CHURCH DECAY: Leave the ruins to the Muslims!

CHURCH DECAY: Leave the ruins to the Muslims!

LORD TEBBIT: If the head of our church can't uphold the standards that shaped us, what hope is there? | Daily Mail Online

A British Lord takes issue with the Church of England's main man, who happens to be Anglicanism's main man as well. He says,

Who am I to criticise the Archbishop of Canterbury on the matters of theology, doctrine or what the scriptures mean? [...]

I am, however, a 'fellow traveller' and it is fellow travellers, whether of political parties or churches, whose opinions should be listened to most carefully by the powers that be. If the politicians or bishops offer confident, reasonable leadership, we follow them. If they look lost, confused and out of touch, we leave in droves.

And oh how they have been leaving. The issue of ordaining non-celibate gay & lesbian priests has fractured the Worldwide Communion of the Anglican body ...

There is, of course, nothing new about homosexuality or homosexual priests and I suspect that most people these days will say 'so what?'

But the Church of England still has a role to play in upholding the standards and beliefs which have shaped the society in which we live. And for the leader of that institution to appear confused by his moral standpoint is surely disastrous.

I'll not waste your time with theological nit-picking here, but our "fellow traveler" does go on to make several excellent points.

I fear that the leaking of Dr Williams' letters [revealing a bifurcated theology on the issue], even if they are from eight years ago, will give more comfort to those who see the church as a leftover from the past than to those who would like to see it stand up boldly for the values on which it was built. For a while, the traditionalists will rally ... but the fellow travellers will drift away leaderless, with neither a church nor a political party prepared to champion their views and beliefs.

And we see it in the visible church everywhere; the Emergents and the Seekers being two not so wonderful examples.

So who is left? Watch out for the challenge from the mosques. An Islam with a modern face will soon begin to present itself as the natural home for those who long for moral certainty and a new sense of discipline within society. [...]

The task for the imams will be to exploit the fatal weakness of the multicultural society and replace a Christian church that has lost its sense of history and direction with a Mosque that has a strong, ingrained sense of both.

Once again I am led to prophetic implications ... what about you?

Anglicanism, Christianity,
Homosexuality, Islam, Religion