"Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?"
Ezekiel 18:23 NIV 1984
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Message from Bishop David Anderson
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Bishop Anderson
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Dearly Beloved in Christ Jesus,
As I write each week about issues either within Anglicanism or touching in a significant way on those of us who are Anglicans, I realize that members of other Christian denominations are also reading our AAC weekly updates. The reality is that many churches and denominations are undergoing the same kinds of problems, and are looking for solutions. Divisions have occurred recently and are occurring in Lutheran and Presbyterian denominations, and the situation in the Methodist Church is shaky. The American Anglican Council is fostering conversation among those in all of these church groups who are interested in the true Gospel and its proclamation, to see if we can agree on the most important issues and beliefs and work together in our areas of common ground to support the work that our partners are doing for the Gospel. In coming weeks you will hear of some of our work in this area.
From time to time, I caution and alert our readers to attempts to erode or diminish our rights as Christian believers under the law. Why should everyone else have free speech rights, but Christians are muzzled because speaking about Jesus Christ might offend someone? Should a person's employment be safe as long as they speak and act in accordance with what they think and believe is right, but if they believe that something is wrong or ill-advised and speak up, and their conviction happens to go against the popular sentiment or advocacy movements of the day, should they lose their job or be demoted or transferred?
Once again, there is a media report of a person whose thoughts go against the popular zeitgeist being disciplined by an employer. NBC News reports that Gallaudet University, a major educational institution of higher learning for the deaf located in Washington, DC, has placed a staff member on paid leave after she expressed her opinion in a matter related to same sex marriage.
In Maryland, a public referendum is proposed as to whether Maryland State legislation allowing same sex marriage should be overturned. This in effect gives the people in Maryland an opportunity to vote about gay marriage, which the Maryland Legislature denied them. Gallaudet is a federally chartered university for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, and should therefore not push any particular party line. The chief diversity officer for Gallaudet, Dr. Angela McCaskill, signed the petition to support the question being put on the ballot.
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We don't know for certain what her feelings are with regard to gay marriage, but we do know that she felt the people of Maryland ought to have the opportunity to vote on it. Maybe she was simply supportive of the democratic process, or perhaps she was supportive of traditional marriage (one man-one woman for life), I don't know. But the fact is she signed the petition, which should have been her freedom of speech right, but it got her yanked out of her job and put on paid leave. A temporary replacement is being looked for, so clearly the school intends the paid leave not to result in her return any time soon or probably not at all.
While the Book of Revelation spoke of the coming of the antichrist and the mark of the Beast, it looks as if in today's Western world part of this has already arrived. The mark that is required to keep your job and position in society is a designation of being pro-gay. If you don't think and act as if homosexual, bi-sexual, multi-sexual, trans-sexual, etc., behavior is to be honored and perhaps even given preference, then you are to be sidelined, marginalized, and removed as soon as convenient. "Tolerance" is only a transition to achieve uniformity of thought on all matters sexual.
Angela McCaskill's removal from office was so egregious a violation of her civil rights, to say nothing of academic freedom, that even the referendum's opponents disagreed with the decision. NBC reported that in response to the news that Dr. McCaskill was put on administrative leave for signing the referendum petition, Marylanders for Marriage Equality issued this statement by campaign manager Josh Levin: 'We strongly disagree with the decision to put the chief diversity officer on leave and hope she is reinstated immediately. Everyone is entitled to free speech and to their own opinion about Question 6, which is about treating everyone fairly and equally under the law."
I am glad that the pro-gay marriage folks think Angela should have her free speech rights, but marriage isn't something like a home or an automobile, it is unique, created by God not only to bind a man and a woman into a lifelong faithful commitment, but to provide security for the woman and any children during times of vulnerability, and really, to bring the masculine and the feminine together to provide a complete wholeness that two men or two women simply can't and don't provide. Marriage between a man and a woman has been the building block of families, of communities, and of nations since the beginning of humanity, and a modern notion of civil rights just can't properly deal with it using familiar civil rights terms such as "fair" or "just" or "equality."
