Until now I had laboured under the impression that God loves everyone equally: sinners, saints, Christians, Muslims – and so on. Not so, according to the Niagara Anglican, the newspaper of the Diocese of Niagara.
Apparently he loves Muslims more than dissenters; and by dissenters, our author is referring to ANiC parishioners who departed the Anglican Church of Canada because it blesses same-sex marriages – although this is merely the tip of the heretical iceberg.
Were it not for the absence of an editorial comment distancing the paper from the remark, one might be tempted to dismiss it as yet another crackpot notion from Michael Burslem, a regular contributor to the paper. As it is, it obviously meets editorial and diocesan standards – and probably approval (the article is not online yet):
I’m equally convinced that God loves Muslims more than dissenters; those who cause bitter dissent and even schism in congregations and dioceses that a portion should up and leave. Since God loves us all, there is nothing that should cause us to love one another less than He does, even such subjects as the same-sex debate. Paul condemned settling matters in court as he did homosexual relations. He preferred all to be celibate as himself. However, Paul is not the Law, any more than the Bible is, and thanks be to God no one is saved by obeying the law, Paul’s the Bible or any other.
I used to think that Michael Burslem was a muddled do gooder of the “I’m OK you’re OK variety”. Now he’s revealed himself to be something very different: intolerant and judgemental -the very traits the ACoC accuses ANIC of.
Too bad.
Hm-m-m. Amongst many astonishing jolts in this newspaper piece from the land of make-believe, might I point out that since the ACoC is dedicated to the concept of individual choice, even when this means choosing to murder the unborn, the fact of choosing to dissent and choosing to leave a heretical parish should be something they all stand up and applaud. I call such lapses of logic “the discrepancies of the Left”. These abound in our present society.
“However, Paul is not the Law, any more than the Bible is, and thanks be to God no one is saved by obeying the law, Paul’s the Bible or any other.”
And what about Article VI
VI. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation.
Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.
Source
http://www.anglicansonline.org/basics/thirty-nine_articles.html