news to my very multi-ethnic parish that runs the full spectrum of ages.)

So I think it is to be expected that NGL will be pushing more of the same, more confusion of ministry and Lib/Left advocacy.  I would like to be proven wrong on this and other concerns about NGL.  But I am usually right about this sort of thing, which can be annoying.

Esau McCaulley Asks a Question

Esau McCaulley later deleted the following tweet and protested he was just asking a question. (Yeah.  Right.) But there is a such thing as a stupid question:

A question that I can't stop asking: If all translation is interpretation and interpretation is influenced by social location, what does it mean that most of our English bibles were translated with very few Black or other Christians of color or women involved?

Leaving aside that not all translation is interpretation, this tweet reflects the “research justice” aspect of Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality and related ideologies. “Research justice” values the identity of the researcher as much or more than the quality of his/her work. As in politics, white males are not to be listened to much unless they are “woke”, of course, and even then Black, female, gay, etc. voices are to be listened to more.  I am not saying McCaulley buys all of this, and I doubt he does, but he clearly buys enough of it that he would question superior works of Bible translation because of the race and gender of the translators.

Dr. James White dissects the tweet quite well.

I would like to respond to that: the answer is, "Translation does not require diverse voices, and increasing diversity will not as a result increase accuracy of translation." Standpoint epistemology has no place in the serious work of text and translation.

— James White (@DrOakley1689) September 8, 2019

The issue of the accurate translation of Paul's words to the church at Colossae involves knowledge of lexicography, historical context, background, grammar, and syntax.

Categories of oppression or intersectionality have nothing to do with it.

— James White (@DrOakley1689) September 8, 2019

For example:

ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς

What does it matter who my grandfather was, or what my gender is, in rendering this, "For in him dwells all the fulness of deity in bodily form"?

— James White (@DrOakley1689) September 8, 2019

In other words, the skills and scholarship behind good Bible translation have nothing to do with race and gender. For a prominent Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) leader to suggest otherwise is troubling.

And Dr. McCaulley is a prominent ACNA leader.  While continuing to lead the Anglican Multiethnic Network, McCaulley has recently become the director of Next Generation Leadership for ACNA. NGL is “a province wide initiative committed to raising up and training the next generation of Anglican clergy and lay leadership.”

So I’ve got some questions myself.  Is it appropriate for someone with McCaulley’s race-obsessed mindset in line with Critical Race Theory to have ACNA positions of this importance?  Will ACNA exercise any church discipline with McCaulley?

I expect to revisit this matter.