The Sexular Age never sleeps: Here are its four stages so far
“Like rust, The Sexular Age, never sleeps.
Inching forward with cancerous intent, it has only one intention: To so completely hollow out the vision of humanity that is drawn from the biblical framework, that no one would believe such a framework possible.
The Sexular Age creeps forward, inch by inch, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. But always moving forward. Stages come and are cemented in place. And then the next stage begins.
Let’s map out those stages in four parts, and – not surprisingly – all four have been publicly demonstrated in that one arena of life that for many Westerners is their true religion: Sport. …”
– Stephen McAlpine takes a look at one front in the Sexular Age wars.
Scotland’s New Hate Crime Law is no Laughing Matter
“Most people and hopefully all Christians would agree that hate is bad. So, at a superficial level, it would seem that we should all be rejoicing at a Scottish government bill which bans hate. But as is so often the case in the world, things are not quite what they seem and words have different meanings.
None more so than in The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, passed three years ago. It was the brainchild of the then justice secretary for the Scottish government, Humza Yousaf. Yousaf is now the Scottish First Minister and his bill is about to become law on April 1st.
Sadly it is no joke – other than to make Scotland a laughing stock throughout the world. It is one of the most draconian, authoritarian measures passed by a democratic government in recent times – and it has profound implications for the Church. …”
– David Robertson at The Wee Flea re-posts an article he wrote for Christian Today.
Challenges to Religious Freedom: Conversion Practices law passed, ALRC report released
From Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia:
“A brief update on two significant challenges to religious freedom which have emerged over the last few days.
First, in NSW, the Conversion Practices Ban Bill 2024 has been rushed through both Houses of Parliament, receiving final approval on Friday March 22 after an all-night debate in the Legislative Council, and is now awaiting the Royal Assent.
…
The second concerning development is that on Wednesday 21 March the Australian Law Reform Commission released its report Maximising the Realisation of Human Rights: Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws (ALRC Report 142). Far from “maximising” human rights, the report (as expected by those who spoke to some of its researchers) would have the effect, if adopted, of seriously impairing the operation of faith-based schools around Australia.”
– Read here.
Related:
Response to the Australia Law Reform Commission report on Religious Educational Institutions – Media Release from the Diocese of Sydney, 21 March 2023 –
“The ALRC deserves a fail for the report and recommendations produced.
We are deeply disappointed that the recommendations fail to understand the ethos of faith-based schooling and would, if implemented, significantly impair schools’ ability to carry out their charter. …”
Federal ALRC Report Released – Freedom for Faith, 22 March 2024,
“On Thursday 21 March, the Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus tabled the final Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) Report following their Inquiry into Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws (see below).
On Tuesday 19 March, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was reported saying that he would not act on the ALRC report or a Religious Discrimination Bill without bipartisan support.
A draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill has been shown to the Opposition and key faith leaders, but is not public. …”
NSW Conversion Practices Bill — risks to religious freedom
“The NSW government has introduced a Conversion Practices Ban Bill 2024 into the Parliament, with the apparent aim of moving it through very quickly. Legislation of this sort has been introduced in other jurisdictions around Australia and elsewhere.
The aim of banning oppressive and violent practices designed to ‘convert’ someone’s sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual is good, of course. But those practices, while they may have existed some time ago, are really no longer around. The problem with these laws now is that their drafting can be so broad that they interfere with the ordinary teaching of religious doctrines and life within families.
These laws are also often premised on the assumption that ‘gender transition’ is a good thing which should be freely available to children, whether or not with parental permission. They raise important issues of concern to all those interested in the welfare of children, whether or not from a religious perspective.
But laws of this sort can in particular have significant implications for religious freedom.…”
– At Law and Religion Australia, Associate Professor Neil Foster highlights important ways the proposed legislation can be greatly improved.
Do read the full article, and – since the legislation is likely to be debated today – urgently contact your Member of Parliament if you desire.
