Anglican Mainstream

by Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert   Hat-tip:  Rabbi Arthur Goldberg/JONAH 

A small but growing number of people are rejecting being labeled male or female.

By Patrick B Craine, LifeSite News

Venerable Pope John Paul II’s catecheses on the theology of the body form “the curriculum of the Culture of Life” and represent “a step-by-step, Spirit-laden presentation that resonates with the hunger so many people feel every day,” said Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, in a homily at the first National Theology of the Body Congress.

Cardinal Rigali told the Congress that, in his theology of the body, the Pope was “laying out … God’s plan for humanity,” Pope John Paul, he said, “told us that there is only one way to form a true communion of persons": through “a love which always takes the form of a gift of self.”

Everywhere the Pope went, said the Cardinal, “he insisted that love, authentic love, always and everywhere takes the form of a gift of self, modeled on Christ's gift of Himself to His Father.”

The Cardinal juxtaposed the plan expounded by Pope John Paul with that of today’s “secularistic culture,” which Rigali said has been developing “what may prove to be the most threatening ideology in all of history.”

The two primary goals of this secular plan, he says, are “to attack the inviolable dignity of human life,” primarily the vulnerable in the womb and at the end of life; and “to deconstruct marriage as the permanent, faithful and fruitful union of one man and one woman.”

The secular ideology embraces the evils of “consumerism, materialism, individualism, entitlement autonomy, relativism, and hedonism,” he said, but its adherents nevertheless find that “something is missing.”

“The one thing that transforms the pain of an abject secularism into the promise of life is … the gift of self in love,” he said. “Only the luminous radiance of Jesus Christ unveils the plan that fulfills man.”

In the theology of the body, he said, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Christ’s teaching that “we must go back to ‘the beginning’ (Mt 19:4, 8) to learn the true identity of the human person and the true nature of marriage.”

Read here

By Sarah Coakley, abc.au Religion & Ethics (Hat Tip Jenny Taylor)

By Diogenes, Catholic Culture

• The major television networks led their morning news coverage with the story?
• The New York Times launched a 5-part series of front-page reports on sexual abuse in the Episcopal Church?
• SNAP held a press conference demanding that the Diocese of Pennsylvania turn over files on all clerics accused of abuse?
• Time questioned whether the whole mess would forever mar the legacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury?
•                    or
• Nothing. These are Episcopalians. Sexual abuse by non-Catholics is a non-story.

Read here

By Rosie Boycott, Mailonline

Washington, D.C., July 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Center for Disease Control and Prevention released a new study last month showing that most teens are virgins – which American Life League (ALL) has said contradicts propaganda disseminated by sex-education giant Planned Parenthood.

"This study has huge significance for our nation's public and even private schools – many of whom have been regurgitating Planned Parenthood's dangerously inaccurate sex-education curriculum," said Judie Brown, president of ALL.

In the 2006-2008 period, 58% of never-married teen girls and 57% of never-married teen boys between the ages of 15 and 19 reported that they had never had sexual intercourse.

The numbers did not substantially change since a similar report was released in 2002. The reason most often cited for abstaining was that pre-marital sex is "against religion or morals." Read the rest of this entry »

The first concerns a small North Eastern town in the US. It is simply the latest in a very long line of cases in which our children are being deliberately exploited and sexualised by our secular sexperts. An article entitled “With Liberty and Prophylactics for All!” describes the situation this way:

“A tiny town on Cape Cod has taken one thing off its back-to-school list: parental involvement. To the astonishment of most every media outlet in America, the Provincetown school board voted unanimously to pass out condoms to all students – starting with first graders.”

So let’s get that straight: condoms given to first graders. Just how many first graders need condoms? Just how many should even know what one is? This is sheer madness. Not only are kids not hopping into beds with each other as first graders, but how in the world would they even get a chance to do so in first grade?

Read Bill Muehlenberg's article here

By Carolyn Moynihan, MercatorNet

From The Express

A TRANSSEXUAL who was left “half man, half woman” sparked fury yesterday after being awarded thousands of pounds in taxpayers’ cash to fight for breast implants.

Miranda Lee, 40, was granted legal aid to sue health chiefs after being “left in limbo” during the gender realignment process.

She has already had £60,000 of surgery last year – all funded by the taxpayer – but was refused the additional £8,000 breast implants to complete her “transformation”.

The South East Essex Primary Care Trust says it has no cash available for the operation, which is not a healthcare priority.

But Miranda, formerly Raymond Harwood, said: “They should do top and bottom not just half.

“It will cost the NHS more money if they don’t settle out of court.

“I just want my operation. If they give me that they will avoid court, but if they don’t I will fight all the way to the High Court and demand compensation for all the grief.

Read here

By Kendall Harmon (Hat Tip: Barbara Gauthier)

Being in the Episcopal Church these days means entering a vertiginous journey into the corruption of language. You see language which used to mean x, and in one Episcopal Church setting it is used to mean y, and then in another the same words mean z. One thinks immediately of the scene in Alice Wonderland (written as I hope you know by an Anglican deacon):

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master – that's all."

