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Large congregations split from US Episcopal Church
Dec 18, 2006, 6:39 GMT
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Older Talkback
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Thanks be to God for true believers who choose to separate themselves from those that chose to stray from the truth and follow evil. Liberal secularism is pervading society and infecting even those who claim to be followers of God when in fact they are not.
all brainwashed fools... the church has done nothing for world peace or anything else good. The only thing it has done stop good, comunity loving, normal, gay people from having the same rights as everyone else... Women having choices over their own bodies and Amreican politics from being so screwed up!
The shepherds in the Nativity were ritually unclean and considered, among other unsavory things, liars. But these are the people to whom God chose to make the announcement of His Son. If He chooses these to spread His Word, who am i to exclude their words from my ears? And if someone else's impurity excludes them today, what guaranty do i have that my impurity will exclude me tomorrow? Who is without sin?
I hope that when you've excluded all of us unworthys, you don't get too lonely.
They hid too long behind tolerant and kind-hearted christians, and it's a good thing they're separating (even if the real reason seems to be money, and the excuse is biggotry and prejudicial hate).
The Episcopal Church is a beacon of light and reason in a world of increasing intolerance and fundamentalism. To the Virginia Churches: Let those who are without sin throw the first stone... Christ message was not one of exclusion. It's sad to read about this.
I apologize for the other Oregon reader--they are too busy being vicious to be humane. The Bible does not mention politics. It's not a us-vs-them mentality that should be taken here. If they choose to leave, that is fine. But they cannot steal the property of the Church for their controlling agendas. Jesus said a lot of things, and taught a lot of things, but on a personal level that shouldn't be enforced by a government that has been the most successful government in the world for over a hundred years because it is secular.
Here's an idea... church worth millions, sell it and donate the money to a charity.. isn't that the idea of a church anyway. And who really cares if someone is gay.. I have my own problems to worry about.. no times to worry about whether someone else is gay or not.. someone has way too much time on their hands.
First off, this is hardly a secular government, it never has been and hopefully never will be ;). Textbooks may try to distort this truth but the past cannot be changed. When 90% of the church decides to split with the others, perhaps, the property should stay with the majority. I am against churches splitting for many reasons, however, when they have decided to go against what the bible clearly and bluntly states, they are no longer a church following God, but an organization that is following there own ways, and setting there own dnagerous path.
All this teary eyed baloney about how they have to do this.
They want to build a seperate church based on hate and division.
Read the opinions of the Nigerian bishop. He advocates putting
gay people to death.
These folks are the new American Taliban.
No sane human regards the bible as anything but a collection of myths,aphorisms and tall tales-this world and all it,s people live in chaos because mere men are forever squabbling and killing in the name of God-poor old God is not well represented and shame on all the self righteous bible thumpers -we all die-is it fear of death that causes people to cling to a myuth/ How can anyone subscribe to a religion,Christian, predicated on the slow and excruciating death of one good man? You folks had better get the mote out of your own eyes before you-NOT GOD-condemn anyone else. D Ward
How many people have died in the name of Religion? How many ways can we interpret one book (The Bible)? What kind of a God let you persecute anything you do not believe in, or understand? Think About it people!
Congratulations to the leadership of the Episcopal church for forcing this split. A new conservative church is exactly what this country does NOT need. If this is the best the Christian church can come up with--if you can't even get along within your own church--it's pretty darn pathetic. I would rather have seen the entire church band together to remove the clearly LOUSY leadership.
It's sad that the church needs to split but this might be the best path. We will have the Nigerian Episcopal Churches of America (CANA) versus the ECUSA. One focusing on a traditional interpretation of scripture while the other focusing on scripture tempered by reason.
If these churches, that are splitting from the ECUSA, would rather be associated with a church that wants to ban the free association and speech rights of gay people, then that is sad. The ECUSA may be too liberal for you but isn't the Nigerian church too fascist?
Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, was married and has two children - he left his wife and lives with a gay lover. He also has been in alcohol treatment program for several months. I would be upset if this man was my kids' Sunday School teacher - how did he ever get elavated to a bishop? There are Biblical standards of behavior for people in church leadership positions.
