Dear Brothers in Christ,
www.virtueonline.org
May 16, 2014

“Each week seems to bring another incident. Who will the thought police come for next? Welcome to the Dark Ages. We have slipped into an age of un-enlightenment where you fall in line behind the mob or face the consequences,” Kirsten Powers writes in USA TODAY.

“How ironic that the persecutors this time around are the so-called intellectuals. They claim to be liberal while behaving as anything but. The touchstone of liberalism is tolerance of differing ideas. Yet this mob exists to enforce conformity of thought and to delegitimize any dissent from its sanctioned worldview. Intolerance is its calling card.

“Each week seems to bring another incident. Last week it was David and Jason Benham, whose pending HGTV show was canceled after the mob unearthed old remarks the brothers made about their Christian beliefs on homosexuality. People can't have a house-flipping show unless they believe and say the ‘right’ things in their life off the set?

“This week, a trail-blazing woman was felled in the new tradition of commencement shaming. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde withdrew from delivering the commencement speech at Smith College following protests from students and faculty who hate the IMF. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, this trend is growing. In the 21 years leading up to 2009, there were 21 incidents of an invited guest not speaking because of protests. Yet, in the past five-and-a-half years, there have been 39 cancellations.

“Richard Dawkins describes the Old Testament God as ‘a misogynistic … sadomasochistic … malevolent bully’ and the mob yawns. Bill Maher calls the same God a ‘psychotic mass murderer’ and there are no boycott demands of the high-profile liberals who traffic his HBO show.

“The self-serving capriciousness is crazy.
“As the mob gleefully destroys people's lives, its members haven't stopped to ask themselves a basic question: What happens when they come for me? If history is any guide, that's how these things usually end.”

In the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion things aren’t much better. Try saying something about pansexuality that is not glorifying and watch the thought police emerge from the shadows to take you out. Screams of homophobia and more will be heard ringing from the rafters.

Just when orthodox Episcopalians and Anglicans thought they might have someone in their corner following the disastrous reign of Rowan Williams, they find they have been let down yet again.

Archbishop Justin (Woolly) Welby just can’t seem to get it right. This week he again expostulated about homosexuality and, of course, the ever-present homophobia, which apparently fills schools, airwaves and churches, told the gay magazine PinkNews, it is "great" that parliament passed a measure on gay marriage that he opposed. His aides were left scrambling to explain that all he meant was that it is great that parliament can and does pass laws. Welby, who campaigned and voted against gay marriage last year, remains opposed both to gay marriage and homophobia, his office explained.

Naturally, his remarks created a stir with “great” remark to the gay magazine. One newspaper columnist opined that there are increasing signs that the official line cannot hold for much longer. Pressure is building from both supporters and opponents of gay marriage. If so, will Welby roll over?

More eye rolling by the Global South Primates will surely follow.

Last month, Canon Jeremy Pemberton became the first priest in the Church of England to defy the House of Bishops and marry his male partner. There will undoubtedly be others. It is still not clear how they can be disciplined.

African Anglican churches have already demanded that Pemberton and priests who follow his example be disciplined. Conservative evangelicals have established a sort of Church of England in exile whose bridgehead is a church in south London, which is run by one of Welby's mentors in the church. The threat of a formal schism spreading to England remains.

VOL has been told that the Bishop of London Richard Chartres told his gay priests, who make up 40% of his diocese that if they get married there will be no discipline!

If these priests’ licenses are not pulled, will Welby take those bishops to ecclesiastical court for failure to uphold the teachings of the Church of England?

It is clear that the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) theology of Welby will not hold up in the cold light of day. The ALPHA crowd has dodged the bullet on this issue, but it cannot be dodged indefinitely. Neither Scripture nor the Global South will let that happen. If a form of unrepentant sexual sin is allowed and given a pass, holiness of life has no meaning and ultimately anything goes. The church in the West is lost.

Just to make the archbishop's troubles worse, he has now been publicly supported by Nick Clegg, who told PinkNews: "Love is equal in the eyes of British law, but that right was hard won. We have to fight even harder for universal human rights, including LGBT freedoms, globally."

