Anglican Mainstream

The devastation caused by the cyclone in Myanmar (Burma) has been graphically portrayed in the news media.

The Archbishop of Myanmar writes as follows:

If you would like to give please click HERE.

An Open Letter to a University President regarding the Suspension of a Black Female Administrator Who Challenged a Comparison between Homosexual Practice and Being Black.  May 6, 2008

Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D. Associate Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

President Lloyd Jacobs, University of Toledo

Dear President Jacobs,

Your suspension of Ms. Crystal Dixon, Associate Vice President of Human Resources at the University of Toledo, for rejecting a comparison between homosexuality on the one hand and being black or handicapped on the other hand constitutes, in my view, a gross injustice and an expression of the very intolerance that you claim to abhor. The disciplinary action is also predicated on a lack of knowledge and thus prejudice. I have read of your action first at worldnetdaily.com, then the full exchange at www.toledofreepress.com (the editor’s editorial, Ms. Dixon’s response, your response, and finally the news of the suspension).

Ms. Dixon is absolutely right that sexual orientation is not akin to race or sex. Unlike a homosexual orientation, race and sex are 100% congenitally predetermined, cannot be fundamentally changed in their essence by cultural influences, and are not a primary or direct desire for behavior that is incompatible with embodied structures.

Of course, generally people don’t wake up one morning and say, "I think I’ll be a homosexual." Yet that is different from arguing that homosexual development is always and only something "given" like race and sex. Even the Kinsey Institute has acknowledged that nine out of ten persons with same-sex attractions will experience at least one shift on the Kinsey spectrum from 0 to 6 during their life; six out of ten will experience two or more shifts. The intensity of impulses, and sometimes even their direction, can and often do change over time. Like various forms of sexual impulses, the degree to which a homosexual "orientation" becomes fixed in an individual’s brain and the intensity with which it is experienced, at least in part and for some, can be affected by choices regarding fantasy life, responses to social and environmental factors in childhood and adolescence, the degree to which one acts on impulses, and the degree of self-motivation for change.

Even Edward Stein, a scholar of law and philosophy who is strongly supportive of homosexual unions, has challenged deterministic models of homosexual development. He posits instead a nondeterministic model that incorporates a significant role for choice—often blind, incremental, and indirect but choice nonetheless (The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation [New York: Oxford University Press, 1999]). This is what the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review had to say about Stein’s book: "A landmark book…. It so pulls the rug out from under biological arguments for lesbian and gay rights that anyone from now on who appeals to such arguments will have to answer to Edward Stein’s objections" (from back cover).

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By Riazat Butt, The Guardian

British public life cannot be a "God-free zone", the head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales warned tonight.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor said he was unhappy about attempts to "eliminate the Christian voice" from the public forum. He urged Catholics to prevent the country from becoming a "world devoid of religious faith" through a deeper engagement with God by praying, studying and performing charitable acts.

In a lecture at Westminster Cathedral the cardinal observed there was "considerable spiritual homelessness" and, even if people wanted to believe, they felt faith was no longer an option.

"Many people have a sense of being in a sort of exile from faith-guided experience. This is the effect of the privatisation of religion today: religion comes to be treated as a personal need. You cannot banish religion to the church premises. There are social currents that want to isolate religion from other forms of knowledge and experience in order to marginalise it."

The cardinal said modern culture prevented people from expressing their aspirations. An individual’s spiritual and religious impulses were not being channelled deeply enough because there was a "pervasive message" that committing oneself to God was to "take a step back from being independent and mature".

He suggested, however, that Christians were partly to blame for the prevalence of modern atheism, which was a product of a "distorted kind of Christianity".

"What did we do to generate unbelief? We need to examine what we might have done to give people a misleading idea of God. Faith in Britain might be improved by a deeper grasp of the mystery of God on the part of our believers."

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By George Conger for CEN

Organizers of the June Gafcon meeting in Jerusalem report that as of April 25, 267 bishops have registered for the June meeting in Jerusalem.

