"We Don't Care Who's on Top"

Or so the billboard said a couple of months ago.

"An Auckland church has erected a billboard in support of a bill to legalise same-sex marriages.

The billboard, outside St Matthew-in-the-City, shows two model brides kissing atop a wedding cake, with the text 'We don't care who's on top'.

It comes as Labour MP Louisa Wall's bill on marriage equality is expected to pass its first reading in Parliament later today." (read it all at the NZHerald)

St Matthew-in-the-City is the infamous "church" in N.Z. that put up some outrageous Christmas billboards a couple of times in the past. Archdeacon Glynn Cardy was the instigator then, and I guess he is still at it (judging by the title of one of his recent sermons "Jesus Did NOT Die for Our Sins").

Folks, this is the picture of the progressive church that you have all been clamoring for.

A church where you can have your cake and... er....um... eat it two.

Way, Way East of Eden

From Edith Tucker at the Berlin (NH) Reporter:

h/t Greg Griffith at StandFirm in Faith

"BERLIN — An historic first took place on Saturday, Jan. 2, in the 'City that Trees Built.'

Elizabeth 'Betsy' Hess and the Rev. Eleanor 'Ellie' McLaughlin, both of Randolph, were wed in a civil ceremony near the entrance to St. Barnabas Episcopal Church on High Street.

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the ninth Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire, blessed their rings and their Christian marriage at the altar. The blessing ceremony followed the civil marriage ceremony, which was jointly performed by Randolph Town Clerk Anne Kenison and Justice of the Peace Anne Jackson of Lancaster."

Don't worry, this was just a "generous pastoral response (GC2009 CO56)" by a simple country bishop.

"Ms. Hess, who holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Montana at Missoula, maintains a private practice in Berlin, and the Rev. McLaughlin, who earned a Ph.D. in medieval history at Harvard University, is the retired rector of St. Barnabas and a parishioner at St. Paul's, Lancaster.

They described his role as an 'unspeakable honor — a thrill.'"

And that is after they listened to his dimwitted sermon.

"Bishop Robinson said he understands that having both a gay bishop and a gay priest means that some in Berlin call St. Barnabas the gay church.

'Yes, we're gay,' he said. 'We welcome people of color, people in wheelchairs, the mentally disabled — all of God's children.' Elaborating on its inclusivity, he also noted that the Rev. Fran Gardner, the rector who succeeded the Rev. McLaughlin, is also gay.

He reminded everyone of Christ's eighth beatitude: 'Blessed are they who are persecuted.'"

Drop the persecution thing already, you've won! Go ahead and say what you really think about marriage, and give us some solid Biblical exegesis while you are at it.

"In his homily, Bishop Robinson explained that when God created 'the human thing' in the Garden of Eden, which He called 'A-dam' — (which the bishop pronounced with a long 'A' and 'dame') — He wanted to make him happy, so He provided him with a helper, a partner, a soul mate.'

'It was not right that A-dam should be alone,' Bishop Robinson said, noting that this is nothing new."

Oh, I get it. Bishop Robinson is saying that God created a dame for a dame in Eden. Stop the presses! Did it really say that in Genesis? Doesn't the passage read,

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman,'
for she was taken out of man."
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh

Genesis 2:18-24

I think Bishop Robinson is putting a little 'Broad'way (excuse me) into his Bible with that "A-Dame" wisecrack.



I had never heard of anyone making the leap from Adam to "A Dame." To do so in order to alter God's natural order as established in Genesis goes beyond revisionism and into creating a new religion.

One could argue that Bishop Robinson is merely hijacking a pre-existing sinking denomination to advance a personal obsession, but statements such as this show that he is not satisfied with the Bible and is working on a new one. "Unspeakable" indeed. Oh, there was more including this,

"'Marriage is also crazy,' he said. 'It's hard to live up to when the institution of marriage is in such trouble,' Bishop Robinson said."

Particularly when one's own choices create more trouble. Someone ought to tell the Bishop to stop knocking an institution when it is down.

Is it any wonder that Sunday attendance in the Diocese of New Hampshire has dropped by almost 20% in the past decade?

