Entries in C4SO (5)
Bishop Todd Hunter on a Christian America
Meh.
Christians aren't political Anabaptists. That's the first thing. The second thing is this:
"If you don’t want Christian nationalism, what kind of nationalism do you want? And if it’s not the Christianity that’s the problem, is it the nationalism? … if we don’t want nationalism, do we want globalism?” - Voddy Baucum
Those are the choices before us, My Lord Bishop, and Anglicans, following Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, have historically understood the necessity of the symphonia between the Christian Church and the Christian State. Now, I do believe that American republicanism arguably addresses some of the abuses of European Christan nations, but republics are fragile things, as Benjamin Franklin noted, echoing the concerns of other Founding Fathers. However, for someone to suggest that Christians should abandon the public square, and even to suggest that the secularist status quo is acceptable, is to embrace the worst form of political folly. It is not only wholly ahistorical, but dangerous.
No, we must embrace the reality that what remains of Christendom is the yeast of a restored Christian culture, and all that entails politically. In the words of T.S. Eliot:
“The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide.”
Profound
Deep Thoughts by Todd Hunter
Move over, Kamala.
Responses to Emily McGowin: Updated
A few weeks ago I posted this blog entry regarding an article at the Anglican Pastor blog entitled, "If Women Can Be Saved, Then Women Can Be Priests", which was penned by Emily McGowin, a priest (according to the Neo-Anglican understanding of holy orders) in a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America named "Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others." The next day I posted this comment from an REC priest that set forth a little history of said diocese and its bishop, Todd Hunter. That history provides some necessary context regarding Dr. Gowin's ordination.
Happily, two new articles have appeared refuting the argument she made at the Anglican Pastor blog. One is by Fr. Lee Nelson entitled, "The Problem With Making a Patristic Argument for the Ordination of Women", and is hosted by Anglican Pastor but with a promise of a rejoinder from McGowin. The other is an article at the Theopolis Institute by Fr. Blake Johnson entitled, "Sacramental Representation and the Created Order".
More appears to be coming, so stay tuned.
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UPDATE: Here is Dr. McGowin's promised rejoinder. There are some great critical comments there. One of them mirrors my own, which is that Dr. McGowin's argument is a colossal non-sequitur. Meanwhile, The North American Anglican has published Fr. Alex Wilgus' response to her first article.
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UPDATE, 1/20/2020:
Two more responses to Emily McGowin.
Holy Orders and Headship, Branson Munson
God is Not Fair: Some Thoughts on Women's Ordination, Fr. Gerald McDermott
A Comment From A Priest. . .
on the article by Emily McGowin referenced below:
I read the article by Emily McGowin. The diocese she is in is run by Todd Hunter. Bishop Hunter is a product of the Vineyard/Calvary Chapel movement. He was received into AMiA in 2008 and made a Bishop in 2009. He came into the ACNA in 2012. His understanding of Anglicanism is nil. I watched an interview he gave around the time AMiA made him a Bishop. He freely admitted to not understanding the sacraments. One comment that stands out was how he still did not understand the need of confirmation. (He was a priest at the time). The AMiA parish in which I watched this interview with AMiA clergy and laity was then called Holy Trinity in Pensacola, Florida. It is now called The Mission. I was newly priested and the only one to vocally challenge the thought of letting this man be in charge of anything in the Church. Some of his other theology was also terrifying. So her theological ignorance, maybe willful ignorance, is honestly arrived at due to her theological "father". In the article Ms. McGowin takes partial quotes attributed to St Gregory of Nazianzus (she gives a very vague reference hard to research), Eph. 5:22, and Galatians. She confuses salvation with function and makes great leaps in logic and reason. How she did not hurt herself in the strain is amazing. For full disclosure I am a priest in the ACNA, the REC in particular. The level of theology shown by McGowin is typical of the ACNA. I second Fr. Little, if you have a choice between the ACNA and the Continuing Churches in your location, go with the Continuing. I fear the ACNA due to the embrace of non Anglican and in some cases non Christian theology is becoming white washed sepulchres. And for that I grieve.
While I cannot confirm all the specifics in this assessment, it is true that Bishop Hunter was received into the AMiA in 2008, made a bishop in 2009 (!), left AMiA for ACNA in 2012 and is representative of all that is wrong in the Anglican Realignment. The Diocese of the Churches for the Sake of Others (C4sO) is apparently named after a "ministry" he created before he was received into the AMiA ("Church for the Sake of Others"). It all speaks volumes.
So this deacon/"scholar" from C4sO simply advances all this pathology in her article today at Anglican Pastor.
Like I said, steer clear.