Sunday 11 November 2012

Turns-out the new Archbishop of Canterbury is not just non-Christian, but anti-Christian

*

Excerpts from his first statement:

http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2692/#Audio

*

I want to say at once that one of the biggest challenges is to follow a man who I believe will be recognised as one of the greatest Archbishops of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. He is some one with a deep love for Jesus Christ, an infectious spirituality, extraordinary integrity and holiness, immense personal moral and physical courage, and of course one of the world's principal theologians and philosophers...

Comment: "one of the greatest Archbishops of Canterbury" - This ludicrous remark is a combination of dishonesty, incompetence and ignorance.

*

The work of the Church of England is not done primarily on television or at Lambeth, but in over 16,000 churches, where hundreds of thousands of people get on with the job they have always done of loving neighbour, loving each other and giving more than 22 million hours of voluntary service outside the church a month.

Comment - It is significant that he does not mention among these secular activities anything Christian that churches should do; such as worship, Biblical teaching or evangelism.

*

We have seen the wonderful hospitality and genius of the people in this country inside and outside the church during this marvellous year of Jubilee and Olympics.

Comment: What in Heavens name has the Olympics to do with the Church of England?

*

Because of that vast company of serving Anglicans, together those in other churches, I am utterly optimistic about the future of the church.

 Comment: any serious reader will switch off at this point. Optimism is believing that things will turn-out well, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity (which is about hope) - but anyone who sees any grounds for optimism in the catastrophic state of the C of E is either psychotic, demented, or calculatedly dishonest: in other words anti-Christian. Only an anti-Christian could be optimistic about the future of the Church of England - which teeters on the verge of irrevocable corruption - and it is absolutely vital that its leader recognize this, and operate on this basis. 


*

...The House of Bishops is very wise. 

Comment: no comment. 


*

The Anglican communion, for all its difficulties, is also a source of remarkable blessing to the world. In so many countries it is one of the main sharers of reconciliation and hope in Jesus Christ. Anglicans today stand firm in faith alongside other Christians under pressure in many places, especially in northern Nigeria, a country close to my heart. 

Comment: To say that Christians are 'under pressure' in northern Nigeria is a disgusting euphemism, literally disgusting.


*

...This is a time for optimism and faith in the church. 

Comment: What? The opposite is true - it is the time for Christian renewal of a horribly corrupt, wordly, expedience-driven institution which formally resembles the official 'Sergian' Russian Orthodox church under Stalin (de facto a branch of the government). 

*

I know we are facing very hard issues. In 10 days or so the General Synod will vote on the ordination of women as Bishops. I will be voting in favour, and join my voice to many others in urging the Synod to go forward with this change...

Comment: This is why he got the job.


*

We also face deep differences over the issue of sexuality. It is absolutely right for the state to define the rights and status of people co-habiting in different forms of relationships, including civil partnerships.  We must have no truck with any form of homophobia, in any part of the church. 

Comment: Anyone above the age of consent who uses the word 'homophobia' except in order to highlight its revolting abuse as a totalitarian weapon of nihilistic oppression is on the side of evil. But here is the most 'passionate' part of the speech - the statement of 'principle' - and a focus on a vile, commissar's weasel-word providing unambiguous evidence of his intention to persecute real Christians.


*

The Church of England is part of the worldwide church, with all the responsibilities that come from those links. What the church does here deeply affects the already greatly suffering churches in places like northern Nigeria, which I know well. 

Comment: 'greatly suffering' is better than 'under pressure' - but he doesn't mention who is applying the pressure, causing the suffering...

*

I support the House of Bishop's statement in the summer in answer to the government's consultation on same sex marriage. I know I need to listen very attentively to the LGBT communities, and examine my own thinking prayerfully and carefully. I am always averse to the  language of exclusion, when what we are called to is to love in the same way as Jesus Christ loves us. Above all in the church we need to create safe spaces for these issues to be discussed honestly and in love.

Comment: The bile rises. " I am always averse to the  language of exclusion' - apparently except when the exclusion is being applied to Christians. Then he is very keen on the language of exclusion - having just said "no truck with any form of homophobia, in any part of the church".

And focus on another vile, abusive, commissar's weasel word with 'LGBT': a very obviously disparate constituency, currently-united only in political demands for institutional preferences and unrelenting opposition to marriage and the family (hence real Christianity).