As bad as the Bishop's homily was, the town clerk reminds us that the focus is on the new secular worldview:

"Randolph Town Clerk Kenison read an historical account, written by the Rev. McLaughlin that is informed by the work of the 'boundary-breaking interdisciplinary work' of Professor Nancy Cott of Harvard University, on the changes that have taken place from the days when the State and the Established Church were one. 'In colonial society, the State established and defined both moral and economic boundaries of the marriage contract, by which the husband was provider and unitary authority and the woman, mother and wife, was the dependent and obedient subject in law to her husband.' These gendered and hierarchical arrangements of the human family have ceased to be normative. Civil Marriage has been 'disestablished'…. The Marriage here solemnized is grounded upon current values and interests determined and enforced by the State, supported and respected by Civil society."

Excuse me Ms. Kenison, but did you just say that the State created bad standards of marriage in the past, but the current the State's values are okay? Do you trust the current State as our moral agent when earlier States got it wrong?

Arrghh...

Simon Says "Remember the Little Woman"

In today's lectionary readings from Luke 4:38-44 we read about the
healings at Simon’s house:

"After leaving the synagogue he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them."

The untold story of Simon Peter's wife is left to our imagination, although there is at least one legend written by Clement of Alexandria. This is hinted at in the Catholic Encyclopedia

"Simon settled in Capharnaum, where he was living with his mother-in-law in his own house (Matthew 8:14; Luke 4:38) at the beginning of Christ's public ministry (about A.D. 26-28). Simon was thus married, and, according to Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, III, vi, ed. Dindorf, II, 276), had children. The same writer relates the tradition that Peter's wife suffered martyrdom (ibid., VII, xi ed. cit., III, 306). Concerning these facts, adopted by Eusebius (Church History III.31) from Clement, the ancient Christian literature which has come down to us is silent. Simon pursued in Capharnaum the profitable occupation of fisherman in Lake Genesareth, possessing his own boat (Luke 5:3).

Concerning the manner of Peter's death, we possess a tradition — attested to by Tertullian at the end of the second century (see above) and by Origen (in Eusebius, Church History II.1)—that he suffered crucifixion. Origen says: 'Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downwards, as he himself had desired to suffer'."

I have not been able to find in Clement's Stromata the legend of Peter's wife's martyrdom although the Catholic Encyclopedia references it. This may be because I speed read through the Stromata and I may have missed it, but here is what was posted at Bible Path

"Concerning the last hours of his life, it is said that when Peter saw his own wife led out to die, he rejoiced because of her summons and her return home, and called to her very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name, and saying, 'O thou, remember the Lord.'"

We can only imagine her life with the Apostle, and I will not speculate as to any possibilities of what that life was like, but as with many of the untold stories of the Bible, she should be remembered as a real person.

"For all who have died in the communion of your Church, and those whose faith is known to you alone, that, with all the saints, they may rest in that place where there is no pain or grief, but life eternal, we pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, hear our prayer."

Litany for Ordinations p 550 BCP

The Breakdown of the Family Analogy

Earlier, I pondered the deletion of the masculine from traditional Christmas carols, then I read about the proportion of "fatherless" children in our nation (possibly around 31% according to census reports), and more recently the story of in-vitro fertilization taken to the extreme in the case of the unmarried woman with first six and now 14 children. I no longer wonder about the diminution of "God the Father." After all, what is a "Father" these days? If the analogy of God the Father were to be described as a father in the modern sense, then 31% of the time He would, at the worst, be a distant, irresponsible creator, fertilizing willy-nilly, a creator whose lustful self-centered-ness would present us with a very difficult God to argue in favor of in the face of rising secularism.

I, being a dinosaur, understand "God the Father." The Bible is fairly clear on this topic. Do not forget that the term "Abba" is the form used by Jesus and also by Paul in
Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15, and Galatians 4:6.

In Mark 14:36,

"And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt."

In Galatians 4:6,

"And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

And in Romans 8:15,

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."

But today, in American culture, the presence of fatherhood is diminishing. To whom will the children of God cry, and how did we get here?

Mary Daly's 1971 "After The Death of God the Father" did not foresee the death of the two parent household as an unintended consequence of the liberation of women, the sexual revolution, and the Great Society, but she did predict the downfall of the Holy Trinity when she wrote,

"An effect of the liberation of women will very likely be the loss of plausibility of Christological formulas which come close to reflecting a kind of idolatry in regard to the person of Jesus. As it becomes better understood that God is transcendent and unobjectifiable-or else not at all it will become less plausible to speak of Jesus as the Second Person of the Trinity who 'assumed" a human nature. Indeed, the prevalent emphasis upon the total uniqueness and supereminence of Jesus will, I think, become less meaningful. To say this is not at all to deny his extraordinary character and mission."