Welby is unlikely to announce that he now agrees with Clegg.

*****

On the other side of the ecclesiastical and sexual divide, the Archbishop of South Sudan, the Most Rev. Deng Bul warned that gay relationships in the Church of England would mean continued violence against South Sudanese Christians causing many to go back to their traditional religions that oppose same-sex practice. Furthermore, the continued violence against Christians would spread for fear that it would bring bad and shameful behavior in their communities, another Sudanese bishop said.

Any change would lead to a risk, the archbishop warned. “The Church of England blessing gay marriages will be dangerous for the Church in South Sudan, because people here, like many African countries, strongly oppose gay marriages.”

Adding his voice to that of the archbishop of the Sudan, the new Archbishop of Liberia came out saying "No to Same Sex Marriage". The Most Rev. Jonathan B.B. Hart, Archbishop of the Internal Province of West Africa, said the Episcopal Diocese of Liberia opposes same sex marriage.

He maintained that the Episcopal Church will uphold and protect the biblical principles of God by denouncing homosexuality and lesbianism in the Church. Addressing a news conference at the Trinity Cathedral in Monrovia, Archbishop Hart avowed that the Episcopal Church of Liberia remains firm on its position regarding same sex marriage. "We will not condone same sex marriage; we will not allow it.”

*****

LIBERIA said "No to Same Sex Marriage". Bishop Jonathan BB HartDays following his election as second Archbishop of the Internal Province of West Africa, the Bishop says the Episcopal Diocese of Liberia opposes same sex marriage.

Bishop Hart said no Episcopal Church in Liberia will officiate or preside over any same sex marriage

He maintained that the Episcopal Church will uphold and protect the biblical principles of God by denouncing homosexuality and lesbianism in the Church.

Addressing a news conference Wednesday at the Trinity Cathedral in Monrovia, Bishop Hart said the Episcopal Church of Liberia remains firmed on its position regarding same sex marriage.

"We as the Bishop of the Episcopal Church of Liberia have made a pronouncement that we do not condone same sex marriage; we will not allow it."

*****

At the General Synod, the Anglican Province of Aotearoa, which includes New Zealand and Polynesia, passed a resolution that will create a pathway towards the blessing of same-gender relationships – while upholding the traditional doctrine of marriage.

It will appoint a working group to report to the 2016 General Synod on “a process and structure” that would allow those clergy who wish to bless same-gender relationships – using a yet-to-be developed liturgy – to do so.

The working group will also be charged to develop “a process and structure” to ensure that clergy who believe that same sex blessings are contrary to “scripture, doctrine, tikanga or civil law” will be able to remain fully free to dissent.

The “process and structure” in their case would mean these clergy would not only be exempt from performing these same-sex blessings – but that their “integrity within the church” would be assured, and they would have full protection for their dissent in any relevant human rights legislation.

IN OTHER NEWS the New Zealand province announced that it would divest from fossil fuels becoming the first in the Anglican Communion to do so.

This synod passed a resolution that requires the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia “to take all reasonable steps” to divest its shares in fossil fuel companies by its next Synod, in mid 2016.

That must mean that all the delegates will be walking to the 2016 Synod. Otherwise, they would be a bunch of hypocrites – and that couldn’t be, surely.

*****

The Anglican Church in Canada continues to close more parishes; they are just a shade behind the United Church of Canada, which is closing an average of one parish a week. The Bishop of the Diocese of Huron will officially close Christ Church Anglican in London, Ontario. A service of deconsecration for Christ Church Anglican will take place May 29. The church closed its doors on Easter Day. It is one of the oldest churches in London, Ontario, and the second oldest Anglican Church in London, Ontario, Canada

*****

The big news on the home front this week was a Harvard student group’s planned satanic “black mass” which mercifully got canceled after widespread condemnation from religious and educational leaders, who called the event an affront to the faithful.

