I recently had this exchange with Bishop Peter Carrell, bishop of Christchurch New Zealand and Polynesia, on twitter. I thought some of you might find it interesting. To be clear, I like Peter Carrell even though I largely disagree with him. There aren’t many bishops who would bother with this.
It all started with this cartoon retweeted by the bishop:
To which I replied, and he replied etc. (sorry about the duplicate bits – that’s twitter):
What does all this mean? We appear to be speaking two different languages. Or perhaps we are using the same words to mean different things. Or we live on different planets. Either way, the gulf between us appears to be as broad as the one mentioned in Luke 16:26.
I stopped following Peter Carrell long ago as he was drifting farther and farther left. It is sad to see what he has become.
“Inclusivity” is about the catholicity of our faith and God’s mission to the world.”:
Harvard has solved this “difficult” dilemma of Jesus Christ’s Great Commission (+ Matthew 28:18-20) by now providing apps that map which way for their “transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming” students to find their respective, most ‘inclusive’ bathroom.
All things become possible when ‘Veritas’ supplants the 1692 ‘Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae’ founding motto of that once American Christian training school for Christian Ministers, now awash in both Saudi and Chinese Communist cash to promote “God’s mission to the world” – inclusive, of course.
They have this weird idea that they’re building a “new kingdom.” For example, in 1962 (this problem is old…maybe as old as time itself =]) the BCP in Canada removed a whole psalm and some other stuff. I don’t have access to the synod records w/o begging, but if someone else knew, I’d appreciate info!
So, Psalm 58 was completely removed:
“58 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.”
Since 1962, things went off the rails and the ACoC has been run as, essentially a corporation where anything goes, they see themselves as “building a new kingdom” which just so happens to be communist/socialist.
And they really don’t get that they are making the ACoC hostile to anyone who isn’t going to subscribe to the latest political fad. Like, ordaining women, well, OK—problem is, I’ve had two female priests refuse to serve me because of how I talk. I am university educated, they just don’t like “boys” who won’t be submissive to them…I cannot imagine these women taking a confession from a rapist in a prison, etc. So they’re like Windup Priests, Tin Soldiers, etc. I cannot imagine the average woman (or man for that matter) being able to listen to a rapist talk about his rape and then absolve him, but that is what a priest is for, the priest is a “spiritual leech.”
The problem is that these people live in echo chambers—the whole “oh, you only think this way because of your privilege” is nuts. I have gay friends, straight friends, bi friends, atheist friends, muslim friends, etc. etc. and what we have in common is that we love diversity, and we don’t expect to agree about everything. We look at that 90% we agree about, and we debate the 10% we disagree about.
It is a mistake to think there are any good arguments for inclusion, diversity, etc. These things are not argued for academically, the way it works is that if you write papers repeating social justice nonsense, you get 90s. I went to Uni in the 2000s and figured this out within my first semester. I didn’t do it tho because it felt dirty, and why just write what the prof wants?
So, these people have gone through university spewing SJW nonsense, then Theology College doing the same, most of them are literally incapable of forming a logical argument, they have their emotional SJW conclusions and their “refutionat” of every alternative is “it’s complex…” “we’re in Canada…” “God’s love conquers all…” “I’m demented…” OK, they don’t admit to having dementia, because obviously they don’t know, but most of the clergy have dementia.
Carrell is no different from nearly any other Anglican bishop: same-sex marriage affirming, conservative loathing, politics obsessed, government deferring, social gospel peddling, and orthodoxy attacking.
Frankly I don’t see much there to like.