Church of England Bishop gives backing to rainbow eucharist

“A Eucharist to celebrate LGBT Pride has taken place in the Diocese of Oxford with the full backing of the local suffragan Bishop and Archdeacon.

After the service on 30th August, well known LGBT activist and lay member of General Synod Jayne Ozanne tweeted a photo the service in Reading Minster (Oxford Diocese), where the Communion table is covered in the rainbow flag …”

– Report from Anglican Mainstream. Photo: Jayne Ozanne.

Banning ‘Conversion’ Therapy, what does it mean?

“Media outlets have renewed a campaign to outlaw gay conversion therapy (GCT). The Age published an article on the weekend with the title, Churches, LGBTI Christians urge crackdown on ‘conversion’ therapy.

The headline is somewhat misleading, for according to the SOCE website (the group who are asking the Federal Government to ban GCT), only four churches have signed their statement along with 3-4 church ministers. No doubt there other supportive Churches, but nothing like the groundswell of ecclesial enthusiasm that the newspaper implies. …

While the SOCE Survivors document is vague at points, a spokesperson from SOCE has this week responded to a friend of mine who was also seeking clarification from them. The spokesperson said,

‘Anything other than the full affirmation of lgbtiq individuals as fully equal (including in the church, with a move toward correcting the poorly translated words currently classed as “homosexual” in the bible) is really unacceptable.’ … ”

– Murray Campbell takes a close look at what proposals to ban ‘conversion therapy’ actually involve. You should read this.

Does the Secular Party know better than a child’s parents?

“An extraordinary claim before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal recently, Secular Party of Australia Inc. v the Department of Education and Training (Human Rights) [2018] VCAT 1321 (27 August 2018), alleged that a child at a public school should be prevented from wearing Islamic religious garb in the child’s own interests!

Thankfully the claim failed, but the fact that the case could even be argued illustrates the pressure that some groups on society are placing on parents and children of faith…”

– Associate Professor Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia.

If you can change the language, you can change the entire society

In the 31 August 2018 edition of The Briefing podcast, Albert Mohler looks at several current stories illustrating the language wars over gender and sexuality.

Listen or read here.

Middle-aged white men can tell the Truth

“Maybe we never realised it, but John 1:1 changes the way we understand everything.

It means that we believe in objective truth. That is to say, truth is real, it sits above us all, and all things ought to be conformed to it.

Truth is not merely ‘my truth’ or ‘true for me.’ Truth is true for everyone. …

But truth is dying in the West. …

This is why identity politics has caught on so quickly. It teaches us that we are no longer to measure things by what is said (ie whether it’s true), but rather who said it.

There are those who have no right to speak about things because of who they are. Because their group identity makes them ‘privileged’ they cannot speak about issues affecting other groups who are ‘victims.’

Examples abound. Only yesterday…”

– Here’s a thoughtful piece from Martyn Iles at The Australian Christian Lobby.

We can’t talk about unethical transgender medicine involving children?

“Here we go again.

Now the University of Western Australia has caved in following protests by the LGBTI lobbyists and cancelled a talk by Quentin Van Meter, an American paediatric endocrinologist who has been visiting Australia this week, speaking out about unethical transgender medicine being practised on children.

Dr Van Meter is a clinical associate professor at both Emory and Morehouse Schools of Medicine and he trained at John Hopkins, which did much of the early work on transgender.

The Perth talk was to have been the last in a week-long tour sponsored by the Australian Family Association. …”

– This opinion-piece in The Spectator Australia includes an hour-long ‘must-watch’ video of Dr Van Meter’s Sydney talk.

Related:

Findings from the New Atlantis Report on Sexuality and Gender, October 8 2016.

‘My Body, My Choice’

“What do we worship?

If aliens from another planet were to conduct a research expedition to earth, tasked with answering this question, what would they come up with?

They might ask people, but I doubt the answers would match up with what the aliens saw all around them. Various gods would be offered up as objects of worship. Some would say, “I’m spiritual, just not religious.” Others would claim to worship nothing.

But the evidence speaks louder than words. …”

– What does “My body, my choice!” say about us? Martyn Iles from the Australian Christian Lobby takes a biblical perspective.

