VIRTUEONLINE VIEWPOINTS
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"Schism is not the one who leaves, but the burden of the one who causes the schism." — Chuck Collins
"Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness of character apart from His fruit, and no effective witness without His power. As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead." — John Stott
"Late-modern Western culture assumes every individual's path to meaning and purpose is equally valid. It rejects any ultimate public framework for truth other than its own secular relativist one. Many faithful members of local churches have been shaped by this cultural ideology without even recognizing how deeply it contradicts the gospel of Jesus." — Dwight Zscheile
Dear Brothers and Sisters | www.virtueonline.org | June 12, 2026
TWO RELIGIONS WEARING THE SAME NAME
Is it possible to hold together two fundamentally different understandings of Christianity within the same institutional structures?
Attend an ACNA service and then a TEC service and you will encounter two starkly different visions of the faith. One is supernaturally oriented, anchored in personal transformation and costly discipleship. The other is fixated on this world — social justice, ending poverty, housing for all.
In one vision of ministry, the priest calls people to give their lives to Christ, to "put on Christ," to follow him wherever that leads — and more boldly still, to subsume their life entirely into the life of Christ. In the other, the vision of ministry amounts to helping people find their "divine spark," to "encounter mystery beyond themselves," to see God's love in everything. Jesus becomes buddy and companion, never judging, inclusive of absolutely everybody. In that moment you might want to stand up and sing "Kumbaya" as the closing hymn.
The truth is, we are not merely describing the same faith with different language. We are describing two fundamentally different religions.
The Episcopal Church — indeed, mainline Christianity broadly — has become primarily fixated on activism, inclusion, and human flourishing detached from any concrete claims about who Jesus is and what God has done through him. If that is the case, TEC is little more than Unitarian Universalism, minus the embarrassing God-talk of historic Christianity. And it is one reason TEC is dying. Demographics suggest that by 2040, TEC will be either out of business or so irrelevant that society will scarcely notice it exists. The bishops will be deeply offended that no one cares what they think.
All the sincerity and compassion in the world will not change that. The theological center has shifted so far that we are no longer talking about the same faith.
ACNA: THE RUCH TRIAL AND THE TRANSPARENCY PROBLEM
ACNA's Governance Task Force meets in Tulsa in July, where it will address "concerns" about the upcoming Provincial Council. Among the agenda items: a request for the release of the Ruch trial transcripts and a third-party review. Whether those transcripts will actually be released remains to be seen.
The Rev. Dr. Matthew Wilcoxen, theologian and ACNA leader, has been advocating for reform of the denomination's Title IV disciplinary canons to improve fairness, pastoral care, and transparency in clergy discipline. His Substack (wilcoxen.substack.com) makes the case carefully. Wilcoxen argues that the current framework is "good but not finished" — it provides a structure but lacks sufficient safeguards for due process, pastoral sensitivity, and transparency. His proposed amendments aimed to strengthen procedural fairness for accused clergy, improve pastoral care for all parties, and increase transparency in proceedings — including public release of key documents, as the Diocese of South Carolina has pushed for in the Ruch case.
His amendments were declined. They never reached the floor, were not acted on by the legislative committee, and died at the close of Convention. Which immediately raises the question: are Title IV reforms there to protect the laity, or to protect bishops?
What we have so far is Bishop Phil Ashey's clumsy attempt to spin Title IV by claiming the charges against Archbishop Steve Wood would have been quashed — a claim he later walked back when confronted by interim ACNA leader Bishop Julian Dobbs, publishing a retraction of sorts. But not before revealing that he may already be calculating his own exposure under Title IV.
ACNA leadership looks more and more like TEC — without the gay sex.
PRIDE MONTH AND THE CHURCH OF AFFIRMATION
June is Pride Month, and no denomination throws itself into it more enthusiastically than the Episcopal Church. In cathedral after cathedral, flags go up; gay Eucharists are celebrated; bishops march in Pride parades and urge their people to join them. Celebrating sexual sin is no longer a pastime — it is now deeply embedded in the soul and canons of the church, even as few gay people actually appear in the pews. Read more: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/episcopal-church-proudly-proclaims-pride-month-even-as-church-continues-to-decline
TEC'S TITLE IV: BROKEN BY ITS OWN ADMISSION
ACNA is not alone in its Title IV crisis. An analysis of Episcopal clergy disciplinary outcomes reveals universal dissatisfaction and damaging results across the board.
