Kim (Davis) has shown more courage than most any politicians I know, and most every pastor I know because she has not only said something, she has been willing to put her life at risk in order to follow the Christ that came into her life four years ago. That's a bold declaration of the authenticity of her faith and the reality of it. --- Gov. Mike Huckabee

Christ did not say to His first congregation
'Go preach idle nonsense to the world,'
But gave them a sound foundation. --- Dante [Paradiso XXiX: 109-117]

"I didn't want sex; I wanted love. I mean, yes, I wanted sex, but when it was decoupled from love, that desire was a counterfeit, a false idol. It was destructive to me and to the women I had been with. I realized around this time that by trying to banish that guilty feeling so I could be as free as I wanted to be and thought I had a right to be, I was killing off the most humane part of myself." ---- Rod Dreher in How Dante can save your life.

Love and wrath. Man is, in fact, the object of God's love and wrath concurrently. The God who condemns man for his disobedience has already planned how to justify him. Three verses in the first chapter of Romans summarize this. 'The gospel', Paul writes, 'is the power of God for salvation ... For in it the righteousness of God is revealed (that is, God's way of putting sinners right with himself) ... For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness ...' (Rom. 1:16-18). Precisely how God's wrath is being revealed from heaven against sin is not explained; Paul is probably referring to the fearful process of moral deterioration which works in willful sinners whom God gives up to their own willfulness, and which he describes at the end of the chapter. But if God's wrath is seen in the corruption of man and of society, his remedy for sin is seen in the gospel. There are thus two revelations of God. His righteousness (or way of salvation) is revealed in the gospel, because his wrath is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness. So the God of the Bible is a God of love and wrath, of mercy and judgment. And all the restlessness, pleasure-seeking and escapism that mark the life of man in every age, and all the world over, are symptomatic of his judicial estrangement from God. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
September 11, 2015

America and the West seem to be sinking into the abyss, and it's time to ask: Is God's judgement now inevitable? The Rev. Michael Youssef, rector of Atlanta based Church of the Apostles thinks it might be.

In contemplating the answer, we should consider some of the obvious reasons why judgment could come soon. He writes:

"The blood of millions of innocent lives is shed and body parts are sold for profit in this country, while our government supports and funds such monstrous activity.

"God's purpose in Creation, and His declared purpose for marriage, has been ignored and ruled against by the highest court in the land.

"Police authority is devalued by a great many people and undermined by political leaders.

"God-fearing, Bible-believing Christians are forbidden by the U.S. administration from saying the name of their God in the military.

"Persecuted Christians from the Middle East and elsewhere are forbidden entry visas into the United States and Europe. And yet illegal aliens--terrorists among them--get in and are given support.

"News programs report nearly every day on the rape and murder of Christian women and children by ISIS, while our government leaders cannot be bothered to condemn it, let alone do something about it.

"A sex change operation can get you a call from the highest office holder in the land to commend you for your "courage," while families of fallen soldiers receive nothing.

"Those who announce their choice to reject God's created order become heroes, while those who have taken a vow of poverty and serve the least among us are discriminated against.

"With those, and many other government decisions made to marginalize righteousness and the righteous, can God's judgment be far behind?

"We can already see the signs of the lifting of God's hand upon America through the cowardice of today's politicians. Lying by public officials is rampant (and is even considered a virtue by many). Politicians refer to their political opponents as terrorists, while at the same time, they refuse to label the real terrorists as such. Elected government officials, out of fear of criticism, hide behind parliamentary maneuvers to avoid obeying the Constitution and allowing religious liberty.

"We are already reaping the leaders that we deserve.

"Twenty-six hundred years ago, a similar situation took place among a people who had once believed in and worshipped the one true God. The rulers and the people of the day had abandoned God.

"But God sent them spokesmen to deliver the truth--among them a man named Jeremiah.

"Jeremiah warned and warned and warned them that God's judgment could not be stayed forever. God's principle of sowing and reaping will be carried out unless there is a perceptible change.

"But no one would listen. They mocked God, and Jeremiah was vilified.

"Sadly, the inevitable judgment came. Terrorists from Babylon entered the 'Promised Land' and maimed and killed many and took others hostage. Of course, the same people who had mocked God, then cried out, 'Where is God?'

"The very God they had insulted, the very God they had rejected, then ironically became the object of their ire for not answering their pleas and giving them the prosperity they wanted.

"What form of judgment will God take this time? Only He knows the answer to that. But our country can still turn to Him now, before it is too late. If we don't, however, God's judgment will be inevitable."