Denounced as a rival gathering to the July Lambeth conference, a detailed agenda has yet to be released. Like Lambeth much of the conference will be devoted to worship and spiritual reflection. However, Gafcon will play host to bishops, clergy and lay leaders, and will also seek to formulate a common approach to the divisions of doctrine and discipline within the Anglican Communion.

Approximately 150 bishops and conferees from Muslim majority countries unable to travel freely to Israel along with the Gafcon leadership team will meet at a resort on the Dead Sea in Jordan from June 18-22, while a further 600 are expected to join the self-styled “pilgrimage” in Jerusalem from June 22-29.

Organizers note that many of the bishops attending Gafcon will also be among the 625 bishops attending the Lambeth Conference. While the Archbishops of Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda and their bishops have said that as it is currently organized, they will not attend Lambeth, the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone Gregory Venables announced last week that he will go to Lambeth.

Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh announced on May 6 that he would attend Lambeth and Gafcon, joining Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker and the other conservative American bishops in attending both meetings.

Read the whole story HERE.

By Ruth Gledhill, The Times

The crisis facing Britain’s Christian churches is linked directly to the crisis of British identity now being addressed by the Government.

Oaths of allegiance and citizenship ceremonies are under consideration. But one thing lacking from so many conversations about “Britishness” is any reference to a link between religious and ethnic identity.

In contrast to the decline of Christianity in Britain, Islam and Hinduism are thriving here. One reason is that for Muslims and Hindus, wherever they come from, their religion is inextricably linked with their sense of identity.

Even though the last Prime Minister was devout and converted to Roman Catholicism soon after he left office, and the present one is a son of the manse, the Government remains strongly secular. This is an inevitable result of the liberalising trends of the last century, and one not necessarily to be lamented.

 
But the consequences, good and bad, need to be faced.

As the Religious Trends Survey shows, an ageing generation of churchgoers is about to die out and there could be, within a generation, a God-shaped hole at the heart of our society. It is a hole in the shape of the old fashioned, liberal Anglican God and it is a hole that is at the heart of the present debate about British identity.

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From The Christian Institute

The free speech amendment has again been backed by the House of Lords. It will go on the statute book later today.
In last night’s debate Lord Waddington gave a commanding speech. Labour Peer Lord Clarke spoke powerfully in favour of the amendment as did Lord Armstrong, the former Cabinet Secretary.

There was also strong support from Viscount Bledisloe QC and senior Judge, Baroness Butler-Sloss, peers who have both strongly supported gay rights in the past. Lady Falkner of Margravine, a backbench Lib Dem, voiced grave concerns about free speech, although she abstained in the vote.

Both the Government and the Liberal Democrat front bench strongly opposed the free speech amendment. All the more astonishing therefore that in the division peers backed the amendment by 178 votes to 164. Some 13 Labour peers defied the Labour Whip. The Bishops of Norwich and Chichester also supported us. It is clear that the Government could not get their own supporters to oppose the clause in sufficient numbers.

After the vote the Bill ‘ping-ponged’ back to the Commons. There the Government reluctantly decided to accept the Waddington amendment. Only the Liberal Democrat front bench objected, forcing a vote on the matter. In the end the amendment was accepted by 324 votes to 46 as the Government joined the Conservatives to keep the amendment. The Government did this in order to stop the Bill continuing to ping-pong between houses.

Ministers were keen to get the Bill passed quickly. No doubt they had in mind two previous defeats in the Lords, one of them just before midnight.

Protection for the Gospel

The free speech clause, soon to be law, underlines the fact that the incitement to homophobic hatred offence in no way criminalises mere disagreement with homosexuality.

The clause states, "In this Part, for the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred."

Our moral obligation is to love people, no matter who they are. Hatred of people is always wrong. Christians love the sinner, but hate the sin (see Romans 12:9 and 13:9-10). Having received Christ’s forgiveness we want to share the Gospel with others, including homosexual people. We hold out the message of new life in Christ and the fact that, as the Bishop of Chester has said, practising homosexuals can change.