Trinity Western University changes ‘community covenant’ — report

“Trinity Western University has announced it will change a ‘community covenant’ that prohibits students from participating in any sexual intimacy outside of heterosexual marriage. …”

– Trinity Western has reportedly changed its policy.

Earlier stories:

Supreme Court of Canada strikes a blow against religious freedom.

Trinity Western University loses before Supreme Court of Canada – Law and Religion Australia.

See also:

So Trinity Western University Blinked After All – Stephen McAlpine.

Euthanasia Bill Defeated in the Senate

“The push to allow territories the right to legalise euthanasia has foundered in the Senate, with a majority of the chamber voting against the proposal before it reached the committee stage.

The proposal appeared doomed when senators Brian Burston and Peter Georgiou reversed their position on the legislation, switching from yes votes to no votes. …”

– Story from The Guardian.

See also: Euthanasia Defeat In Senate Calls For Congratulations – Australian Christian Lobby:

“We know from international experiences that euthanasia is a slippery slope which leads to cases like in Belgium recently where a nine-year-old with a brain tumour and an eleven-year-old with cystic fibrosis were euthanaised.

“The inherent value of every life must continue to be maintained.  Australia must not become the kind of society where some lives where considered worthier of life than others.” – Martyn Iles.

(Image: St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)

#Metoo for unborn girls?

“Today at Church we celebrated the birth of a little girl. The parents gave thanks to God for her, and we as a congregation prayed for them. It was a joyous occasion, because life is so precious and wonderful, and every new life is beautiful.

As I was preparing for the infant dedication service earlier this morning, I came across this upsetting article in today’s The Age …”

– Murray Campbell in Melbourne asks, “Is there a correlation between a society that leaves Christianity behind, and a society that dehumanises others?”

Being salty in a secular world: An interview with Os Guinness

When Os Guinness was in Sydney recently, Steve Tong spoke with him for The Australian Church Record.

Os spoke about the need to connect evangelism and apologetics, and the responsibility of Christians to engage with our world by holding out the light of the gospel.

Read it at The Australian Church Record.

Recorded: Canadian hospital staff urging patient to die

“A Canadian man suffering from an incurable disease claims that despite asking for home care, the medical team at an Ontario hospital would offer him only medically assisted suicide…”

– A disturbing story from The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

Edinburgh church votes to split from the Scottish Episcopal Church

“One of the largest churches in Edinburgh has voted to split from the Scottish Episcopal Church amid tensions over its decision to become the first Anglican body in the UK to endorse gay marriage. …

The Rev David McCarthy, Rector at St Thomas’ told The Sunday Telegraph the decision had been a “very painful” one. …

‘… it is the Episcopal Church who are leaving us. They are leaving orthodoxy.’…”

– Report from The Sunday Telegraph.

(Photo of David McCarthy via GAFCON.)

See also: St. Thomas’, Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

Book review: That Hideous Strength; How the West was lost — by Melvin Tinker

“This highly readable book examines the spreading cancer of cultural Marxism in the Western world through the lens of two stories.

One is CS Lewis’s 1945 science fiction novel, That Hideous Strength, about a bunch of godless technocrats in the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E) whose goal is the ‘scientific reconstruction of the human race in the direction of increased efficiency’.

The other is the biblical account of the building of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. …”

At Anglican Mainstream, Julian Mann takes a look at That Hideous Strength: How the West was Lost.

It’s published by Evangelical Press.

Torn Between Two Cultures? Revoice, LGBT Identity, and Biblical Christianity

“The chaos and confusion which are the inevitable products of the Sexual Revolution continue to expand and the challenges constantly proliferate.

The LGBTQ+ revolution has long been the leading edge of the expanding chaos, and by now the genuinely revolutionary nature of the movement is fully apparent. The normalisation of the behaviours and relationships and identities included (for now) in the LGBTQ+ spectrum will require nothing less than turning the world upside down. …”

– Albert Mohler looks at how the recent ‘Revoice’ conference in the US adds confusion and an attempted rewriting of the meta-narrative of Scripture. Worth taking the time to read.

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