But when Welby says "Above all in the church we need to create safe spaces for these issues to be discussed honestly and in love." this is where he hits rock-bottom; since he is using rhetorical tricks to put his opponents beyond the pale, as if there were any real Christians who would oppose such a notion; and yet at the same time he conflates proper Christian behaviour with 'safe spaces' - accepting without argument that most of Christianity is 'unsafe' for people of non-normal sexuality; and accepting that the solution to this 'hostile' environment is an essentially bureaucratic process of allocating specific times and places and persons (as if in a school timetable) for 'these issues' - implicitly set apart from Christianity - to be 'discussed honestly' - implying that at present these issues are dishonestly discussed specifically among Christians - and 'in love' again defining the Christian problem as being lack of love. Pah!

*

The first speech of the head of the third largest Christian denomination in the world is dishonest from top to bottom, inside and out.

This is utterly inexcusable from a Christian leader, and is indeed so extreme as to reveal Justin Welby as an anti-Christian; one whose energies and efforts will be devoted to subversion and elimination of the real Christian elements within the Anglican communion.

This is, in short, the last nail in the coffin of the Church of England, and the point where break-up of the denomination becomes not just a regrettable probability but a Christian necessity - the only hope for survival of Christianity within Anglicanism. 

*

Well at least we know where we are, and what needs to be done.

We have gone from Archbishop Rowan, who was muddled, ineffective, pompous and mostly bored-by and indifferent-to Christianity; to Justin - who is the first systematically anti-Christian Archbishop of Canterbury.



*

12 comments:

AlexT said...

Wow, just horrible. I hope the congregation you attend will have the brains, willpower, and faith to unequivocally separate themselves from this openly heretical weasel. Isn't the Continuing Anglican movement quite well developed in England these days? Would that be an option for you? I know that it happens almost every month with the Episcopalians in the US. The big issue there seems to be who has title to the actual Church buildings. Would that be an issue in the UK? Please let us know how you and other serious Anglicans end up reacting to this, because it has to be the final straw.

Bruce Charlton said...

@AT - I don't think there is urgent need for initiating action, rather there is need to be prepared for the inevitable hard decision. We need not seek trouble, trouble will seek-out real Christians. Leftists will never leave-alone but always seek-out and 'expose' their enemies, Christians, and this applies especially to Anglicans.

AlexT said...

Would you say that the congregation(s) you attend are of the same mind as you on this? Just trying to gauge what the general response is among Anglicans to this man. Do you have any idea what percentage of believers in England would agree with you on this?

Anonymous said...

Somebody wrote recently none of this was surprising; the C of E was founded to let the upper class of England do what it wanted, so what it was doing now was what it was doing in the beginning, its whole purpose.

Matthew said...

When the Church as a whole sold out marriage (i.e. the sexual revolution and ESPECIALLY the acceptance of divorce and unmarried parenthood), its fate was sealed. LGBT / gay marriage is all a big "nothing" in comparison to no-fault divorce, default female custody, social acceptance of sexuality before and outside of marriage, and other attacks on the bedrock of society -- married men and women raising the next generation with both parents.

Bruce Charlton said...

@AT - I'm sure I am in a small minority of Anglicans - but 100 percent of 'believers' would agree ;-)

@dl - Obviously I think this is garbage, or I wouldn't be an Anglican. Book of Common Prayer, Authorized Version of the Bible and their authors, Thomas Traherne, Thomas Browne, The Wesleys and the evangelical revival, the Tractarians and the Anglo-Catholic revival, HH Kelly, Charles Williams, C.S Lewis, Michael Ramsey, John Stott, JI Packer...

@M - yes indeed. Incremental decline. But there was hope of renewal which dwindled and dwindled until last week it was snuffed-out.

George G. said...

Clearly a mid to low-level bureaucrat specifically chosen because he is wholly subservient to established bureaucratic (which are anti-Christian) interests.

Bruce Charlton said...

@GG - indeed. In a nutshell.

JP said...

It is "interesting" that he chose to speak out in favor of gay marriage and tolerance right when a vast and sweeping scandal has surfaced in which the entire elite establishment is implicated.

It's almost like he wants the Church to be a "safe space" for the highly ranked people who deserve the condemnation of the Church, not its protection.

Bruce Charlton said...

@JP - I read somewhere that Welby is supposedly *not* in favour of same sex 'marriage' in the CofE, contrary to what *seems* to be implied in this article - I presume he has very... what could one call it... nuanced? views on the subject - wanting to appear one thing to one person and another thing to another person. In other words devious, dishonest, legalistic, weak, bureaucratic - whatever is the opposite of leadership.

The Crow said...

Christianity has been becoming ever more delusional, over time. Thus, while shocking, this new guy's outlook is really only to be expected.
Jesus was about simplicity, honesty, and reverence. Which is not something the church seems to support.

Wurmbrand said...

Featured here:

http://badvestments.blogspot.com/2012/11/im-back.html