Category Archives: Christianity

Fidel's Folly

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Christopher Hitchens on the old megalomaniac’s latest lunacy. From SlateAdd an Image

Why on earth did Castro build a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Havana?
Fidel Castro has devoted the last 50 years to two causes: first, his own enshrinement as an immortal icon, and second, the unbending allegiance of Cuba to the Moscow line. Now, black-cowled Orthodox “metropolitans” line up to shake his hand, and the Putin-Medvedev regime brandishes its missile threats against the young Obama as Nikita Khrushchev once did against the young Kennedy. The ideology of Moscow doesn’t much matter as long as it is anti-American, and the Russian Orthodox Church has been Putin’s most devoted and reliable ally in his re-creation of an old-style Russian imperialism. If you want to see how far things have gone, take a look at the photograph of President Dmitry Medvedev’s inauguration, as he kisses the holy icon held by the clerical chief. Putin and Medvedev have made it clear that they want to reinstate Cuba’s role in the hemisphere, if only as a bore and nuisance for as long as its military dictatorship can be made to last. Castro’s apparent deathbed conversion to a religion with no Cuban adherents is the seal on this gruesome pact. How very appropriate.

It just goes to show that all the sycophantic antics of the Anglican church towards this vicious, thuggish crambazzle did not pay off: he didn’t build an Anglican  cathedral.

Anglican Church of Canada: yes we can.

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Exercise discipline, that is. Learn from the Lutherans: read it all at the National Post.

Lutheran parish suspended over gay pastor

A Newmarket Lutheran parish has been suspended for ordaining a married gay man — a move that the national church called a clear violation of its rules.

But the man at the centre of the controversy said he has no intentions of stepping aside.

Lionel Ketola was made a minister by a non-traditional American Lutheran group that ordains gay men and women. Mr. Ketola was then hired as the associate pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in May and was immediately warned that he had no official status in the national church and the parish would be subject to sanctions.

It is the first time a parish has ever been suspended in the history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the largest Lutheran denomination in the country, with 600 congregations and 180,000 members. The rule on ordination says no “self-professed practising homosexual” can be ordained.

“They extended the call [to Mr. Ketola] without the authority of the church,” Rev. Dahle said. As a result, “we have suspended the congregation’s right to be involved in the active life of the church.”

It means that Holy Cross cannot take part in synods, conventions and conferences. It also means that even legitimate clergy at Holy Cross are excluded from national positions.

I am sure this is not over, but it is encouraging to see mainline church leaders with the courage of their convictions –  something one could never accuse Fred Hiltz of.

Chatting with J. I. Packer

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I first met Dr. Packer about 28 years ago. I was a fairly new Christian with all the naivety, enthusiasm and questions common to this affliction. I was fortunate enough not only to be next to the great man in the lunch line, but to sit opposite him during lunch. Having seen the fate suffered by someone who disagreed with him, I decided for the most part to keep my opinions to myself and simply ask questions. A lot of questions. One was this: the Anglican church appears to be bent on a course of self destruction; why stay in it? Dr. Packer is a gracious man, even to impudent whippersnappers, so he patiently explained to me the richness of the Anglican heritage and worship. So I stayed.

One of the things he said then stuck in my mind: I asked what had gone wrong. He said that, as a result of the Enlightenment, people had ceased to believe in God’s propositional revelation.  I reminded him of this last Friday; he said “hmm, I would probably put it differently now”. Which leads me to last Friday.

I was sitting in the first ever ANiC synod listening to financial statements, when I was asked if I would like to interview Dr. Packer or continue listening to the financial statements. With the enthusiasm of a man who has been reprieved from a tooth extraction without anaesthetic, I chose the interview. There were 3 journalists interviewing Dr. Packer – and me.

A lot was said; so much that there was a concern that it might be too much for Dr. Packer. He said, no, a professor likes talking to his students. Although physically a lot more frail than the last time I saw him, he has lost none of his mental acuity, nor his sense of humour, nor his graciousness. I referred to one of his arguments as “compelling”, something which, apparently, was kind of me.

Time passed and dinner arrived; we ate together. Dr. Packer was pretty insistent on procuring chairs for everyone, but he was persuaded to sit down and let others do it. Eventually, the other journalists left and I had him all to myself.

Nevertheless, so many questions, so little time.

I reminded Dr. Packer of his ‘propositional revelation’ remark of 28 years ago. Here is the argument today: Jesus is God in the flesh; did he use words to communicate? Yes, therefore, God uses words to communicate; can that be extended to Scripture? Yes, because Jesus did. How do liberals wriggle out of this? They refuse to engage the argument at all. They are implicitly Unitarian.

