You are welcoming in your countries an ever-growing number of Muslims.... You think all men are created equal, but that is not true: Islam does not say that all men are created equal. Your values are not their values. If you do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed in your home. --- Amel Shimoun Nona, the exiled Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul

The sparkle of authenticity. It seems to me that one might well single out freshness of spiritual experience as the first indispensable quality of the effective preacher. No amount of homiletical technique can compensate for the absence of a close personal walk with God. Unless he puts a new song in our mouth, even the most polished sermons will lack the sparkle of authenticity. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
September 12, 2014

The Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the international Christian aid group Samaritan's Purse and son of world-renowned preacher Billy Graham, said that given all the "bad news" about the killing of Christians by Muslims in some countries, and attacks on Christians by the media and the government even in America, he cannot "help but wonder if we are in the last hours before our Lord Jesus Christ returns.

"As I read the news, I can't help but wonder if we are in the last hours before our Lord Jesus Christ returns to rescue His church and God pours out His wrath on the world for the rejection of His Son," said Rev. Graham in a post on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) website.

Apocalyptic predictions have been around for centuries made more current by former Church of Ireland priest John Nelson Darby (founder of the Plymouth Brethren Movement) and his dispensational view of history.

The End Times is that period that runs from the resurrection to the end of history. Some first century Christians believed Jesus would return during their lifetime. When the converts of Paul in Thessalonica were persecuted by the Roman Empire, they believed the end of days to be imminent.

While some who believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible insist that the prediction of dates or times is futile, others believe Jesus foretold signs of the end of days. The precise time, however, will come like a "thief in the night" (1 Thess. 5:2). They may also refer to Matthew 24:36 in which Jesus is quoted as saying: "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." We should be careful about predicting the end when Jesus himself said only the Father knew.

*****

"Anglican" or "Episcopalian"? The answer depends on the value of tradition. One question that pops up repeatedly of religion and politics is, "Where are the Episcopalians? Did you lump them in with Anglicans?"

The simple answer is that all Episcopalians are Anglicans. So, putting them in the same group is completely accurate. There are some break-away or new Anglican congregations that are not part of the Episcopal Church, but they represent less than ten percent of Anglicans in the United States.

Jordan Hylden of PEW writes that among church-going Americans, an "Episcopalian" is a member of a pro-gay, autonomous American denomination, more liturgical than most churches but firmly within the theological orbit of liberal Protestantism.

While an "Anglican" is someone who is part of a conservative evangelical church with bishops, connected somehow with Africa and opposed to homosexuality.

Fortunately, we have data to sort this out. Pew's 2007 Religious Landscape Survey included 706 Anglicans/Episcopalians. When asked if they identified with the Episcopal Church or the Anglican church, 73 percent said they identified as Episcopalian; 21 percent said they were Anglican.

The key difference between these identities is the value they place on tradition. When asked if the church should preserve tradition or if it should change to fit modern life, half of Anglicans said the church should "preserve traditional beliefs and practices." Only 28 percent of Episcopalians said this.

The survey doesn't have a measure of theological liberalism, but politically, Anglicans are more likely to self-identify as conservative (46% to 30%).

One final note: Both groups are from the same religious background. 51 percent of both groups were raised in the Episcopalian Church. There were no major differences in how others came to the church.

Identifying as "Anglican" is also due to immigration -- people who grew up outside the U.S. are more likely to identify as "Anglican". Only five percent of "Episcopalians" were born in the U.S. compared to 18 percent of "Anglicans". Only two-thirds of these immigrants were raised Anglican, but the identification is still more common among all of them.

*****

In a startling revelation this week, America's pastor and super evangelist Billy Graham dropped that if he was starting all over again he would be an Evangelical Anglican. He also said he wants the Rev. Richard Bewes, former Rector of All Souls, Langham Place, to officiate at his funeral service. This was also the pastorate of the Late John R.W. Stott

He made this revelation known to veteran journalist Kenneth Woodward, which was reported by historian Grant Wacker in a new book on the life of America's pastor to be published at the end of November by Harvard University Press.

What a huge boost for the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and its future. TEC officials are undoubtedly grinding their teeth at this word. Southern Baptists and not a few Presbyterians are wondering what happened to them. Well apparently, Graham liked some order in his worship with a taste for liturgy as well. Couple that with solid evangelical preaching and hey, presto, you have the best of both worlds. One shouldn't be surprised if ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach is not raising a toast to Billy somewhere in America an evangelist he has revered and respected as a spiritual giant since he was a child.

