Features
Shiny Red Balls & Red Herrings in Upper South Carolina: Three Notes on Bishop Waldo’s Clergy Email
1) The letter from the rector of Christ Church, Greenville was not “about the Task Force” at all. It was, rather, about the bishop’s decision—and his decision alone, as he is the ecclesial authority of this diocese—to approve of the use of the same sex blessings liturgies in this diocese. No other entity has the authority to approve of such rites. It is Bishop Waldo’s decision and his alone. His apparent desire to drag the ironically-named Bishop’s Task Force on Unity into his email to the clergy is . . . interesting.
Waldo To Approve Same Sex Blessings: Truth & Consequences in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina
With his actions in approving rites for same sex blessings, Bishop Waldo now brings to the doorstep of the diocese actions that had, over the past ten years, been more abstractly based at the national level of The Episcopal Church. The meltdown in the church as a whole has been simply epic since the decisions of the 2003 General Convention.
PB sermon turns silk purse into sow’s ear
I think that last Sunday’s lesson from Acts is one of the Bible’s best for preaching the liberating power of Christ. It is a passage that even progressives should find inspiring on several levels. Unless you are the Presiding Bishop, who sees the complete opposite. Instead of liberation, there is confinement. Instead of Christ’s glory, there’s just squalor.
Don’t Sign the Letter
Living in a condition of regular unrepentant sexual engagement with a person of the same sex is, according to 1 Cor 6:9-10, damnable. The best thing, the only thing, to be done is to repent, break off the relationship, and turn to Jesus Christ. For the sake of those engaged in this sin (and those who are tempted by it) there can be no pastoral or practical accommodation.
A Facebook Exchange with a COE Bishop
It’s sometimes unpleasant to have one’s rhetorical inconsistencies mocked and it’s sometimes unpleasant to have someone else in one’s organization point out that there’s no commonality on one’s faith.
How to Never Say Anything True About Jesus to Anyone Ever
The apostles did not wait, nor do they ever suggest waiting, until hearers might “receive the gospel as good news” before proclaiming it. The cross offends. It always will because it amplifies the sinfulness of human sin and the helplessness of humanity apart from the work of Christ.
Beware the Next Reichstag Fire
The American left probes for a Reichstag fire moment. There is a quest for an incident that will allow more centralization of emergency power in the federal government, the elimination of constitutional rights and, it would appear, the advent of a single party state.
Eichmann to Gosnell, Ragsdale on the Assist
I don’t think I’m violating any confidences to say that most of us at Stand Firm are finding it very hard to cover the Gosnell trial, as relevant and pointed as it is for the kinds of faith and culture issues we engage here. Monstrous as he is, he is but a microcosm of evil pervading the church and the world.
Once More into the Breach: The Silly Shellfish Argument Rises Again
If you’re a revisionist activist devoted to normalizing homosexual behavior in the church, Acts 10 isn’t a moving account of the gracious and merciful hand of God extending salvation to the Gentiles – it’s a threat that must be neutralized.
Burning Incense to Rosie O’Donnell
“Marriage equality” lets people stand on a cost-free moral high ground. You’re a good person just for holding the opinion, saying the slogan, burning the pinch of incense. You are an accepted member of the in group and can look down your nose at those on the outs.
Sexual Immorality is a Rejection of Jesus
What I want to do here is look at the specific way in which the New Testament equates false teaching about sexual ethics with false teaching about Jesus and outright denial of his Lordship.
The Duke, the Dauphin, and the Episcopal Bishop of Virginia
It’s such a crude and farcical fraud by now—like the Duke and the Dauphin capering across the stage in Huckleberry Finn—and yet our bishops still put on the play with nary a trace of embarrassment or self-awareness.
Learning the Right Lessons: No One Should be Surprised by Shannon Johnston
To promote the notion that two people of the same sex can be married and/or engage in sexual acts within the context of a union God has blessed is not simply to reject God’s revealed purposes for human sexuality, it is also to construct a false image of god, a distorted portrait of Christ.
Truro - the Crisis for the Communion
Simply put, Baucum/Truro have crystallised and provided validation to what is becoming increasingly clear is Justin Welby’s approach of non-discipline of heretics in the Communion
Truro - the Crisis for the ACNA
Truro’s position effectively demands that all former Virginia parishes revert to TEC.
The Devil, You Say
Was Adam Lanza, the Newtown gunman, the Devil’s agent? To put it another way, can the possibility be foreclosed? Because if it can be, the Prince of Darkness is off the hook, and we turn, necessarily, to the examination of purely human causes and motives
Mindy McCready and the New American Priesthood
One hopes that a real priest, pastor or somebody will come alongside McCready’s abandoned children, with a word more enduring than film scripts or pop lyrics.
The Week
Photo Essay of Muslim Brotherhood’s trashing of Cairo
2 Robert Johnson’s pictures and their disturbing explanations are in a May 23rd report to Business Insider. What a mess. Seeing is believing. Johnson had to seek refuge with…
Paying for Other People’s Stuff
12 That’s what Americans United for Separation of Church and State is arguing for in a brief filed with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. According to a
California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA’s Writ Petition
8 One of the longer-running cases brought by ECUSA in California is the Fresno lawsuit against former Episcopal Bishop John-David Schofield over the real property, bank accounts and other assets that belong to the (now) Anglican…
Sweet lyrics and you can goose step to it!
