If you are going to embrace sin, do it all the way!

Here is a shocking bit of news. The Episcopal Church-USA has elected another homosexual as a "bishop" (well, an "assistant bishop" whatever that is). Open and unapologetic lesbian Mary Glasspool was elected by a sizable number of delegates in Los Angeles.

This was the most telling part:

"One of the reasons she is so the right person for this is that she knows who she is and she knows she belongs to God and she knows everything else falls in place when you keep that central," ("Bishop" V. Gene Robinson) Robinson said in a phone interview. "She's no stranger to people who think she shouldn't be a priest because she's a woman, or think she shouldn't be a priest because she's a lesbian."

Well that makes so much more sense than what Paul wrote about what someone the "right person":

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. (1Ti 3:1-7)

I mean who wants someone like that when you can have someone like Mary Glasspoool, someone who is so "self-aware". The whole point of the Gospel is for you to feel good about yourself, embrace your sin and find yourself. Kudos to the Episcopal Church for another courageous stand against that great enemy of Christianity: the Bible.

Episcopal church votes to correct God

Episcopal church to affirm gay clergy

NEW YORK – The Episcopal Church moved Monday toward affirming their acceptance of gays and lesbians for all roles in ministry, despite pressure from fellow Anglicans worldwide for a decisive moratorium on consecrating another openly gay bishop.

Bishops at the Episcopal General Convention in Anaheim, Calif., voted 99-45 with two abstentions for a statement declaring "God has called and may call" to ministry gays in committed lifelong relationships.

Lay and priest delegates to the meeting had comfortably approved a nearly identical statement, and were expected to adopt the latest version before the meeting ends Friday.

Only 45 "bishops" voted against calling people in open rebellion and sin into ministry? What more can you say about this?

Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:32)

Missing the point

The "bishop" of the Episcopal Church has warned the Church of England to not encourage more churches to leave the Episcopal church for the newly formed Anglican Church in North America by formally recognizing these churches. She went on to say:

She urged Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to remember the "pain of many Episcopalians in several places of being shut out of their traditional worship spaces, and the broken relationships, the damaged relationships between people who have gone and people who have stayed."

"Recognition of something like ACNA is unfortunately likely only to encourage" further secessions, she said, reminding the Church of England that "schism is not a Christian act."

Here is the problems with those statements, especially the last one. Schism may not be a "Christian act" but these churches haven't left the faith, the Episcopal church has. If anything these churches are rejoining the church, not causing schism. The true break came when the ECUSA started rejecting the explicit command of Scripture and ordaining women which leads inexorably toward ordaining open homosexuals as "bishops". If you are going to start willfully ignoring Scripture, it can only end in one place, complete and utter heresy which is where the ECUSA finds itself.

While another denomination rushes headlong to embrace heresy...

For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. (Titus 1:7-9 KJV)

These words clearly no longer hold any meaning within the Episcopal church and haven't for a long time. That was pretty evident in the ordination of women, in the permitting of homosexuals to serve openly, in the ordaining of a "bishop" in New Hampshire who divorced his wife to live in a filthy relationship with another man. Now yet another example of what happens when we stop "Holding fast the faithful word". I heard about this on the Albert Mohler show and it piqued my interest having lived for a while in Northern Michigan...

Bishop-elect worries some Episcopalians

As priest, he altered prayer book, says evil exists but Satan doesn’t

LITTLE ROCK — The Rev. Kevin G. Thew Forrester denies that Satan exists. He doesn’t believe God sent his only-begotten son to die for the sins of the world. He says that the Koran is sacred, he has taken a Buddhist middle name and he teaches that many paths lead to the divine.

As an Episcopal priest, Thew Forrester altered the denomination’s prayer book, including its baptismal vows and the words of the Apostles’ Creed. Now he’s been elected to become a bishop - a successor to the Apostles - by the Diocese of Northern Michigan.

If a majority of the Episcopal Church’s bishops and dioceses give their consent, Thew Forrester would inherit a seat in the House of Bishops, a ceremonial shepherd’s staff and an awesome task - to “guard the faith, unity and discipline of the Church.”

When you read the whole thing, it really is striking that a man who in almost any other time in the history of Christianity would be rightly called a heretic is potentially going to be ordained by what used to be a Christian church as a bishop. Granted, on any given Sunday less than 700 people show up in Episcopal churches in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan in the "Diocese of Northern Michigan" But the fact reminas that the very idea of someone who clearly needs to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached to him is instead being called upon to guard that Gospel is heartbreaking.

It does sound like he may not be confirmed or whatever they call it by the other bishops, but the fact that his confirmation is even in question shows how far the Episcopal Church has strayed.

More on “Bishop” Robinson and the Coronation

This whole fiasco just keeps getting better and better. There is an article in the New York Times that deals with Obama’s choice of Mr. Robinson to give the invocation at some sort of gala event at the Lincoln Memorial.

The event Bishop Robinson will participate in is on the first day of formal inaugural festivities in Washington. It will feature a lineup that includes the musicians Beyoncé, Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder.

The pay cable network HBO will broadcast the event and provide a free signal so that nonsubscribers can also watch, said Linda Douglass, the chief spokeswoman for the inaugural committee.

Wow, Beyonce, Bono and “Bishop” Gene Robinson! How can I face my grandchildren some day and tell them I missed this event? It is even going to be free on HBO!

