When is a church not a church?

According to Canada Revenue, when it is non-creedal and more interested social justice than divine justice.

The CRA is concentrating on Unitarianism at the moment but the Anglican Church of Canada easily slides into the same category. For example, St. John’s Shaughnessy rather than state what its members believe, advertises that it embraces doubt. Most dioceses concentrate on social justice and advocacy – couched in pieties from a Bible in which they have long ceased to believe – and the national church promotes  political agendas while its bishops boast that they will accomplish something that the church’s founder said would never happen: eliminate poverty.

Come to think of it, since most clergy are, at best, fuzzy on the divinity of Jesus, the ACoC is, itself, effectively Unitarian.

From here:

It is not easy to get indignant over the Canada Revenue Agency’s audit of the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) — indignant, that is, either for or against. Unitarians are not supposed to inspire any strong feelings. They are, famously, only sort of a church; more of a disposition than a denomination, really.

Unitarianism is explicitly “non-credal,” ecumenical and receptive to “humanism;” the international statement of Unitarian “principles” mentions God’s love (with a capital G), but identifies “the guidance of reason and the results of science” as a source for what it is hard to call a “faith.”

[….]

The Unitarian council is angry, as the CBC reported Sunday, about a “political activities” investigation by the taxman. The CRA, it seems, is uncomfortable with the mentions of “justice,” particularly “social justice,” in the council’s bylaws. (The council is, organizationally, a close approximation to a national “Unitarian church,” although some small-u unitarian congregations are non-members.) Much, perhaps most, of what the CUC actually does has political implications and dimensions. The Canadian state has no objection to that sort of thing being done by a tax-exempt church, as long as the activity is “charitable.”

But auditors appear to be raising the obvious truth about the notion of “social justice:” that it is essentially politics; a metaphor imposed on religious scripture. The Bible, not that the Bible is of much use to Unitarians, does not promise social justice, but something like its opposite — perpetual inequality and suffering.

5 thoughts on “When is a church not a church?

  1. When is a Church not a Church:
    When the Gayspel supplants The Gospel + Matthew 24:15.
    But, fear not, the ACCs tax status is safe with the CRA;
    with higher up (alas, NOT that High) even!

  2. From a secular standpoint the ACoC can be considered as a church — note the small “c” — but clearly it is no longer a CHURCH as it is lead by apostates who have absolutely no regret in not only rejecting both the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ but also in legally stealing properties from orthodox Christians – properties for which they made absolutely no contributions. The apostates are simply willing to mislead members in the pews and allow them to worship their apostate positions simply because they wear a purple shirt and a white collar. The time has long since past for them to allow our Lord to hold the leash so they can genuinely repent and return to the Gospel.

    • Only for those who do not read their Holy Bible + Jude:
      “‘But, beloved, remember ye the words that were spoken before of the Apostles of our LORD Jesus Christ;
      How that THEY TOLD YOU there should be mockers in the last time,
      who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
      These be they who separate themselves, sensual,
      having not The Spirit.”
      vv. 17-19

  3. I agree with Revenue Canadas definition of what a Church is, for charitable purposes…..this “social justice” thing is a detestable distraction.

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