3 One of Sunday’s pastoral visits was to a terminally ill kid. Driving home, I punched on the contemporary hot hits station to unwind. Yeah, lots of silly dreck there, but some fun tunes and,…
For All The Fathers Out There Raising Kids
2 Yes yes, I know that parents are not *solely* or even primarily to serve as friends with their children. But that is what you someday hope for, long long in the future. And there’s something…
America’s Coming Demographic Disaster
4 That’s right. We just aren’t having enough babies. It’s this amazing, amazing change in what is really the central fact of the human condition. Throughout recorded history people have always had—not always but almost always…
Sex and Jihad – the Failure of Modern Hermeneutics
7 Over the past few weeks I’ve been slowly coming to the conclusion that there is a massive similarity in the way our society is handling the two “religious” questions of homosexuality and violent Islam. In…
Farmer Wins One Against Government Over-regulation
5 I’m not a raw milk drinker, but I’m happy for these people, and the farmer. More over at Blue Grass Bulletin: Amish Dairy Farmer Vernon Hershberger won an…
No News from Texas; Sad News from Virginia
5 As of today, June 14, the Supreme Court of Texas has yet to issue its opinion in the Fort Worth direct appeal brought by Bishop Iker and his co-trustees of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort…
Believing The Islamic Lie
15 Interesting stuff from Information Warfare, where there is more: This is not a sudden and unexpected outburst of Moslem violence against non-Moslems and Moslems considered heretical. It is normal and…
The Annual Birthday Request
If you’re looking for some *excellent* politically conservative places to donate money, please take note of Erick Erickson’s annual birthday request.
Another California Judge Denies Summary Relief to ECUSA (Updated)
6 [UPDATE 06/14/2013: I can now report that Judge Reed affirmed her tentative ruling at the close of the hearing on ECUSA’s motion this morning. The case now goes to trial, which is scheduled for late…
In Other News, the Sky is Orange
2 Antonios Kieropolous is the Associate General Secretary for International Affairs and Peace at the National Council of Churches. I would like to warn all of his friends and co-workers to stay away from him for…
You win or you die
8 If I could get “Our Allies” in both the political and Episcopal worlds to get *one political principle* it would be this one. The continued naive cluelessness from conservatives in our country and in various…
Hewn People
2 “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I’ve hewn them by…
Recent Comments
m+ - Paying for Other People's Stuff
if we’re brutally honest, I think we will all admit that right now, corporations/ “business” wield much more power than the church does, at least as touches modern, everyday secular living. So the AUSCS wants…
Capt. Father Warren - Photo Essay of Muslim Brotherhood's trashing of Cairo
That’s the Egypt created with the help of Obama and currently supported by our hundreds of millions of dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood. Oh, but it will work out so much better in Syria, trust…
cennydd13 - What is Going on With the ACNA and the Filioque?
Best to put the matter of the Filioque to bed and let it die in peace, in my opinion. We include it in the Nicene Creed, we’ve said it for untold years, and we’re used…
observer145 - What is Going on With the ACNA and the Filioque?
I’m coming very late to this discussion. I’ve been away from a computer for a while. I think the question is, “Why tackle this particular issue?” The issue is not the 39 Articles. They are…
Pb - California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA's Writ Petition
In Georgia when both sides file cross motions for summary judgment, the court can try the case without a jury. The trial judge ruled in favor of TEC and the opinion was sustained by two…
Katherine - Photo Essay of Muslim Brotherhood's trashing of Cairo
Thanks for posting this. When we first arrived in Cairo in 2007 we had a driver who spoke a little English. I asked him one time if going some particular place would be safe for…
Katherine - Paying for Other People's Stuff
AndrewA, yes, there are medically-indicated uses which are not related to the contraceptive function of the drugs. Prescriptions for those purposes are usually covered. I’m sure no Christian employer wants an employee to suffer chronic…
B. Hunter - Paying for Other People's Stuff
WHAT? THS ISN"T FREE? BUT OBAMA SAID… I think this would be way less of an issue if “contraception” didn’t include the morning-after pill. I get so tired of the LEFT talking about “access” when…
tjmcmahon - California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA's Writ Petition
Pb- Is what you are saying that the Georgia cases were decided without any of them going before a jury? Were they all bench trials? Unless I completely misunderstand, the courts is Georgia ruled both…
AndrewA - Paying for Other People's Stuff
Also, the standard feminist comeback seems to be “But they pay for viagra!” Not sure how true that is. At any rate, from a semi-libertarian perspective, I don’t like the govt. requiring that employers providing…
AndrewA - Paying for Other People's Stuff
I get the impression from talking to some female relatives that there are versions that are fairly expensive, and that some women need to use them not simply for birth control reasons but for various…
cennydd13 - California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA's Writ Petition
I meant to say that “no one else has an interest in that property.” And I don’t recall ever having heard anything from the Episcopal Church asking whether or not we agreed to their declaring…
cennydd13 - California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA's Writ Petition
I think that holds true for anyone who owns property here. I have always felt that if you have your property deed registered in your name in the County Clerk’s office, you and you alone…
Timothy Fountain - Paying for Other People's Stuff
Meanwhile, O-care doubles health coverage premium for single women in CA. So we pay more for other people’s stuff, and other people pay more for other people’s stuff, too! Everybody pays more.
Pb - California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA's Writ Petition
It probably depends on where you live but I have always thought it was a mistake to file cross motions for summary judgment and have a court decide issues of fact. In Georgia a hierarchical…
Undergroundpewster - Paying for Other People's Stuff
Americans United, or AU is all for separation of Church and state of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit yet seeks to deny freedom yet is seeking to give the state power over the expression of religion. Bizzare…