*****

Two more dioceses rolled over this week and will allow the blessings of same sex unions. Milwaukee Bishop Steven A. Miller said a new rite will be available only to those couples already married by civil authorities, and only in churches where the vestry, or parish council, signed off on its use.

The decision, outlined by Miller in a letter to clergy dated Aug. 29, appears to be a compromise between the personal convictions of the bishop, who has criticized the rite approved by the national church as deficient, and most of the clergy in the diocese, who had been pushing for him to allow its use locally.

Miller, who says he supports civil marriage equality, called his decision "prayerful," and says it "reflects my understanding of the whole of the diocese."

The Rt. Rev. Rayford B. High, Jr., [third Provisional] Bishop of [TEC] Fort Worth, sent a letter to the clergy of the [TEC] Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth setting out guidelines for the blessing of covenant relationships between people of the same sex. He did so to offer pastoral guidance to the priests of the diocese to enable them to offer "a generous pastoral response" to members of their congregations.

His action comes after two years of prayer, thoughtful consideration, and consultation with other bishops in the wake of the passage of Resolution A049 "Authorize Liturgical Resources for Blessing Same-Gender Relationships" by the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church in July 2012 in Indianapolis. The resolution authorized "for trial use 'The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant' from 'Liturgical Resources I: I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing' beginning the First Sunday of Advent 2012, under the direction of a bishop exercising ecclesiastical authority."

Bishop High said his decision was guided by the two things he took away from the discussion in the House of Bishops at General Convention, which were "(1) the bishop's ability to decide for her or his diocese what path they would choose to follow and (2) the church's generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church," and by "the teaching of Jesus and what we say in our Baptismal Covenant."

You can read the full story and my response to these unbiblical acts in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/n6uh6db

*****

Thirty-two states that either allow gay marriage or have banned it asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to settle the issue once and for all, the Associated Press reports.

Fifteen states that allow gay marriage, led by Massachusetts, filed a brief asking the justices to take up three cases from Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma and overturn bans. 17 other states, led by Colorado, that have banned the practice, asked the court to hear cases from Utah and Oklahoma to clear up a "morass" of lawsuits, but didn't urge the court to rule one way or the other.

The filing came as a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled that same-sex marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana are unconstitutional. The unanimous decision Thursday criticized the justifications both states gave, several times singling out the argument that marriage between a man and a woman is tradition. There are, the court noted, good and bad traditions.

The experience of Massachusetts -- the first state to legalize gay marriage -- shows that allowing same-sex couples to wed has only benefited families and strengthened the institution of marriage, said Attorney General Martha Coakley.

"Laws that bar same-sex couples from marrying are discriminatory and unconstitutional," she said. "The time has come for this critical issue to be resolved."

Massachusetts has been joined by California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.

Colorado's brief argued that the definition of marriage faces legal challenges only the Supreme Court can resolve, and that without a Supreme Court decision, states defending bans could be liable for huge legal bills from future lawsuits if they are overturned. It was written by Daniel D. Domenico, the state's solicitor general, and Michael Lee Francisco, assistant solicitor general.

Colorado was joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

*****

In the Diocese of Central Florida, an orthodox Episcopal diocese, a Titusville based Episcopal youth pastor was arrested on child pornography charges. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested Lucas Dillon Brandenburg in July after identifying a computer at his residence sharing images of child pornography. Brandenburg, 30, is a youth pastor for Building 418, a ministry of St. Gabriel Episcopal Church in Titusville.

Interestingly enough, Brandenburg was subject to a thorough background check and had fulfilled the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida's required Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse certificate program," said Joe Thoma, spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida.

"As Christians, a core tenet of our church is the protection and promotion of the dignity and care of all people, especially children and others who may be the most vulnerable and in need of special care," said the Rt. Rev. Gregory O. Brewer, diocesan bishop. "Our hearts go out to everyone involved in this matter."

According to one VOL poster, Brandenburg is married to a woman and is actively involved in Florida's pro-life movement. He had posted numerous public comments about the dangers of the Democratic Party and President Obama.

Another poster said, "I cannot judge the heart of a man (Bishop Brewer) and this one may be the best bishop in TEC, but no one can be called 'orthodox' who supports an apostate church. See 2 Corinthians 6:14-17.

*****

The next meeting of the Episcopal House of Bishops will be in Taiwan where some 150 bishops will descend on 687 Taiwanese Anglicans in 13 churches. Bishop Lai extended an invitation to his fellow HOB bishops to visit him in his Pacific Ocean island diocese. Taiwan, formerly called Formosa and situated off the coast of China, is an island smaller than Maryland and Delaware combined, about the size of Belgium.

