Why does it matter so much to African Anglicans what the Episcopal Church thinks and does about homosexuality?
I think it is wrong to say it is between Americans and Africans, or the West and the Southern hemisphere. It is between two groups of people who understand the authority of Scripture differently. You see, for me as a Christian from Nigeria, my parents are Christians. My grandparents had practiced traditional religion before they became Christian. Now, in African traditional religion, if I had an attraction to a male person, that is considered as an abnormal thing, a spiritual problem. …
Now, when my grandparents met the English, who introduced us to the Christian faith, they read the Bible to my grandparents, and said, look, this thing you’re talking about, the Bible agrees that it’s sinful. So for us, the Bible supports our pre-Christian theology. We accepted it. We became Christian. And that is why in Africa, generally, if you have an abnormal sexual orientation, you don’t brag about it. …
That’s why we feel we are deceived, we have been cheated by the people the Lord Jesus Christ used to introduce us to the Scriptures, to bring us to a new faith in the Lord Jesus. They are telling us that it’s not wrong after all, that it’s a natural way. But we say: You are wrong; the Bible is right. So it’s not just a question of human sexuality. It’s about the authority of Scripture. For us, Scripture judges every culture. What I hear in the Western world is that culture judges Scripture. That’s the basic difference. It’s not a question of sex or no sex.
It’s the same thing with the unique nature of Jesus Christ and the finality of his sacrifice. …Today you will hear leaders of the Episcopal Church say that Jesus Christ is not the only way, and I say: “So why are you even in the church? You should resign.”
++Josiah spent two weeks at Incarnation preaching, teaching and discussing. It was an incredible experience for those who participated and it has engaged the parish in something very positive. I hope it will spread. This man is a reconciler. You may listen to almost all of his talks [url=http://www.incarnation.org/pages/Anglican_Speakers,_Fearon]here[/url]. Anyone considering a departure from the Episcopal Church should first listen to his talk with the INClings.
[blockquote]Today you will hear leaders of the Episcopal Church say that Jesus Christ is not the only way, and I say: “So why are you even in the church? You should resign.”[/blockquote]
AMEN!
When +Fearon was not re-elected Archbishop by the Church of Nigeria last month, Ruth Gledhill intimated it was because he was perceived to be too close to the liberal western churches:
http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2007/09/suffering-at-th.html#more
Perhaps his comments that leaders of ECUSA should resign and lay people should remain should be considered in that context.
+Josiah Fearon would seem simply to be a man who loves the church and proclaims the Gospel. I think all of his comments are in that context. Would that all bishops in the church had the same “agenda.”
The Bible supported slavery and we have come to realize that was wrong. We must start to look at the Bible in context. There is no way it can speak to 21st century Christians if the insistence is to take it literally. This selective cherry picking of certain texts used for no other reason than to discriminate is simply wrong. It substitutes human judgements for the word of God. What is Christian about that?
Fred…
Where, exactly, does the Bible support or promote slavery? I’m not trying to be a pain…I’m simply curious. Could you give a few examples? And what scriptures did this guy “cherry-pick” in this article? To me, he comes across as well educated, thoughtful, and exceedingly moderate.
Fred?
I can show you lots of places in the Scriptures where we are commanded not to do what Gene Robinson and Susan Russell like to do in their off-hours. But exactly where are the people of God commanded to own slaves?
#6, 7, Fred is either a satirical bit, or a complete moron. Either way, he cannot be taken seriously. Don’t waste your words on him.
But Fred’s comment is common and characteristic. The fact is that the gospels do not explicitly say that slavery is wrong, do they? And they passively accept the master-servant relationship and accept slavery passively. Again, it is common to argue tht we do not burn witches any more. Both are taken to mean that the Bible is to be taken with a grain of salt because it is simply out of date in many important matters. The next step after this one is the propositioon that scripture is open to any interpretation whatsoever because it is so riddled with archaisms.
These two arguments are odd ones after all. Jesus paid little attention to slavery because he was little concerning with what we now call civil rights. He was concerned with sinners, so we observe that a slave could be as good a “Christian” as a free man. Slavery was “Caesar’s world” and we were told to leave this world to Caesar.
The witchcraft argument is even stranger. AFter all, the world has believed in witches for a long time and it has felt that it has had good evidence for so doing. We don’t burn witches because there aren’t any. On the other hand, let us suppose that we did believe in witches and we did believe that we had good and sufficient evidence. What do you suppose we would do with so dangerous a collection of otherworldly evils. Would we say that we should be tolerant or would we execute them for the crimes which they commit? Would we really suffer Satan to work his wishes because we should be tolerant and inclusive?
The argument that the NT contains historical inaccuracies is true enough. And to be sure we must be aware of them, but one cannot therefore pass quickly and easily to the judgment that any proposed change in doctrine is sustainable because the Bible in “fallible.” Such arguments are used to pretend that scripture does not speak clearly about homosexuality, or if it does, it should be ignored because it is out of date. Larry
Bp. Fearon’s visit to Church of the Incarnation was an encouragement to everyone, liberal and conservative alike. In fact, the labels fell away while the Gospel was proclaimed. Living water was dispensed, and the Truth spoken in love. When our eyes are focused on Jesus, we behold the Truth. When Scripture is proclaimed boldly yet simply, we want to follow The Way, The Truth and The Life. I think hearts were turned to Jesus, and more people (some, who had thought like “Fred”) began to want to find this Jesus of Scripture, to know more about the One who healed people at the healing service. They wanted to know where to find this Jesus. Where is He? As Jesus himself sent word to John the Baptist, “So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
Luke 7:21-23
The bishop said that his people accepted the Bible’s statements on same-sex activity because it accorded with the views of his own culture, the very thing he is accusing Global North Anglicans of doing.
I think he was referring to the initial missionary initiatives. That particular part of Christian discipline, when presented with the Gospel, was not unusual to them, and has remained part of their Christian witness to this day.