The Church of The Ascension in Port Perry likes to think of itself as a church that welcomes same-sex couples and to advertise that fact – so rare today in the Anglican Church of Canada, after all – it placed a couple of rainbow fish on its sign.
Someone is systematically removing the fish. The rector sees this as a sign of intolerance towards same-sex couples, although it could just as easily be a sign of intolerance towards a church that encourages acts of which the Bible is intolerant. A newspaper article bills it as a “hate crime”. However satisfying these pilchard pilferers find their protest, it is almost certainly giving the Church of the Ascension more free advertising than it deserves and it could result in prosecution under Canada’s Section 319 “hate crime” law. If the vandals are so frustrated they feel they simply must destroy something, they should join an anti-Trump women’s march in their area and smash some windows; there they will be immune from prosecution.
From here:
In two separate incidents, new signage at the Church of the Ascension (Anglican Church of Canada) has been vandalized. We are concerned the vandalism is an act motivated by intolerance towards the LGBTQ community.
Each side of the church sign features a decal of the rainbow fish symbol. This symbol is intended to show that the Church of the Ascension welcomes all people, irrespective of their sexual orientation. Two weeks ago someone damaged one of the decals. It was hoped this was simply a random act of vandalism. However, on Saturday, January 14th, one decal was completely removed and left on the ground and the other decal was damaged. It was clearly an intentional act of vandalism.
Over the last five years the parish has striven to be a place that is open and inviting to everyone. The Ascension community has made a public statement that it welcomes everyone who has ever felt excluded by the Church or their community because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental challenges, financial resources or family status. The rainbow fish is an important symbol of who we are as a Christian community and a reminder that emphasizes God’s grace and reconciliation with all people.
The parish considers that these acts of vandalism, while minor in terms of dollar value, are a significant demonstration of intolerance and hatred.
Obviously, those “who [have] ever felt excluded by the Church . . . because of” their Christian belief are excluded. The irony of this escapes the Anglican Church.
This simply shows the ACoC is completely tolerant when it comes to the deceptive terms of “political correctness” and/or “political expediency” BUT completely intolerant when it comes to the Gospel. The Scripture is quite clear with respect to same-sex activity but since the ACoC no longer adheres to THE WORD it is ready to accept anything except, of course, the Gospel.
What happened to the I? Didn’t it used to be LGBTQWERTYI? How can we be properly inclusive without an accurate list?
So many identities, so little time…
” The rainbow fish is an important symbol of who we are as a Christian community and a reminder that emphasizes God’s grace and reconciliation with all people. ”
No. The Cross, in the context of Scripture, is a sufficient symbol to remind us of God’s grace and reconciliation with all people. What needs to be emphasised is that the Church welcomes all, since all are sinners. Unless one uses doublethink, the rainbow fish is signaling something very different. Rather than remove a rainbow fish, it would be better to tape over it a piece of transparent plastic on which is inked a simple Cross, so that the horizontal of the Cross looks like a deletion of the rainbow fish with a replacement by something that supersedes it. Let them try to spin that as a “hate crime”, “demonstration of intolerance and hatred”, at their risk of demonstrating absurdity,
They are tolerant, it seems, of everyone except people who follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Synagogues of Satan tend not to last very long. Their whole raison d’etre is to exist in opposition to fuddy duddy moralists who point to the “Bible” and to the “Gospel” when we all know that identity politics is what really saves. Or climate scientists.
Since the message is indistinguishable from that found at any well-managed social club, it will occur to its members (if it has not already) that they could have just as much fun, and receive an equal amount of self-validation, at a golf course or a movie theatre.
When homosexual rainbow imagery goes up on church signage it is like the visitation of the Black Widow; the kiss of death. You can be certain that extinction is not far off. It marks the future tombstone of a congregation, since the theology that gives rise to such expression lies at the terminal end of a protracted spiritual and intellectual decline.
BTW: The pastor of the Church of the Ascension, “Rev. John” has a blog. He wrote a three-part series on the “spiritual but not religious movement” which is very instructive. Instructive, that is, in its near-complete absence of any mention of proclaiming, worshipping, obeying and glorifying Jesus Christ as the primary mission and purpose of the Church.
A number of disturbing things emerged:
1. Reference to orthodoxy on the blog pages clearly does not mean orthodoxy in any historically meaningful sense.
2. Lack of comprehension that the modern mainstream Anglican Church in Canada shares few of the principles, theology, or worldview of previous generations. It does not represent continuity, but schism with the faithful saints of the past.
3. The claim that we can learn from the “spiritual but not religious” crowd. I can imagine St. Paul telling Christians to listen to pagans and spiritualists…. no wait. I can’t.
4. The big showcase feature of the church is not sober worship; not a congregation kneeling; not a beautiful hymn being sung; not the Word of God. But rather a big morning tea.
If there’s anything that better exemplifies the confusion – the utter discontinuity and disconnection with the Faith of our Fathers – it is this.
http://ascensionportperry.com/category/rev-johns-jottings/