How important it is therefore to protect our freedom to proclaim the Gospel.

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By Jennifer Roback Morse for IMAPP

Ever since I wrote Love and Economics, I have been trying to explain to economists, libertarians and fiscal conservatives that the family is a fiscal issue. Now, the Institute for American Values comes along and documents this point by point, state by state. Here are a few highlights.

family fragmentation costs U.S. taxpayers at least $112 billion each and every year, or more than $1 trillion each decade.

Me: This is the equivalent of the entire Gross Domestic Product of New Zealand.

Of these taxpayer costs, $70.1 billion are at the federal level, $33.3 billion are at the state level, and $8.5 billion are at the local level. Taxpayers in California incur the highest state and local costs at $4.8 billion.

Me: CA now faces a state budget deficit of around $12 billion. This means that family fragmentation accounts for over a third of CA’s deficit.

Just today, the San Diego Union Tribune published a story here on education budget cuts in California. Way down in the bottom of the story is magnitude of the overall expected reduction:

Statewide, 14,000 teachers received pink slips in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $4.4 billion reduction in education spending.

Very nearly the amount that IAV estimates as the cost of family fragmentation. Read it and weep.

Read article HERE

From The Christian Institute

The Government backed down last night and allowed a free speech protection to be written into its proposed ‘homophobic hatred’ law.

The decision came after the Government was defeated for a second time in the House of Lords. Peers voted 178 to 164 in favour of the protection yesterday evening.

This marks the end of a lengthy battle to make clear that the new criminal offence should not interfere with free speech or religious liberty.

The protection underlines the fact that criticising homosexual practice or urging people to refrain from such conduct will not, in itself, be a crime.

Words or behaviour which are threatening and intended to stir up hatred will, of course, be caught by the offence.

More information to follow.
 

 By David Rose, Timesonline

More women could be allowed to have early abortions outside NHS hospitals in England, under a relaxation of the rules being considered by the Department of Health.

The proposal follows a pilot study by researchers at the University of Southampton that found that abortions using pills rather than surgery could be safely carried out in local family planning clinics, cottage hospitals and health centres.

The procedure, known as early medical abortion (EMA), is an option for women up to nine weeks into a pregnancy. It usually entails two trips to a clinic, a few hours or days apart, during which pills are taken to cause a miscarriage. Trials at two clinics suggest that women liked the informality and increased support provided in dedicated settings away from hospital.

Providers of EMA say that women should be allowed to take the second pill at home, after receiving medical instructions. At present the law states that the pills can be administered only at licensed sites, such as hospitals, approved NHS providers and private clinics, but the Health Secretary has the power to change this.

Almost 200,000 abortions are performed in Britain each year, with two thirds being done within ten weeks of pregnancy but access to the service is beset by delays.

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By Ruth Gledhill, The Times

Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published today suggests.

The fall - from the four million people who attend church at least once a month today - means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable. A lack of funds from the collection plate to support the Christian infrastructure, including church upkeep and ministers’ pay and pensions, will force church closures as ageing congregations die.

In contrast, the number of actively religious Muslims will have increased from about one million today to 1.96 million in 2035.

According to Religious Trends, a comprehensive statistical analysis of religious practice in Britain, published by Christian Research, even Hindus will come close to outnumbering churchgoers within a generation. The forecast to 2050 shows churchgoing in Britain declining to 899,000 while the active Hindu population, now at nearly 400,000, will have more than doubled to 855,000. By 2050 there will be 2,660,000 active Muslims in Britain - nearly three times the number of Sunday churchgoers.

The research is based on analysis of membership and attendance of all the religious bodies in Britain, including a church census in 2005.

Coming just months after the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that the introduction of aspects of sharia into British law was unavoidable, the report is likely to fuel calls for the disestablishment of the Church of England.

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