Intolerant Female Episcopal Bishop Forces Conservative Priest Out of Birmingham's Advent Cathedral

 

From The Pastor's Heart comes the news that the Rev. Andrew Pearson has left Birmingham Alabama's Advent Cathedral (also known as "The Advent") after years of putting up the good fight and standing firm for the Gospel. In his interview he details his reasons, and speaks of his future plans. I recall that he used to be in The Diocese of South Carolina under Mark Lawrence. It is amazing that he lasted this long in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama. The fact that he was told by two of its bishops that he had to change or leave reminds us that there is no room for the faithful in the Episcopal organization. In the video below, I suggest you scroll to the  7:30 mark. 

Part of the write up from The Pastor's Heart,

The resignation of Rev Andrew Pearson as rector of the 11-hundred strong Advent Cathedral in Birmingham, Alabama has come as a shock. 

The conventional wisdom had been that Advent could ride the storms of liberalism surrounding it, despite many other evangelicals being gradually forced out of America’s Episcopal Church over the last decade.

However, the Cathedral’s vestry has recently capitulated to the demands of the new Alabama Episcopal bishop. 

Andrew says an ultimatum was put to him by two successive bishops, ‘change or leave the denomination.’  

I am afraid that another little stone bridge has bitten the dust. Long ago, friend Sarah Hey suggested we fight for our little stone bridges and not abandon the Episcopal organization. My bridge got washed away from under me. The Rev. Pearson's was taken by the Bishop. Pray for those faithful remaining at The Advent as they have to decide whether to "change or leave". After this fiasco, the decision should be a no brainer.

 

Miracles: Hard to believe?

Last week we bemoaned the fact that the Revised Common Lectionary cut the miracle of the loaves and fishes from Mark 6. This week in John 6:1-21, they make up for it with that miracle plus Jesus walking on the water.

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.  A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.

So, last week we had Jesus the itinerant teacher, and this week we get Jesus the worker of miracles. What are pewsitters to think? Some may prefer the former Jesus over the latter Jesus because modern minds are programmed to deny miracles such as these. To deny them would be a mistake because that leads one down the path of the Ebionites or worse, and that would be to deny an almighty God himself.

As C. S. Lewis put it,

"But if we admit God, must we admit Miracle? Indeed, indeed, you have no security against it. That is the bargain. Theology says to you in effect, 'Admit God and with Him the risk of a few miracles, and I in return will ratify your faith in uniformity as regards the overwhelming majority of events."

Miracles are more than a side show in Christianity, the whole bloody thing is a miracle,

As hard as it is to believe, we still believe in miracles.

 

"Transanity"

Many of us predicted that sooner or later a naked man would walk through a locker room belonging to the opposite sex and claim that he was actually a woman, and he would get away with it. Leave to California to expose this weakness in the trans movement.

From the Christian Post, 

A man commits full frontal indecent exposure in the presence of women and girls, and the LA Times chides the women for being upset while defending the man, since, after all, he’s actually a woman.

“I went to the Wi spa in Los Angeles, California, and while I decided to go around the different jacuzzis, I decided to take a nap. After my nap, I got up and I wanted to get water. As I was walking, I noticed something that really was disturbing, something that caused me to feel that I must have been transported into the men’s locker room, the men’s Jacuzzi area.

“Yeah. A man, a full-on man, fully naked, completely exposed, showing his testicles, his penis. Slightly erected.

“I was appalled at what I saw. This was not normal…Little girls are there, their mothers are there, other women are looking about, and they begin to put their robes back on them. I went to management. Management did nothing. I even told the guy he should leave, ‘This is not right,’ and he didn’t leave. We had no help whatsoever. I did not know what to do.

“On June 23, I experienced what no woman or little girl should ever experience. I experienced what used to be called flashing or indecent exposure, which would result in a man registering to be a sexual offender for life.”

As explained in the upside-down editorial in the LA Times, “As complicated as the opposing beliefs might be, it is clear where the rights in this matter land. Everyone—transgender customers, members of every faith and women who are upset by the sight of penises—all have the right to use the spa and other public accommodations.”

Indeed, the Times’ editors opined with some of the most convoluted thinking imaginable: “No one has an absolute right to feel comfortable all the time. People have a right to use the spa, but that doesn’t include with it a guarantee that they all will feel at ease with everything they see. They might prefer a spa where a certain amount of body covering is required.”

Yes, the Times editors tell us, “Young people are far more comfortable with the idea of shared spaces for people of all gender identities and sexes.”

Yet the self-righteousness and moral perversion of the Times knows no bounds. To quote the closing words of the editorial, “In the meantime, customers of public-serving businesses should be prepared to share space with the public, in all our forms, varieties and customs. Antidiscrimination laws stand for the principle that all are welcome, whether we are comfortable or not."

Back in 2016, during a debate over transgender access to school bathrooms and locker rooms, the Charlotte Observer infamously opined that, “Girls must try ‘overcoming discomfort’ of seeing ‘male genitalia’ in bathrooms.”

I commented in response, “Transanity indeed.”

There is nothing any business, school, or church that has changing rooms, locker rooms, or restrooms can do when something like this happens because the law is on the side of the person who claims to be something they are not. 

It is a form of collective insanity, or "Transanity" as the author wrote.

Cut That Out!