For my wife and me it's now 45 years working on 46, and as the movie "What About Bob?" suggests, it's 'baby steps' that bring about the gradual maturing and strengthening of our relationship, one year at a time.
Blessings and Peace,
+David
The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council
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Message from Canon Ashey
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Canon Ashey
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By The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council
The following article is from the AAC's weekly International Update email. You can sign up for this free email here.
Canon Ashey will publish "Part Two: Leaders We Should be Seeking" next week.
Why Anglicans must articulate a robust Biblical theology for economic empowerment and self-sustainability
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Several weeks ago I wrote about meetings in Nairobi, Kenya hosted by the Anglican Alliance and Trinity Wall Street (TEC) on the development of micro-finance opportunities in the Global South. The Anglican Alliance has admitted publicly its failure to articulate a biblical basis for programs of economic empowerment and self-sustainability-a topic which will feature prominently in the upcoming meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC-15) in Auckland, New Zealand later this month.
Instead of forming a biblical basis for their works, the Anglican Alliance and others have gone ahead with a well-intentioned program for economic empowerment in the Anglican Communion that seems to be shaped by a new, secular, post-modern global ethic. This new ethic manifests itself in imperatives like the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The failure of the Anglican Alliance to develop a biblical theology for helping the poor and under-served raises the question-is that such a bad thing? Why not be shaped and driven by this new post-modern global ethic so long as the work gets done?
But there is in fact a very serious danger in surrendering what should be a biblical ethic for a post-modern one. As Marguerite Peeters observes in her essay on The New Global Ethic: Challenges for the Church (2006, Institute for Intercultural Dialogue Dynamics) (you can read the whole essay here)
"The ethical system we are facing is new in the sense that it is post-modern and, in its radical aspects, post Judeo-Christian... [this] global ethic hides an antichristic agenda rooted in Western apostasy and driven by powerful minorities at the rudder of global governance since 1989. A number of Christians already confuse the paradigms of the new culture with the social doctrine of the Church."
Peeters goes on to observe in summary that most Christians have failed to discern the origin and implications of this new post-modern global ethic because, like the fabled Trojan Horse, it comes disguised as a "gift"-the gift of good works in raising people out of poverty and oppression. But, like that fabled Trojan horse, this new secular global ethic carries within it the very seeds of destruction and deconstruction of the Bible and Christian faith. In fact, it replaces and excludes the very robust and precious Biblical imperatives upon which Christians have based works of justice, mercy and service to the poor and the oppressed for almost 2000 years....
Read the rest of Canon Ashey's article here.
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University's diversity chief put on leave after signing anti-gay marriage petition
| Source: NBC News
October 10, 2012
By Miranda Leitsinger
The chief diversity officer at Gallaudet University was put on administrative leave
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Dr. McCaskill
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Wednesday after the school learned she had signed a petition supporting efforts to reverse Maryland's same-sex marriage law, media reports say.
Dr. Angela McCaskill signed the petition at her church after her preacher spoke against gay marriage, the Planet DeafQueer blog reported on Monday, citing a Gallaudet faculty member who first spotted the administrator's name on the document. Voters in Maryland will decide on Nov. 6 whether to keep a state law passed earlier this year approving same-sex marriage....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University Sue over HHS Mandate
| Source: The Church Report
October 9, 2012
WASHINGTON, DC - East Texas Baptist University (ETBU) and Houston Baptist University (HBU) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, asking the court for relief from the Department of Health and Human Services' "preventative services" mandate, which forces the Christian Universities to violate their deeply held religious beliefs or pay severe fines.
"Baptists in America, by virtue of their history, are particularly sensitive to coercive government actions that infringe on religious liberty," says Eric Rassbach, Deputy General Counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed suit this morning on behalf of the Universities. "America's first Baptist leader, Roger Williams, had to flee Massachusetts and found a colony in Providence, Rhode Island, because his religious beliefs were not tolerated by the laws of Massachusetts. We shouldn't have to fight for that same right today."...
