Day: January 12, 2009
Gay Bishop Who Almost Imploded Anglical Church to Pray for Obama
In yet another gesture to the gay and lesbian community, Pres.-Elect Obama has invited Bishop Gene Robinson (any relation to Michelle Robinson Obama?) to deliver a prayer in the lead-up to the Obama inauguration.
New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, at the center of the Anglican church’s global battle over homosexuality, will speak on Sunday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial…
Robinson has called the choice of Warren a slap in the face. But he said on Monday he did not believe Obama invited him in response to the Warren criticism but his prayer would help ease concerns among gay and lesbians.
He said he believed the invitation, which came about two weeks ago, was made because he endorsed Obama in May last year. The two also met during the presidential primary.
I’m sure the invitation was at least in part because of the reaction to Rick Warren but I also don’t think that’s a bad thing. Obama was never going to un-invite Warren but he’s willing to show he’s learning. Learning is good.
Robinson said he advised Obama several times during his presidential campaign.
“I was very early on taken with his anti-polarization message,” he said. “So part of the invitation came out of the albeit brief relationship that we have had.”
The 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a global federation of national churches, has been in upheaval since 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated Robinson as the first bishop known to be in an openly homosexual relationship in more than four centuries of church history…
Joe Solmonese, president of gay rights advocates the Human Rights Campaign, called Robinson’s selection “encouraging.”
Another Reason Not to be a Christian: Mark Driscoll
That people are willing to sit and listen to this filth says a lot about the state of Christianity today. I realize not all churches go in for this sort of thing, but Mark Driscoll is the next “It” guy in the born-twice world and he’s not only a throwback to the Pat Robertson/James Dobson school of spleen venting by portly angry white guys who can’t get real jobs, he goes them all one better.
Driscoll, like many zealots, says he knows what God thinks. But Driscoll says he also knows how God feels, and how He feels is that He hates you. From the Mars Hill Church web site:
Driscoll, based in Seattle, strikes us as the kind of pastor Sarah Palin would high-five and pray with. What is it about cold climates and religious whack jobs?
the Total Depravity of Man
We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that through Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; man is totally depraved and of himself utterly unable to remedy his lost condition…
Driscoll, based in Seattle, strikes us as the kind of pastor Sarah Palin would high-five and pray with. What is it about cold climates and religious whack jobs? Makes me want to stay right here in the South, where our religious whack jobs are at least happy.
Mark Driscoll is American evangelicalism’s bete noire.* In little more than a decade, his ministry has grown from a living-room Bible study to a megachurch that draws about 7,600 visitors to seven campuses around Seattle each Sunday, and his books, blogs and podcasts have made him one of the most admired — and reviled — figures among evangelicals nationwide…
With his taste for vintage baseball caps and omnipresence on Facebook and iTunes, Driscoll, who is 38, is on the cutting edge of American pop culture. Yet his message seems radically unfashionable, even un-American: you are not captain of your soul or master of your fate but a depraved worm whose hard work and good deeds will get you nowhere, because God marked you for heaven or condemned you to hell before the beginning of time. Yet a significant number of young people in Seattle — and nationwide — say this is exactly what they want to hear. Calvinism has somehow become cool, and just as startling, this generally bookish creed has fused with a macho ethos.
Watch as much of this video as you can stand, just to get the drift. Then hit the “stop” icon and never give this guy one more second out of your life. That goes for every one of his friends and followers, too.
* Literally, “black animal”
