Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Persecution of Liberal Anglicans and American Episcopalians By Rowan William

Someone is making the argument that Rowan William perhaps persecuted by remaining silent. MCJ disagrees. See PREEMPTIVE SURRENDER.

It's very hard to say that the Primate of Episcopal Church has been persecuted or many other progressives. I have followed the Windsor Report controversy and let's face it there were no real consequences to the practical disobedience to it.

MCJ hits the nail on the head here:

...It’s quite true that “the Episcopal Church itself contains both Gene Robinson and Mark Lawrence.” But which of the two has actual power? It’s also true that the Episcopalians are quite happy to cash conservative pledge checks. But does Gerns seriously suggest that the presence of a few Anglican conservatives here and there in the western Church means that to all viewpoints are considered equally valid?

To put it another way, does Gerns seriously mean to assert that anybody who believes that homosexual sex is a sin can possibly get through a modern Episcopal seminary, never mind getting ordained or receiving a call to a parish? If he does, he hasn’t been paying attention to a library full of General Convention resolutions, all of which declare that what the Episcopal Church officially believes makes it as hostile to conservative opinion as it is possible to be...

What interested me in this piece was not so much the Anglican angle but how that above excerpt can be repeated in many of a Faith community.

In fact in the Catholic Church we often saw that lived in out living color in the 70' 80' and 90s. I talked to many Priest's that had to use subterfuge to get through seminary. I have talked to seminarians that did not make the cut because of their "conservative views". In fact I have talked to some that could not even have the chance to make the cut.

In the Roman Catholic example we see how in the past , how one had to have a certain view to gain admittance to the Roman Catholic "Academy" and to be promoted. It's really the natural order of things.

It was greatly because of the persistent plodding of John Paul II putting in more traditionalist Bishops it got corrected. Something that did not happen overnight.

These progressives view their traditional counterparts as having bigoted and indeed perhaps "evil" views on matters regarding same sex attraction, marriage, gender issues, etc. In other words we are now beyond Elizabethan Religious Settlement issues that we have seen in Anglican communion. We are dealingwith something very much more fundamental.

Perhaps they cannot coexist together?

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