(Arianism Alert: Arianism: "A heresy which arose in the fourth century, and denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ." (Catholic Encyclopedia).)

I can't forget that one of the goals of radical feminism was to eliminate the "patriarchal" references in Christology. It is clear that what they consider patristic includes the Holy Trinity. Would such a theology be workable? Would it be Christian? Has Mary Daly's anti-Trinitarian new age Arianism appeared in a pulpit near you?


So who has been critical of the recent multiple birth single mom? The MSM for one. I watched the mother's interview dissected by a female Psychiatrist on the Today show the other day. The conclusion was that there was some serious pathology evidenced in the mother's interview. I am sure that the Psychiatrist would come to the same conclusion about me if she were to read this blog.

Earlier this week the mother said that there is but one sperm donor for all 14 children, and that he indicated that he would help in some way. What a guy, and what a great father figure.

Recently I sat in slack jawed disbelief as a man openly bragged how he was now "rid of" his 4th wife. He made this comment in front of his teenage nephew. This was not an appropriate occasion to say anything to the man, but I would have appreciated an opportunity to understand the young nephew's impression and discuss a traditional lifestyle option. I still recall my grandfather teaching me that birds and humans were the only creatures that mate for life. That was quite some time ago mind you, but that kind of grandfatherly instruction can no longer be given. In fact, there may be a shortage of grandfathers in the future due to the increase in fatherless children. To update my grandfather, humans have the potential to mate for life, and I believe this is the model that the Bible teaches us. When we fall short of our potential, we are called not to boast, but to beg forgiveness, repent, and sin no more.



Alas, Zoology lecturer Dr Raoul Mulder, of Melbourne University has reported: "Swans, it seems, like humans, fall a bit short of that idea of lifelong fidelity."

So is there still a place for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in a world where people don't believe in ghosts, have never met their fathers, and children are raised to live in the mixed up world of boyfriends, step-dads, and the soon to be blessed gender blendered confusion? Is God the Father dying or being killed?

I could not resist posting this last Mary Daly quotation from the 2007 "Feminist Hullaballoo,"

“We are in the presence of multiple, swirling presences. I sense them here. They are our foresisters. We are creating the archaic future through biophilic connectedness…

The red of nemesis is here. We can’t stop now. We have overcome.

And we do not need any penile injections to be effective!”

Willy Nilly's on the juice again!

Fight For Your Children

How a story is worded and presented by the author has a profound influence upon the reader.

This particular story hit the blog waves Jan. 28, 2009 and caused a minor flap. It was the story of two children in the U.K. being raised by their grandparents. In a remarkable example of age discrimination, and after two years legal wrangling, the children were taken from their family and put up for adoption.

So how old were these decrepit people? 59 and 46 according to the report.

Maybe there are other reasons that these grandparents were unfit.



Perhaps it was because the grandfather was a "farmhand." In that case this is class discrimination.

Maybe it was because the grandmother has "diabetes" and the grandfather has "angina." In that case it is health discrimination.



The article only mentions the age of the grandparents as the reason. They were "too old."

There must be more to the story. Did the writer present all the facts, or just selected facts to gin up our emotions?

You can imagine the outrage racing across the www.



I don't think the outrage has anything to do with the fact that the children are to be adopted by... read it here...

Marriage Revisited, and Revisited, and Revisited...

This from the Christian Science Monitor on the Nigerian man with 86 wives. He claimed God gave him the authority, and...

"'If God permits me, I will marry more than 86 wives. A normal human being could not marry 86 – but I can only by the grace of God,' a defiant Bello Masaba told The Christian Science Monitor during a recent prison interview. 'I married 86 women and there is peace in the house – if there is peace, how can this be wrong?'"

I have heard that before, the "if there is peace, how can this be wrong" bit. Sound anything like the argument we have in the US over same sex marriages?

And where does he get the money to keep such a household? Is it a sign of a miracle? Or maybe he's the guy I sent my money to in order to get my lost inheritance.

But talk about too many cooks in the kitchen! I think there may be something miraculous here in that there is peace in his house. Perhaps God's grace is at work here, but it has run afoul of Islamic law. Mr. Bello Masaba will have to divorce 82 of his wives soon or move. How unfair to have to choose which to keep and which to divorce, besides, where could he move?