For a recent example of this manipulation of language to mean what it does not mean consider a piece on chastity by Richard Helmer .

Chastity, technically, is the refraining from sexual activity outside its proper context. For Christians, this has meant abstinence for those who are single and faithfulness for a wife or a husband who is married. This has been the standard for Christians throughout church history and still is for Christians worldwide today. None of this is to suggest that Christians have not struggled with sexuality, or that the understanding of sexuality and its proper use has not gone through interesting developments in the church's life. It is also not to suggest that a very small minority of contemporary mostly Western Christians have not sought to challenge this standard. The leadership of TEC of course is part of this very small minority.

Richard Helmer is certainly correct to observe that "chastity deserves a thorough study by everyone presently involved in the tired crisis of the Anglican Communion." It is just my hope that in doing so words are allowed to mean what the words mean and not what we want them to mean, whether in fact they mean what we say they mean or not.

Read here

From David Ould at Stand Firm:  Breaking up is hard to do……

…It is commonly acknowledged amongst Christians that God's intention for male-female relationships, if  they occur (not when, as anyone who reads 1 Cor. 7 should plainly see), is monogamy. But what is not so clearly understood these days is the non-equivalence which God has designed in that relationship. By "non-equivalence" I mean that God has intended that men and women should relate differently to one another in marriage…

Genesis 2:24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become a new family.

The Hebrew somewhat under-translated here as "unites" is actually better rendered by the old KJV (and other more modern translations such as the NASB) as "cleaves". That is to say, the sense of the original is not so much a bilateral joining together but a unilateral "clinging" on the part of the man. The Bible's view of marriage, God's view, is that a man leaves his parents and attaches himself  to a woman. One woman. Till death do they part.

There is no such call placed upon the woman. Now, of course, that is not to say that wives are not called to love and be faithful to their husbands, nor that this is not a marriage of equals. But the overwhelming emphasis in the Scriptures is on husbandly love and cleaving/attachment to that one woman. If you think this is not the case then consider for a moment the number of examples you can think of where the Scriptures call husbands to love their wives.  Read here

This research data suggests that gay couples tend to make decisions about monogamy early in their relationship.   For those individuals who are curious as to why couples would choose to have open relationships, Spears and Lowen have included excerpts from their participants’ survey responses.  These quotes are particularly illustrative of the desire and motivations for choosing to be non-monogamous.  As one partner stated, “we both liked seeing the other enjoy himself.”  Several of the study participants recalled making their decision to open the relationship after engaging in a three-way.  Most of the individuals surveyed were not threatened by the openness.  According to one man, “sex is sex; love is forever.”    From 'Beyond Monogamy', ISSI.  H/T:  CORE

The most recent and cutting-edge research on gay partnerships indicate that significant numbers of them do not mirror heterosexual marriage, nor is there any desire to do so.  They operate according to a 'Beyond Mongamy' ethos.  And in fact, many lclaim this openness gives them an added bonus which opposite-sex couples would do well to consider.  Read The Couples Study here

…But he [Peter Singer] has also been known for his outrageous views on bestiality. I have already had many people express their shock at what Singer advocated last night, but I have had to tell them that he has been pushing this position for years. Indeed, he was happy to go public with this a decade ago. For example, he had an article in Nerve online magazine in 2001 entitled “Heavy Petting”.

In it he wondered why in the world we have taboos against bestiality. You can read this incredible article for yourself (see link below). In it he waxes eloquent about the virtues of bestiality, going into great details about the joys of sex with horses, dogs, orang-utans and donkeys.

He said there, as he did again last night, that as long as the animal is not hurt or exploited, what is wrong with it? Is that it?  As long as the animal is happy, let’s go for it? And this guy is a world-renowned ethicist and philosopher. As a strident vegetarian, all that he is really doing here is telling us that it is OK to have sex with animals, as long as we don’t eat them afterwards.

So what he shared last night was nothing new. The amazing thing was that he was not booed off the show. This is incredible. A reputable prime-time debate program which allows some “intellectual” to tell us there is nothing wrong with bestiality. And most of the other panellists did not seem concerned at all.  Read Bill Muehlenberg here

I believe this research is really important and needs to be disseminated widely.  The biblical view of sexuality (versus alleged sexual 'liberation') is the most life-giving and positive one, after all.  Sex is simply too important and powerful a force to be engaged in outside of a life-long and exclusive, you-for-me-and-me-for-you, relationship of matrimony. Anything else exposes women and men to harm and disease, psychologically and physically.  Though Christians are sometimes accused of being 'kill joys' (and at times rightly so in terms of how they fail to present the full biblical view of sex), those who preach a gospel of sexual 'liberation' actually merit the description.    

Sexually Indulgent Now, Marriage Ruined Later?
By Paul Strand, CBN

Oftentimes those who preach sexual abstinence have been told to stop trying to impose their beliefs on others. But what if science could prove sexual permissiveness does great damage to future sexual happiness? That's what Dr. Joe McIlhaney of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Austin says. New research shows that sleeping around now could ruin your chances of having a happy, fulfilling marriage later.