How can liberals keep referring to the Holy Spirit and yet get everything so wrong? Because they do not view the Holy Spirit as a person: to a liberal, the Holy Spirit is another way of saying “God in action”. Therefore, once consensus is reached, the liberal declares it to be a work of the Holy Spirit.

Theologians today tend to suffer from parochialism: they know more and  more about less and less. Their minds have been narrowed.

I have a habit of referring to the ACoC as an organisation that is no longer Christian. What does Dr. Packer think? He puts it like this: many dioceses and the ACoC itself have leaders that are sub-Christian. As a result, many of those they lead are also sub-Christian.

What about Tom Wright? It seems to me, I said, that he has placed church hierarchy above the gospel. You are not the first to say that, said Dr. Packer; nevertheless, he is a brilliant man. His large books are better than his short ones, apparently. He said more that I would rather not go into, but it included the words: ‘ego’ ‘blog’ and ‘Tom Wright’. And had Rowan not been given the ABC job, Tom Wright would probably have been next in line. Power corrupts – that’s my comment, not Dr. Packer’s.

Every week, Malcolm Muggeridge used to declare that Western Civilisation was about to collapse; what does Dr. Packer think? He agrees. We are living in a post-Christian era whose roots have been destroyed. We used to believe in the validity of Christianising an institution because we believed in the truth of Christianity; no more.

Does Dr. Packer really think that Rowan Williams should resign? He was not happy with David Virtue’s headline “J. I. Packer calls on Rowan Williams to resign”, later to be picked up by every other miscreant in blogger land. What he actually said was “he is not qualified to lead the Anglican Communion and enforce the rules laid down at the Lambeth Conference in 1998”. The reason for this is that he is attempting to publicly uphold the 1998 Lambeth ruling while privately disagreeing with it. At the very least, said Dr. Packer, on this issue he should defer to someone who is not subject to that dichotomy.

Another journalist asked Dr. Packer if he believes in demons. Yes, in the same way that C. S. Lewis did. And does he believe in spiritual warfare? There was an interesting answer: he does not believe that demonic forces engineer cultural trends, but that they take advantage of them. Dr. Packer thinks that a lot of damage has been done by those that believe otherwise. We didn’t have time to probe this further.

A lot more was said; I was the only person there without a tape recorder – an omission that led to a lot of self kicking.

J. I. Packer is now Theologian Emeritus to ANiC. We are in good hands.

For goodness’ sake

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When I was very young I, didn’t know what “good” was, so I didn’t have to be good at all.

When I was a bit older, I had to be good so that Santa would bring me lots of presents.

Once I was older still, I had to be good so that God’s giant foot would not come down from the sky and squash me.

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Christians are unique since, no longer having any need to wheedle their way into God’s favour, they are good simply because they love him.

Now atheists are expecting us to be “good for goodness’ sake”, a tautological statement which is no further along than the first sentence above.

From Fox NewsAdd an Image

Ads proclaiming, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake,” will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.

Edwords said the purpose isn’t to argue that God doesn’t exist or change minds about a deity, although “we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people’s minds.”

Next time you want to stimulate rational thought, Freddy baby, you should try employing some before coming up with a slogan.

The reality of evil

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A precursor to Redemption.

The first time I went to Syl Apps, the youth detention centre in Oakville, was around 1990. The institution is a maximum security facility that houses dangerous youth offenders from all over Canada; it is also a treatment centre for troubled youth who, if left unsupervised, would injure themselves or others. As recently as last Sunday I listened to the account of a teacher at Syl Apps: one of her students was acting strangely. Is anything wrong? No. What did you just do? Nothing. Did you swallow something? Yes. What? A needle. The student, who compulsively swallows things – anything – was rushed to emergency. Others cut themselves.

The overall impression after my first visit was: these are children, they are innocent; why are they here? I quickly discovered that many had been sexually molested when they were young – very young. Children follow the example of their parents, so, in turn, they sexually molested those who were younger than them. Some were accomplished con artists: one in particular comes to mind. He was allowed to attend our church on Sundays; after years of visits by a volunteer from St. Hilda’s he was released. He stole the volunteer’s credit cards and accused him of abuse; later he was re-arrested and the last I heard was in an adult prison.

I was the volunteer for a troubled young man who was interested in playing the guitar: we played worship songs together; the times we had together were among the most powerful expressions of worship I have ever experienced. He had trouble controlling his anger. One day his mother was visiting him and took exception to something one the guards said. She jumped on the guard’s back, clawing at him, and had to be restrained. Her son witnessed this. After release, I believe her son re-offended and was sentenced to serve time in an adult prison.

