St. Valentine’s Family Church

It still amazes me how some churches can be so cluelessly insensitive to those who aren’t happily married with 2.5 children.

Take the (mercifully unnamed) subject of this discussion thread for instance. This church plans to have a service entitled “Be my Valentine.” The mushfest will include all the married couples being invited to come up and renew their wedding vows.

And – here’s where it gets good – it will be the MAIN SUNDAY SERVICE!

Did the leaders of this church give no thought for the pain this would cause those who are unhappily married or unhappily single . . . or widowed? There was one long period in my life when such a service would have made me deeply miserable.

I do not exaggerate. In fact, Valentine’s Day itself used to be so unhappy for me, I made a point to ignore it. (Now I have fun by trashing the day and accosting mushy couples, but I digress.)

If they want to have a separate service for this sort of thing, fine. I might then ask if they do special things for singles. But to make this the main Sunday service is just incredibly . . . . It’s just incredible. (I’m trying to be nice for Lent.)

Heck, why don’t they just give up any and all pretense of giving a flip for singles and rename themselves St. Valentine’s Family Church.

A special Super Bowl

Thank you, New England Patriots!

But there's something even cooler about this year's Super Bowl:
If you have my book God Knows What It's Like to be a Teenager (and you should), the guy on the left of the cover picture is Aaron. I was a youth leader to him when he was in 7th grade, and we continued to be friends. The cover picture was taken before we saw the Drop Kick Murphys.

Since that picture was taken, he became a Marine and served in Iraq.

Well now he's back. And he and his wife and baby daughter watched the Super Bowl with me. :^)

Churchly Quality Control XIII: Just say no to more “dialogue” and “study.”

I’ve noted on this blog that a frequent tactic of mainline denomination liberals attempting to consolidate their gains (and of wimps afraid to take a stand on controversial issues) is to call for more “dialogue” and “study.”

Now, obviously, real dialogue and study is important. But more often than not, when you hear of calls for supposed dialogue and study from mainline liberals and moderates, it’s a cover for putting off issues and for putting up roadblocks to the orthodox. Often, it’s also a cover for continuing liberal policies while pretending to listen to those who oppose them. Such so-called dialogue serves no good purpose. It’s just a political ploy.

So – surprise, surprise – there are calls for yet more dialogue and study from Episcopal gay activists and their supporters ahead of the Primates meeting.

There comes a time when the orthodox should refuse to play that game. There comes a time to take a stand and say, “No, we will dialogue no further about what is right. We will do what is right.”

Now is such a time.

It is quite clear there will be no repentance or even moratoriums from North American Anglican liberals. While they call for “holy listening” they engage in unholy steamrolling, pressing forward their agenda and squeezing those who stand in the way. Supposedly listening to people before you crush them as intended is pretense.

The orthodox must not participate in that malevolent pretense.

For the sake of the Faith, for the sake of those being squeezed for defending the Faith, for the sake of the integrity of Anglicanism, orthodox Anglican leaders must say no to putting off action for yet more “dialogue” and “study.” This is a time, not for faux dialogue, but for action -- for firm church discipline.

Pray for the Primates meeting.

Hugo, make my day!

I just heard on CNBC that Hugo Chavez, Castroite President of Venezuela, is considering selling refiner Citgo and taking his heavy grade sludge oil to China to be refined instead of the U. S.

Go ahead, Hugo! You’ll cost your government millions to ship oil half way around the world to inferior refineries. And there’s any number of companies that would love to have Citgo and their quality refining capacity.

Meanwhile, I would be able to end my personal boycott of Citgo – which will make my life easier since half the gas stations in Corpus are Citgo. Yeah, gas prices might go up a bit. But it will be worth it to see you squeezed.

Go ahead, Hugo, you Leftist goon, do it!

The Truth Comes Out II

Is it just me, or is there a sudden outbreak of ECUSA liberal contempt for the Anglican Communion? Here’s the latest bile spewing episode from an assistant bishop no less against arrogant bloodthirsty Primates and their whining orthodox allies. Hmmm.

I might deal with some of the points in this vomitous letter at a later time. But could it be that the liberals are seeing what’s coming from the Primates and are having tantrums like an unrepentant brat about to be punished? Or have they been holding most of their bile in, and now just have to let it all out?

The Primates meeting is still weeks away. If they do what they should do, maybe we will need to duck for cover.

Choral Evensong rocks! . . . Well, you know what I mean.

For some reason, I’m a bit foggy-brained to write much today. (Of course, some may think I’m that way all the time.) But I’m very excited to see the schedule for BBC Choral Evensong. Next week on Ash Wednesday, it comes from Westminster Cathedral, which has been excellent in the past. On March 9th will be Canterbury Cathedral itself. Then on March 23rd during Holy Week, it will come from . . . KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE!! Yessssssssss!

If you’re not in the U.K. and want to listen to these, you can listen online. They come on live at 10am Dallas time on Wednesdays. If you miss it live, you can listen whenever you want for a week. Here’s a handy page.

(This week’s from Durham Cathedral was nice, although the lady cantor was a bit hard on my ears.)

The Truth Comes Out.

Two diocean conventions caught my eye by making it quite clear that ECUSA revisionists don’t give a gradual about the Anglican Communion.

First was the Spong clone Bishop of Newark’s address
to his convention in which he made clear that marching lockstep with the revisionist gay agenda is more important than the Anglican Communion.

He even suggested that unity in the Anglican Communion has become “an idol.” The irony of that statement is rich, considering how many things uberliberals like him have put before God and His Word. The Diocese of Newark has been Idolatry Central for many years.

More subtle, but perhaps more outrageous was the convention of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. Not only did they decline to accept the Windsor Report, most of the delegates didn’t even consider it worthy of their time to read the thing. Note this choice paragraph from the linked Roanoke Times article:

But other delegates expressed reluctance to "accept" a document which, by a show of hands, at least half the delegates said they had not read all the way through.

Look. I, of short attention span, can read the Windsor Report in two or at most three sittings. And how many months has it been out? Yet these delegates didn’t take their responsibilities to their convention and to the Anglican Communion seriously enough to even read it. That is outrageous.

The convention took the usual mainline cop-out of calling for “study” of the Windsor Report. WHY DON’T YOU TRY READING IT FOR STARTERS?

To get further color on what is really thinly veiled contempt for the Anglican Communion and the Windsor Report, read comment #10 on the linked TitusOneNine post.

These revisionists, apostates, and tag-alongs have made it clear that they really don’t care for the Anglican Communion. It’s past time to kick. them. out.