Evangelical Anglicans are going to have to get used to two-and-a-half weeks of being accused, lied about and generally having their views abused, during the Lambeth Conference. I’m not saying that to invite pity or suggest that evangelicals are persecuted and so on, but that the climate in the church and media makes it inevitable. Gafcon’s timing has left liberal Christianity on a wave of triumphal progressivism which is unlikely to end when the bishops fly back to their dioceses at the beginning of August. The consequence of the fact that over 200 evangelicals and traditionalists from Africa and other places have elected to stay away from the Lambeth Conference, is that liberal Anglicans will be the loudest voices at the table drowning out voices of reason.
Their aim might be viewed as benign – no decisions, no resolutions at the Lambeth Conference – but that is to mistake the official proceedings for the clear message that will be sent out.
Each American bishop has been given a prepaid UK mobile phone and a list of each other’s telephone numbers (a copy of this list appeared in my computer inbox). They have all received a media briefing which stresses the diversity of the Anglican Communion and the hard work ahead in pressing on with issues to do with poverty and war and so on. So they will be kept on-message. They will also be kept in touch with the fringes of the conference – Gene Robinson in the market place and any other activities, and protests. All in all, it is an impressive effort to co-ordinate the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered lobbyists, led by Bishop Robinson with the US Bishops.
Bishops on-message
What will be the message? Let us not forget that as far as the mass media is concerned traditionalist views are now regarded as obscurantist and bigoted. This is aided and abetted by the high profile of Bishop Robinson, who, let’s face it, is a brilliant communicator. With his constant use of the word ‘Fundamentalist’ to describe his theological opponents we are already at a disadvantage. And then he will have his security and bouncers around him, projecting the message ad nauseam that he has had death threats and fears for his life. While he insists that these are credible threats there have never been any arrests in the past five years. The threats he alleged were received from Britain on his personal phone in New Hampshire, were not reported to New Scotland Yard. While his security people have been in contact recently with Kent police, nothing has emerged from that by way of an investigation into these threats. Nevertheless he has spent $70,000 on security for his stay in Canterbury and will never make any effort to separate a few nutcases from the vast majority of evangelicals and conservatives who pray for him rather than wish him harm.. Additionally, he talks constantly of ‘violence’ against lesbians and gays in the words of conservative primates and clerics.
This amounts to a series of lies about evangelicals – that we wish him harm, that we are fundamentalists, that we do violence by our words, that we concentrate on this issue to the exclusion of all else. There are others that will be heard: that we are puritans, that we are hypocrites because we ignore other levitical prescriptions, that we are selective in our use of the Bible and so on.
A primer on Gene
You don’t need to read any more interviews with Gene Robinson. I have read scores of them and I can now almost finish his sentences for him.
Here is what he invariably says:
On death threats… “I wore a bullet proof vest at my consecration”…. “I’ve got credible death threats. I’m taking them very seriously”… “There are people in England who want me dead. All it takes is one.”
On the Bible… “Jesus never says anything about homosexuality. Fundamentalists want to just point to the Bible… Jesus himself tells us there is further truth to be learned and the Spirit will lead us into that truth. And I believed we’ve learned that about people of colour, about women and about those who are disabled and now about lesbian and gay people.”
On his critics… “Their language about me is violence against lesbian and gay people”… “To focus on this one issue almost to the exclusion of anything else is a kind of idolatry.”
On New Hampshire… “I invite people to come to the Diocese of New Hampshire and see what the Church is going to look like when we’ve finished obsessing about sex, because frankly we’re over it.”
This essay is scheduled to appear in the upcoming issue of the Church of England Newspaper
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Comments:
So, what’s new?
So, Mr. Robinson was not invited but is very much a part of Lambeth. Good Job Susan Russel/Integrity & KJS! That must have been a hefty check amount!
The Province of Christ the King is looking better and better to me!