Everyone no matter their sin is welcome to come and worship God, Everyone is deserving of respect and love. Jesus was not one to turn his back on those who were deemed unclean, us as humans are all unclean, we all sin. However there is a higher standared one must follow in order to be in a leadership postiton. Not to be sinless but to not do those things which they know are sin. In titus it tells you the example in order to be in leadership. It is black and white. No one should be turned away, everyone should be shown love and respect as a fellow human being, but their certain things that must be followed to lead. You wouldn't want certain people in charge of your children and you wouldn't want certain people in charge of teaching others something that they themselves reject in there own life.
Signed,
A pround bible thumper.
Last time I checked there weren't any Christians going around killing people in the name of God, if it is as you claim, how many of them do you know? I've been hanging around them for a long time now and haven't seen one yet. As for the Christians being weak and pathetic, tell me this... Is it easier to go about life doing as you please, or to do as God pleases? As for the gay/lesbian hating arguement... that is the most rediculous arguement I've ever heard, Christians love the gays and lesbians just as much as anyone else, and I'll go so far as to say that 'CHRISTIANS LOVE GAYS MORE THAN OTHERS'. Christianity is about love not hate. In Christianity you learn to love and die to yourself. So the next time you start talking about how Christians are weak, I hope you remeber this. As for the bible not being fact, you don't have a leg to stand on. I hear that argument often, the bible is God' revelation, it's been there for a long time, it's been proven time and time again by science, it's proved science wrong. Science is the study of God's creation. The problem with science is that they have to be abke to explain things in nature. Do you know that mathmetaticians have stated that the propability for evolution explaining the origin of humas is mathematically IMPOSSIBLE. Have your eve looked up to the sky and noticed how small you were? Have you ever noticed how complex you body was. Have you ever thought, that maybe, there is something bigger than you? Have you ever wondered why cultures across the world for eternity have held many standards, such as 'stealing is wrong'. Where does that come from? Do me a favor look for yourself into whether the bible is historically accurate. So don't go bashing Christians with you silly arguements that have been refuted time and time again.
When you think about it, it's really funny what those people have come to - becoming Nigerian. What is the world coming to - the Nigerian Truro Church and the Nigerian Falls River Church. It leaves a foul taste when you say it. Well, if those people don't like the US Church, they are free to go live in Nigeria - if they prefer a third world dictatorship rather than a democracy, that's fine by Americans. One thing they can't expect to happen is for the Episcopal Church to allow them to hand over US property to a money hungry Nigerian archbishop. Keep Americans in America, and Nigerians in Nigeria.
It is not that the local churches have decided to leave the Episcopal Community. It is the Episcopal leaderships that decided long time ago to leave the flock. The message from the Episcopal leadership is in clear violation of the Word of God.
Those who support Robinson, the 'Green Mass' and the 'Women's Eucharist' that was based on a Wiccan liturgy - they have spent 6 years callling the conservatives every name in the book: bigot, homophobe, relic, neanderthal, primitives, dull, incurious, and the list goes on. Yet So why act surprised when these wrongly-accused 'bigots' and 'neanderthals' decide they don't want to stand around and take the hypocritical finger pointing anymore?
It is a good thing that they are seperating. Someone needs to give a wake up call to the evil that exists in the Episcopal church. Though tolerance for homosexuals and all of us sinners (which is everyone) is important as is pointed out, tolerance should never be mistaken for acceptance of the behavior. Homosexuality is an intrinsic evil and its acceptance in a church which claims to follow the word of our lord in the bible (which they do not as it is blantantly clear in the bible that such acts are imoral) is simply disgusting.
Both of those churches were established before the Anglican Communion in the United States. It will be interesting to see how the US Episcopalian tries to claim them from their parishioners because they elected to affiliate (and give offerings to) the national organization. It ought to make the lawyers happy at least.
It is interesting to note that where organized religion has embraced the trappings of secular humanism it is withering away, and only the more fundamentalist churches in the US seem to be growing. It would appear that the Episcopalian 'leadership' has strayed from the path, and is gradually losing all of its followers. Some are splitting.....others are merely melting away......
those supporting this split are not true Christians
homophobia is ignorance - period
religious doctrines against sexual freedom are evil
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