This cartoon is appearing in the latest issue of Private Eye (Note for Ian Hislop - please don't sue me - I want people to go and buy your mag!!!!) and it just sums up exactly what I think the problem is with the church right now.
It is, in my humble opinion, both incredibly accurate and a damning judgement form a secular mag on the sort of pathetic navel-gazing that goes on. As long as the church (and not just the C of E) insists on obsessing over issues such as gender, sexuality, the atonement etc at the expense of actually looking outwards and seeing what needs God has placed right on our doorstep how on earth can we claim to acting in the will of God. The simple answer is that we cannot. Whether conservative, fundamentalist, reformed, liberal or whatever, if we place this sort of truth above the mission in our society we have got it very badly wrong.
Rant over ...
I'm inclined to politely disagree. The CoE does focus on the wrong things but in this instance, female bishops isn't one of them.
ReplyDeleteThe things that are pointless that they focus on include:
1. robes, which appear nothing less than a method of outwardly indicating piety (like the pharasees used to)
2. theology over Christianity (see Yes, Minister for details
when they could be:
1. standing up for Christians (although this is getting better)
2. Preaching to those outside the church (again far better these days with Alpha course etc)
3. Wherever possible, helping the poor.
However things that are prescribed in the Bible are important and moving away from them will just push the CoE into further decline and further from the position it should be. After all if one ignores bits of the Bible about one subject, there is no reason someone can't choose to ignore any other parts, like abortion, drugs, murder, theft etc etc.
The C of E is not fit for purpose since it does not protects its adherents from the pernicious ideology of feminism that caused the crime and degeneracy depicted in the cartoon.
ReplyDelete