*****

The big news of the week in both the secular and sacred press was the imprisonment of Kim Davis in Kentucky for refusing to issue "same-sex marriage" licenses. This raises the question of when we should submit to and when we should resist authority.

The Bible affirms that in general we submit to authority (Romans 13). Nevertheless, what do we do when the authority above us is trying to force us to assist with rebellion against a higher authority? Which authority do we obey?

Answer: We obey the higher one and resist the lower one, but we do our best to try to harmonize (i.e. find a way to obey both). We do not, like the Marxists, try to create chaos in the hope that the country will become ungovernable. We do not just rebel in general, but just resist on that point where the authority above us is in rebellion or outside their jurisdiction.

God is the highest authority, with his will revealed in the Bible. Below him are a set of parallel institutions, which include the state, the church, the family, and businesses.

Late on , Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis was released from jail following a judge's order, nearly a week after Davis was jailed for refusing to comply with another judge's order to issue marriage licenses, including to same-sex couples.

Outside the jail, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee stood alongside Davis and her attorney, Mat Staver, calling her "incredibly brave."

"We stand with Kim today," Huckabee said, adding that he is willing to go to jail in her place. "We cannot criminalize the Christian faith," he said.

The judge made one condition. The new order says Davis cannot interfere with her deputies issuing marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples. That means Davis could find herself behind bars again if she does anything to prevent the marriages from taking place.

*****

A judge has given Owen Labrie's lawyers two weeks to explain why he should throw out the St. Paul's (Episcopal) School graduate's lone felony conviction.

The attorneys would normally have had until today to submit such a request, but asked for an extension on Thursday, explaining that the structure of the verdict might be a first for the state.

Labrie was convicted last week of statutory rape, a misdemeanor, but acquitted of the heaviest charge: aggravated felonious sexual assault. Because the encounter was planned online, he was also subjected to one count of Certain Uses of Computer Services Prohibited, a lower-tier felony punishable by up to seven years in prison and lifetime registration as a sex offender.

Labrie's team argued that the felony charge should be dismissed, as he was found not guilty of felony-level sexual assault. The computer statute, created in the late 1990s, mandates a felony charge regardless of the level of sexual assault.

Labrie was 18 at the time of the offense and used e-mail and Facebook to set up the encounter with his then-15-year-old victim. She agreed to meet him and has said she planned for kissing at the most.

*****

Former Episcopal bishop Heather Elizabeth Cook pleaded guilty Tuesday to automobile manslaughter and three other criminal charges related to the December drunken-driving death of a bicyclist in North Baltimore.

Prosecutors said they would ask for a sentence of 20 years, with all but 10 years suspended, to be followed by five years' probation. Judge Timothy Doory scheduled sentencing for Oct. 27, and said he would not sentence Cook to any more time than prosecutors are seeking, but could give her less.

With her guilty plea, Cook, 58, admitted to driving drunk and leaving the scene after striking Thomas Palermo, a 41-year-old father of two young children, on Dec. 27. Cook had been sending text messages while she was driving, Assistant State's Attorney Kurt Bjorklund said, and did not return to the scene until 30 minutes later at the urging of a friend.

Her blood-alcohol content registered a .22 on a breath test, nearly three times the legal limit.

Cook, the first woman to reach the position of bishop in the diocese, has been receiving alcohol counseling and remains free on $2.5 million bail. Her attorney, David Irwin, said he would argue for less time than prosecutors are seeking, citing that she had "mostly led a life that most would consider model."

You can read Mary Ann Mueller's extensive reporting of this news in today's digest.

*****

KIDNAPPING IN NIGERIA. The Bishop of the Diocese of Gwagwalada, The Rt. Rev. Moses Tabwaye, was kidnapped this week at the boundary of Edo and Delta States. The Primate of All Nigeria, The Most Rev. Nicholas D. Okoh, requested fervent prayers from Anglicans across the globe for his immediate release.

Late Wednesday the bishop was released, according to ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach.

IN OTHER NEWS from Nigeria, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh is demanding the Federal Government and security agencies do more to protect worship centers from attacks by the Islamic terror group, Boko Haram.

According to The Punch,the church said that many displaced Christians in the North-East were yet to return to their communities and to their worship centers for fear of attacks by insurgents.

At a news conference this week, Okoh said the church is still taking stock of the damage done by the insurgents, insisting that the threats to the church has yet to go down.