Carrie, a 15 year old with a sweet temperament,  was in the treatment section of Syl Apps. Every time I was there for the chapel service she would give me a big hug when I arrived and before I left. She had imaginary friends and would probably be viewed as not too bright. During the worship she would sing and clap with gusto; not the same lyrics, tune or rhythm that I was playing, but that didn’t matter: her heart was close to God. I believe her expression of worship was worth more to God than the most perfectly performed anthem.

Eventually Carrie was released; but she had nowhere to go, so she lived on the street in Toronto where she was picked up by a pimp and forced into prostitution. A couple of weeks later, presumably because of poor performance, the pimp beat her to death. I am reasonably certain that Carrie is with Jesus, still singing, clapping and hugging everyone. She will be clapping in time now, and one day I hope to receive another hug from her.

Like it or not, our world is the battle-ground between good and evil. There is no standing on the sidelines: you have to choose a side, God or Satan. For my part, in spite of frequent stumblings and failures, I’m for God and I want to try to keep fighting until it’s over.

Redemption

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When Justin was 7 his father left and his stepfather moved in. By the time he was 14 he was taking drugs, stealing and was desperately looking for a way to escape from his home where he felt unwanted and unloved. The plan he came up with was to spend the rest of his life in prison – apparently, a more attractive prospect than living at home – by murdering a fellow student, a crime that would mean the maximum sentence. He accomplished this by luring a classmate he found particularly annoying into the woods and strangling him with his belt. At one point the belt slipped over the victim’s chin allowing him to breathe; a lifetime of pain can hinge on the decision of a second. Justin considered not going ahead with the grisly task; but he did. How do I know this? Because I have just been at the Syl Apps Youth Detention Centre in Oakville listening to Justin talk about how he came to Christ.

There is also an article about his crime in the Toronto Sun.

Their son’s 14-year-old killer was the first in Canada charged with murder under the new Youth Criminal Justice Act that had come in force just that day. Replacing the much reviled Young Offenders’ Act, there had been high hopes that the new law would be tougher on teen murderers. The Levacks, though, would find that the system still bends backwards for Morton, while their son is hardly remembered at all.

Their boy’s killer pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced as an adult to the maximum under the new law — life imprisonment. But of course, it’s not really life at all. Instead of having to wait 25 years for his chance at parole, Morton can apply in just seven.

In the meantime, he has had his wish fulfilled — he has been in “juvey” ever since the murder. “Jail is just free room and board,” Morton told one friend at the time. “Killing,” he told another, “was better than going home.”

But now Morton is 20 and his time in a youth facility is finally up.

The only comment I really want to make about the Sun article, is that I wish the reporter had taken the time to speak to Justin now because what he would say – assuming the lawyers would let him – would be very different to the quotes of his in this article. I can understand Eric’s parents wanting justice – I would too in their position; at the same time, our justice is not God’s justice.

I know Justin because for about the last 18 years, St. Hilda’s has conducted a monthly chapel service in Syl Apps. Justin often played the guitar with me. Also, for the last 5 years and seven months, 2 volunteers from St. Hilda’s have visited Justin every week on Tuesday night to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with him. As a result, Justin became a Christian, was baptised and is now a witness to Jesus to the other inmates. Next week Justin will probably be moved to an adult prison. Today he gave his testimony.

During the time I have been part of the chapel service at Syl Apps, I have experienced Satanists in the front row chanting curses, a variety of unnatural noises, shouting, chair throwing and minor rioting. This afternoon while Justin spoke, everyone listened. He said many things. A few stand out: Life isn’t easy for him, but he has a peace that cannot be obtained any other way than through God. Life isn’t easy, but he knows God is always with him, even if it doesn’t always feel that he is. Life isn’t easy and not a day passes without Justin regretting what he did, but through Jesus, anyone can find forgiveness. Every night he prays; one of his prayers is that Eric’s parents might find the same peace that he has found.

Through Jesus Christ, there is redemption.

Incidentally, the Diocese of Niagara is hell bent – yes, that is the right word – on destroying St. Hilda’s and its ministries, including the ministry to Syl Apps.

The promise of Eternal Nothingness

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From the Telegraph

Prof Richard Dawkins drives support for London’s first atheist bus advert

Campaigners believe the messages will provide a “reassuring” antidote to religious adverts that “threaten eternal damnation” to passengers.
The routes on which the atheist buses could be placed have not yet been fixed, but they would travel through the central London borough of Westminster and so could pass close to Westminster Abbey, a Christian place of worship for more than 1,000 years.
Prof Dawkins, Oxford University’s Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, said: “Religion is accustomed to getting a free ride – automatic tax breaks, unearned ‘respect’ and the right not to be ‘offended’, the right to brainwash children. Even on the buses, nobody thinks twice when they see a religious slogan plastered across the side.
“This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think – and thinking is anathema to religion.”

When was the last time you saw an advertisement on a bus threatening eternal damnation?

