Louisiana State University astronomy professor delivers maniacal global warming tirade
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Voting for abortion at Birth or Not
Pete and Alisha Arnold have a website where you can vote for Alisha to give birth to her baby or abort her.
You can vote and choose whether we abort or keep our unborn child. For the first time, your vote on the topic of abortion can make a difference.
It’s not clear whether this is a publicity stunt by a pair or cranks or whether they really intend to make a decision based on the vote. It is certain that they are a pair of cranks and should put the baby – assuming that they are actually having one – up for adoption by people who know that a baby’s worth is intrinsic and not determined by a vote.
The Anglican Church of Canada’s Christmas evangelism
This whole article is worth reading if only to reinforce the suspicion that when the ACoC uses the word “evangelism”, what it means has absolutely nothing to do with saving people from hell through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Instead, it is about market share: how do you entice more people into the church building.
Several years ago, Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente wrote about how much she enjoyed attending Christmas Eve worship. She was raised an Anglican.
She also said she didn’t believe a word of what was said.
What struck me was not that she didn’t believe the Christmas story, but that she still attended church on Christmas Eve. In fact, she even received communion.
As you can see, Margaret Wente doesn’t believe a word of what was said – just like many Anglican priests.
More on the BC court of appeal ruling
On Monday November 15th, the legal wrangling between the Diocese of New Westminster and parishes that have left the diocese because of theological disagreements reached another milestone.
The highest court in British Columbia ruled not to overturn an earlier court decision that said the parishes could not continue to use their buildings for non-diocesan purposes: the buildings remain with the diocese and the departing congregations must vacate them. No decision has yet been made to pursue one more possible appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Ostensibly, this Anglican squabble began with the Diocese of New Westminster’s decision to proceed with the blessing of same-sex civil marriages in selected parishes. The disagreements run far deeper than that, though. Liberal Anglican dioceses – New Westminster is one of the most liberal – have been slowly eroding the basic Christian faith for decades. Bishop Michael Ingham, in interviews and his book “Mansions of the Spirit”, has questioned the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, his Virgin birth, his divinity and his uniqueness. What, as a bishop, he should defend, he has undermined.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, sought to calm the storm created by the vehemence of such disagreements by trying to find an Hegelian middle ground between the diametrically opposed positions taken by Anglican liberals and conservatives. At the Lambeth conference he used indaba groups – small groups where everyone has a chance to speak – to accomplish this. Although his technique made everyone moderately unhappy, it at least held things together, so it was hailed as a success and adopted by the Anglican Church of Canada at its recent synod.
The result was a statement on human sexuality which declares that the Canadian national church has not officially approved the blessing of same-sex civil marriages, but dioceses are free to make their own decision. It’s an Anglican version of “don’t ask, don’t tell”. Dioceses are proceeding apace with same-sex blessings while the national church quietly averts its gaze: the dioceses that are performing same-sex blessings are doing so in the closet.
Although the Anglican Church delights in trying to find doctrinal middle ground, when it comes to who owns church property, the quest for compromise is strangely absent. As one of the trial judges noted: “I could not help but feel that counsel’s respective submissions were like two ships passing in the night, as were the legal authorities on which they relied.” There were no courtroom indaba groups; when it comes to buildings, winner takes all.
The judges perceptively noted that: “[p]resumably the Bishop and the Synod have chosen to take the risk that the policy allowing same-sex blessings will indeed prove to be ‘schismatic’; or that clergy in the Diocese will for the foreseeable future find themselves ministering to vastly reduced or non-existent congregations.” As the number of people attending an Anglican Church declines, many dioceses, including New Westminster, are busy merging parishes and closing unused buildings. If there is a final legal victory for the diocese, it will be a pyrrhic victory won at the cost of taking fellow Christians to court to obtain possession of buildings for which they have no real use – other than to sell to the highest bidder.
In former times, a sustained decline in church attendance would have been cause for self examination, a time to ask the question “are we doing something wrong?” – particularly when evangelical churches who have a less fluid view of what constitutes Christian doctrine are growing. Not so here. In a move that in business would be seen as a sign of mental instability, the strategy appears to be to win the hearts of potential parishioners by suing the largest congregation in Canada, evicting them from the building for which they have a legitimate use and proceeding full steam ahead with the agenda that caused the rift in the first place.
There are numerous similar court cases in progress with other dioceses. This decision by the BC court of appeal does not bode well for parishes that have left their diocese. The consolation that these parishes have, though, is that a church is a community of people whose allegiance cannot be dictated by a court. A church building can change hands but, when standing empty, it will be nothing more than a rather sad reminder of the folly of a church hierarchy that has lost its way.
ANiC loses appeal in BC
The legal battle between ANiC and the Diocese of New Westminster reached another milestone today. The appeal was against the last ruling in favour of the diocese; the whole appeal ruling is here.
