Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, tells us that marrying same-sex couples will continue in TEC because it is not contrary to the core doctrine of the church.
More specifically, he says that “For me, marriage is not part of core doctrine”. Therein lies the problem: he is unconcerned whether marriage is actually part of core doctrine or not because for him it isn’t. Truth is relative, doctrine is solipsistic, what is doctrine for me may not be for you. Objective truth doesn’t exist or is, at best unknowable and irrelevant – at least, it is for him.
No matter how heavily they disguise it as piety, the fact remains that TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada have constructed their own perverse doctrinal house of cards; it is already falling about their ears and the faster if falls, the more furiously the bishops, like demented gargoyles, hack at the foundations.
To look on the bright side, though: But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD
From here (my emphasis):
Many believed that marriage is part of core doctrine. No individual church can change core doctrine. Many felt that the expansion of who may be married on our part was a change in church doctrine. Therefore it was in part on that basis that many felt that we had overstepped our authority as a province. I didn’t agree with that but I respect that that was the understanding of many. For me, marriage is not part of core doctrine. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is core doctrine. The doctrine of who Jesus Christ is – wholly God and wholly human – is doctrine. The articles of the Creeds are doctrine. The Holy Scriptures and the Old and New Testament are core doctrine. Other sections of the Chicago– Lambeth Quadrilateral are core doctrine. Marriage is a sacramental right, it is a solemn and sacred matter of faith and practice. But it is not core doctrine.
“For us men and for our salvation” and “the Lord, the giver of life” are core doctrines.
Salvation is from idolatry, including the worship of that ancient and most powerful goddess, Venus/Aphrodite. “Life” involves freedom from bondage to sin. Is chastity not therefore core doctrine? If so, isn’t its practice also core doctrine?
What in the world is a “sacramental right”?
The bishops of the Episcopal Church have, for years, undermined every core doctrine Curry mentions. They have said Jesus isn’t God, the Bible isn’t inspired or inerrant, etc. It seems whether something is an essential doctrine of the faith is irrelevant to them.
Or as the acoC would refer to as a “secondary issue.”
Just the words of another apostate who claims to be a bishop – an individual who seems to believe his beliefs are superior to the authority of Scripture. This is further proof that the Anglican Communion will not hold together as this so-called bishop along with others within the TEC and the ACoC clearly have the support of the underlying support of ABC who, himself is not prepared to make a stand for the truth of the Gospel.
Exactly right, David.