AAC Statement on TEC Approval of Partnered Lesbian Bishop

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Mr. Robert Lundy,
AAC Communications Officer
770-595-6979
rlundy@americananglican.org

AAC Statement on TEC Approval of Partnered Lesbian Bishop

The Episcopal Church announced today that it will consecrate its second non-celibate homosexual bishop on May 15. The Presiding Bishop's office announced that a majority of bishops and diocesan Standing Committees consented to the consecration of Bishop-elect Mary Douglas Glasspool as a suffragan bishop of Los Angeles.

The following is a statement from Bishop David C. Anderson, President and CEO of the American Anglican Council, on the announcement.

"What this means is the majority of The Episcopal Church's leaders - down to the diocesan level throughout America - are exercising no restraint as requested by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the primates of the Anglican Communion. Despite pleas to the contrary, they have given their consent for a partnered lesbian to become a bishop, not just for Los Angeles, but for the whole church. Unfortunately, this comes as no surprise because The Episcopal Church, at its General Convention this summer, voted in favor of allowing dioceses to determine whether they will conduct same sex blessings using whatever rites they deem appropriate. Even if The Episcopal Church should eventually decide to sign an Anglican Covenant, it has shown time and time again that it will not abide by traditional Christian and Anglican Communion teaching on marriage and sexuality."

# # #

See The Episcopal Church's announcement here:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/newsline.htm




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The rise and rise of atheism

[...] Churches are social groups for many people, which is something atheists do not have, hence the popularity of this event which sold out six weeks in advance. Many small atheist groups were in attendance, raising their profile among the largest group of like-minded people ever gathered in Australia.

Several speakers commented that they had never addressed such a large group of atheists before, and there were a far greater range of topics presented than many expected. A question put to many attendees before the convention was, "But what can you possibly have to talk about? Nothing?"

The presenters shared some truly horrific stories of things done in the name of God or as part of some religious organisation, but the overall effort was not to paint all religions as always forces for bad. Much was made of the charitable works religious organisations do, but then, alternatives were presented. Charitable works do not need a veil of the supernatural in order to be effective, and you should not need a god looking over your shoulder, monitoring how much you are donating to disaster relief or to alleviate poverty. Peter Singer in particular talked about the evolutionary imperatives for fairness and for rendering aid. Read more
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Obama runs out of patience with Israel

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday strongly defended Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem in the face of US pressure and what one of his own top diplomats described as the worst crisis in relations with Washington for more than three decades.

A defiant Mr Netanyahu appeared to be digging in despite clear indications that the Obama administration is now demanding the scrapping of plans for 1,600 new Jewish homes, whose announcement overshadowed last week's visit to Israel by the US Vice-President Joe Biden. Mr Netanyahu's stance appeared to guarantee, after a highly charged week, the protraction of a stand-off in which a full-scale diplomatic row blew up at the start of Mr Biden's visit and appeared to abate at the end of it. But it was then reignited by demands from Hillary Clinton and an angry White House that Israel make amends for the "insulting" announcement just as indirect negotiations with the Palestinians had finally been arranged. Read more
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Growing fears over Muslim prison 'gangs'

The Muslim prison population in England and Wales has sharply increased in recent years. The BBC's Ushma Mistry hears from former inmates and prison officers who claim gangs of Muslim prisoners are an increasingly powerful force.

"Muslims run it. Muslims run the prisons and there's nothing the screws can do about it. For a Muslim you'd say it's good but for a non-Muslim, it's very, very bad," a former inmate called Jay says.

'Jay' has spent many years inside various prisons in the South of England

It is a claim which is backed by former prison officers and other inmates.

Jay, 24, is a Muslim and has been in and out of prison for most of his life. He openly admits to helping to convert non-Muslim inmates to Islam and has meted out violence against anyone who dares to "disrespect" his religion.

He first went to prison when he was 15 and said there were hardly any Muslims inmates back then.

"At the beginning not many knew about Islam. There weren't many converts. The mosque was empty, but nowadays jails are run mostly by the Muslims," he said. Read more
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Rethinking rehab: can 'evil' children be made good?

