Next Step in the Process?
Dear Friends of the Anglican Realignment,
When I was considerably younger and the Rector of an Episcopal Church in South Dakota, the manager of a beef processing plant asked me if I would like a tour of the facilities. I am by nature a curious person, and so, just as I had said yes to a tour of the Homestake Gold Mine in Lead, SD, I said yes to this tour. These two tours were, of course, quite different.
Let me preface my remarks by saying that I like to eat beef, and in my earlier life I helped to brand and neuter young bulls belonging to the church's ranching families. This beef processing plant had a large fenced yard where cattle were brought in by truck and then unloaded and counted. Another part of the large containment area had progressively smaller pens with secure runways up to a ramp that led into the plant proper. What the cattle didn't know was that as they were encouraged to move up the ramp, they passed through a narrow portal into the plant where a device struck them in the forehead. This device caused their immediate death, and machinery then took hold of the cow or steer and began the process of turning them into sides of beef cooling and aging in the cold locker at the far side of the plant.
This is enough description for my purpose of comparison. In life, we don't always know where a given path will take us, and sometimes if we did we certainly wouldn't take it. Cattle on a hillside eating grass look happy enough, but then at a certain point they are brought together and confined in a feedlot. Although there is a loss of freedom, there is great abundance of tasty grain and other feed. At each step in the process, no one sits down with the cow or steer and explains the road map of where all of this is going, and if they did, and if the cattle could understand us, they would jump or break down the fence and quickly leave the area.
Cattle, and humans in our society, often just respond to the issue immediately before them and fail to ask, "Where is this leading and what will be the consequence?" Wars are often started because nations don't think things through very intelligently. Companies or businesses change policy or marketing strategy without really knowing where a decision will take them. Think of the Coca Cola formula change of years ago, and the Ford Edsel, and more recently World Mission, a Christian Evangelical world relief organization which decided to depart from the strong Biblical norms they (and their sponsoring churches) had been operating by, and permit homosexuals in same-sex marriages to work on the ministry team, just as if that behavior was as acceptable as the Biblical model. They must not have looked very far up the ramp for answers, but within days they made a complete turnaround and restored the Biblical model of marriage for ministry team requirements. Some of their previous suporters will never trust them again and that support won't come back.
In the area of cultural acceptance of homosexuality, one only has to look at the trajectory of the issue, from the 1990's, where the lesbian and gay community seemed to want toleration and freedom from employment discrimination, to the 2000's where they wanted same-sex unions and respect, and teaching in public school curriculea of this as an acceptable way of living, to the 2010 decade with gay marriage being forced even on states that have newly-minted laws against it, and corporate executives being run out of their jobs because they don't SUPPORT gay marriage, and attempts to label all who oppose the homosexual agenda as hatemongers and homophobic. Where does this end?
If you asked the cattle on the grassy hill where they were going, they would tell you nowhere, which isn't exactly right. If you asked the cattle in the feedlot where they were headed, they would tell you nowhere, which isn't exactly right. One of the most unfortunate supporters of the homosexual agenda is the magazine Economist, which in many ways is a very good source of information. For some reason they have jumped on the homosexual bandwagon and by their own admission made it a cause; however, in a recent article even they are pulling back and wanting to talk about where things are going. More specifically, in the article they discuss the decision of the World Bank to try and cram the homosexual agenda down the throats of the African nations which have values prohibiting that behavior. Although I don't agree with the Economist's stand on homosexuality in general, I do think they have analyzed the World Bank situation carefully and have some wise advice to them.
Read it here and then come back.
In this case, at least some of the cattle are starting to consider what happens in the next pen and up the long ramp. In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, sane people need to start asking where this agenda is going, and whether they really want to be a part of where it winds up. There is still time in the West for sane people to create an open society that gives people of faith as much freedom as it gives those of no faith. Tell your Congressman or Congresswoman how you feel and why, and your Senator as well, and watch what they are doing and how they are voting. Federal judges are appointed for life by the President, so remember that when you vote for a President. You definitely need to become active, and simply changing parties isn't enough, you need to change the elected officials' minds.
You might wish to write the Economist and the World Bank as well. Have a blessed and empowered Eastertide.
Bishop David Anderson
AAC President and Chairman of the Board