The primate spoke after a conference of 45 Anglican Bishops meeting to discuss the current threats to the church in Abuja and called on the church to take stock of the number of places of worship that were destroyed, lives lost, and internally-displaced persons be recorded, as well as interventions that needed to take place.

"Many Christians are yet to freely go to church in the affected areas, so there is need for the Federal Government to do more to restore the confidence reposed in the current national leadership."

Okoh stressed that the current security situation did not speak well for the country and called for unity in defeating the terrorists.

The archbishop defended Nigerian President Buhari against allegations that his government was slow and insisted that three months was insufficient to judge a government.

Newly discovered documents reveal that former Nigerian military strong man, the late General Sani Abacha, gave $5 million dollars of public funds to leaders of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

According to the documents obtained by Sahara Reporters, the late dictator approved the money to finance a trip to the 1998 Lambeth Conference, a gathering of Anglican leaders from around the world which takes place every ten years in London.

The documents reveal that more than $1 million of the fund was delivered to former Primate Peter Akinola by Security Advisor (NSA) under Sani Abacha, the liaison for the head of state in the delivery of $1,021,388 to Archbishop Akinola.

The late General Sani Abacha was a Nigerian soldier who seized power through a coup and ruled as the de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. Abacha's regime was one of the most controversial in Nigeria's history. He was dictatorial and struck terror in the hearts of many Nigerians. His Chief Security Officer, Hamza al-Mustapha, was the point man of an alleged murderous triumvirate comprised of Ismaila Gwarzo, National Security Adviser, and Frank Omenka of the Directorate of Military Intelligence.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Datuk Ng Moon Hing, Bishop of West Malaysia, was elected Primate of the Anglican Church of South East Asia during an extraordinary meeting of the Provincial Synod on September 2 in Sandakan, Sabah.

He will be the fifth Archbishop to serve the Province, which comprises the dioceses of Kutching, Sabah, Singapore, and West Malaysia.

Provincial Secretary Leonard Shim announced that Archbishop-elect Ng Moon Hing's term of office will begin in February 2016 and run to 2020.

*****

In a statement on the ongoing migrant crisis facing Europe and the Middle East, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, noted, "This is a hugely complex and wicked crisis that underlines our human frailty and the fragility of our political systems. My heart is broken by the images and stories of men, women and children who have risked their lives to escape conflict, violence and persecution.

"There are no easy answers and my prayers are with those who find themselves fleeing persecution, as well as those who are struggling under immense pressure to develop an effective and equitable response. Now, perhaps more than ever in post-war Europe, we need to commit to joint action across Europe, acknowledging our common responsibility and our common humanity."

*****

The former Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball, 83, has finally admitted his guilt, saying he abused 18 young men and aspiring aspirants over a period of 30 years. He used religion as a "cloak" to manipulate his victims, many of whom were in their teens, after they came to his home to explore their faith and spirituality.

In 1993 he was cautioned in relation to one young man and resigned his post believing the matter was closed despite police being aware of two more complaints. In 2012, prompted by a Church of England review, Sussex Police reopened the case and last year charged him with a string of offences against teenage boys and young men who had gone to his former home in Litlington, East Sussex.

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The Most Rev. Josiah Idowu-Fearon was commissioned as secretary general of the Anglican Communion on Friday, Sept. 4, in the Chapel of St. Andrew at the Anglican Communion Office in London.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby presided and preached at the commissioning service.

Words of the 100th archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, read by the Most Rev. David Chillingworth, primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, centered on the task of giving leadership to the mission of the global Anglican Communion in service of reconciliation of Christian disunity: "We are going to devote ourselves to our mission completely, not by viewing Anglicanism as an end in itself, but as a fragment of the One Holy Catholic Church of Christ."

In his homily, Welby pointed out that the two readings for the service -- 1 Corinthians 1.26-31 and John 14.15-26 -- highlighted the weakness of the person who follows Christ, and, by implication, the weakness of the church, which "carries into its life the reality of the culture and the nature of its members."

But, he added, as the chosen people of God, the people of the Church are "what Christ makes us" and need to return continually to our dependence on Christ.

*****

FACTOID. John Kasich, Republican contender for the White House, as a boy aspired to become a Roman Catholic priest, but later drifted away. After his parents were killed in a car crash in 1987, he turned back to God. He is now a member of St. Augustine's Anglican Church in Westerville, Ohio, a parish of the Anglican Church in North America.

