Pretty much everything Fr. “AKMA” says goes for me too. I was going to write up my own response, but his is much more eloquent than mine.
“I’d have thought it went without saying, but since ‘speaking out about the alleged Episcopal priest-Muslim combo’ has become a litmus test in some quarters, I will say that I dissent emphatically from the Rev. Ms. Redding’s understanding of Christian faith and priesthood, and from her bishop’s sense that her situation entails an ‘exciting opportunity.’ Indeed, I take it that only by falsifying that which has historically constituted both of these ways of life can one arrive at both/and approach.”
There is a quote from the article where the priest in question talks about how much easier she found it to come close to God when Jesus was taken out of the equation. (Or something like that.) That to me points out the real core problem.
Read the rest here: I Don’t Think So
(Via AKMA’s Random Thoughts.)
Dear Nick, Thanks for looking into this controversy. I have asked this question in several discussions of this article but received no answers. If one abandons 3000 years of judeo-christian thought which states that homosexuality is a sin, and one reads scripture with the “context analysis” scissors, allowing one to cut out vast swaths of the Bible dismissing it as relevant to the temporal context only, then how does prevent such an inclusive church from degenerating into islamopalianism, buddhapalianism, sufipalianism, nestorpalianism, etc.,? The fact that the priest’s bishop finds her heretical position “exciting” best argues my point. In twenty years, every heresy will raise its head in the Episcopal church and there is nothing you or I or Father AKMA can do to argue against it. This is the significance of the poor islamopalian priest, that inclusivists cannot condemn her.
Some of us “inclusivists” have actually found this all quite troubling. Just because one makes room for same-sex relationships does not mean one gives up the core doctrines of the faith expressed in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. This is a non sequitur argument.
Rob Roy:
Actually quite a few “incusionists” (or reappraisers to use Canon Harmon’s term) have found this troubling and have said so in our blogs. Tobais Haller did so quite strongly, and I did as well twice on my blog. As *Christopher states well, we are perfectly cable of drawing theological lines–we just happen not to agree with you on the issue of same sex relationships. But we agree with you on the importance of Christ.
Read J-Tron’s excellent post about this: http://www.j-tron.org/propaganda/?p=296.
Chaos theory in mathematics depends on processes that have forces that accentuate differences rather than forces that refocus. (OK, I am a nerd.)
It is like a skier gaining speed downhill and coming to a major fork. Once you decide to the right or left, there is no chance of returning except slogging back up the hill, each path goes to one side of a mountain. The problem with choosing the left path is that one abandons focusing forces (the Scripture and tradition) and still more divergence occurs, e.g., islamopalianisim, gnosticism, arianism, etc. There are choices on the right as well (incense, WO or not, etc.) but the focusing forces assures that everyone ends up at the same ski lodge at the bottom, drinking a toddy in the hot tub, rather than in some crevice on the back of the mountain, alone and dying of exposure.
How’s that Nick? Dynamical systems based theology!
bls, *Christopher, and Chuck, as the conservatives exit stage right, those who struggled to remain in the via media (a parody of the original intent) will find themselves aligned with islamopalians, etc., inside an organization completely unable to self-discipline. Appeals to the Nicene creed is going to save the church from heresy? Jack Spong has been spitting on that document for years. I suppose and hope that you object to the “Jesus is A way, not THE way.” That’s coming straight from the top.
I am not talking about same-sex relationships. I am talking about abandoning 3000 years of tradition in a single generation. I am talking about playing fast and loose with scripture, shopping cart exegesis.
Whatever you say, robmdphd. I for one will be delighted when the extremists exit stage right.