In my opinion, nobody is born evil (although nobody knows for sure) Everyone is born human, and human nature contains both aggressive urges and altruistic urges. We have a deep need to affiliate, to be around people, and no creature spends as much of its life depending on others as we do. Emotion and reason are the twin engines of motivation for children and adults; and emotion is ten times more powerful. Children are fuelled by emotion and learn to be reasonable, whereas adults try to be reasonable and are flooded with emotion.

If no child is born evil, we must account for terrible acts of aggression by a combination of factors: personality, which includes genetics; environmental circumstances, particularly the role models a child had between birth and the age of 7 or 8, which is a crucial time, and whether a child has been harmed or hurt by others; and whatever the opposite of luck is. The fact is, you can have the environmental cocktails but you need an opportunity too. Read more
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Accepting Ethical Diversity?: A Critical Appraisal of the Bishop of Liverpool’s Presidential Address

The Presidential Address of the Bishop of Liverpool is a significant development in the evangelical and wider Anglican debates about sexuality. It draws attention to key questions and is driven by a passionate concern for unity and more Christ-like patterns of discussion. It is, however, seriously flawed in its response to these concerns, unconvincing in its arguments and offers a way forward that in reality threatens to create greater incoherence and division.
This response sketches Bishop James Jones’ journey over the last decade before demonstrating the flaws in his central argument that Anglicans should “accept a diversity of ethical convictions about human sexuality”. Both in what it says and in what it fails to say the address apparently marks a significant step away from the traditional biblical, evangelical and catholic understanding of sexuality and the church’s teaching and discipline in this area. The heart of his case is an appeal to differences between Christians over just war and pacifism. This argument is shown to be inadequate in various ways but most basically because an appeal to diversity on one ethical issue cannot justify diversity on a quite different ethical issue. Read more
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Bishop James Jones: Liverpool’s Muddy Waters flow towards Africa

[...] what is particularly arresting about the Bishop of Liverpool’s address is its scope. It presents a vision which does not stop at the boundaries of his own diocese. His plea is ‘that the Church of England and the Anglican Communion must allow a variety of ethical views on the subject as in this Diocese we do’ and he adds ‘This is I believe the next chapter to be written in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. It is the chapter that is already being written in our Partnership in Mission with the Diocese of Virginia and with the Diocese of Akure in Nigeria.’

A partnership with this aim constitutes a serious challenge to the Church of Nigeria in particular and the GAFCON Primates as a whole who have as a matter of principle withdrawn from sharing ‘the same cup of salvation’ at Primate’s Meetings with those Primates who are sponsoring sexual immorality. It illustrates the subtle reality of the way that false teaching spreads; an evangelical bishop who has learned to accommodate himself to the secular pressures of England nonetheless retains a certain credibility with fellow evangelicals in Africa and then seeks to present partnership as collusion with his compromise.

In this light we see the wisdom of clause 13 of the GAFCON Jerusalem Declaration which affirmed the need to break communion with those who deny the orthodox faith in word or deed. The commentary on this clause (Being Faithful, p64) calls for action which is precisely the opposite of James Jones’ strategy for the Communion when it states ’there is a moral obligation to reject any teaching that denies or undermines the authority of God as revealed in the Scriptures, to expose its falsity and to break fellowship with those who promote it (Ephesians 5:11, Titus 3:10).’ Read more
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Bishop Jones's "Pre-emptive Surrender"

[...] Here’s the difference, Jim. I can opt out of killing foreigners. But I don’t get to choose my own Anglican bishop.

If I think that homosexual sex is a sin and my Episcopal Diocese is saddled with a practicing homosexual bishop, there’s no mechanism for someone like me to say, “I don’t want an unrepentant sinner confirming my kids. Bring in someone else.”

I can either let an unrepentant sinner confirm my kids or my kids don’t get confirmed.

It’s been pointed out here more than once that the church that did nothing about John Shelby Spong has no business complaining about Gene Robinson. Which is true(tolerate it and you might as well advocate it) although some of us pointed out that TEO merely let Spongy rave while in Robbie’s case, it acted officially and corporately.