"Neuroscientists have produced a lot of information in just the last few years. This is new," he told CBN News.

The sex reseacher recently co-authored the book Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children with Dr. Freda McKissic Bush. McIlhaney said the book contains, "The most modern neuro-science available to man today."

By Matt Kennedy, Stand Firm

Dr. Gagnon is the big dog when it comes to debates about sexual behavior and the Bible and this video is a great illustration of how thoroughly outclassed his opponents are.

When you go to the introduction you will see some other videos on the bottom. Click the video at the bottom right entitled, "Marriage and the Bible,". That is Dr. Gagnon's lecture. It is well worth the trouble. He deals in a very careful and detailed way with scripture, tradition, and the customs of the ancient world.

By Paul Strand, CBN

Oftentimes those who preach sexual abstinence have been told to stop trying to impose their beliefs on others. But what if science could prove sexual permissiveness does great damage to future sexual happiness?

From Elizabeth Marquardt, FamilyScholars.org

…A couple generations now have had drilled into their heads that getting married too young is bad, bad, bad. It’s bad for you, bad for your spouse, bad for your kids, bad for society. You’ll probably end up divorced or, if not that, at least miserable. Plus you won’t get to do all the fun things your friends who didn’t get married are out doing.

The result? Young people have listened and they’re getting married, on average, in their late twenties, if they get married at all. Which wouldn’t be a big deal except that many of those young people haven’t stopped having babies. Our nation’s 41 percent out-of-wedlock childbearing rate is driven by births to women in their twenties (not teenagers), and their kids on average face much greater risks not having their married moms and dads on the scene. As Professor Amy Wax of the University of Pennsylvania Law School wrote to me the other day, “Women have children more or less on schedule. The key question is whether or not they will be married when they have those children.”  Read here 

CEN  20 May   HUMAN RIGHTS campaigner Peter Tatchell has defended the decision by Greenbelt to ask him to speak at the festival, following criticism by Anglican Mainstream that this could be dangerous for vulnerable children. Mr Tatchell said: “The suggestion that my guest lecture at this year’s Greenbelt festival will leave children vulnerable to sexual abuse is an outrageous slur, wholly unbecoming a Christian.”   [Image:  Greenbelt 08, Stephen Sizer]

Dr Lisa Nolland, a consultant at Anglican Mainstream who made the recent criticism, claimed the Greenbelt organisers were irresponsible not to provide another speaker who could balance the impact of Mr Tatchell. She said: “Mr Tatchell articulates and advances an increasingly popular sexual smorgasbord ethic which includes a strong sexual liberation component.  Cohabitation, ‘open relationships’, promiscuity, the legal right to cruise (have sex in public places), and lowering the age of consent to 14 all appear to be legitimate and acceptable sexual options and views.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Rusty Wright, Assist News Service

Some university students are giving up casual sexual activity because they feel it’s not fulfilling.

Take, for instance, Vanderbilt University student Frannie Boyle. She told CNN that, in the past, she sometimes drank to excess before parties and hooked up with a stranger or acquaintance before the night was over.

"I saw it [hooking up] as a way to be recognized and get satisfaction," Boyle admits. But satisfaction eluded her. "I felt so empty then," she laments.

So she decided to kiss casual physical involvement goodbye.

(Intergenerational translator: “Hooking up,” an ambiguous term, refers to no-commitment sexual activity ranging from making out to intercourse.)

Kissing Casual Sex Goodbye

Criticism came. Some male friends shunned Boyle. "They probably weren't my friends anyway," she observes.

"I'm respecting myself," she affirms. "And I won't waste my time with some guy who doesn't care about me."

Boyle is in the minority, but she’s not alone. Of course, many students abstain from non-marital sex because of spiritual convictions. But nowadays, even nonreligious campus groups are promoting sexual self control and commitment. Read here

By Albert Mohler

The ordination of Mary Glasspool as a bishop of the Episcopal Church on Sunday drives yet another wedge into the already fracturing Anglican Communion — and raises some of the most fundamental questions about the Church and sexual morality.

Bishop Glasspool, ordained as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles along with another woman, becomes the second openly-homosexual priest to be elected as an Episcopal bishop, and the first lesbian. As the Associated Press reported, "Seven years after the Episcopal Church caused an uproar by consecrating its first openly gay bishop, it has done the same thing again — only this time with a woman."

In 2003, the Episcopal Church set off an explosion in the Anglican Communion by consecrating V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson became the first openly-homosexual bishop serving anywhere in the Anglican Communion, the world-wide fellowship of churches related to the Church of England. In response, the Anglican Communion sternly asked the American church to refrain from any further ordinations of homosexual bishops and from offering official blessing same-sex unions. This past summer, the Episcopal Church announced its decision to defy that request. Bishop Glasspool's ordination is the concrete demonstration of that defiance.

Read here