A lot of it seems to be a rehash of what has already been said. Some parts of interest included the following sentence where the judges seemed keen on displaying their perceptual acuity:
I could not help but feel that counsel’s respective submissions were like two ships passing in the night, as were the legal authorities on which they relied.
Imagine that: no indabas going on here.
This next section is an illustration of why a secular court is probably never going to side with the theologically conservative. From a secular perspective, doctrine is changeable – ephemeral – and it is up to the officially recognised Anglican Church in Canada to set doctrine as it pleases: doctrinal change is a matter for the General Synod. The conservative view that some doctrine is unchangeable, having been instituted by God, is not even believed by the Anglican Church of Canada, so it’s never going to wash with a secular judge.
And clearly, the judges recognise only one official Anglican Church in Canada – the one recognised by Lambeth – and that body has control of all the diocesan Mammon:
I am not convinced that Anglican worship or ‘Anglicanism’ can be separated in Canada from the notion of the ACC’s episcopal authority. As Mr. Dickson observed, the Anglican Church of Canada is a “quintessentially hierarchical” body. It sends bishops to international conferences and its members accept certain creeds and beliefs shared by other Anglicans around the world, but in terms of substantive decision-making power, the organizational structure in Canada is clear: the ACC is autonomous and doctrinal change is a matter for the General Synod. That body has chosen to permit same-sex blessings, albeit in the rather unenthusiastic wording of the 2007 resolution, and the Bishop and Diocesan Synod of New Westminster have chosen to pursue the matter to the extent they have – despite the opposition of many of their parishioners.
I prefer to rest my conclusion that the appeal must be dismissed, however, on the basis that the purpose of the trusts on which the parish corporations hold the church buildings and other assets is to further Anglican ministry in accordance with Anglican doctrine, and that in Canada, the General Synod has the final word on doctrinal matters. This is not to say that the plaintiffs are not in communion with the wider Anglican Church – that is a question on which I would not presume to opine. I do say, however, that members of the Anglican Church in Canada belong to an organization that has subscribed to “government by bishops.” The plaintiffs cannot in my respectful opinion remove themselves from their bishop’s oversight and the diocesan structure and retain the right to use properties that are held for purposes of Anglican ministry in Canada.
One small consolation is the recognition that Michael Ingham will find himself ministering to empty churches; he could become – as we like to say in business – a free floating apex:
Presumably the Bishop and the Synod have chosen to take the risk that the policy allowing same-sex blessings will indeed prove to be ‘schismatic’; or that clergy in the Diocese will for the foreseeable future find themselves ministering to vastly reduced or non-existent congregations. That, however, is their decision to make in the structure that the Anglican Church takes in Canada. Anglican ministry in Canada is “as defined by the ACC.”
Hookers for Jesus
From here:
Meet Annie Lobert — a former prostitute with a singular mission: saving Las Vegas hookers.
Lobert, and her faith-based mission — which she calls “Hookers for Jesus” — are the focus of “Hookers: Saved on the Strip,” a three-part series premiering Dec. 8 on Investigation Discovery.
“When I used to get arrested and the vice [cops] called me a ‘hooker,’ it really offended me,” Lobert told The Post. “So one day I was thinking, if I was reaching out to women and starting to go into casinos and saying, ‘I can help you change your life,’ and calling myself Annie, it would be a weird thing — ‘Annie Lobert’s Reach Out.’
“So I figured Hookers for Jesus. I believe in God, for one, and I was a hooker and now I go and fish for people [to save].”
The evangelism potential of someone turning from a life that is less than entirely compatible with Christian principles is enormous: one day, perhaps we’ll see “Bishops for Jesus”.
Canadian school board wants to know about children’s sexual orientation
From here:
A former Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, once famously quipped: “The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.”
Unless, it would seem, the “nation” means schoolchildren ages 12-17, and the “state” is local school board bureaucrats and/or the provincial Ministry of Education.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (Ontario, Canada) plans to issue a survey which asks, among other things, for children to disclose their gender (four choices) and sexual orientation (nine choices). Proponents claim the survey is voluntary, but rather than requiring parental permission for the survey to be administered, the onus is on parents to opt out in writing (by Nov. 19), if they do not wish their child to participate.
Not surprisingly the survey, which runs Nov. 22 – Dec.10, has sparked controversy:
Some parents say the survey—which also asks about students’ religion, their ethnic backgrounds, who they live with at home, and their parents’ employment [and educational] status—is an invasion of privacy.
Although the survey is touted as being anonymous, each form is tagged with a code that can be traced back to the individual child, and, by extension, his or her family. Critics wonder what kind of inferences will be drawn, and who will have access to information that involves the cultural, religious, financial, and educational status of students’ parents.