That’s the key. When a church gives a pointy hat and hooked stick to a practicing, unrepentant homosexual, it has taken an official stand on the issue of homosexuality whether it thinks it has or not. And if no one is allowed to meaningfully dissent from that homosexual’s “episcopal” standing, then merely being allowed to hold a contrary opinion is worthless. Read more
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Outraged atheists lose faith in Dawkins as he censors website

Talking of surprising outcomes on internet forums, Friday's Times reports regarding RichardDawkins.net, "the official Richard Dawkins website", that "a schism seems to have opened up within the atheist community who make up his fan-base." The story explains that,

The split occurred after he announced that a discussion section on his website, considered one of the busiest online atheist forums, would in future be tightly moderated and “irrelevant postings and frivolous gossip” would no longer be allowed.

The change was scheduled for next month but such was the torrent of abuse after the announcement that the forum had to be locked down, deepening the rift between Professor Dawkins and his 85,000 online fans.

As Ruth Gledhill reports, this criticism was largely directed at one of those responsible for the website, calling him an “utter twat” a “suppurating rectum. A suppurating rat’s rectum. A suppurating rat’s rectum inside a dead skunk that’s been shoved up a week-old dead rhino’s twat.”

However, Dawkins himself was apparently not immune, with someone remarking that he possesses, “a slack jawed turd in the mouth mug if ever I saw one.”

Interestingly, the story was picked up by Andrew Brown, who helps run the Guardian's Comment is Free section, where writers' opinions are opened up to, often vituperative, public comment. As it happens, as an occasional contributer I had recently written to Andrew bewailing the fact that most of the comments are hardly worth reading, since there is so little engagement with debate.

Some of those commenting on the Dawkins website, however, display an apparent difficulty in seeing the problem. One of those referred to by Dawkins objected elsewhere that he had not been fairly quoted in full:

Here is what he [Dawkins] quoted "Or suppose that somebody on the same website expressed a “sudden urge to ram a fistful of nails” down your throat"

My post in full "When someone tells me that change can be frightening in order to at both times shut me up and patronise me, I get a sudden urge to ram a fistful of nails down their throat"

So that clears that up! Hell, it seems, hath no fury like atheist bloggers scorned.

John Richardson
27 February 2010



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Fulcrum forum captured by Conservative Evangelicals

If this is to be believed.(Pluralist did actually do a cartoon of me once, based on an old photo I absolutely hate, and which the Guardian uses every time they publish a 'Comment is Free' article by me. I assure you the reality is not as grim!)

John Richardson

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Danish newspaper provokes uproar with apology over Muhammad cartoon

A leading Danish newspaper was today accused of betraying the freedom of the press after breaking ranks with its rivals to offer an apology to Muslims for publishing a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban.

Politiken issued the apology after settling with a Saudi lawyer representing eight Muslim groups that complained after the cartoon was reprinted by 11 Danish papers in solidarity with the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who received death threats last year.

Outrage at the move was led by Denmark’s Prime Minister and by Mr Westergaard, 74, who survived an alleged assassination attempt by an Islamic axeman at his home last month.

Politiken responded that it was apologising for the offence caused, not the decision to publish, in an attempt to reduce tensions with the Muslim world.

Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the Prime Minister, expressed surprise at Politiken's move, saying he was worried that the Danish media were no longer “standing shoulder to shoulder” on the issue. Read more
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Former Bp of Chelmsford urges civil partnership rights for synagogues, etc

See this Letter to the Times.
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Jews leave Swedish city after sharp rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes

When she first arrived in Sweden after her rescue from a Nazi concentration camp, Judith Popinski was treated with great kindness.

She raised a family in the city of Malmo, and for the next six decades lived happily in her adopted homeland - until last year.

In 2009, a chapel serving the city's 700-strong Jewish community was set ablaze. Jewish cemeteries were repeatedly desecrated, worshippers were abused on their way home from prayer, and "Hitler" was mockingly chanted in the streets by masked men.

"I never thought I would see this hatred again in my lifetime, not in Sweden anyway," Mrs Popinski told The Sunday Telegraph.