Anglican Watch, the unofficial TEC watchdog, reviewed processes and outcomes in 32 diocesan-level cases and 24 cases involving bishops. Their findings: an almost universally broken and dysfunctional clergy disciplinary system. Both complainants and respondents reported intense dissatisfaction with outcomes. An overwhelming percentage of complainants left not only the Episcopal Church but organized religion altogether as a result.
Affected communities reported consistent and irreparable harm to the reputations and relationships of all parties — an outcome inconsistent with the process's stated objectives of seeking "justice, restitution, amendment of life, repentance, healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation."
Alleged offenses ranged from matters not actionable under church canons to allegations of felony conduct by clergy. The geographic distribution mirrored the church's broader footprint, with the majority of cases in the mid-Atlantic region. Unsurprisingly, most respondents were white, cisgender, heterosexual males. Of the cases with adverse outcomes, only three involved an LGBTQ+ respondent — and in all three, the underlying accusations involved clear violations of sexual boundaries.
Read the full analysis: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/analysis-of-episcopal-title-iv-clergy-disciplinary-outcomes-reveals-universal-dissatisfaction-damaging-outcomes/
THE POPE, "PELVIC THEOLOGY," AND WHAT HE GETS WRONG
Pope Leo XIV apparently wants to get his church off the subject of what he calls "pelvic theology" — a dismissive phrase for those concerned with sexual ethics, from abortion to LGBTQ rights to traditional chastity. The implication is that such concerns amount to a morbid obsession, possibly a psychological disorder.
Theologian Carl Trueman thinks otherwise. Writing in First Things, Trueman argues that the sexual act is — biblically and historically — both a key social bond (Gen. 2:24) and part of the mandate given to human beings (Gen. 1:28). Indeed, sexual intercourse, with its creative potential, is the human act that makes us most God-like. Attitudes toward sex lie at the heart of what it means to be human.
The Old Testament surrounds sexual activity with taboos and rituals of purification even for legitimate acts. The New Testament continues this. St. Paul argues that the man who sleeps with a prostitute has committed a particularly heinous sin — not only because he has sexually exploited a woman, but because he has sinned against his own body. The Didache, one of the earliest post-canonical writings, makes rejection of abortion a central identity marker for the Christian community.
Trueman's argument cuts to the chase: if you use the term "pelvic theology," you must also use "pelvic justice." To refuse to do so is to reveal your hand. You are not making a serious theological point about the body — you are performing as a useful idiot for the sexual revolutionaries who have already wreaked such havoc on our societies.
Sex is not one human act among others. It touches the heart of what it means to be human. To trivialize it — theologically or judicially — is to trivialize humanity itself. The pope should take note. And in time, this debate will filter down into Protestant circles and become the new battleground over sexuality. TEC is already almost there.
THE POPE IS ALSO WRONG ON JUST WAR
Pope Leo XIV apparently doesn't much like the concept of a just war either. He has declared it dated and no longer relevant in modern warfare — with his eye fixed on Iran and America's role in that conflict. He publicly stated that the war against Iran does not qualify as a just war under Catholic teaching. "I believe it has been already declared clearly," Leo told Italian journalist Franca Giansoldati of Il Messaggero. "There is no just war there."
The remark came in response to Vice President JD Vance, who invoked just war theory in April to justify the military campaign against Iran. Vance pointedly told the pope to "be careful" when venturing into theology. He was right.
Pope Leo writes in his encyclical like a liberal Protestant of the 1930s — with faith that war can be abolished in this fallen world, that all we need is to listen and reason together, and that bodies like the United Nations can broker peace between civilizations. Only someone with his head firmly in the sand would say such things in 2026.
If the pope is wrong about "pelvic theology," he may well be wrong about just war theory too — a tradition that has served the church for over a thousand years. Read my full take: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/pope-is-wrong-on-just-war-iran-would-annihilate-israel
ORTHODOXY ADVANCING IN NORTH AFRICA
In a move that expands orthodox witness in the Global South, former Nigerian Archbishop Ben Kwashi has been named Area Bishop of Chad, under the ecclesiastical authority of North African Bishop Ashley Null. Three major events drew clergy from across the region — eight from Chad, one each from Libya and Algeria, and two from Tunisia — to a three-day clergy retreat in the Diocese of Cameroon, including the annual diocesan synod and a Cameroon culture night.
