Christianity Politics USA

The Kitchen Table 33 – Civic Religion.

On this weeks Kitchen Table Steve and I discuss my earlier article on Civic Religion 

The Kitchen Table 32 – Judgement Day

This is the song I mentioned….

401 comments

  1. A review of a book written by the Brisbane Anglicans. I will quote one paragraph:

    “I think it important to comment on the type of Anglicanism and the type of Christianity that the authors are projecting. I get the impression (and its only an impression) that while some of the authors enjoy wrestling with Scripture as a religious problem, and though they appreciate something of the Bible’s antiquity and aesthetics, they do not actually like Scripture as an authoritative text, and as such they would like to be free from Christian Scripture and the insipid dogmas that it generated. Liberation from such textual tyranny would enable the authors to forge a post-Christian and post-Theistic faith. A faith gladly pruned of its malodrous catholic and orthodox roots and finally free to forge new ways of expressing religious consciousness in a postmodern age. After reading the book I am left wondering (and I’m not wondering far from their intellectual line) that some of the authors would much prefer that congregations publicly read Germaine Greer than Genesis, Noam Chomsky than Chronicles, Oprah than Obadiah, Marx than Mark, or the Gospel of Philip rather than Philippians. These other texts would seem to be far more conducive to the ideologies that the authors want to cultivate and the Bible in fact seems to be inhibiting progress towards a shift in values towards this direction. In deconstructing the authors’ intellectual plane as it appears to me (though appearances can be deceiving) a few of the authors look to be strangely reminiscent of the arch-liberal Bp John Colenso and like him are really closet unitarians who only remain part of the established church because they want to be players in the big game. At the end of the day, the authors seems to believe that the only reason for keeping Scripture in the Church is because heavily vetted fragments of the Scriptures can provide a religious grammar to anchor projects relating to eco-care and neo-marxism in something vaguely transcendent. Much like the United Church of Canada, the authors look as if they are plotting a course towards a transcendent atheism which knows neither revelation nor redemption; a faith beyond canon and creed; a community embarrassed about its religious heritage and now wants make good by plotting a way that it can make minimal usage of its scriptural paraphernalia while retaining a philanthropic role for itself in society…”

    patheos.com/blogs/euangelion/2013/05/book-review-anglican-bibliology-for-a-progressive-audience/

  2. Well, speaking of Quadrant, this reader comment attached to their latest article is worth considering here:

    ‘georgepshaw

    Pessimism is justified. No more so that in the Diocese of Brisbane which has been the engine room for the re-sexualisation of Christianity in Australia’s Anglicanism. At some point in his 21 year Brisbane episcopate the recently retired Archbishop espoused what he has since called ‘Comprehensive Anglicanism’. Only months before his surprise and inexplicable resignation he declared that Comprehensive Anglicanism’, despite its setback at General Synod 2022, would triumph. He implied he would be there in the leadership team. He had also established by his own actions that ‘Comprehensive Anglicanism’ would go far beyond the goal of same sex marriage. It would open the priesthood to the transgendered community. And acting the role of an anarchist Reformer confirmed in office two transgendered priests without precedent in Anglican Australia or any authority from General Synod to do so. Moreover, there was scarcely a whimper from within the Dioceses which over a 21 year period he had remade in his image. At this very moment an Election Committee dominated by his appointees is seeking a replacement. The reform engine in Brisbane Diocese deserves the closest scrutiny as the retiring Archbishop has put in place a massive propaganda programme for a successor to implement.’

    https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2023/01/how-will-the-anglican-story-end/

  3. Anglican Church Southern Queensland is choosing to support “The Voice”:

    “Editor’s note 15/03/2023: The ACSQ supports the Anglican Board of Mission’s 2017 call for “a Constitutionally Entrenched First Nations Voice”. The ACSQ also supports the Anglican Church of Australia’s Joint Affirmation of Faith and Justice with First Nations Peoples (carried by affirmation at General Synod, Oct 2007), and seeks practical ways to do so, including our association with Reconciliation Australia and the prescribed process of Reconciliation Action Plans.”

    Also, APCVA’s Deb Bird has been retweeting Steve Chalke (and Sandi Toksvig!) in recent days:

    https://twitter.com/revdebbird/with_replies

    Abso9lutely no comment from any APCVA supporters that I can find about AUKUS though. As someone said above, they have never tweeted about the Ukraine War either. I guess AUKUS comes from the “correct” side of politics for them. They are more fixated on identity politics and wokeness anyway since their last few posts are about the Voice and the Mardi Gras:

    https://www.facebook.com/AProgressiveChristianVoiceAustralia?hc_ref=ARTXjJJujpVg14cVFD9–wupyMdgIJa16yN04-NIvd5HhAexvuoRXDfz02qrxaLrpLY&fref=nf&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBBG5P4nDFkxl5lYjxqpmBf94XpaOZJLJCKHXKh9ExBTal5twBkJ2uWaQFW1vSdaBAwXYHsunMIEse2A5abHiex0pproWPOjluRJb1YNHXKioWNn2rEOY_MmRIeqEqMy_c2Qn_Smpw-G2kakJWyy_QlFvNiCoOQ3QUIMWLmlj8cyz3Z4-d11WPTQIAwjpmzDnh69Q7kf3WJDoIp7O4JkrqzDEs-SE5hGI2TqM4tzioN3ZbWNw52BvS6lh1fh8Dw0haN9vDGOhmG69RGNC97gA87JRPiOAm9xGwdtd6vW-UqIeRJgNuMcPRS2xyFoyzr4uahbaJXMaCt8GneG8XCaxmneb-dGT8CtzlhvsaLfQ9zB1T-b4Qa7YM-ap_KFbFCgMwTzLU

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