MyFoxBoston.com reported that The Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club announced it would no longer hold the event because negotiations broke down between the group and the bar where it was scheduled to be held. The club found another location to hold the mass at a Chinese restaurant.

The group said that the New York-based Satanic Temple, which had co-organized the event, planned to "reaffirm their respect for the Satanic faith and to demonstrate that the most powerful response to offensive speech is to shame those who marginalize others by letting their own words and actions speak for themselves."

The ceremony has traditionally been performed by satanic cults to parody the Catholic Church. Officials at the Archdiocese of Boston were furious that such an event was originally scheduled to be held on the Ivy League school's hallowed grounds.

“I would say that the event is an attack on the Eucharist, regardless of what the organizers state,” archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon told FoxNews.com in an email. “The event is offensive to Catholics and people of good will.”

I have posted several stories and commentary pieces about this vile attack on the church which you can read in today’s digest. I would draw your attention to a fine commentary by Mary Ann Mueller.

*****

The revisionist bishop of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina, the Rt. Rev. Andrew Waldo announced this week that he would allow the blessing of same sex couple in his 61 parishes. This is not surprising, really. What is surprising is that he said he and his Task Force actually consulted the Bible and history before making up his mind concluding that the Bible was for it. You have to wonder what Bibles these idiot TEC bishops read. One priest who won’t comply is the dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, SC. He says he will not authorize the blessing of same-sex relationships in his congregation, but remains committed to “respectful conversation” on an issue that has divided the church in South Carolina and across the nation. The Very Rev. Timothy Jones posted the letter to his congregation Thursday, the same day Bishop Waldo, announced he would permit the provisional rite.

“As to my own prayerful reflection on this important issue, I do not believe that Scripture, Christian tradition, nor the Book of Common Prayer authorize me to bless same-sex relationships,” Jones said. “I know well, from years of conversation and study, the arguments brought forward by those who advocate such a blessing, but I have not been persuaded.”

Waldo has other troubles. He faces a lawsuit from one of his former priests, the Rev. Dr. Ernie Pollock, for defamation, civil conspiracy, invasion of privacy and economic hardship.

Pollock, 67, an adjunct professor of religion at Midlands Technical College who serves on the pastoral staff of Lexington Medical Center as a volunteer, alleges that Waldo sent letters to three health care facilities in the Midlands of SC alleging that Pollock had misrepresented himself as an Episcopal priest.

Last year. Waldo settled another lawsuit for libel and slander after he fired the Dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, SC, Philip C. Linder. He then publically badmouthed Ellen, Linder’s wife. The insurance company representing Trinity Episcopal Cathedral paid $75,000 to the wife of the former Dean to settle a civil lawsuit related to his ouster from the cathedral's top post in July 2010.

*****

An Anglican bishop in Ireland pleaded this week with gays not to leave the church. Church of Ireland bishop Paul Colton apologized for the hurt Christian churches have caused LGBT people, but noted that many Christians “who believe that God’s justice, God’s love and the inclusiveness of God must bear fruit in unqualified equality for gay and lesbian people too.”

Speaking in the city of Cork to launch Cork LGBT Awareness Week, the 64-year-old Colton encouraged LGBT people to stick with their faith and enter into dialogue with those who are opposed to gay rights.

“I want, therefore, to encourage especially those gay and lesbian people who are involved in church life, or who once were, to engage with the debates many churches are having at the current time,” he said. “I ask you not to give up on religion and religious institutions.”

Bishop Colton’s plea is not particularly surprising: if all gay and lesbian people left the Anglican Church, there would be hardly any priests left.

*****

The long litigious saga of former Philadelphia Episcopal priest David Moyer is finally coming to an end. He announced to his small church group, meeting under the alias of the Newman Fellowship, that he was handing his priesthood and bishopric over to “Our Lady” who presumably keeps them in a large vault to be laundered and resurrected at the last day, while he laicizes himself and heads to Rome. He pushed off his following to the Ordinariate, and the Rev. Dr. David Ousley, a priest in the area who did get the nod from Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson. Moyer had sought the same pathway for himself but was denied owing to lawsuits and much more.