Sen. Marco Rubio considers himself a Roman Catholic, but also attends an evangelical Protestant church. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, born a Hindu, now calls himself an evangelical Catholic. Ted Cruz is a Southern Baptist. Scott Walker traded his preacher-father's relatively liberal mainline affiliation with the American Baptist Church, USA, for a conservative non-denominational evangelical mega-church. Rand Paul was baptized as an Episcopalian, attended Baylor University, a Baptist institution, but now attends a Presbyterian church in his hometown in Bowling Green, KY. Donald Trump was raised Presbyterian, but as an adult attends Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

*****

Pope Francis radically reformed the Catholic Church's process for annulling marriages this week, allowing for fast-track decisions and removing automatic appeals in a bid to speed up and simplify the procedure.

Francis issued a new law overhauling three centuries of church practice, placing the onus squarely on bishops around the world to now determine when a fundamental flaw has made a marriage invalid.

Catholics must get a church annulment if they want to remarry in the church. Without it, divorced Catholics who remarry civilly are considered to be adulterers living in sin and are forbidden from receiving Communion -- a dilemma at the heart of a debate currently roiling the church that will come to the fore next month at a big meeting of bishops.

The church's annulment process has long been criticized for being complicated, costly, and out of reach for many Catholics, especially in poor countries where dioceses don't have marriage tribunals.

"With this fundamental law, Francis has now launched the true start of his reform," said Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto, the head of the Roman Rota, the church's marriage court. "He is putting the poor at the center -- that is the divorced, remarried who have been held at arms' length -- and asking for bishops to have a true change of heart."

Francis' biggest reform involves a new fast-track procedure, handled by the local bishop that can be used when both spouses request an annulment or don't oppose it. It can also be used when other proof makes a more drawn-out investigation unnecessary.

It calls for the process to be completed within 45 days.

Catholics have long complained that it can take years to get an annulment, if they can get one at all. Costs can reach into the hundreds or thousands of dollars for legal and tribunal fees, though some dioceses have waived their fees.

In the document, Francis called for the fees to be waived, except for the "just" payment of tribunal personnel. Norms attached to the new law say that "lack of faith" can be cause for an annulment.

The reform, which was the result of a yearlong study by canonists, is the second major initiative Francis has taken in as many weeks that will have reverberations in the United States, where Francis will visit later this month.

Last week, he said he was letting all rank-and-file priests grant absolution to women who have had abortions --an initiative for the upcoming Year of Mercy that has had significant impact in a country where the abortion debate is a pressing political issue.

Some conservatives have criticized Francis' abortion initiative as running the risk that some might misinterpret it as a softening on the church's opposition to abortion. Conservatives have also warned that simplifying the annulment procedure could imply the church is making it easier for couples to essentially get a "Catholic divorce."

*****

In a recent story I wrote, it was revealed that by 2025, the majority of Episcopal parishes will be empty and by 2055, TEC will close.

You can read the story here: http://tinyurl.com/nqazodv

A shrewd observer of the Episcopal scene wrote back saying:

"VOL should begin the inquiry -- since TEC will wither and die, where will all the endowment money go? As each parish dies, the building can be sold to developers and the sales proceeds and endowment go up to the bishop. Then the bishop has more to invest in mission for a dying diocese. But at some point, the parish deaths, sales, and assets transfers to the bishop will be faster than he or she can invest in mission.

"So what happens to the endowment and cash accounts in the final round? Will they just send the money to 815 2nd Ave NYC, NY, the national headquarters and retire gracefully on their pensions alone?

"People will ask: Isn't somewhere in the future the Big Grab, where the final defeat occurs by transferring the money to themselves? Worth thinking about."

*****

While you are thinking about that perhaps you might spare some change for the ministry that brings all this news to you. VOL depends on its readers to keep us afloat. VOL has no corporate backers. We depend solely on you our readers to keep us afloat. Less than one per cent of you make a donation. Why? I have a small staff to pay along with web and communications bills. Yet the attraction of getting a "free service" seems overwhelming. Thousands go daily to www.virtueonline.org It is my responsibility to change that. We must have new donors to keep us going. If you have not contributed in the last year or so, please jump in and do so.

You can send a tax-deductible check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
570 Twin Lakes Rd
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thank you for your support.

In Christ,

David

PS. I am travelling with my wife in Russia and have spent several hours in the Hermitage where I was privileged to spend time gazing at Rembrandt's famous painting of The Prodigal Son. I wrote a reflection on this and I hope you will take a few moments to read it.