This Sunday's reading from the Revised Common Lectionary used in most Episcopal parishes is Mark 6:30-34,53-56. As you can see there is a substantial omission. The story of the feeding of the five thousand gets cut. 

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

Snip, snip, and continue, 

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

I guess the miracle of the loaves and fishes has been told too many times before. 

So, let them go hungry this Sunday.

What would St. Mark say? 

Abortion Activists Mount Banner on Giant Jesus Statue

From Instagram/Indecline 

Pro-life has its activists, and abortionists have their activists. Since most pro-lifers are probably church goers, it is logical to assume that pro-abortion groups would attack Christian churches and symbols. Such a thing happened recently in Arkansas.

This came from the Christian Post, 

A political activist art group hung a 45-foot banner reading “God Bless Abortions” on the 65-foot tall Christ of the Ozarks statue that “stands as a symbol of hope” in northwest Arkansas on Thursday night.

Members of the activist art collective called Indecline disguised themselves as construction workers to sneak onto the property and used pulleys and climbing gear to hang the banner on the Christ of the Ozarks statue in Eureka Springs that was erected in 1966. 

A statement from the activist group said they treated the statue like a billboard since it is visible from miles away. Indecline called abortion a “miracle worth celebrating,” saying it “saves lives.”

“In Arkansas, there is only one 65-foot statue of Jesus. There is also only one abortion clinic,” the activist group wrote on Instagram on Friday. “No professional sports teams. Just a bunch of angry men with no outlets, writing outrageous laws about vaginas. That, and the second highest rate (by state) of infant mortality. It’s hard to see how ‘pro-life’ can be so myopic in its vision of what life is.”

Kent Butler, director of operations at The Great Passion Play, the Christian organization that manages the Christ of the Ozarks statue, told The Christian Post that he hopes the political message Indecline tried to portray will instead turn people's attention to Jesus. 

“It was all about [Indecline] getting attention to expand their platform, but our pivot really is that it’s about Jesus,” Butler told CP on Saturday. “This whole place exists to lift up Jesus. And at times what was intended for evil, in Genesis 50, it says ‘what was intended for evil God used for good.

I can only pray that "Indecline" does just that... decline.

 

Absolute Power in Human Hands Never Works Out Well

 In this Sunday's reading from Mark 6:14-29, we hear the story of the execution of John the Baptist,

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer.’ Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’ The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

This story always horrifies me. It illustrates man's (and women's) inhumanity to man so vividly. It also helps us to understand the society in which Jesus walked. talked, taught, healed, and died. 

In much of our world today, rulers are just as cruel as Herod. Some are even worse. The power over life and death, when put in the hands of any one person, corrupts just as the adage says. 

Lord Jesus protect us from such cruelty.   

 

Bye, Bye Boy Scouts

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) are in trouble. Membership is sinking like a stone, and the causes should be obvious to everyone except the brass at the BSA itself. 

From the Christian Post comes the numbers, 

"Eight years after lifting a ban on homosexual youth when it boasted more than 2.7 million members, the Boy Scouts of America now has just 762,000 members as it continues to grapple with some 82,000 sexual abuse claims from former Scouts, court records show."

"In just one year alone, from 2019 to 2020 amid the pandemic, the BSA’s flagship Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA programs lost 850,000 members dropping from 1.97 million to 1.12 million over the period. Since then, membership in those programs have fallen a further 358,000 to the current 762,000 according to figures recently reviewed by The Associated Press."

I must admit that I never made it past Cub Scouts. Back in the mid 1960's if we wore our uniforms to school we were called "gay". That was before the LGBT revolution! Kids knew (we also knew about the Catholic priests). My first encounter with a Boy Scout was with one who came to mentor us, and he set off my "gaydar". Later, I did become an Assistant Scoutmaster for a few years to watch over my kid, and we had some good, safe times with the scouts. By then the BSA had instituted the "Two Deep Policy" in order to keep boys from being in abusive situations.

Another report from the Christian Post tells how much BSA is shelling out for their past abuses, 

The Boy Scouts of America has reached a historic settlement agreement with some 60,000 sexual abuse victims that legal experts believe is likely to exceed $1 billion in compensation, a restructuring support agreement filed Thursday in a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware shows.

I think the number wound up being $850,000,000.

These reports do not mention the lifting of the ban on homosexual men serving as Scoutmasters, nor do they mention the acceptance of girls and transsexuals as Scouts.

Fortunately, faith based groups are picking up some of the slack. 

So, I shall wave a not so fond farewell to the Boy Scouts of America.  

Bye, Bye!

What's Worse Than a Double Negative?

In this Sunday's reading from Mark 6:1-13, Jesus is presented with the unbelief of his home town.

He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honor, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

The words, "...not without honor except..." remind me of those tricky multiple choice questions that read something like this, "All the following are not false except..." or some such nonsense. I call them "triple negatives". While I hate double negatives, triple negatives are even worse. They slow you down and make you reason out the meaning of a speaker, a sentence, or a question. As long as it is in the Bible, I guess I shouldn't mind being made to slow down and think, but when a string of negatives shows up on an examination, I hate it,

And there are not too many things I hate. I dislike a lot of things. Take when people won't listen for instance. Jesus teaches how to deal with that when it comes to the Gospel,

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

I used to think that people would listen to reason, but found that only some do. What should we do for those who because of their refusal make us shake the dust off our feet? 

I pray that some day their eyes, ears, and hearts are opened.