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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.
Promises, Promises: What Now for the Loyal Opposition in Mississippi?

The Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi is on an irreversible path toward full-on celebration and normalization of homosexuality and transgenderism, and any other deviant sexual cause that becomes fashionable among the theological leftists who run the diocese.
What’s our message to those who aren’t having sex?

Just like there’s all kinds of sex going on, there’s all kinds of celibacy going on. Some celibacy is temporary, some is permanent. Some is planned, some is an intrusion. Some is honored, some is reviled.
The Week
The Abusive Hermeneutics of Rachel Held Evans
3 I’ve been following Rachel Held Evans’ writing for about a year now. It’s hard to read her regularly and keep your patience because she consistently misuses the bible to support her favorite causes. Most recently…
2013 Best & Worst States For Business
2 Interesting stuff from a CEO survey about best and worst states for business—SC ranks eighth on the list, though there’s plenty our leaders can do to move us up in that ranking. Where does your…
Helping Oklahoma
3 Capn’ Jack Sparrow has helpfully sent a couple of links for donations and/or volunteer work to help those in Oklahoma recover from devastating losses and death. Are there other suggestions from readers?
The Obama Scandals Aren’t About Bad Government, but Big Government
11 Oh, I so agree. Obama is not The Problem—it’s all the thousands of Obamas behind him who believe in just his version of Big Government. From Red State, where there is…
Three Signs There’s a Cover-Up
2 From NRO, where there is more: Here are some other clues that a Washington cover-up is going on. 1. No one seems to be able to name the players.…
And the Hits (to the First Amendment) Just Keep On Coming
4 You’ve heard of Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division. Under her watch, IRS agents took to asking questions about religious matters completely irrelevant to any legitimate inquiry into tax exempt status…
Never Let a Tragedy Go to Waste
7 This is how uncivilized, how mindless, how swinish discourse has become in Washington: the death toll in Moore, Oklahoma was still climbing, and the rescue efforts still on-going, when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) decided to…
Sermon: James 2:14-26 - Faith Without Works is Dead
Preached 19 May 2013 Glenquarie Anglican Church. James 2:14-26
Pre-teen Pedophile Victim Forced by Rapist to Get Abortion at Planned Parenthood
12 Remember - your tax dollars go to support this. An Everson man who impregnated a preteen girl and forced her to have an abortion must…
Sam Allberry - Is God Anti-Gay? [video]
1 A great interview with Sam, whom I wrote about a few months ago.
Britain De-Christianizing, Heading for Islamization
5 Britain, fork, no assembly required: A new analysis of the 2011 census shows that a decade of mass immigration helped mask the scale of decline in Christian affiliation among the British-born…
IRS Asks For “Content of Prayers”
7 As Jim Geraghty of National Review puts it, “Today’s hearing on IRS abuses had a lot of ‘are you kidding me?’ moments, but this one stands out:”
California Accommodates Raging Hormones
12 Do you live in California? Do you have children? Are they attending the public schools? Are you out of your freaking mind? That’s the question inevitably raised by this action by the state assembly, reported…
They lived not only in ages past (South Sudan news)
4 Ohio Anglican stands faithfully at prayer each day, and reminds us that May 16 commemorates The Martyrs of Sudan. Sudanese Christians live out a journey every bit as dramatic as that…
PB sermon turns silk purse into sow’s ear
53 I love our brother in Christ, the Underground Pewster, and can’t for the life of me understand why he’s intruded the brutal Lenten discipline of
Recent Comments
ABQ Methodist - The Abusive Hermeneutics of Rachel Held Evans
At the risk of being somewhat simplistic, the question is not whether God’s goodness and evil can be reconciled but rather what we, as people of faith, are doing to alleviate and assuage the suffering…
helpmelord - The Abusive Hermeneutics of Rachel Held Evans
How do you speak to one who has lost 1 or more children about God’s love and mercy? Why do these tragedies happen? Why did Job’s children die? Why would God test Job or anyone…
Reformed Catholic - The Abusive Hermeneutics of Rachel Held Evans
Looks like a typical knee-jerk reaction to reading something on Twitter. That’s the problem with having 140 characters to comment, unless your readers have some clue, many times what can be said will be taken…
Ed the Roman - PB sermon turns silk purse into sow's ear
“So long as they maintain that status without correcting her, they are representing this as respectable Anglican and Episcopal theology. “ Leaving Anglicans aside, given that she is the Presiding Bishop, what is the basis…
David_Fine - The Obama Scandals Aren’t About Bad Government, but Big Government
The U.S. government and budget grew massively under President George W. Bush. It seems that it is very hard for Congress-persons and Presidents to say ‘No’ to anything that may hurt their reelection chances.
hanks - The Obama Scandals Aren’t About Bad Government, but Big Government
Above, I posted this quote from Proverbs: “If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.” Just heard (from Charles Krauthammer) a more graphic, non-biblical variation: “A fish rots from the head…
Fr. Dale - 2013 Best & Worst States For Business
“...with the Golden State continuing to rank dead last.” Sunshine tax.
Capt. Father Warren - The Obama Scandals Aren’t About Bad Government, but Big Government
Remember what Sarah Palin said; the only things that go with the flow are dead fish.
cennydd13 - Three Signs There’s a Cover-Up
As I’ve emphasized before on this blog, the buck stops at the top. Obama has to be held ultimately responsible for everything that happens on his watch, just as Richard Nixon was held responsible for…
cennydd13 - The Obama Scandals Aren’t About Bad Government, but Big Government
I’d rather be a “pain in the ass” conservative than a “go with the flow” liberal, and I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a Tea Partier.
Michael D - PB sermon turns silk purse into sow's ear
Part of the background here is that the liberals don’t like Paul (not least because he speaks out against sexual immorality). So if you hang out with liberals, and surround yourself with people of like…
B. Hunter - The Obama Scandals Aren’t About Bad Government, but Big Government
Kirsten’s article is very good - thanks for sharing. Obama’s liberal administration hates - HATES - conservatives. Their agenda is all that matters. If the Republican party is destroyed in the process through lies and…
B. Hunter - 2013 Best & Worst States For Business
The great state of Texas is #1 for 9th year in a row. Of course.
Theron Walker✙ - Helping Oklahoma
The International Diocese of ACNA has a parish, St. James, at ground zero. Bishop Atwood just wrote us—this helps give some understanding of the storm, and some practical info on how to help. Dear iDio…
SpongJohn SquarePantheist - Never Let a Tragedy Go to Waste
In the liberal mindset, there can never be such a thing as a simple misfortune or calamity. The reason why these things occur is because some evil, selfish conservative did not allow the government to…
cennydd13 - And the Hits (to the First Amendment) Just Keep On Coming
I would be liable for arrest if a government official were to ask me about my religious beliefs in that manner, since they’d have to get my fist out of his mouth. The IRS has…