{"id":3999,"date":"2009-05-01T15:46:24","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T20:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=3999"},"modified":"2009-05-01T15:46:24","modified_gmt":"2009-05-01T20:46:24","slug":"pollyanna-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/pollyanna-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollyanna Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

A thread on another blog<\/a> started me thinking about how things could have gone so catastrophically wrong in the Western Anglican church without a large number of people standing up and saying “Enough – stop!”<\/p>\n

In Canada, part of the reason is that we want so much to be Nice To Each Other (well, I don’t), so when we disagree we have to affirm people on the other side of the issue and, preferably have a “conversation”, rather than an argument.<\/p>\n

A tolerant, liberal drift has infected much of the Western church – to the extent that, when we disagree, it has to be at the level of “I’m OK,you’re OK” even if the truth demands that, if I’m right, you are really far from OK. This uncomfortable situation was incisively illustrated at a synod in the diocese of Niagara. When the issue of same sex blessings was discussed, a number of clergy stated that they could not go along with it because they could not contradict a clear biblical teaching. In the ensuing discussion, it became clear that many clergy were unwilling to admit that, as a Christian, one must at least attempt to adhere to clear biblical teaching. Finally, an astute fellow with a funny collar stood up and said with an air of one suffering a mortal insult: “you are saying that I am not a Christian!” Bingo.<\/p>\n

Here<\/a>, there is a plea for discussion to be conducted in “a positive, life giving way”<\/em>. What does this mean? If the truth is that the “gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few”<\/em>, then surely the positive and life-giving thing to do is to make the case for the “narrow way” as strenuously as possible; even if it means being less than nice.<\/p>\n

When it comes to addressing church leaders who are leading their flock away from the narrow gate, I am a Luke 17:2<\/a> and Gal 5:12<\/a> enthusiast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A thread on another blog started me thinking about how things could have gone so catastrophically wrong in the Western Anglican church without a large number of people standing up and saying “Enough – stop!” In Canada, part of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2032],"class_list":["post-3999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican-church-of-canada","tag-anglican-church-of-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}