The Truth about the Anglican Communion's Listening Process

Commentary

By David W. Virtue in Puerto Rico
www.virtueonline.org
11/28/2009

Certain Anglican Communion leaders want us to listen to the pain (read whine) of homosexuals, and it is being done, indeed now mandated under the alleged guise of objectivity called the "Listening Process" funded and paid for by a retired Episcopal priest from the diocese of Southeast Florida, who donated $1.5 million to fund the entire project through 2011.

But a psychologist, teacher and former university professor of psychology, who spoke to VOL proffered a different and perhaps deeper perspective on the Listening Process that has nothing to do directly with money or sex.

It is this. The process of "listening" has everything to do with what he called "systematic desensitization" that is, the process of dealing with peoples' alleged phobias, breaking down their resistance, thus changing peoples' minds and their values towards those who are afflicted with same sex attractions. The process is designed to first generate sympathy then empathy and finally acceptance.

This technique was first revealed by the now deceased Dr. Joseph Wolpe (1915 - 1997). Wolpe was a South African psychiatrist, born into a Jewish family from Johannesburg who later settled in the United States. He is best known for developing what is now called "systematic desensitization." Systematic desensitization involves the imaginary exposure to a feared stimulus while simultaneously applying relaxation. Along with Arnold Lazarus, he is considered one of the fathers of behavior therapy. One of his best-known books is The Practice of Behavior Therapy (4th Ed in 1991).

Wolpe came up with the concept now known as desensitization, reasoning that much of our behavior, both good and bad, is learned, and there is, therefore, no reason why it could not be unlearned.

Here is how it works in The Episcopal Church. It was the practice of former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold at general conventions to have Bishop Gene Robinson, The Episcopal Church's first outed homosexual bishop, sit with orthodox bishops in small groups in an effort to humanize Robinson to his would be detractors thus attempting to break down their defenses so they would first accept him as human (was there any doubt), then his sexual orientation and finally his need to live it out because that is the way God made him, or "I was born that way."

This practice was continued with Robinson at the recent General Convention under Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori. Robinson is painted either as a hero or a victim, depending on who is talking to whom. For President Barack Obama, he is a hero and was given pride of place at his inauguration. For orthodox Episcopalians and Anglicans, he is a man promoting a behavior that not only has the power to kill physically, but has the greater power to destroy a person spiritually, and for all eternity. One therefore cannot take this matter lightly; living souls depend on the right answer.

When Robinson speaks, he likes to plays up his ordinariness, "I am just a country bishop", "my sexuality is irrelevant", "I'm just like you," "I believe in the gospel" so let's get on with it.

His spiel, like that of the Listening Process, is not designed to elicit or find the truth, but rather to manipulate and cajole listeners into believing that who he is and what he does is perfectly normal.

In reality what is really going on is a systematic attempt to desensitize orthodox Christians into believing that homosexuals are no different from you and me. We should just live and let live. No attempt must be made to offer therapeutic alternatives to proffer change, even though many same sex attraction therapies have proven effective, but the real attempt is to neutralize orthodox Christians, lulling them into believing that homosexuality is just an alternative behavior that should be accepted even though many homosexuals are now saying that they don't want to live that way. They know of all people what this means. They have seen their friends die of HIV/AIDS and many more have broken up their marriages to live out what they believe is their authentic selves.

What happens in the systematic desensitization process is a subtle shift in values. One is made or led to believe that there are now multiple choice sexualities -- much like a Sunday buffet at an expensive hotel.

"It is a covert operation to get perfectly normal, thoughtful Christian men and women who believe that what the Bible says about sex outside of heterosexual marriage is somehow deficient or culturally bound and to avoid not being charged with homophobia, they should simply roll over and accept this often deadly lifestyle behavior," said the psychologist.

VOL has watched this process happen over and over again.

