++Kenya on the Millennium Development Goals

A week ago, I had some fun at the expense of --Schori pushing the UN Millennium Development Goals as a Lenten focus. But on a more serious note, the Anglican Archbishop of Kenya notes why that is not an appropriate Lenten focus in his pastoral letter for Lent. After advocating that God’s people should work “to transform society with the gospel,” he adds:

Some church leaders seem to think that the transformation of society will simply come through commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and at home in Kenya, the Vision 2030 initiative and the new constitution. While it is obvious that such good things as feeding the hungry, fighting disease, improving education and national prosperity are to be desired by all, by themselves any human dream can become a substitute gospel which renders repentance and the cross of Christ irrelevant.

Moreover, we need to be discerning about the values behind these visions. For instance the Millennium Development Goals have grown out of a secularised Western culture which is pushing Christianity to the margins and uses the language of human rights and equality to promote irresponsibility in social life and diminish personal responsibility.

This is not satire.

I am not making this up for laughs. Really:

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori invites a focus on the Millennium Development Goals for Lent 2012.

“I invite you to use the Millennium Development Goals as your focus for Lenten study and discipline and prayer and fasting this year,” Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori said. “The Millennium Development Goals are truly reflective of several of the Five Marks of Mission.”

I could make a snarky comment about The Episcopal Church becoming the religious arm of the UN (and of the Democrat Party for that matter). But you’ve got to hand it to TEC. They make satire really easy . . . or really hard depending how you look at it.


MORE: MCJ has some fun with this.