When one’s neighbors have a sacred book which they believe and claim is literally ”˜the words of Allah,’ it can be very tempting to make similar claims for one’s own sacred book. Once that kind of claim is made, it can be very difficult to concede that every faithful person, every faith community, picks and chooses which passages to emphasize, and which to set aside”¦.The BOOK, which is THE GOSPEL, cannot be compromised.
South Sudan is surrounded by other nations with very strong laws concerning homosexuals. They are under tremendous pressure to conform to prevailing norms and taboos, especially since the Bible seems to them to be clear on the topic. Our scholarship is not something they can embrace without putting themselves at odds with both religious and secular beliefs (both traditional and legal) and seeming to be ”˜unfaithful’ to the Book, while their Muslim neighbors are clearly being faithful to their Koran.
It has taken many years and some degree of effort for many of our brothers and sisters to realize that the Gospel is far more than a book ”“ it is the living, continuing presence of Christ, it is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, working to make sure that all people know God’s redeeming love. They are beginning to learn the value of Tradition ”“ which is never static ”“ and Reason ”“ through which we learn about God in very many ways. But many of the leaders have still not been able to study as clergy have in the West, and it will be many more years, I’m sure, before we come to anything like a common understanding and interpretation of sacred Scripture ”“ and in that process we will undoubtedly learn a great deal from them!
Finally, we must remind ourselves that even though we interpret the Bible in different ways, even though we live in a very different society, it has taken us until the 21st century to come to a place of acceptance regarding members of the GLBTQ community. We didn’t begin talking openly about the topic of sexuality until the 1960s, and we live in a culture which prizes free speech and relatively open discussion.
It is unreasonable for us to expect that people who live in very different circumstances, where women do not yet have the same legal rights as men, where harsh treatment of children is deemed acceptable, where addictions, STDs, and mental illness are not understood, and where people cannot bear to have open conversations about such things, to accept our position on human sexuality without struggle and questioning..
This is helpful to understanding how TEC officials view African Anglicans. Her letter can be summarized as “The Sudanese are nice people in a difficult region who are attempting to be faithful to overly simplistic teachings that missionaries brought to them. In time, they will have access to the same scholarship and experiences that the western church has, and that will override their understanding of the Bible as a singular book that is the indisputable word of God.”
Reading her account, I wonder if Waynick understands that many of the Sudanese are also motivated by their relationship with Jesus Christ, both personal and corporate. That relationship can’t be dismissed like the sort of scriptural absolutism she equates with neighboring Islam, or adherence to preexisting cultural taboos. Surely she knows that many prior tribal cultural practices and taboos were overcome out of deference to scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit?
“but when TEC produced a liturgy for use in the marriage of same gender couples, it placed the ECSSS in a precarious position with Anglicans in neighboring countries, in their evangelism efforts at home, and particularly their Muslim neighbors” and we don’t care.
But they do. So they have cut ties and we need to placate ourselves that we are in the right and the poor dearies will eventually catch up with TEc when they get educated enough to grasp the truth of our position. /sarcasm
Jeff Walton, “Surely she knows that many prior tribal cultural practices and taboos were overcome out of deference to scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit” but she cannot admit it because it calls into question the alleged work of some spirit in TEc because of the witness of the Sudanese to the Gospel, the Scripture, and the Tradition.
#1:”Surely she knows that many prior tribal cultural practices and taboos were overcome out of deference to scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit?” It’s possible that she doesn’t know.
However will these poor benighted Sudanese Anglicans manage without the bounty of Bishop Waynick and her colleagues descending to patronise them in the great white bird from the sky? If they can take time off from abusing their wives and beating their children, they might rue their lack of education at the elite Central Michigan University and General Theological Seminary where they might have learnt to confuse their theology like an Episcopalian bishop.
Actually, many Sudanese bishops are considerably better educated than Bishop Waynick and considerably more tested in their faith than a lady whose biggest life challenges are to collect her groceries from the shopping mall, her considerable paycheck from the bank account and look forward to a comfortable retirement on her TEC pension. However, it has to be said that the Sudanese will find it hard to exceed the growth in Sunday attendance the Diocese of Indianapolis has experienced under Bishop Waynick from 4,053 in 2011 to 3,694 in 2014, a remarkable minus eight percent.
Have you ever read anything more pathetic, condescending and racist?
By way of comparison, more people turn up to church at Holy Trinity in Brompton Road on a Sunday than in the entire Diocese of Indianapolis.
Makes you think, dunnit?
Nothing much has changed since 1998, when, post-Lambeth, the liberals said that the Africans were still primitive.