In a spiel to his flock, he still blames unknown persons for their lack of ability to express repentance and reconciliation "...God allows people who will not be reconciled, and who will not forgive in order to retain power over others who seek reconciliation and forgiveness…there is absolutely nothing we can do, but to pray..."

By not seeing his own part in his own downfall, one wonders if Moyer has learned anything by his fall from grace. He still blames others. In all my years in this business, I have never seen anyone quite this narcissistic...his total failure to see that anything he had done was wrong is quite alarming. He now seeks secular employment as a "mental health" assistant. One wonders who needs the mental health treatment most. There's a ton of irony there.

*****

The former Christian Federation of Malaysia chairman and Anglican Bishop of West Malaysia, Datuk Ng Moon Hing was elected tis week as the new president of the Bible Society of Malaysia.

He succeeds outgoing BSM president Lee Min Choon, who has completed his maximum of five years at the helm. Ng, 58, was elected during the BSM's annual general meeting (AGM) in Damansara Kim, Petaling Jaya.

"For now, everything will be status quo, including the issue of the seized Bibles, until the new exco meets next month," Ng said, referring to the seizure of more than 300 copies of Malay and Iban-language Bibles by the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) early this year.

*****

A visiting Anglican professor in Rome made the following observation, “I find it interesting that there is little to no dialogue between Canterbury and the Holy See and zero between TEC and the Holy See.”

*****

Just weeks before Pope Francis makes his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land in late May, Christians in Israel are grappling with an upsurge in threats and attacks on churches by Jewish extremists.

Last week, an assailant defaced the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, the local headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, scribbling graffiti in Hebrew reading, "Death to Arabs and Christians and to everyone who hates Israel." This followed a letter received by a top Catholic official that threatened to kill him and other Catholic clergy in Israel.

Vandals also damaged a Romanian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, spray-painting it with the words: "price tag," "Jesus is garbage," and "King David for the Jews." It was another in of a wave of both anti-Christian and anti-Arab graffiti and vandalism that has swept through Israel in recent weeks.

The attacks are largely believed to be carried by Jewish extremists who are now almost daily defacing Christian and Muslim property and places of worship inside Israel and areas controlled by Palestinian authorities. The extremists say the graffiti and vandalism is the "price tag" for the government trying to restrain West Bank Jewish settlers.

*****

World leaders in psychotherapy and theology will join Core and Christian Concern to challenge myths about same-sex attraction in London and Belfast in June.

Dr. Christopher Rosik, President of NARTH; Robert A.J. Gagnon, Associate Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Ann Paulk CEO, Restored Hope Network and Author, Dr. Mike Davidson Director, Core Issues Trust will host this important national conference addressed by world-renowned practitioners in therapy for “ex-gay and post-gay” people, will be held in London and Belfast in June.

The aim of the conferences is to expose and overcome "unscientific prejudice" against therapeutic help for men and women who want to move away from homosexual practices and feelings.

The conference speakers will be American Psychological Association (APA) Member, clinical psychologist and President of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), Dr. Christopher Rosik; the CEO of Restored Hope Network, Anne Paulk, herself a former lesbian; Associate Professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Professor Robert Gagnon; and Andrea Williams, CEO of the Christian Legal Centre which supports Core Issues Trust.

The conference organizer – Core Issues Trust, a Christian charity - is campaigning against what it calls the “unproven claims that therapeutic help for people with unwanted same-sex attraction are necessarily harmful.”

Dr. Mike Davidson, Director of the Trust, says the conferences, entitled “Debunking the myths: Same-sex Attraction, Science and the Gospel”, will “highlight the loss of freedom” for UK citizens seeking professional help to move away from a homosexual lifestyle and, where possible, feelings.

“An ideological view based on misrepresenting as coercive ‘conversion’ therapy, psychotherapy for people who voluntarily want to be free from feelings of same-sex attraction, has led to counsellors being banned by professional bodies without any science to back the claim that such help is intrinsically harmful.

