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Cultural Marxism and the Episcopal Church

Cultural Marxism and the Episcopal Church

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
April 7, 2019

No one said it publicly, nor was it whispered in the Loggia, but the action taken against Bishop William Love of Albany over resolution B012 was a blatant act of Cultural Marxism by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry.

Cultural Marxism is no longer just a secular issue such as denying psychology professor Jordan Peterson the right to speak at Cambridge University, or Yale University's recent declaration demanding that Yale will deny financial support to students who take summer jobs or fellowships with Christian organizations. It is now being fully embraced by The Episcopal Church with high sounding words like "inclusion" and "conversation." Another name for Cultural Marxism is progressivism.

The passage of The Episcopal Church's resolution B012 mandating same sex marriage was not only a blatant disregard for holy scripture, it demanded that a faithful, biblical bishop like the Bishop of Albany conform or else. The Rt. Rev. William Love refused, and the hammer of Cultural Marxism came down on his head. He was partially inhibited, putting his future in doubt.

Free speech has been all but destroyed in TEC. To criticize homosexual or transgender behavior evokes cries of outrage from the Church's homosexual mafia who scream hate and homophobia at anyone who dares say that homosexual behavior is wrong. The Rev. Susan Russell, a long-standing lesbian priest at All Saints' in California, has made it her life's work. She has turned her cause into a bludgeon which she wields over the heads of conservatives on every occasion, demanding strict compliance with General Convention resolutions on sodomy and homosexual marriage.

Of course, The Episcopal Church wants to show it is inclusive and they hold phony gabfests with Communion Partner bishops in an effort to find middle ground, but like all these gatherings they yield little or nothing. Recently they met in Rosemont, Illinois, for another round of "inclusive talk". This is an attempt to find consensus but it always about power, the power of the radical left to hijack the event and leave conservatives feeling impotent and defeated.

A headline in ENS said: Communion Across Difference' group continues church's ongoing LGBTQ-inclusion conversation

"Inclusive" is, of course, a coded word that has now come to be indelibly associated with the Cultural-Marxist project. It is a word designed to include some values and some people, and emphatically exclude others. Even the word does not tell the truth about itself, says Anglican bishop, Gavin Ashenden.

And it's obvious, when you know a little history that Marxism, cultural or economic, doesn't allow people to voice other ideas. It's not just Cambridge, it's institutions like The Episcopal Church.

Words like "evolving," "communion across difference" and "LGBTQ inclusion conversation" all end up with lesbian priest Susan Russell saying that mutual flourishing means that everyone is going to have to accept that she is married to her wife. "I have to be married to my wife. As a baptized member of this church, I have to have full access to the sacrament of marriage, which I do."

There you have it. End of discussion, in fact no real discussion at all. If a Communion Partner bishop dare say she wasn't married in the eyes of God, because God has never approved of such marriages, and that her so called "marriage" violated scripture, history, tradition and most of the church universal, they would get two black eyes, told they lacked inclusion and told to go pound sand. Just ask Bishop Love. He wrote, "I do believe they have been deceived into believing a lie that has been planted in the Church by the "great deceiver" -- Satan". Love then cited St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians about "cosmic powers", "this present darkness" and "spiritual forces of evil..." and look what happened to him!

The CP bishops have been trying to thread the needle debating human sexuality issues at least since 1967 when General Convention initiated a study of homosexuality. In 50 years, nothing has changed!

After every resolution they didn't like at whatever General Convention, they would produce a minority report which was safely buried in the Church archives and the Church went right on.

On B012 they took the Pilate approach, washing their hands and passing the problem over to another bishop. They became quislings. Central Florida bishop Greg Brewer didn't even bother to have "conversation" with a woman priest who wanted to perform a homoerotic marriage, he simply said go find another bishop. No challenge from scripture as to what she was doing; the careerist bishop just caved. Tennessee Bishop John Bauerschmidt, the task force's other convener, told the group that he "was not tremendously involved in the church wars of the early part of this century and before," but was instead a parish priest who "tried not to get too distracted" by the full-inclusion debate.

It is naive beyond words to think you can avoid The Episcopal Church culture wars by sticking your head in the sand, even as a priest.

Bauerschmidt says he is opposed to same-sex marriage and requires that priests who want to use the rites have the "pastoral support" of East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole. Bishop Love refused to do that. He drew a line and said if he wasn't going to approve of homosexual marriage, then he wasn't going to allow another bishop to invade his diocese to do it. Sin does not cease to be sin because you hand it over to someone else to officiate.

Bayerschmidt is kicking the problem over to another bishop, in the hope that God will wink wink, and give Bauerschmidt or any other CP bishop a pass. He won't, He can't. Sin and holiness are at opposite ends of the theological spectrum. God will never bless what He has not approved, and the Savior of the world died to set us free from sin, not enslave us in relationships He has never approved. Susan Russell, Gene Robinson and the newly anointed Bishop of Maine, Thomas Brown are, in biblical terms "slaves to sin".

"I have observed that we have spent a lot of time -- decades' worth -- fighting in The Episcopal Church around these issues of marriage and inclusion of LGBTQ people," Bauerschmidt said during the group's round of introduction. "I'm really interested in, at this point, what the peace looks like."

"Peace, peace where there is no peace", said the prophet Jeremiah. Does Bauerschmidt honestly expect peace when two irreconcilable positions collide. The law of non-contradiction forbids it.

Rowan Williams faced that reality when he realized he could not thread the homosexual needle between TEC and Archbishop Nicholas OKoh of Nigeria. Williams fled to academia.

The Cultural Marxist forces are equally arrayed over the push for more people of color and Curry's desire for more women bishops regardless of how ill qualified that might be for the job. I have not read a single resume of any woman priest desiring to wear a miter that just once talked about saving souls, discipling people to a deeper life in Christ or church planting. Instead, they glory in telling us about themselves, their hobbies, their sexual orientation, how good they are as administrators and keeping the ship afloat and how nice they will be to everyone. Loving absolutely everybody is now a standard trope. There is not a hint of gospel proclamation, talk of self-denial, or taking up one's cross and following Jesus. Is it any wonder the Church got a Heather Cook, a besotted drug induced alcoholic bishop with zero theology...but she was a woman promoted by another woman, Katharine Jefferts Schori, and that gave her a pass...till she killed someone!

Any cries of outrage that Cook was spotted drinking excessively at a party, which just might have been a hint of things to come, would have been squelched. If someone had raised that, they would have been squashed like a bug. The Cultural Marxists would have hammered the poor schmuck into the ground, reminding him that he was being sexist and judgmental. How dare he.

Judgementalism is another Cultural Marxist trope. Thou shalt not judge. But scripture is clear that we can judge people's behavior. The apostle Paul said; "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans, for a man is living with his father's wife." (1 Corinthians 5:1 RSV)

Repentance is not a word found on the lips of episcopal bishops unless it is about racism to unnamed racists in the church, or white privilege. One does not hear a lot of outrage about corporate sin because TEC is dependent on upper middle class aristocratic white folk paying the bills and keeping the lights on. Would a presiding bishop dare criticize Trinity Wall Street's investment portfolio?

For the moment the Cultural Marxists are winning. There is no "mutual flourishing", that's a fiction. As Bishop Love observed, "Recent statistics show that The Episcopal Church is spiraling downward. I can't help but believe that God has removed His blessing from this Church. Unless something changes, The Episcopal Church is going to die." Of that, there can be no doubt. TEC is reaping what is sowing and it is reaping the whirlwind.

END

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