Subversive Christian Unity

Today it is Thanksgiving Day in the US, a holiday I have come to view with distaste. The country no longer reflects the things the holiday is supposed to celebrate. We are not thankful; we hardly mention God unless we stub our toes. The holiday was, long ago, overtly religious: Today anything of that sort is frowned upon. It was a day to be openly humble, and humility is not a mark of our present-day culture. It is no longer anyone's priority " to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed." Now the idea is for politicians to see how much they can get away with. The ideas behind the holiday are all right, it is just that no one is behind the ideas anymore. You can read here the rationale behind the holiday when it was promulgated by George Washington. Does any of that match the hearts of Americans today?

HOUSTON: Pope Francis Names First Bishop to Lead Catholics Nurtured In The Anglican Tradition | Virtueonline – The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism : Bishop-elect Steven Lopes to be introduced at press conference today in Houston, Texas Rome sends top official to North America to lead structure equivalent to a diocese...The Ordinariate was created to provide a path for groups of Anglicans to become fully Roman Catholic, while retaining elements of their worship traditions and spiritual heritage in their union with the Holy Roman Church." Read more at the link. I am going to have to watch the ordinariate process as it unfolds, for I cannot tell the future. However, it looks likely that the churches that result, over the long term, will not be very distinctively Anglican, but more Roman-flavored, the same old spaghetti with a dash of chutney on the side. That seems to me not so much reconciliation as assimilation. Photo:  http://www.zazzle.com/i+could+be+wrong+acces

This just in, at the Subversive Unity newsroom: Francis suggests Lutherans might discern taking Catholic communion individually | National Catholic Reporter : "ROME: Pope Francis has strikingly suggested that Lutherans married to Catholics can personally discern whether to take Communion in the Catholic church, saying it is not his role to give permission to such persons but to encourage them to listen to what God is telling them about their situations. . . " This strikes me as another one of those Francisisms that generates  lots of good press for Francis and then is walked back via more careful statements by others in the Church. I have remarked before on his tendency to do things like this. 'via Blog this'

Lately I have been trying out online dating. To explain the process for those men who have not tried it, it consists of driving all over town to meet women who are nothing like their online profiles. In most cases, there is no deceptiveness involved. It is simply that it is very hard for people objectively to describe themselves and candidly explain what sort of match they are looking for. The problem is even greater if you are seeking a woman who understands and approves the traditional and biblically mandated roles in Christian marriage. Our society has largely turned against such ideas and failed to follow them. Thus, there are not a whole lot of examples of that kind of marriage for people in our society to look at and learn from. The best place to encounter such an example is, doubtless, in one's own home growing up, but such homes appear to be uncommon. I certainly saw nothing of the sort as a child. Many women cannot recognize the Christian pattern as the good idea that

I suppose we all know that politics in the West have taken a strong set toward irreligion and the disparaging of traditional, that is religious, morality. Brendan O'Neill reports this incident from the UK: Brendan O’Neill - The New Inquisition : "Last year, a Baptist Church in Norfolk in England put up a poster suggesting that if you didn’t believe in God you would go to hell. The poster said, “If you think there is no God, you had better be right”, and underneath there was a picture of flames, hellfire, the suggestion being that if you don’t believe you will suffer. Suffer in eternal damnation, no less. . . The police registered the poster as a “hate incident”. They launched an investigation. But in order to avoid embarrassment — because it would undoubtedly be very embarrassing for the police in modern Britain to investigate a church for expressing its religious views — the police went to the church, spoke to the pastor, suggested he take the poster down, and so he took

"I write more posts about marriage, homosexuals and homosexual marriage than I would like, but this is a blog about Christian unity, which means it is also about schisms, and gay marriage is a hugely schismatic issue these days." The Episcopal Church USA has formally approved gay weddings, and the go-live date for the policy of allowing such weddings to proceed with the full approval of the church is today, November 1, 2015. Here is a background article explaining the Episcopal Church's new policy:  http://www.christianpost.com/news/us-episcopal-church-approves-same-sex-marriage-replaces-terms-man-and-woman-with-couples-141163/ And here is a rather self-congratulatory page on the Episcopal Church website, pointing out the church's stances on LGBT matters:  http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/lgbt-church The Episcopal Church's long unfolding of progressivist policies toward homosexuality has already caused schisms and tensions with more conservative Anglic