The Taiwan Episcopal Church started in 1949 when Episcopalians moved to Taiwan from mainland China along with the Chinese Nationalists. It was formally established in 1954 as the Diocese of Taiwan, belonging to Province VIII of the Episcopal Church.

This is the junket to end all junkets - costing thousands of dollars per bishop - a gabfest wherein TEC's leaders will once again dodge the real issues of Episcopal decline and the rise of the ACNA, but undoubtedly praise the Taiwan Episcopal Church for its....(we are not quite sure). On mainland China it is a wholly different story where an estimated 20% of the country's 1.3 billion population are said to be evangelical Christians, not the sort of Christians Episcopal bishops have any interest in meeting.

One bishop who won't be attending is Springfield Bishop Daniel Martins who questioned the reasoning for the island hop and said this, "As I have said, I have no idea whether there's someone masterminding the construction of this narrative, but I do know that, whether it's accidental or intentional, I cannot in good conscience assist in propping it up. One of the ways the Taiwan meeting was 'sold' to the House of Bishops was that, by gathering there, we would be shining a light on the international character of our church. We are an American church. That we have foreign dioceses in our own hemisphere is testimony to the missionary zeal of our forebears, but the final stage of a responsible missionary strategy is always to spin off such churches as they mature into self-sustainability. See Mexico and Brazil."

Bishop Greg Brewer of Central Florida, an evangelical, said he went to his Diocesan Board, volunteering not to go, primarily because of the expense. "The Board, however, insisted that I should go and affirmed that they would gladly cover the costs. Their insistence arose from the fact that we, as a diocese, are choosing to be active within the councils of the Episcopal Church."

No word from Bishop Bill Love of Albany at this time of writing.

*****

In Wales history of a sort was made this week when Bishop Suffragan Gayle Harris of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts became the first female Anglican bishop to preside and preach in a Welsh cathedral. The event took place under the eye and invitation of Bishop Gregory Cameron at St. Asaph Cathedral in Denbighshire, North Wales. Although the Church in Wales voted on Sept. 12, 2013, to allow women as bishops, it decided that church law would not be changed for one year to allow the Welsh bishops time to prepare a Code of Practice.

A photo revealed that she wore a white miter, a privilege not afforded Katharine Jefferts Schori when she preached in Southwark cathedral, but then the CofE had not voted to allow women bishops. This PC action will not see an uptick in attendance, but Bishop Cameron is a refugee from the Anglican Communion Office (AKA Anglican Consultative Council) in London which saw Anglicans in the Global South separate themselves from the ACC and its liberal bent.

Speaking of the ACC we learned this week that the Diocese of Limerick and Licorice in Ireland has elected Canon Kenneth Kearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council in London to become its next bishop having served three masters (George Carey, Rowan Williams and briefly Justin Welby since 2005.) Rewards for pushing the Anglican Communion in a leftward direction come with miters apparently.

A source in Ireland told VOL that he is taking over from Trevor Williams who retired. "Kearon is 61, has been angling to get back to Ireland for a while. He will do four years and then retire. The way things are going in the Church of Ireland, numerically especially in such a diocese, he could well be the last bishop of Limerick. There are certainly conversations about the restructuring of dioceses across the whole of Ireland, north and south."

*****

In the UK, Canon Jeremy Pemberton the first British clergyman to enter a same sex marriage, confirmed that he has filed an Equality Act claim in the Employment Tribunal against the Archbishop of York and the acting Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham. The action is being brought because of the sanctions imposed upon him as a result of his marriage. Canon Pemberton married his long term partner Laurence Cunnington in April of this year. Shortly thereafter, his permission to officiate was revoked and a licence for chaplaincy work was refused. This led to the withdrawal of a job offer from Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. A source in London told VOL that there was no hope of success!

*****

New York Cardinal Dolan left Catholics puzzled and disheartened this past week. He was appointed as Grand Marshal of the 2015 St. Patrick's Day Parade, and praised the decision to allow an openly gay group to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. "I have no trouble with the decision at all ... I think the decision is a wise one," he said.

His action has left many Catholics, including elected officials, puzzled and disheartened especially when measuring Cardinal Dolan's new policy with that of his predecessor, Cardinal O'Connor.

In 1993, when LGBT groups and government officials demanded that openly homosexual groups be included in the Parade, Cardinal O'Connor vowed in a St. Patrick's Day sermon that he "could never even be perceived as compromising Catholic teaching. Neither respectability nor political correctness is worth one comma in the Apostles Creed."

You can read Mary Ann Mueller's analysis of this and what a number of Dolan's critics thought of his action as well in today's digest.

