The View From 1776

Moral relativism, which has ripened to full flower at the top levels of Anglican and Episcopalian leadership, has betrayed the Christians among their flocks.  To every secular, social-justice fad that rolls down the road, their response has been, “Whatever.”

This is explained by tolerance of the liberal-progressive, politically-correct variety, which means that there are no standards of any kind.  Nothing can be deemed wrong, morally, socially, or politically. 

Morally the end point of this road is sensual gratification as the ruling ethos.  Socially it means cultural civil war.  Politically it reduces a nation to feckless indifference toward foreign threats to its continued existence.

The latest example of liberal-progressive tolerance is Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’s declaration of support for adopting Islamic sharia into the British legal code.

As reported in the Washington Times:

LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH

LONDON — Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams faced calls for his resignation yesterday as bishops joined politicians in criticizing his remarks supporting the adoption of the Islamic Shariah law in Britain.

Archbishop Williams was urged to quit by angry members of the General Synod, the Anglican Church’s “parliament,” who contend he is undermining the Christian faith.

George Carey, his predecessor, and the Bishop of Rochester, the Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, also challenged his view that aspects of Islamic law could be incorporated into the English legal system.

Yesterday, the archbishop’s unexpected comments were welcomed by some Muslim groups, but the government said it was out of the question that the principles of Shariah could be used in British civil courts.

The prime minister is clear that in Britain, British laws based on British values will apply,” Reuters news agency quoted a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown as saying.

In the past four years much has been written about the apostasy of American Episcopalian leaders, who in 2003 consecrated Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, a man who abandoned his wife and two daughters to enter an open homosexual relationship. 

Like it or not, Bishop Robinson’s actions contravened Holy Scriptures, both with regard to homosexuality and to the sacredness of the family. 

Writing to the backsliders in the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul stated:

Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)

True tolerance is willingness to permit every individual to think and to believe as he wishes, without political compulsion.  But in no way is that license for immorality.  Timeless standards of morality, established by Divine authority, remain the test of acceptable action.

It’s good to welcome homosexuals into Christian fellowship in the hope of changing their sexual orientation.  Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for his willingness to associate with and minister to all manner of people outside the Talmudic standards of rectitude.  But it’s unacceptable to present homosexuality as a pastoral model.  And it is doubly unacceptable to destroy a family, as did Bishop Robinson.

Let us thank God that bishops of the African branch of Anglicanism, along with a growing number of American Episcopalian congregations, have rejected such nonsense and are separating themselves from the liberal-progressive-socialist, and ipso facto non-Christian, views of British and American leaders.

In that vein, Richard John Neuhaus writes (The Conversion of England, on the First Things website):

It is very doubtful that the Church of England is today a “breakwater” against infidelity. Many view it as a source of infidelity, or at least of doctrinal and moral frivolousness that undermines fidelity. Nor is it, as Newman thought it was in his day, a guarantor of national cohesion. In today’s England, there are more churchgoing Catholics than Anglicans, and more observant Muslims than either.

In addition, the worldwide Anglican Communion, once anchored in the Church of England and thought to be a compelling reason for its preeminence, appears to be on the edge of dissolution. Moreover, with large numbers of English converts, plus large communities of committed Catholic immigrants from Central Europe and elsewhere, Catholicism is increasingly viewed as the only candidate to lead in the evangelization, or re-evangelization, of England.

Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in June, 2006, was made presiding bishop of the American Episcopal church.  As reported by the Washington Times, November 2, 2006:

Her 2003 vote in favor of V. Gene Robinson, the denomination’s first openly homosexual bishop, and her statement that “our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation” in a sermon three days after her election, elicited protest as well.

Writing on the First Things website Jordan Hylden noted:

“In essence, the theological position represented by [Episcopal Primate] Schori has reached the point at which it no longer exists in the same thought-world as traditional Christianity.

Perhaps the best examples of this are Marcus Borg, an influential Episcopalian biblical scholar, and John Shelby Spong, the outspoken former bishop of Newark. Neither Borg nor Spong believe in doctrines such as the Resurrection, the Atonement, the authority of Scripture, or the divinity of Christ. Spong, in fact, does not believe in God. Most Christians think these matters are absolutely essential, but in the thought-world of theological liberalism they are not. Much more central, from this point of view, is the Church’s role as servant to the world. Rather than preach the repentance of sin and forgiveness of Christ, the liberal church primarily exists to help create the “kingdom of God” by advocating for social justice, inclusion, and so on.

In short, the leadership of the Episcopalian church as abandoned Christianity and adopted the atheistic, socialistic, and secular Social Gospel.