“The truth is that professional bodies are intimidated by a militant gay activist minority which sees such therapy as an attack on their unscientific claim that people are born gay and should not change. But I am concerned about individuals such as men who want to preserve marriages and relationships with children by seeking professional help to reduce or lose unwanted same-sex feelings.”

A ban on practitioners offering help to people who want to move away from a homosexual lifestyle has been imposed by the UK Council for Psychotherapy, as well as the Association of Christian Counsellors, under pressure from the Government’s Professional Standards Authority which provides official registration to professional bodies.

“There are no known registered and practicing Reparative Therapists in the UK, and ‘conversion’ therapy is a pejorative term which tends to discredit serious and scientifically supported Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE). Core Issues Trust offers neither of these therapies, often disparagingly called ‘Voodoo Therapies’, but offers support to individuals who voluntarily seek help to manage, reduce or eliminate unwanted same-sex feelings,” says Dr. Davidson.

“This is a critical time when we have to stand against the denial of freedom for a man or woman to move away from unwanted same-sex attraction. It is concerning that professional bodies have been unable to provide peer-reviewed scientific evidence to show that helping people to overcome unwanted same-sex feelings is harmful. It is a restriction on the civil liberties of those people to be denied access to professional counselling in order to change same-sex feelings."

For the program & booking details please visit: www.debunkingthemyths.com

*****

The real war against women is occurring right now, almost every day - in Muslin controlled countries, while hypocritical women like Hillary Clinton expound on and expand their platform for dividing America.

Consider Dr. Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who according to Reuters is a 27-year-old Sudanese Christian physician who's about to be flogged 100 times and then put to death. Her crime? The unthinkable sin of not being Muslim.

Dr. Ibrahim's father was Muslim and ran off and left home when she was six years old. Since her mother was a Christian, she raised Meriam in the same faith. Meriam is married to Daniel Wani, a South Sudanese Christian with U.S. citizenship. The couple has a 20 month old son and Meriam is eight months pregnant with their second child.

But the couple's faith is a problem for the oppressive government in Sudan. Since the predominantly Christian South Sudan secession in 2011, the government of Sudan has made it clear they are aiming for a 100% Islamic constitution, without any outside influences. That equates to no Christianity. Although the new constitution has not yet been ratified, the government has apparently already adopted Shari'a law.

Meriam's horrifying ordeal began last August, when someone posing as a relative reported to the authorities that she was a Christian. She was subsequently arrested in February and charged on March 4, for apostasy and for adultery. According to Shari'a law a Muslim woman is forbidden from marrying a Christian man, and thus the marriage to Wani was annulled by the Sudan court. The annulment set her up for the crime of adultery and she was convicted of both apostasy and adultery on Mother's Day, May 11.

She was given three days to renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam, or face a flogging of 100 lashes for adultery, followed by the death penalty for being a Christian. Her sentencing is set for today, Thursday, May 15.

According to Morning Star News, who chronicled her terrible journey, Wani has stated that while his wife has been incarcerated, she has been severely abused and tortured, both physically and mentally. Critical prenatal medical care has been denied and she is drained to the point of exhaustion.

Meanwhile her 20 month old son is incarcerated within the same prison because Sudan authorities are refusing to recognize the couple's union. Even though Wani has provided a legal marriage certificate and his son's birth certificate, the court refused to acknowledge them and told Wani the only proof they would accept would be a DNA test, which must be drawn and then sent to the U.S. for testing. All of this takes an inordinate amount of time, precious time which for Meriam is running out.

*****

Headline: “Is the Internet Bad for Religion?” Is the Internet killing religion? A professor in Massachusetts noticed recently that religion’s decline in America coincided with the rise of the Internet. He theorized that the two might be connected.

It’s utter nonsense, of course. The decline of mainline churches began in 1965, not in the 1990s when the Internet became commercially available. There are many factors but mainline liberal Protestantism is one of the biggest factors if not the biggest. When the major Protestant denominations including The Episcopal Church lost its sense of transcendence for fear of offending scientists, IT geeks and a whole host of agnostics and atheists it lost their own credibility.

*****

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