In a call to VOL, Bishop Null spoke with evident excitement about the spiritual developments unfolding across North Africa and expressed strong confidence in the growth ahead, particularly under the dynamic leadership of Archbishop Kwashi, a sought-after evangelical voice in the West.
THE CHURCH IS EMPTYING — BUT MOVEMENTS ARE MULTIPLYING
How do we evangelize the next generation for Christ? Clearly no denomination has figured it out. Churches are emptying faster than a politician's promise after election night.
But new movements are arising — bottom-up rather than top-down — and some of them are producing astonishing results.
Jerry and Stacy Kramer are two unlikely Anglican missionaries. Together they bring nearly a quarter century of ministry experience through their Love for the Least (L4L) ministry, which has seen 15,000 new church plants built on a one-on-one discipleship model that has no equal.
Their vision is to ignite Disciple-Making Movements (DMMs) among the world's least-reached and most vulnerable peoples — through a fusion of radical compassion, frontier mission, and obedience-based discipleship. Their aim is not to build an organization but to catalyze Kingdom movements that multiply far beyond any single ministry. They have no vision for a global denomination, no desire to be "large," and prefer to go unrecognized. "We want people to see Jesus, not us. He's far more attractive and interesting."
What separates the Kramers from traditional missionary approaches is their DMM strategy: multiplying disciples and planting churches that plant churches — not programs. Their work is anchored in the Discovery Bible Study (DBS), developed by their mentor David Watson, known as the "Father of Modern Movements," with its core engine of Training for Trainers (T4T).
The paradigm shift is threefold: obedience-based discipleship over knowledge-based teaching; identifying and developing local leadership from the start; and missionaries exiting early. "The only metric for success is generational growth — disciples making disciples to the 10th, 12th, and 14th generation," Jerry told VOL. They are now part of a network with 14 generations of churches and disciples. Jerry and Stacy are catalyzing and stewarding two official and five emerging DMMs across 12 countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, and East Africa. Their original prayer captures the urgency: "God, give us a DMM or let us die." They prayed for one movement and now have seven. And they are pressing for more.
Read Parts 1 and 2:
If you are serious about reaching Generations X, Y, and Z, this is probably the most effective approach I have seen. I have traveled to Iraq and Turkey and watched it in operation. The old top-down models — bishops and clergy calling the shots — have run their course. They no longer work.
OS GUINNESS HONORED FOR A LIFETIME OF CULTURAL CLARITY
An old and dear friend, Dr. Os Guinness, English author and social critic, received the 2026 William Wilberforce Award at the Colson Center National Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, on May 30. It is a thoroughly well-deserved honor.
"I think Guinness is in the tradition of Wilberforce, also of Francis Schaeffer and Chuck Colson — basically helping the Church think clearly about the moment by thinking about the past, and looking ahead toward the culmination of all things: the Kingdom," said John Stonestreet, president of The Colson Center. Read more: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/os-guinness-receives-william-wilberforce-award-for-work-in-post-christian-age-it-can-turn-around
CATHOLICS LOSING, PROTESTANTS GAINING — BUT THE NUMBERS ARE COMPLICATED
Christianity has lost more believers than most other faith groups worldwide in recent years — but the two largest branches of the faith have diverged sharply in terms of "faith switching." According to research published by the Pew Research Center, Catholicism has lost significant numbers to switching in many countries, while Protestantism has gained. The research, published in April by Kirsten Lesage, William Miner, and Rebecca Leppert, was drawn from 2024 surveys of thousands of Catholics, Protestants, and non-religious people across the globe. "Switching" is defined as having been raised in one faith or denomination and either leaving or changing as an adult.
ARCHBISHOP MULLALLY RAISES THE ALARM ON AI AND ABUSE
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally has warned Parliament that current artificial intelligence regulations are "wholly inadequate" to prevent significant harm to human dignity. Citing a recent Durham University report, Dame Sarah raised concerns that chatbots are facilitating roleplays of rape, incest, and child sexual abuse — with few safeguards — risking the normalization and legitimization of such abuse.
Speaking at the opening of an AI debate in the House of Lords — a topic she personally selected — Mullally called for a "pro-human framework" for AI development. Whatever one thinks of her leadership on other matters, she is right to sound this alarm loudly.
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