*****

Bishop Mark J. Lawrence, XIV Bishop of South Carolina has called for a Diocesan-Wide Prayer for the Persecuted Church: September 14-15. He wrote, "Many of us have been following with alarm the persecution of Christians in various countries of the Middle East and Africa. Concern has been expressed within our diocese by priests and laity of the need for us to have a diocesan response to this current crisis.

"Although it is technically a 'feast' day, I am suggesting that we use Holy Cross Day, Monday, September 15th as a called fast day for personal and corporate self-denial and intercession whether corporately or individually observed depending upon the constraints of parish and personal schedules. I believe there is virtue in many within the diocese banding together in prayer, self-denial and offering in solidarity with fellow Christians around the world."

*****

Activist lay Roman Catholic leader Bill Donohueblasted The New York Times this week and wrote correcting the record: "An editorial in today's (Sept 6.) New York Times cites the Vatican's disciplinary action against its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, the now-defrocked Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski. It invokes Pope Francis' promise that in the pedophilia scandal 'there are no privileges.'

"The Times erred again by repeating the myth of a pedophilia scandal: 100 percent of the victimizers were male; 81 percent of the victims were male; and 78 percent were postpubescent. That would make it a homosexual scandal. Indeed, less than 5 percent of these cases involve pedophilia.

"The boys the archbishop abused were teenagers, meaning that homosexuality, not pedophilia, was in play. The distinction is important."

*****

Mohammed is now the most common name for men in Norway's capital city Oslo, it appears. "It is very exciting," Jorgen Ouren of Statistics Norway tells The Local news website. A recent count of the city's population showed more than 4,800 men and boys in the city are called Mohammed, beating out other popular names like Jan and Per. Although Mohammed - with various spellings - has been the favorite name for baby boys in Oslo for the past four years, this is the first time it has also topped the men's list.

And it's not only in Norway that the name is gaining ground. The UK's Office for National Statistics says Mohammed was the most common name parents gave to baby boys in England and Wales in 2013.

Norwegian Muslims made up around 150,000 of Norway's 4.5 million people in 2012, the website On Islam says, mainly from Pakistani, Somali, Iraqi and Moroccan backgrounds. But Norway also has Europe's largest anti-Islam organisation, called Stop Islamization of Norway. It was set up in 2008 and is thought to have more than 3,000 members.

*****

Down under, a former Newcastle Anglican church employee said he repeatedly warned the diocese, from as early as 1984, that a ''network'' of pedophile priests preyed on children, but the diocese failed to act on the warnings.

''I told them in 1984 that 'You've got a network of these bastards preying on altar boys', and I named names,'' the former church employee said.

In the past four years, the diocese has defrocked three priests and sanctioned others, and confirmed a number of clergy and church workers were child sex offenders.

What seems so extraordinary about this kind of all too frequent report is not just that Christians, professional Christians at that, indulge in one of the more grossly repugnant sexual sins, nor that there has been a cover-up. The extraordinary thing is that even though the majority of such priests are gay, the Western Anglican church is strenuously recruiting more gay men into its ranks, men among whom are those who clearly find altar boys an irresistible delicacy.

*****

Richard Dawkins, the atheist writer, has claimed it is "immoral" to allow unborn babies with Down's syndrome to live.

Having finally noticed about himself what others have known for years, he went on to say: "Apparently I'm a horrid monster for recommending what actually happens to the great majority of Down Syndrome foetuses. They are aborted."

Richard Dawkins has chosen human feelings as the measure of whether a person is really a person; a foetus does not feel -- supposedly -- so, as a non-person, it is disposable. From a Christian perspective, a person is made in God's image at the time of conception; that perspective makes Dawkins' view -- horrid and monstrous.

One consolation is that the Dawkins horrid monster atheistic persona is but a tepid copy of that enjoyed by murderous 20th century practitioners from Stalin to Pol Pot: they systematized atheism, imposed it on everyone they could and drove it to its inevitable, foul conclusion.

*****

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, in an exclusive article for Haaretz calls for a global boycott of Israel and urges Israelis and Palestinians to look beyond their leaders for a sustainable solution to the crisis in the Holy Land.

The past weeks have witnessed unprecedented action by members of civil society across the world against the injustice of Israel's disproportionately brutal response to the firing of missiles from Palestine.

"I asked the crowd to chant with me: 'We are opposed to the injustice of the illegal occupation of Palestine. We are opposed to the indiscriminate killing in Gaza. We are opposed to the indignity meted out to Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks. We are opposed to violence perpetrated by all parties. But we are not opposed to Jews.'