Leaving aside for a moment the question of the truth, or otherwise, of Christianity, how – I almost said ‘in heaven’s name’ – can the promise of no eternity be ‘reassuring’. Without God and life after death, loved ones will be gone forever, morality has no anchor and love itself is a meaningless chemical reaction. If nothingness follows death it makes all that appears before of no consequence – ‘a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’. Jesus promises neither eternal nothingness, nor eternal damnation, but eternal life ‘with joys that earth cannot afford’.

And if Dawkins is suffering under the illusion that ‘thinking is anathema to religion’, clearly he has learned nothing from his encounters with John Lennox.

In a characteristically western spirit of self-flagellation, the British Methodist Church is welcoming the ad campaign. From Here

Rev Jenny Ellis, Spirituality and Discipleship Officer, said, “We are grateful to Richard for his continued interest in God and for encouraging people to think about these issues. This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life.”

Bravo, the British Methodist Church, a very Anglican statement; like you, the Anglican church has difficulty distinguishing between loving its enemies and agreeing with them.

Anti-Dawkins

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Just as there is matter and anti-matter, there is Dawkins and Anti-Dawkins. And Anti-Dawkins is called John Lennox, MA, MA (Bioethics), PhD, DPhil, DSc, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green College.

The new Anglislam

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The Archbishop of Canterbury says theological differences separate Islam from Christianity. Here

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, admitted yesterday that the Christian and Muslim faiths are so fundamentally different that both sides are still unable to understand each other properly.
Dr Williams, speaking at an interfaith conference in Cambridge, said that it was possible for Islam and Christianity, two of the three Abrahamic faiths, to agree around the imperatives to love God and “love your neighbour”. Muslims and Christians agree about the need to alleviate both poverty and suffering, he said.

Is anyone particularly surprised that ‘theological differences separate Islam from Christianity’? Rowan Williams appears to be struggling to find similarities – a requirement of the new style of Politically Correct Evangelism, I expect. Pretty soon he will probably be declaring that Anglicanism and Islam are essentially equivalent. That, of course, is because an Anglican can believe just about anything he likes – except that Jesus is the Son of God, rose physically from the dead and was born of a virgin: believing that make you a fundamentalist.

The process has already started: Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding, an Episcopal priest, converted to Islam over a year ago – while remaining an Episcopal priest – and apparently sees no conflict between the two belief systems.

Happy-Clappy or Effete Aesthete

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A few years ago when I was in Salisbury, my wife and I attended an evensong in Salisbury Cathedral. The choir was exquisite and the acoustics perfect. In the bulletin was a notice to the effect that the congregation should not join in with the choir since it would almost certainly ruin the whole performance.

What the comment revealed was that the evensong was primarily an aesthetic rather than a religious experience: the choir were the performers and the congregation the audience. The performance made the paltry efforts of the average congregational singing sound like the caterwauling of tormented hyenas. The choir’s singing, on the other hand, conveyed a sense of God’s majesty and perfection. What it was not, however, was an act of congregational worship, since an expression of worship takes participation.

Sadly, in liturgical churches aesthetics are frequently mistaken for worship: when we worship, God is the audience, the congregation are the performers and, if their hearts are right with him, the apparent aesthetic value is of little consequence.

That is why this article by Damian Thompson is thoroughly mixed up:

Graham Kendrick, composer of the most loathed of all happy-clappy hymns, “Shine Jesus Shine”, has been named by Quentin Letts in a new book as one of the 50 People Who B*ggered up Britain. I can hear cheers emanating from pews up and down the country.

But Quentin is an old friend of mine, and I want to tell him: be careful. Kendrick is not one of the useless, drippy mediocrities who have ruined Catholic music with their folk Masses. He is – and I’m not making this up – a leading practitioner of what he calls “spiritual warfare”, and he may well conclude that Letts’s attack is demonic.

Letts certainly pitches into Kendrick with devilish glee, describing him as “the nation’s preeminent churner-outer of evangelical bilge, king of the happy-clappy banalities … Pam Ayres without the humour”. And he adds: “The jazzy chorus of ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ is particular agony, accompanied, as it often is, by a couple of emotionally incontinent show-offs in the front pews raising their arms and swinging them from side to side.”

What will Kendrick make of that? I dread to think. For he is not just a hymn-writer, but a leading proponent of a scarily hard-edged theology of spiritual warfare in which the earth is crawling with demons. Or, as he once wrote: “Satan has the real estate of villages, towns and cities overshadowed by ruling spirits which work untiringly to bring about his malevolent will.”

As for the proposition that demons are at work in the world: does anyone who has recently picked up a newspaper have any doubts?

The photo of the raised arms is there just for Damian and Quentin.