France proposes further diminishing of human dignity
“If you are going to subvert the sanctity of human life at the beginning of life, as you have with abortion, then you are certainly going to also eventually get to subverting the dignity and sanctity of human life at the other end of the age spectrum. …
The slippery slope is indeed very slippery and it is a slope towards the acceptance of euthanasia or assisted suicide or whatever you might want to call it. …
… we are talking about a radical change in French law, and we as Christians understand that reflects an even more foundational and fundamental radical change in morality.”
– In his The Briefing broadcast for Monday 18 March 2024, Dr Albert Mohler looks at the sadly predictable pattern – this time, in France.
C of E’s helter-skelter plunge into heresy
“There are many good men and women in the Church of England who simply want to worship and serve God as best they can in the way their parents did. There are ministers whose preaching and teaching has enriched us and whose books Christians read with profit. Such Christians have been betrayed by their denomination. …”
– Presbyterian minister Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack writes at The Conservative Woman.
Queensland – new proposed discrimination law
“The Queensland government has released a draft of a proposed new discrimination law for public comment.
The proposed Anti-Discrimination Bill 2024 will make some radical changes to Queensland law, and of interest here is that it will seriously impact religious freedom in that State.
One of the ways that religious freedom is protected in Australia is through the inclusion in discrimination laws of ‘balancing clauses’ (provisions that balance the right not to be discriminated against, with the important right of religious freedom). But the new Bill will dramatically narrow those clauses.
I am pleased to present a guest blog post commenting on some religious freedom impacts of the draft Bill, from Dr Alex Deagon, an Associate Professor in the School of Law at QUT, and an internationally recognised researcher in religious freedom. …”
– See the guest post by Dr Alex Deagon at Associate Professor Neil Foster’s Law and Religion Australia blog.
Church of England is blasted for trying to hire £36,000 a year ‘anti-racism’ officer to ‘deconstruct whiteness’
“The Church of England has been blasted for hiring an ‘anti-racism’ officer to ‘deconstruct whiteness’ – with critics accusing it of ‘drinking the critical race Kool Aid’.
The £36,000-a-year and 35-hours a week role is part of a new 11-person ‘racial justice unit’ being set up by the Diocese of Birmingham to work across the West Midlands.
The job advertisement, published on Tuesday, described the role as ensuring that ‘structures, practices and behaviours’ throughout the church allow UK minority ethnic people to ‘flourish’. …”
– Story from Mail Online.
Embrace Compassion as the World Rejects Life’s Sanctity — Archbishop Kanishka Raffel writes
“In the past five years, two momentous decisions have been taken by our State Parliament, both under the banner of ‘right to choose’.
The first, the abortion liberalisation in 2019, was a change against which Sydney Anglicans, led by my predecessor Dr Glenn Davies, took a firm stand.
The other was in 2023. On November 28, the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2022 (NSW) (the Act) came into force in this State, enabling eligible people to choose to access euthanasia in accordance with the regulations and guidelines stipulated by the Act.
This watershed shift in medical practice and community expectation marks the final abandonment of one of the cornerstones of Western civilisation over the past two millennia: the sanctity of life. …”
– Archbishop Kanishka Raffel writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.
The article includes two helpful links.
Is there a glimmer of hope?
“The conduct of the House of Bishops has been deceitful and dishonest and disgraceful – concealing legal advice and the game plan. …
To believe there are glimmers of hope is not to prepare for the end of evangelical ministry in the Church of England. Such ministry is being squeezed out and it is naive not to see it, not say it, and not help others prepare for it.”
– Anglican Futures has published this honest assessment from a clergyman in the Church of England.
Do continue to pray for Bible-believing Christians in the CofE.
We cannot agree to disagree, says CEEC’s John Dunnett
From The Church of England Evangelical Council:
The meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England concluded on Tuesday.
Commenting on the debate on the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process, Revd Canon John Dunnett, National Director, Church of England Evangelical Council, CEEC, said: “The decision taken by General Synod to move to next business [before the end of the debate] is demonstrative of widespread dissatisfaction with how the bishops have been progressing the LLF process. The one thing that Synod could largely agree on was that neither side could support the proposals that would emanate from the motion, as tabled at Synod. We believe that GS2346, as presented at Synod, is riddled with confusion and ambiguity, contains proposals we could never support, and outlines inadequate structural provision.