"This new hatred comes from Muslim immigrants. The Jewish people are afraid now."

Malmo's Jews, however, do not just point the finger at bigoted Muslims and their fellow racists in the country's Neo-Nazi fringe. They also accuse Ilmar Reepalu, the Left-wing mayor who has been in power for 15 years, of failing to protect them. Read more
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Friends of the Anglican Ordinariate

Friends of the Ordinariate

We are Anglicans in the UK who are members of

The Church of England  -  The Church in Wales
The Scottish Episcopal Church  -  The Church of Ireland

and we invite you to join with us as Friends of the Ordinariate in order to signify your interest in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

By joining us you will not be committing yourself to any course of action, present or future.

We are a group of concerned Anglicans and we guarantee complete confidentiality and will not share your details with anyone else.

We may occasionally send you an email inviting you to visit this website for further news.

You are also free to unsubscribe and remove your details at any time.

See here


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Bisexuals: putting the B back in LGBT

Bisexuality is often dismissed or disparaged, so many come out as gay instead. But the UK bi scene is finding its feet

I'm constantly baffled by the exclusion of bisexuals. I blame bad science, or rather bad scientists. Every year it seems there's a new study on "what makes people gay". Oddly, this is expected to be an on-off switch, and the researchers look in the genes, or the brain or the length of fingers for a sign that one set of people will be queer, now and for always, and another proving the rest will remain 100% straight. It takes a special kind of rigidity of outlook to construct a survey on finger length and decide beforehand there's no middle ground. They then say everyone's "straight, gay or lying" but for that to be true there would have to be an awful lot of liars out there. The last Observer poll on sexual attitudes showed that 4% of people – one in 25 – identified as homosexual, and half as many again identified separately as bisexual.

But this sort of thinking fuels the mythical status of bi people. People are quick to tinker with the definition of bisexual until it's not something anyone would willingly pick for themselves. Bisexuals are supposed to be equally attracted to men and women – always androgyny, but never to trans people – and always at the same time. They supposedly need to have identical amounts of sex with both, and don't notice the differences between them (which might get painful in bed, I reckon). We're all told bisexuality is a phase that everyone goes through and grows out of, and no one's a "proper" bisexual, even though "everyone's bisexual really". Bisexuals are depicted as the monsters spreading Aids, and breaking the hearts of partners inevitably cast aside for a different gender. Who'd want to be bi! Read more
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The cloak and dagger Catholics

An extraordinary correspondence has fallen into my hands showing some of the detail of the Anglo-Catholic intrigues about their departure from the Church of England. It shows the Anglican "flying bishop" of Ebbsfleet, Andrew Burnham, conspiring with a sympathetic Roman Catholic bishop in Australia to work behind the back of the Catholic bishops here. He talks about his "cloak and dagger" correspondence with a sympathiser in the Vatican, and suggests that he can write personally to Pope Benedict XVI to smooth things over if his correspondent is caught. This may come as news to the pope.

The Australian bishop, Peter Elliott, is himself an Anglican convert, and is in charge of the pope's outreach to Anglican opponents of women priests in Australia. Most of these are grouped in a body called the Traditional Anglican Communion, which claims to have half a million members world wide: Burnham warns Bishop Elliott against complete confidence in their leader, Archbishop Hepworth ("clearly a charming man … but not everything he says … synchronises fully with what we know from other sources"). Read more
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Don't brand Brick Lane

London's local councils have never been known for good sense or sagacity, and yet they continuously manage to surprise me with new levels of folly. Illustrating this point, Tower Hamlets council is planning to install two hijab-shaped arches at each end of Brick Lane – at a reported cost of £1.85m.

The proposed structures are planned as part of a cultural trail aimed at celebrating the area's rich cultural history. Also a vehicle for increasing tourism, the arches will be bankrolled by money paid to the council following the development of Bishops Square and Spitalfields market.