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Canada: Ontario Education Minister: Catholic schools can't teach abortion is wrong
| Source: LifeSiteNews
October 10, 2012
By Patrick B. Craine
TORONTO - In what pro-life leaders are calling a stunning and unprecedented attack on religious freedom, Ontario's Education Minister has apparently declared that Catholic schools can no longer teach that abortion is wrong.
Laurel Broten, who serves under Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, said Wednesday that
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Laurel Broten
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Catholic schools are barred from teaching this core moral belief because Bill 13, the government's controversial "anti-bullying" law, prohibits "misogyny."
"Taking away a woman's right to choose could arguably be considered one of the most misogynistic actions that one could take," she told the Canadian Press. "I don't think there is a conflict between choosing Catholic education for your children and supporting a woman's right to choose."
Bill 13 had already been slammed by Ontario's bishops as an attack on religious freedom because it forces Catholic schools to allow "gay-straight alliance" clubs.
"This is absolutely unbelievable and shocking," said Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition. "The rights of the Catholic schools are protected in Canada's Constitution. Especially coming from somebody who's a purported Catholic with her children in Catholic schools."
The rest of the article may be found here.
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"Jesus' Wife" Fragment Almost Certainly a Forgery
| Source: Anglican Curmudgeon
October 11, 2012
By A.S. Haley
Oops!
If you want to create a forgery using the latest techniques to fabricate aged papyrus and ink, best not rely upon the Internet for your text source.
The much-touted scrap of papyrus, containing just a few lines of Coptic text mostly from the Gospel of Thomas, has been regarded by scholars in the field as suspicious almost from the first announcement of its unveiling -- even by the professor at Harvard Divinity School who made the announcement.
The editor of the Vatican's newspaper pronounced the fragment a fake after reviewing a detailed line-by-line study of its text by a Coptic scholar, which those interested may read here....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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England: BBC to rethink its coverage after accusations programmes were unbalanced
| Source: MailOnline
October 10, 2012
By Liz Thomas
A BBC review of 'the breadth of opinion' reflected in its coverage of immigration, religion and the EU was triggered by complaints of liberal bias, Lord Patten has admitted. The BBC Trust chairman said the investigation had been 'prompted' by accusations that elements of the broadcaster's news, current affairs and factual programming had been unbalanced.
The move could signal a greater range of voices and experts being included.
In a speech to the Broadcasting Press Guild, Lord Patten said: 'It's an acceptance that these are areas where people are particularly concerned that we should get it right.
'We've been criticised in those areas and we think it's very important to listen to that criticism, not necessarily because it's right but because it reflects real and interesting concerns.'...
The rest of the article may be found here.
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South Sudan double displacement: first from conflict and now from floods
| Source: Anglican Communion News Service
October 11, 2012
First hand information on the emergency in Unity State, South Sudan has come from  Bishop Gattek from the Benitu Area Diocese, of the Episcopal Church of Sudan.
Several weeks ago, the Alliance posted an appeal on behalf of Bishop Gattek to help returnees from North Sudan and other nations, internally displaced people and the host community who are still in great needs of humanitarian aid. On top of this already difficult situation the rainy season has affected near 50,000 thousand people who have been forced to flee again. Waterborne diseases and snake bites are an immediate concern for the church, as well as the continuous movement of returnees and refugees from Sudan.
Episcopal Relief and Development has given a generous donation of US15.000 to help communities in Unity State. The Northern American agency has a long-standing partnership with the Sudanese Development and Relief Agency (SUDRA) of the Church of Sudan and is working toward implementing risk reduction activities in different Dioceses.
According to United Nations Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Humanitarian bulletin 24 - 30 Sep 2012) the number of people affected in South Sudan by the seasonal flooding between June and September has tripled since last year up from 79.000 in 2011 to 258.000 so far this year....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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