"I think it's time to admit that the tradition of liberal Anglicanism is finished. Those Anglicans who carry on calling for an 'inclusive church' are relics of a previous era. They should face the fact that the religious landscape has changed utterly. Liberal Anglicanism has become oxymoronic. For the first time this church has defined itself in opposition to liberalism, taking a decisively reactionary stance on a crucial moral issue.

"An institution that discriminates against homosexuals is without moral credibility - and moral credibility is rather important in religion. Furthermore, it contravenes the spirit of Jesus' teaching. His commandment 'Judge not' could almost have been invented for the problem of homosexuality, which most straight people find challenging on some level, but must learn not to condemn. Tolerance seems the only moral response, and a rule against gay priests obviously falls short of tolerance. It institutionalizes prejudice."

Mr. Hobson has got it dead wrong.

First of all, Lambeth 2008 will mainly be made up of liberals, as most of the orthodox will be attending GAFCON in the Holy Land with only a handful attending Lambeth 2008. Most of the orthodox will stay away from Lambeth thus saying, in so many words, '"We have had enough and we will discuss what it means to fulfill the Great Commission." The predominant voices at Lambeth will be liberals, not conservatives, with the loudest most strident left wing voices coming from the U.S., Canada, the UK, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

While V. Gene Robinson, the openly homoerotic Bishop of New Hampshire, has not been given an official invitation to Lambeth he will attend "on his honeymoon" with his partner and will hold seminars on sodomy to anyone who wants to attend. Dr Williams made it clear in an announcement about Lambeth that Gene Robinson has not been invited to the Lambeth Conference. "It is proving extremely difficult to see under what heading he might be invited to be around," said Williams.

Recently, a Church of England bishop opined that if homosexuality was not on the table at Lambeth, then it would be the 800 pound gorilla in the communion that would come back to haunt it.

Furthermore, it has been the singular concern of the Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, that if the conservatives stay away from Lambeth, then the Liberals will use it as an opportunity to overthrow Resolution 1:10, the lynchpin resolution of Lambeth 1998 that says sexual behavior is only appropriate between a husband and wife. Certainly the liberal bishops will be ably assisted in this action by the Anglican Consultative Council with acquiescence from Dr. Williams and a hearty push by liberal and revisionist TEC bishops.

Hobson further writes: "Surely the church can change its mind, reject its homophobic tendency, and regain its moral authority? I don't think so. The problem goes far deeper than the campaigners for an 'inclusive church' seem to understand. In fact, the gay issue highlights the authoritarianism intrinsic to the very concept of the church."

According to Hobson, the church must return to its natural liberalism, derailed by the rise of homophobic theology in the 1990s. But this is naive. What actually happened in the 1990s is that the church's official teaching (no sex outside marriage) was tightened. What the liberals actually want is a break with the entire tradition of the church in respect to its teaching on sexual morality. This amounts to a revolution, for churches have always issued moral rules about sex. To say the church should withdraw from sexual moralism is to jeopardize its entire claim to authority. However, the liberal Anglicans cannot admit that this is what is going on.

So Hobson is asking the church to reverse at least 2,000 years of moral teaching, maintained by every generation since Jesus, to order to suit the homosexual desires of a handful of pansexualists, who whine every day about their lack of exclusion from the halls of ecclesiastical power.

Hobson should live in the U.S. The Episcopal Church has been entirely taken over by liberals and revisionists, with the last of the orthodox slowly being driven out of the church by inhibition and deposition.

If Mr. Hobson believes that liberalism is finished, he should have waited till word came from Lambeth Palace today that only 70% of the communion's worldwide bishops have signed on to coming! This means in effect, that the 30% who are not coming are in fact the bishops from the Global South and Latin America. These are orthodox bishops, not liberal ones, which means that Hobson's choice of liberal and revisionist bishops could, if they were able to, manipulate the agenda to get a resolution reversing Resolution 1:10!

Rowan Williams is apparently making sure that doesn't happen with small group discussions, prayer, and Bible studies focusing on the church's mission with church-based development projects dealing with HIV/AIDS or educational matters, the partnership relations between bishops and dioceses from different parts of the globe, and relationships between dioceses. There will apparently be nothing legislative allowing for the possibility of another Resolution 1:10 to rear its ugly head. All will be sweetness and light - hopefully - until the kicking and screaming starts from the LGBT, Changing Attitude, Integrity crowd, and other poseurs of sexual enlightenment. They will start their public brawling, with the liberal media in full attendance, feeding the flames of sodomy for all to see with yells and cries of homophobia at any available conservative bishop who happens to pass by. The poster boys for Gene Robinson will have begun their public mantra of sodomite acceptance.

The Modern Churchpeople's Union is 110 years old this year. During its time, it has patiently promoted a liberal approach to doctrinal, moral and social issues, so successfully, that virtually all of those issues have resolved themselves into what is essentially a liberal consensus. It is an organization that has almost single-handedly derailed the entire Province of Central Africa with a single English vicar who wanted to be the Bishop of Lake Malawi promoting his agenda!

Hobson says, that in his opinion, the gay crisis shakes the foundations of ecclesiology. "Organized religion has always been authoritarian, in calling certain moral rules God's will, in saying that moral and doctrinal orthodoxy must be upheld. As I see it, Christianity rejects this; it dispenses with the moral 'law'. It claims, scandalously, that God wills a new freedom - from 'holy morality', from the bossy legalism inherent in religious institutionalism. Liberal Christians should be truly liberal, and see that the concept of an authoritative church has had its day - that God calls us to something new."

That's precisely the point. Neither the Old nor New Testament rejects the Moral Law. The NT rejects the Ceremonial aspects of Old Testament Law, not its moral precepts. Hobson's Choice is to denude the gospel of its moral imperative, making it possible to ignore the explicit teaching of the Apostle Paul against homosexual behavior, a behavior Mr. Hobson now believes the church can abandon or ignore - but to do so imperils the very souls of those who ignore it.

Is it any wonder that orthodox Anglicans are fleeing the Episcopal and Canadian churches? Is it any wonder that whole dioceses are fleeing TEC because they see the Episcopal Church as having abandoned Holy Scripture as normative for its faith and life? It is any wonder that GAFCON will draw hundreds of bishops together to keep the church centered on the Great Commission to save souls and the faith once delivered for all to the saints?

The truth is, they can do nothing else. They cannot go along with the moral relativism of the Anglican Communion. The souls of millions are at stake and a Christless eternity awaits those who do not repent. That price is too high to pay just to be yelled at over false charges of homophobia.

Hobson has prematurely written the obituary of liberal Anglicanism, but in the end it will fail because sodomites cannot reproduce. They have failed to draw tens of thousands of homosexuals into Episcopal churches like Robinson and Louie Crew said it would, because their belief that a woman has the right to terminate a pregnancy guarantees, in part, that those same women are killing the next generation of homosexuals!

Liberal and revisionist Anglicans have and are falling on their own moral sword. They will die by it. They just have no right to ask us to die with them.

END