"Earlier in the week, I called for the suspension of Israel from the International Union of Architects, which was meeting in South Africa."

The extraordinarily blinkered conclusion Tutu reaches is:

The pursuit of freedom for the people of Palestine from humiliation and persecution by the policies of Israel is a righteous cause. It is a cause that the people of Israel should support.

There is no mention of Hamas repeated violating ceasefires, using Gazans as human shields, having the destruction of Israel in its charter, the fact that, for propaganda, Hamas wants its citizens to die or the indoctrination of children to hate Jews. The article is reproduced on the Anglican Communion News Service; since it is sitting there without editorial comment, we must assume that the ACNS is untroubled by Tutu's viewpoint.

Here is a different view from someone who has not succumbed to the miasma of leftist pollution that is afflicting Tutu's neocortex:

On an airplane returning from Korea, The Pope was asked if he thought it right for the western allies to bomb Islamic State in Iraq. "Yes," he said.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury was asked the same question by Edward Stourton on The Sunday Programme. He answered in the usual Lambeth style: tread water and waffle. To begin with, he declared that the situation is very complex..."...military issues...socio-political issues..." and so on. Then he said something truly odd: "We don't want to empty the Middle East of Christians."

You don't have to, Justin. The Islamic State is doing this already. Stourton pressed him, but he still wouldn't give a straight answer and excused himself with the cop out, "I'm not qualified..."

No, and you're not qualified in economics either, Archbishop -- but that doesn't stop you spouting endless advice to the government, to the nasty bankers, to the loan sharks.

Not qualified? Funny things, qualifications. Now I've never heard the Archbishop say anything substantial about theology. Is this because he lacks qualifications there, too? [From Peter Mullen's Website/Blog: revpetermullen.com]

*****

The Episcopal Church has now elevated fund raising to the level of "sacred". I kid you not. The Episcopal Church Development Office will offer a 2014 Symposium: "Sacred Fundraising, Secular Tools". This goes along with sacred spaces, another Episcopal make up idea. This new "sacred" notion will undoubtedly raise millions of dollars for millennials who will never darken the doors of an Episcopal Church.

*****

Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928-2014) has often been called the greatest theologian of the second half of the 20th century. With his death Friday, the world has lost a brilliant interpreter of Christianity.

In the 1950s, when Pannenberg was a doctoral student in Heidelberg, Karl Barth dominated the theological stage. In order to counteract Barth's overemphasis on salvation history (Heilsgeschichte), Pannenberg redefined revelation as "universal history" (Universalgeschichte). A few years later he published a major Christology (Jesus--God and Man) that established him as the world's leading defender of "theology from below."

Over the next 30 years, Pannenberg extended this program to philosophy, the religion/science debate, the dialogue across the world religions, and to every corner of theology. He had the most encyclopedic mind I have ever encountered. You need only to read around a bit in his multi-volume Basic Questions in Theology to be stunned by the range and depth of his scholarship. John Cobb once quipped, "I saw that Pannenberg was able to encompass the entire range of knowledge within his own mind. Realizing that I could never match this achievement, I decided it would take a lifetime of working with my doctoral students to cover as many topics."

Pannenberg's staunch defense of the historicity of the resurrection made him a champion among American evangelicals. His extensive involvement in the ecumenical movement and his unsurpassed knowledge of the history of theology were crucial to the most important ecumenical breakthroughs in the World Council of Churches. Taken together, Pannenberg's extensive writings, including his three-volume systematic theology, offer a theological program unrivaled its comprehensiveness, depth, and rigor.

*****

Megapastors take Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS--but where did the money go? Last week, several prominent megapastors, and not a few Episcopal and Anglican bishops, took the ALS Association's Ice Bucket Challenge. A LifeSiteNews inquiry into whether the pastors donated to the ALS Association or another organization found that the pastors were, for the most part, unwilling to publicize where their monetary support went.

In challenge videos reported by the Christian Post, Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church; Jentezen Franklin, pastor of Free Chapel; Life Without Limbs ministry leader Nick Vujicic; Dr. Ed Young, pastor of Second Baptist Church Houston; and TD Jakes, pastor of The Potter's House, all promoted ALS research donations. However, only Young's spokesperson provided donation details in response to LifeSiteNews' inquiries.

Since the Ice Bucket Challenge was launched in late July, it has raised over $100 million for research for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. However, three weeks into the viral challenge, several pro-life leaders found that the ALS Association supports embryonic stem-cell research.

The discovery led Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX, at least two U.S. archdioceses, and others to recommend ALS research dollars be sent to the John Paul II Medical Research Institute in Iowa. The organization conducts its research exclusively with adult stem cells.

*****

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