“Significantly, the move to next business is also evidence that we cannot ‘square the circle’ in the debate, as currently framed. This issue is not adiaphora – we cannot agree to disagree.
“This is why we continue to call for a legal and structural settlement without theological compromise, which we believe is the only way forward. We will gladly work with Bishop Martyn Snow to explore this route further. Between now and July, we will be calling on churches and their leaders to articulate their support for this.
“Many feel that the fabric of the Church of England is tearing as a result of the Living in Love and Faith process and that structural differentiation is the only way of maintaining any degree of unity.”
– Source.
Living in Love and Faith: what now for those who cannot ‘agree to disagree’?
“Yesterday the Bishop of Leicester, Martyn Snow, tried to reset the ongoing Living in Love and Faith (LLF) debate, asking the General Synod of the Church of England ‘to be reconciled with God and show this by being reconciled to one another’.
He talked of the missionary imperative of the Church finding a way to ‘agree to disagree’ and pleaded for Synod to avoid “a series of speeches simply saying, ‘Synod needs to agree with me’, or others just need to change their mind”.
But the problem facing the Church is, as Ed Shaw said, ‘We do not all believe the same things when it comes to identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.’…”
See also:
What do we mean by reconciliation? – Martin Davie.
“The problem with the LLF/PLF debate in the Church of England at the moment is that the majority of the bishops are promoting a truncated form of reconciliation, a form of reconciliation which emphasises quite rightly the virtues of humility, patience and love, but also gives liturgical recognition to sexual immorality in the form of the blessing of same-sex sexual relationships and same-sex marriages and the ordination of those involved in them. …”
Image: Bishop Snow’s call for reconciliation despite holding contradictory beliefs.
Church of England is ‘standing on the brink of a precipice’
“As the General Synod of the Church of England gathered once again in London on Friday, Rev Ian Paul, a member of the Archbishops’ Council challenged the agenda in forceful terms.
Suggesting that Synod had made ‘avoiding reality a bit of an art form,’ he claimed that the Church of England is ‘standing on the brink of a precipice’. A precipice which could leave the next generation with nothing but a ‘heap of ruins’ to fight over. …”
– Susie Leafe writes at Christian Today.
See Ian Paul’s challenge last Friday (link should go to 01:31:28 in the video).
“The Church of England – a heap of ruins for the next generation.”
Why the “equality” Bill is a threat to religious freedom — and what you can do about it
“The Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023 introduced by Independent MP Alex Greenwich is due to be debated next month and voted on in March.
The bill makes wide-ranging changes to 20 pieces of NSW legislation that will undermine religious freedom and entrench a radical gender ideology in NSW. …”
– Bishop Michael Stead writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.
He emphasises,
“Christians need to act immediately to make our opposition to this bill known.
We need to contact our local State members. Most politicians have little idea about the contents – let alone the consequences – of this bill.
It is important they hear our concerns before the bill’s scheduled voting day on March 14.”
This is an important article and deserves to be widely shared.
See also contactyourmp.org.au for background and helpful resources.
LLF and Reconciliation- taking the wrong path?
“‘This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’
These words, from Jeremiah 6:16 were quoted by the Rt Revd Keith Sinclair, retired Bishop of Birkenhead, at the end of his address at Gafcon IV in April 2023. He had been asked to speak about the global implications of the decisions taken by the Church of England’s February General Synod to introduce prayers of blessing for same-sex couples. His presentation was masterful and measured – as befits one of the most respected conservative leaders in the Church of England – and it was met with the most extraordinary standing ovation. …”
– This post from Anglican Futures warns that the Church of England’s direction into the abandonment of Biblical morality and teaching is fixed.
“It is a certainty that there will be many private meetings and whispered conversations taking place over the coming week in a last ditch attempt to find a way of persuading Synod that a square is just a circle with pointy bits.
There is a crossroads ahead – but it is hard to see a good outcome for the orthodox.”
Image: Bishop Keith Sinclair at GAFCON IV. See his address at GAFCON IV here (it may take quite some time to load).
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…