The school board, predictably, claims that such delving into personal information is crucial, and ultimately for the students’ own good, so that the school can offer better anti-bullying and anti-homophobia programming.
For anyone wondering what the nine choices are for sexual orientation, they are:
Bisexual Gay (male); Heterosexual (straight); Lesbian (female); Queer Questioning; Transsexual; Two-spirited; Prefer not to disclose.
“Only nine?” I expect you are thinking; what about hermaphrodites, the androgynous, and necrophiliacs? As soon as I’ve finished this I will be writing to the Minister of Education to report this discrimination.
Which reminds me of an episode in Anthony Powell’s great novel series, A Dance to the Music of Time. Powell, a comic novelist second only to Evelyn Waugh, tells us of the demise of Pamela who hated her husband and had a necrophiliac lover – who couldn’t perform, of course. In order to exact revenge on her husband, she committed suicide, leaving him with the anguish of both losing her for himself and to her lover.
That’s the trouble with school boards today: their narrow little world of “diversity” shows no imagination whatsoever.
The Church of England selling the family jewels
From here:
The Church of England has been secretly plotting the sale of one of its greatest treasures, a set of paintings worth an estimated £15 million, despite concerns the move will provoke a furore.
Leaked documents show senior officials are acutely aware there could be a backlash if the 12 paintings that have hung in the historic home of the Bishops of Durham for 250 years disappeared into the hands of a ‘billionaire from Russia’.
The confidential documents also reveal the Church Commissioners, the Church’s financial arm, have hired a London public relations firm for up to £37,000 to handle the predicted outcry over the sale.
The Commissioners, who include the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, faced such a storm when they last raised the prospect of selling the paintings ten years ago that they were forced to shelve the idea.
Art lovers, MPs and even the then Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, expressed outrage that the collection of large canvases by the 17th Century Spanish master Francisco de Zurbaran could be moved from its home and even broken up or sold abroad.
No doubt the Church of England needs the cash to continue to promote its “mission” – whatever that is – or perhaps to continue to house its bishops in style – including, up until recently, Tom Wright, whose attachment to some very expensive paintings doesn’t prevent him noting that in the world the rich get rich at the expense of the poor. One wonders how future bishops of Durham will be able to bring themselves to continue pontificating on the evils of poverty without the consolation of being surrounded by the aesthetic delights of the Spanish masters.
MDGs fund Palestinian misogyny
The Anglican Church never tires of peddling the virtues of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Here is some of the fruit of its labour: a Palestinian Public Service advertisement on the value of having daughters, funded by the MDG Achievement Fund.
The message appears to be: “men, if your wife is about to give birth, take her to the hospital instead of watching TV because she might give birth to a son not just another worthless daughter”. And, if you are patient with your daughters – even though you didn’t want them – it could save you from hell.
The unravelling of the Western Anglican Church
The most damning opinions of Western Anglicanism come, unsurprisingly, from those outside its liberal priestly clique, a malignant coterie whose wilful ignorance of the decadence of the institution in whose employ it finds itself has become a fitting illustration of the psalmist’s point when he said: “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear”.
David Pryce-Jones does get one thing wrong: the Anglican Church is doing just fine in the third world – it’s in North America and the UK that it is undergoing its Kafkaesque transformation into a cockroach.
From NRO:
The split in the Anglican Church has been a long time in the coming, but it has now become irrevocable. The turning point was a decision this July to support the ordination of women bishops. The issue, like the acceptance of gay priests, has been too much for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, to handle. Instinctively a fence-sitter, he always manages to upset everyone and get the worst of all things. Earlier in the year, his astonishing support of sharia law destroyed what little authority he had left. Five bishops are now leaving the Anglican Church to become Roman Catholics. They are taking with them an unknown number of congregants, probably so far only in the hundreds. But whole parishes are likely to convert, bringing into question ownership of property, including church buildings and vicarages. Pope Benedict XVI has set up a mechanism known as an Ordinariate to receive them, which for instance allows married men to be Catholic priests.
Enthusiasts are claiming that the Protestant Reformation is reversing, and Catholicism will undo the work of Henry VIII and reclaim its status as the church in England. Not at all, according to an angry roar from the professor of Church History at Oxford, the departure of the bishops and their followers is good riddance to bad rubbish. Besides, the Catholic Church is in feeble shape. One of the few Anglican priests with intelligence and character is Nicolas Stacey, and he has pointed out that in the predominantly Catholic city of Liverpool last year, there was just one ordination to the priesthood and currently there are only nine seminarians.
The old institutions exist in name but no longer function. Last week the British Navy and the Royal Air Force were left unable to defend the country, and this week the national church hollows out. The country is dispensing with its beliefs and its purposes — fast.