Bishop Robinson said he had been reading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”

“I am very clear,” he said, “that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”

Bishop Robinson said he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings,” language that he said he learned from the 12-step program he attended for his alcohol addiction.

Bishop Robinson said that his partner of more than 20 years, Mark Andrew, would accept the Obama team’s invitation to join him in attending several inaugural events. The two had a civil union ceremony last summer in a New Hampshire church.

Oh dear, what could be more horrifying than a Christian minister giving a prayer that is “specifically and aggressively Christian”. Oh the humanity! I can only guess what President Lincoln would think of a homosexual “minister” giving a vague, ecumenical prayer at a memorial dedicated to his memory. I assume that he would reject the attempt to link the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement with the radical homosexual agenda for normalization of deviancy.

I guess he can call himself whatever wants, and dress up in fancy, colorful outfits and such. His use of the title “Bishop” is no more meaningful than Joseph Ratzinger declaring himself the Vicar of Christ, or vicarious representative for Christ on earth, or an 18 year old mormon missionary carrying the title of “elder”.

What I have wondered in the past is what would motivate someone who clearly doesn’t believe in even the basics of Christianity to go into a professional ministry? I think what it really stems from is both a desire to cover his own unrepentant sin by cloaking himself in religious trappings and also a desire for attention. The NY Times article says that there is no correlation between the kerfuffle among the homosexual lobby over Rick Warren’s selection to give the invocation and Mr. Robinson being invited to give the post-inaugural prayer at the Lincoln Memorial. Riiiiggghhtt. Mr. Robinson got to play the aggrieved victim card when Warren was chosen and look concerned and wounded on TV. Now he gets to play the pious peacemaker and sophisticate for the media. I think he is the kind of person who might douse himself in gasoline and set himself on fire to get attention.

(Dr. Mohler also addresses the NYT article)

This stuff makes my eye twitch

So after the brouhaha over inviting Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, Obama is reverting back to liberal pandering form:

CONCORD, N.H. – The first openly gay Episcopal bishop will offer a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural event for President-elect Barack Obama.

The selection of New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson for Sunday's event follows weeks of criticism from gay-rights groups over Obama's decision to have the Rev. Rick Warren give the invocation at his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Can I get a show of hands from those who didn't see something like that coming. You don't dare cross the militant homosexual lobby, so Obama was forced to kiss the ring of the poster boy for the radical sexual deviant lobby. This quote from Gene Robinson is precious:

Robinson, 61, said both Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will attend the event, and Obama is expected to speak. As for himself, Robinson said he doesn't yet know what he'll say, but he knows he won't use a Bible.

"While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans," Robinson said. "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation."

Mr. Robinson can hardly be “especially Christian” in this prayer or anything else since he clearly has no idea what it means to be a Christian and in flaunting his unrepentant sin he has placed himself outside of the faith and has been a driving force for schism in his denomination, a separation that was long overdue. One can assume that Mr. Robinson rarely appeals to the Bible for much of anything for fear of the condemnation of his sin he finds in its pages. He may find the Bible “holy and sacred” but certainly not in any way binding or convicting of his sins.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason w God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 9: 18-27)

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
(1 Corinthians 5:6 ESV)

Heresy rarely starts out openly. It almost always is a subtle thing, a whisper here, a sly question there. Just like the serpent in the Garden, lies sneak in where you are most vulnerable. "Did God really say that?" A perfect example of this is found in the story of a local Episcopalian church in Detroit that broke away from the Episcopal Church USA because the false teachings finally became intolerable.

For years, worshippers at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Livonia patiently put up with their diocese as it adopted a series of liberal changes that clashed with biblical tradition. But the breaking point came in 2003, when the Episcopal Church -- with the approval of the local diocese -- consecrated an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.

And there is the problem. They patiently let things go from bad to worse, and only when the heresy was right in their face with the ordination of an open, unrepentant homosexual did they finally act. They should have stood up a long time ago, and if churches like St. Andrews had done so, maybe they could have turned the tide away from heresy and back to it's Biblical roots.

It is not a Christian virtue to be tolerant of heresy in our midst. As their denomination began to reject the Bible as God's complete and inerrant truth, they started to let standard slide including the ordination of women as pastors and the perverting of the Gospel from a Gospel of salvation to a political action arm for social justice. Step by step, little by little they lost their way until one day they looked around and realized that they no longer represented Christ, but just the opposite. This quote from the pastor really strikes home: "We didn't break away from the church so much as they broke away from what the Bible teaches," said the Rev. C. Allen Kannapell, 39, who heads the breakaway church in Livonia.

Too bad they came to that realization too late, but this should be a warning to others to be every diligent of their doctrine and their practice.

Gay "Bishop" called to repentance

Open homosexual "bishop" Gene Robinson had a church service interrupted by a young man who repeatedly called upon him to repent, until he was forcible removed.

The headline says that he was "heckled" but this was not heckling. There was no mockery, just a genuine call from a Christian to Biblical repentance. This was not a shameful act unworthy of a Christian. This young man was doing what the apostles and what countless missionaries and evangelists through history have done. What is un-Christian and shameful is the behavior of those sitting through this service and helping to officiate it. They, by their presence and inaction, are condoning the actions of this heretic. The young man called on "Bishop" Robinson to repent, but he would have been just as right to call on the entire crowd to do so.

(HT: James Lee)