Whilst my pot might be calling the kettle black, I wish he could sharpen up what he is trying to state; do an abstract or summary, Andrew.

"There appeared to be no consequences for the repeated bad actions of the Episcopal Church."

Because we have to punish, after all, why be a Christian otherwise, I guess.

"the survival of its persecuted minority."

Oh, please. Consider what you are saying here, and get over yourselves, literally for the love of God. Persecuted minority. For the love and honour of God!

"to accept those who promote immoral behaviour is contrary to biblical teaching"

So, perhaps we ought to correct our past acceptance of immoral behaviour, acceptance which continues to the present day, before we start tackling anything new? At least it'd give us back some integrity.

"his is to equate emergency measures with the immoral behaviour which precipitated them."

Emergency? Immoral? Wipe the spittle off your face!

"even where the reading of Scripture is so defective that other parts of the Communion find it to be no longer recognisably ‘Christian’"

There it is: if you don't think like we do about homosexuality and Scriptural authority, you are not a Christian. Faith in Christ doesn't count, fellowship in the Eucharist doesn't count, baptism doesn't count. Honestly! By this definition, the Old Catholics aren't Christians. I wonder how they think about Anglicans with whom they have been in communion for decades, claiming they aren't Christians.

Again we see the puritan mindset at work -- at the moment the presenting issue is sexuality issues, but there will be others -- they always need an impure "other" that they can unite against -- where is the Gospel in that?

Ford Elms: those Churches who fail the evo homosexuality test by turning the litmus pink would also include the Scandinavian churches, more liberal than the C of E on homosexuality (and women), and (except Denmark) in full communion with us.

Prior et all

Sexuality was the issue. In the diocese of Pittsburgh they're now telling the people in the pews that the leadership of TEC denies the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. At my old parish, where there a lot of members who either teach public school (like myself) or work for the local college, homosexuality wasn't selling. Now, they've said that many in the TEC heirarchy are anti Trinity. The clergy have even said that some in power don't believe in Christ's physical ressurection. I heard one parishoner say, "they're not even allowed to bring the bible into church in New Hampshire!"
What people can be sold as truth is scarey.

Bob

"There it is: if you don't think like we do about homosexuality and Scriptural authority, you are not a Christian. Faith in Christ doesn't count, fellowship in the Eucharist doesn't count, baptism doesn't count."

Brilliant summation (of ridiculous views), Ford.

"I heard one parishoner say, "they're not even allowed to bring the bible into church in New Hampshire!"

Which must make it awfully difficult to do the OT, epistle and gospel readings, right?

What utter nonsense.

Bob in SW PA on Monday, 14 January 2008 at 7:32pm GMT --

The quotation from Mussolini is, "What people will believe in unbelievable." (That's not a violation of Godwin's Law is it?)

It saddens me that should this purge succeed, the Anglican Communion will no longer be a place that could be a home to Dr. Arnold, Lord Shaftesbury and E. B. Pusey.

Father Prior-

Godwin's Law only applies when it is inappropriate/off topic and hyperbolic. It also only counts for Nazis. So you are safe on all counts.

actually, godwin's law never applies. some people have a fascist mindset and that's all there is to it. they like to hide behind godwin's law, but we shouldn't let them. some of the marks of fascism are: to suppress opposite opinions; to persecute minorities, especially powerless ones; to misrepresent the truth for their own ends; to dehumanise opponents; to seek a purity that is by definition unobtainable by their opponents (eg. being jewish or a gypsy or a homosexual excludes you); to overvalue heirarchical structures. i don't call anyone in the present situation a fascist, i simply list some of the characteristics of fascism.