A moderate or liberal bishop with minimal hermeneutical training in Scriptural interpretation listens to a sermon on inclusivity or diversity, or same sex commitment and suddenly they are convinced that the Bible is Darwinian, out of date, or that St. Paul was a misogynist or homophobic. Suddenly, the bishop's mind is changed. (Bishop John Shelby Spong is the worst example of this.)

Furthermore, compassion, misplaced we should hastily add, demands that we accept Robinson's lifestyle even if Holy Scripture is clear that such behavior will keep people out of the Kingdom including Robinson himself.

The Continuing Indaba Project led and facilitated by the Rev. Canon Philip Groves of the Anglican Communion Office and the Rev. Canon Flora Winfield of Lambeth Palace boasts that it is trying to seek a "common mind upon the issues which threaten to divide us." That's a fiction. There is no common mind, it will never be achieved. The Law of Non-Contradiction makes it impossible.

What Groves is attempting to do is to listen to the voices of those on the margins of society and of the church and, without coercion, get you to believe that because homosexuals are marginalized, subject to abuse etc. then the obvious answer (to avoid being labeled homophobic) is to fully accept them into the church and embrace them without repentance and change in their manner of life.

The American Anglican Council blew the whistle on the "Listening process" revealing that a $1.5 million gift came from The Rev. Marta Weeks, a retired Episcopal priest. Now Meeks openly advocates same-sex blessings. The money given by the Episcopal priest will be monitored by a group of sex "experts" who advocate a vision of sexual freedom and "justice" that bears little resemblance to mainstream Christian doctrine or tradition. At least one of these "experts" believes that pornography, bestiality, and multiple sex partners are not inherently harmful or wrong, wrote Robert Lundy of AAC.

This is not only pushing the Indaba "Listening Process" button to the max, it is saying that the desensitization process will not be complete until everyone is on board with Groves and his "Listening Process". After all why would a single priest give $1.5 million if he did not expect the desired outcome to favor the full inclusion of LGBT persons into the life of the church indeed the whole Anglican Communion? He would be a fool to throw this kind of money at something that he didn't think it would win him the Nobel Prize of full inclusion? It is like placing a bet on a horse race with two horses when one of the horses is already lame at the starting gate.

Groves responds, when challenged, that he also listens to the voices of ex-gays like the Rev. Mario Bergner, but when you look closely enough, it is little more than tokenism. Groves will plead objectivity, but it is laughable in the face of the evidence that money is being used to obtain the desired end of full (homo)sexual inclusion and that the Listening Process report is designed to manipulate the entire Anglican Communion into believing that pan-sexuality is good and right in the eyes of God.

It is not insignificant that Dr. Rowan Williams' two closest friends are homosexuals. One, his best man, recently committed suicide; the other, Dean Jeffrey John, recently married his partner in a civil ceremony. The Archbishop of Canterbury sees no problem with this. His book "The Body's Grace", a tacit affirmation of the archbishop's position on homosexuality, still stands. He has not gone back on his ideas.

Clearly with GC2009 ratifying two resolutions affirming homosexual behavior for clergy and rites for same sex blessings, those living in (homo)sexual sin will not be persuaded to change their minds or lifestyles. Orthodox Anglicans will not change theirs either.

Behind the whole desensitization and homophobia rhetoric (guilt trip) is the assumption that traditionalists, not revisionists have to change. The listening process is designed to change the attitudes of orthodox Anglicans not the other way round. The Listening Process should be seen and declared for what it is, publicly rejected and abandoned. The Listening Process is a sham. Orthodox Primates should declare it to be so and demand it be closed down. Nothing good will come from it.

Said the psychologist , "If you go back into church history you will find ample evidence for the notion that in times like this, the church required major surgery, reform, that is, not aspirin. This always implied a certain type of separation and a no compromise attitude that the postmodern mentality has almost erased from the Church, with the exception of a few visionaries, here and there."

What is clear is that the worldwide realignment of Anglicanism, generated largely by the acceptance of pansexuality, is fully underway. It will not be stopped.

END