A Gospel Of Intolerance

[kwassa]

This is an opinion piece from the Op-Ed page of today's Washington Post by the Episcopal Bishop of Washingon, John Bryson Chane, on the anti-gay agenda of the Archbishop Peter J. Akinola, primate of the Church of Nigeria

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022401801_pf.html

A Gospel of Intolerance

By John Bryson Chane
Sunday, February 26, 2006; B07

excerpts:

It's no secret that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion are engaged in a bitter internal struggle over the role of gay and lesbian people within the church. But despite this struggle, the leaders of our global communion of 77 million members have consistently reiterated their pastoral concern for gays and lesbians. Meeting last February, the primates who lead our 38 member provinces issued a unanimous statement that said in part: "The victimization or diminishment of human beings whose affections happen to be ordered towards people of the same sex is anathema to us."

We now have reason to doubt those words.

Archbishop Peter J. Akinola, primate of the Church of Nigeria and leader of the conservative wing of the communion, recently threw his prestige and resources behind a new law that criminalizes same-sex marriage in his country and denies gay citizens the freedoms to assemble and petition their government. The law also infringes upon press and religious freedom by authorizing Nigeria's government to prosecute newspapers that publicize same-sex associations and religious organizations that permit same-sex unions.

(jump through much talk of IRD, and conservative christian movements)

Surprisingly, few voices -- Anglican or otherwise -- have been raised in opposition to the archbishop. When I compare this silence with the cacophony that followed the Episcopal Church's decision to consecrate the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, a gay man who lives openly with his partner, as the bishop of New Hampshire, I am compelled to ask whether the global Christian community has lost not only its backbone but its moral bearings. Have we become so cowed by the periodic eruptions about the decadent West that Archbishop Akinola and his allies issue that we are no longer willing to name an injustice when we see one?

(much more at the site)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. this is benign - check out this site. unthefuckingbelievable.

"
After another clunker of a speaker and a brief lunch break, the day’s two main speakers arrive. First is Dave Reagan, a Dick Cheney look-alike who will join Frazier in the 2006 Biblelands cruise. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Reagan reprimanded evangelicals who blamed the city’s sinful ways for incurring God’s wrath. “I do not believe the storm was meant primarily as a judgment upon the city of New Orleans,” he wrote. “Rather, I see it as a judgment on our entire nation for our mistreatment of Israel.”
* * *
Reagan begins describing the End, when Jesus will “pour his wrath on pipsqueaks like Castro and Qadhafi, who strut around like bantam roosters.” Reagan talks so fast that people scribble notes like doctors. But the same words pop up during his speech. Blood. Red. Triumph. Blood of the enemies of God. General.

“This is no namby-pamby Savior,” Reagan proclaims of Jesus. This would be the man who would lead the saints to victory. “You and I are going to be there!

“How God loves the Jewish people,” Reagan suddenly marvels. “They are his chosen people. Satan hates the Jews with a passion. Satan hates the Bible. Satan hates the Messiah. Satan hates the chosen people. That was the purpose of the Holocaust—so God could not fulfill his promise to the Jews. “There is something for us too,” Reagan promises his listeners if they support Israel. “We are going to reign with Him over all the nations of the world . . . It will be a theocracy with the absolute reign of Christ—with a rod of iron.”
Anyone who deviates from the Bible “will be tried immediately. No appeal. No need for appeal. There will be immediate punishment. Humanism is the religion and philosophy of the devil. God will use the millennial reign to prove that.”

* * *
Read the rest of this really insane stuff here:
http://www.ocweekly.com/component/content2/view/jesus-kills_2006-02-23/

The place sold out? There are that many fundie crazies ready to try us because of a difference of beliefs and punish us because we think they are full of crap?
Now I know why Haliburton is building so many domestic holding cell. Our future is dire, dark and dank.

[kwassa]

2. How is this in any way a response to my post?

My post is about a specific problem within a certain denomination.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. And I suggest that the problem is more widespread.

if you don't like it, I'll delete my post.

[kwassa]

4. Please, because it is a diversion ot the topic

I was trying to keep it more focused on the idea of liberal Christians publically opposing conservative Christians, something many here complain about. This editorial is a good public example.

Thanks.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

7. Anti,

those guys are certifiable nuts and they have always been around. Ever hear the expression every dog has its day? Well, throw out the bones, they are having it.

I think their theocracy they are discussing, however, is for after Christ returns in glory. Now, if that happens and it is glorious enough I have no question about it, I could be talked into theocracy really fast. But I'm talking huge dude in the clouds, legions of angels, etc.

But personally, that isn't part of my world view.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. Talla-grannie, as we do more often than you think, we agree again.

[Goblinmonger]

5. Good for Him

If I were to rank order the religions I have a problem with, it would take much time to distinguish between numbers 1-25, but I think Episcopals would be at the bottom, maybe arm wrestling the UCC and the Liberal Quakers.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. It would appear that Bishop Akinola

has crossed over the line between church and state quite publically. Obviously in his country they don't distinguish? The Nigerian law is LAW already? It is not just proposed law, it has been ratified?

I am an Episcopalian and here in Tallahassee there are five Episcopal churches. All but one of them has split down the middle, leaving the acutal original church and building very thin in attendance and of course, funds. There is talk that St. John's, the mother church in the diocese, might even have to be sold. It is one of the oldest buildings in town.

I am currently not attending any church because I don't know where to go! The one church that hasn't split is planning to. There is so much rancor at the other ones it turns me off. So right now I pray at home. I'd like to get it settled by Lent, but that is next week.

Thanks for sharing this. I wonder where it will end?

[kwassa]

10. Well, you could be a helpful influence one of your local churches

You know how churches are. You open your mouth and suddenly you are the head of a committee. Of course, you have to have a strong stomach for the politics in churches, which can be the worst anywhere.

This is what happened to my wife, who is far more active than me in this area. She is now on the Diocesan Council and the steering committed for the Council. She presents well, to say the least.

What is your local bishop like?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

11. The local Bishop is new

and liberal. He replaced a man, Jenko, who was extremely conservative.

There is a lot of talk about the next convocation doing something backwards about gay Bishop consecration. As in saying "no more." I don't know, the whole thing is a mess.

Personally, I've been miffed since they changed the hymnal!

LOL.. it is hard to see changes in the most traditional area of your life. However, I am certain I have had any number of gay priests in my lifetime, but it wasn't discussed. Even privately.

[kwassa]

13. The gay priests here are openly gay

and have been for a long time.

ECUSA won't turn back, though. The liberals have the numbers.

[salvorhardin]

9. Good going Bishop Chane!

This is precisely the kind of speaking out against the theocrats by theists that I and so many atheists have been calling for.

[arwalden]

12. This Pleases Me.

:thumbsup:

[NMMNG]

14. A step in the right direction

:thumbsup:

[trotsky]

15. It's incredibly intolerant

to define a group of people the way you think they should be defined, rather than allowing them to define themselves.

Terrible when it happens to homosexuals, terrible for other groups as well.