The proposal has understandably ruffled a few feathers, not only because of the associated cost, but because of the symbol chosen to represent the area. The hijab, highly symbolic of Islam, will brand the area with a single identity, casting aside the diversity that makes the area what it is. Muslims account for more than 30% of the local population, which is, of course, relatively high, but that is little justification. Would the council think to erect two massive crosses for the area's Christian population or two yarmulkes to represent its links with the Jewish community? Read more
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The virtual mob spreading spite online

n biblical times, Syrian villagers would ritually chase a goat from their midst to atone for their sins. Last week Andrea Charman found out what it is like to be a modern day scapegoat, or in her case perhaps it should be scapesheep.

She was the well-respected head teacher in Romney Marsh, Kent who became subject to a hate campaign. So vicious was the abuse she received – both through her letter box, and particularly onto her computer – that she felt compelled to leave her post.

The cause of the hate was Marcus, a sheep that the school had reared to teach the children about the food chain. The pupils had voted for Marcus to be sent to slaughter and turned into chops and shanks, but a handful of parents complained. In times gone by a fractious parents’ meeting would have been enough for the objectors to air their views.

Now, we have the web. An online campaign was started. The comments on “Remove Andrea Charman from ever teaching again” duly rolled in, not just from parents in Kent, but from Belgium, and France and Los Angeles. A not untypical message was: “i’m gonna spit on her grave (thats gonna be very soon)”. Others threatened to burn the school down.

Last week, despite the overwhelming support of the pupils, teachers and governors, she decided to step down.

She is just one of an increasing number of people who have become caught up in what the internet community call “flame wars” – online petitions, or disagreements between two camps, that can spiral out of control.

The line between vigorous, heartfelt protest and mob rule has become ever thinner thanks to modern technology.

And those caught on the wrong side of the barricades often don’t know what’s hit them, as any hapless Mumsnetter – the term for the 850,000 women who use the online networking site Mumsnet – will tell you if they have posted a comment that other, more ferocious users disagree with. The site, which celebrates its 10th birthday next month, has been likened to a playground, in which bullies circle like sharks. Only last week, one woman was viciously, and very personally, derided when she lamented the crass language that has permeated the website.

Professor Barrie Gunter, head of mass communications at Leicester University, points out that the technology itself is not to blame for such viciousness. “The problem stems from the way people are able to operate anonymously; it is this that can be used as a force for evil. People can behave in a way online that they would never do in the normal, offline world. In the real world, social etiquette restrains people from doing and saying certain things. That restraint does not seem to be apparent on the internet.” Read more
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Curate outrages congregation by telling women to 'be silent and submit to your husbands'

With Valentine's Day approaching, the parishioners might have expected a more heartwarming message.

Instead, they got a sermon at St Nicholas Church in Sevenoaks, Kent, urging women to 'submit' to their husbands.

The apparent lack of obedience of 'modern women' was also blamed for Britain's high divorce rate.

In a sermon entitled 'Marriage and women' last Sunday, the curate Mark Oden, a married father of three, told the congregation: 'We know marriage is not working. We only need to look at figures - one in four children have divorced parents.

It is understood that some women parishioners - and possibly even their husbands - have vowed never to attend services at the church again.

The church's vicar is Angus MacLeay, 50, a married father of two who is a leading member of the evangelical group Reform, which is opposed to the appointment of women clergy.

The group has produced a leaflet, called 'The role of women in the local church', which uses Biblical quotes urging them to 'remain silent' and informing them 'wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.'

One section of the leaflet, quoting Corinthians, said: 'It would seem that women should remain silent in the public weighing of prophecy or if their questions could legitimately be answered by their husbands at home.'

Another, referring to a passage from Ephesians, said: 'Because of the order and purpose of their creation, wives are to submit to their husbands in everything in recognition of the fact that husbands are head of the family as Christ is head of the church.....

Read more
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Christian BA worker loses cross appeal

A Christian lost her appeal today against a ruling which cleared British Airways of discrimination by stopping her wearing a cross visibly at work.

Nadia Eweida, 58, from Twickenham, south west London, had wanted three judges to overturn a decision by the Employment Appeal Tribunal that she was not a victim of indirect religion or belief discrimination. Read more
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