Here is what it would have taken for me to stay in the Anglican Church:
1. Theology. There is no consistent Biblical theology to bind together the many disparate facets of the Anglican Communion. The creeds and the Eucharist are not enough. A confessional statement of faith backed up by a carefully considered and structured Biblical framework should be considered as essential. This isn't to say that I think we should all morph into fundamentalists or evangelicals (not the same thing by the way). However the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the sacred writ of the Christian faith. A responsible hermeneutical approach should be considered of course but it is also problematic that the very essentials of our Christian faith are so easily distorted and diluted by the Anglican Church's current infatuation with political correctness, religious pluralism and New Age beliefs. Really, Jesus is what we need. Jesus is all that we need because he is the fullness of the Godhead.
It is admirable that the church wants to be inclusive, welcoming and nonjudgmental towards other faiths and towards people without faith. It is equally laudable that the Anglican Church has striven so bravely to welcome, include and integrate not only people of all races and nations but also of all sexual and gender orientations. I also support the dialogue with other religions. Where I am troubled about these developments is that Anglicans have so bartered away their own theological foundations that there is no longer a secure theological base from which to extend these welcomes. The church runs the risk of dissolving itself entirely into an inchoate miasma devoid of theological, moral and ethical consistency.
This brings to mind how badly the last Anglican Bishop for this diocese has done, both in promoting same-sex marriage and in opening a conversation with other religions. Concerning same-sex marriage it appears to have been forgotten that there is a clearly defined Biblical framework for the appropriate expression of human sexual behaviour. While this framework was clearly written from a hetero-centric perspective it can and should be applied equally across the board: there is no room in a Christian expression of sexuality for promiscuous, pre-marital or extra-marital sexual conduct. There is no room for pornography, no room for sexually objectifying others: men, women, agender or transgender. It is clear that none of these reasonable and common-sense expectations have been properly delineated for LGBTQ Anglicans and this is so consistent with the moral flabbiness of contemporary Anglicanism.
In terms of other religions there is no reason why we should not have a dialogue and many good reasons for having one. That said, What do we think of Jesus? Are we aware that in terms of uniting or joining with other faiths that the Biblical Jesus is going to be perhaps a little bit problematic? If we are going to go the whole nine yards with the Christian faith then we are going to believe, accept and celebrate that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity and our one unique access to being fully reconciled to the Father. We are not necessarily going to dismiss other faiths as invalid but, come on you guys! we are offering something unique, irreplaceable and hugely necessary to the wellbeing of the human race. Neither should we feel shame nor reluctance about promoting the Christian faith, centred completely on Jesus. This is what he has commanded us, the Great Commission. We don't have to try to persuade Muslims, Buddhists or Jews. By the same token, should adherents to other faiths find themselves attracted to Jesus it is our moral duty as Christians to help facilitate their access to our faith. This is neither the time or place to quibble about whether or not Christianity is equal or superior in value to other religions. That is a question that God alone is able to answer and it is our part to not question his will but to accept, trust and obey.
2. Anglicans need badly to get over their self-deception about human nature. In Patricia Bays' fatuous little book, "This Anglican Church of Ours", it is claimed that human nature is basically good and that there is really no place for discussing the presence of sin, original or otherwise. Well, I hate to rain on anyone's parade but has anyone heard of the shadow? I am of course referring to the famous Jungian concept of the human shadow, that we all have a dark side, kind of a personal trash bag of stored personal evil and that this trash bag also contains a bomb; a bomb that is always in danger of going off unless we take out the bag from time to time, empty it, examine its contents, keep and refit anything salvageable and discard the rest. This is of course psychobabble for sin. Failing to accept this unsavoury reality of our fallen human nature we remain toxic and harmful to ourselves and others. The poison from our shadow will also taint our environment and others in our contact, no matter what we do to mask with our personal human goodness. Very important here that we regain perspective of the substitionary death of Christ on the cross for us for and because of our own human sinfulness, and that not through good works but our faith in our Lord's work and victory over sin do we also have victory. This makes repentance a necessity, not a self-loathing of our inherent weakness and waywardness, but facing the consequences of our behaviour and failure to act, making reparations where possible then moving on in the new direction, the newness of life in Christ. Had I felt surrounded by people in the Anglican Church with this kind of mindset I likely would never have left. As it stands, not one single Anglican in my experience save perhaps one, has ever accepted responsibility for their part in our mutual difficulties. I might add here that I have always endeavoured to accept personal responsibility, if not perfectly, but in the culture of avoidance that is something so very Anglican, this has never born much in the way of fruit. Still don't believe that human nature is basically sinful, or at least as sinful as it is virtuous? Well, thirteen million Holocaust victims can't be wrong, eh?
Even though the Anglican Church claims and attempts to be inclusive this is still in some ways make up and window dressing. Yes, the congregations are no longer purely Caucasian. Now well-off white heterosexual WASPS worship side-by-side with well-off heterosexual Asians, well-off heterosexual Africans and a smattering of well-off heterosexual gays. Okay, they're not all heterosexual. But they're almost all well off securely established members of society (or in the case of poor university students, future well off securely established members of society so of course St. Anselm's wants to endorse them). They are all Honorary Caucasians. We are still not going to run across a lot of economic diversity. There is economic diversity in some parishes but this is not a general trend in the Anglican Church. On the other hand, poor people cannot do much in the way of financially contributing to a church that is already teetering towards extinction so really why should we be made to feel welcome. Oh, but that is how I was made to feel. The depth of your pocket book is going to provide an inverse ratio to the quality of your membership.
I would say the Anglican Church's chief strength lies in the liturgy of the Eucharist. This rightfully maintains centre place to Anglican worship. How nice it will be once the essence of the Blessed Sacrament one day really begins to flow from the altar into the lives hearts souls and relationships of all who worship together. There is potential for real community to occur in the Anglican Church. We need only to be willing to give our all to the One who died for us and in turn open to one another our lives, our hearts and our homes. I am sure that stranger things have happened.
In the meantime I'm done with church. It has so impacted my mental health and emotional wellbeing that no puedo mas (Spanish for I can't go on). I expect to be spending the next three years away from church. After that who only knows? I am open to reconciliation with the Anglican Church but that is going to be a two way street and only if certain of my concerns are acknowledged, addressed, and implemented. Till then it's Bye-Bye.
No comments:
Post a Comment