Area Church Leader Discovered to be Functional Atheist
Pope Francis, The C of E, my Cat, and A Fantastic Deal
I tried to post all day yesterday, but, tragically, two kids are in bed with a stomach thing, and my cat Gloria is ill. I spent the long hours going between children and cat, trying to make sure no one dehydrated or was abandoned upon death’s doorstep. Also, I’m not in peak health myself. Whatever it is I’ve had is dragging itself out. I hope very much that I’ll be able to post through the week, but that depends on how many people fall to the crud, how long it takes me to get my poor cat in to the vet, how long it takes me to finish my Christmas shopping, and whether or not I’m able to squeeze in the requisite hours of freaking out about the Christmas pageant.
I had been thinking I would spend the week offering tips and tricks for a great Christmas. I expect, however, that you already know what those are. Don’t get sick. Don’t let Advent Four and Christmas Eve fall on the same day. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t misjudge the length of December. Don’t get sick—oops, already said that one. Matt would add, don’t have pets who get sick.
So anyway, by some small miracle, I have two things. First, I happen to have come into the possession of some copies of my own book through no fault of my own. As a Merry Christmas to all my readers, if you’d like a signed copy of Nailed It—at cost plus shipping—I’d be delighted to send you one. Email or otherwise DM me. The books are $15 plus whatever it would cost me to send it to you. First come first serve! Great present for Epiphany! Start your Bible reading plan after the first of the year because who are you kidding anyway!
Second, I love that all the most be-hatted Christian leaders of the world—the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope—have all figured out together a clever way to avoid running afoul of the religious convictions of the moment, you guessed it, affirming those kinds of sexual relationships that the Bible says one must not affirm or bless—by making an infinitesimally fine distinction between blessing people inside such a relationship without actually blessing the relationship. This is peak 2023, the very veryiest functional atheism of all functional atheisms. For it keeps all the trappings of belief in God, without making even a nod in his general direction as if he really exists or might be serious about anything that he is saying. I particularly like this line:
“Thus, when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it,” the document said.
I wonder what “exhaustive moral analysis” looks like. I never like the word “exhaustive” because it sounds probably as awful as you might imagine. But that’s not really what happens. The person who is determined to be in a relationship with someone God has said no to doesn’t need to go through any lengthy process to discover the disconnect between his thoughts and God’s. It is usually clear in a matter of minutes. You feel your attraction, you hear the law, you think, “Oh no” and then you ask for forgiveness and to be restored to the fellowship of God’s people. Sure, there are deep dark sins that you might be able to hide from yourself and others that require the exhaustive work of moral analysis, either by yourself or with the aid of a pastor, but those are usually things like bitterness, pride, and envy. The sex one is not usually that hard to identify. Of course, the sins of the sexual self, today, weigh a great deal more than all the other ones because they have come to be associated with what it means to be a flourishing person. For the church or anyone to say, “You can’t have a sexual relationship with that person and still be in the church” feels like a burden too heavy to endure. But that is not God’s fault, that is ours for trying to make ourselves into God.
But what even is a blessing, really?
But it says requests for such blessings for same-sex couples should not be denied. It offers an extensive and broad definition of the term “blessing” in Scripture to insist that people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy shouldn’t be held up to an impossible moral standard to receive it.
Right, see, being denied your preferred relationship is “an impossible moral standard.” Not getting to have sex with someone to whom you cannot be married is impossible. And as you know, with God, only a few things are possible. Obedience to his own commands is not something that God can bring about by any of the means of grace he has given for just such a time. Goodness, what is a “transcendent relationship with God?” Is that like praying, going to church, taking communion, and finally going to heaven? Or is it just the good feelings you have when you think about yourself? The document wants everyone to be absolutely clear:
“For, those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection,” it said.
Funny, that. No one has ever thought that to receive the blessings of God you have to have “prior moral perfection.” What you did have to have was a penitent and contrite spirit. You had to go to God and say you were sorry for not having prior moral perfection, or even current moral perfection, and what happened then is that you were forgiven because God himself provided the sacrifice to atone for your lack of moral perfection. Through the lifelong work of repentance and restoration, gradually you have less and less lack of moral perfection. I’m assuming that a lack of “moral perfection” is some oblique reference to sin. If that’s what we’re calling it now, that’s cool. I don’t want to be behind the times. Anyway, just one bit more:
“There is no intention to legitimize anything, but rather to open one’s life to God, to ask for his help to live better, and also to invoke the Holy Spirit so that the values of the Gospel may be lived with greater faithfulness,” it added.
I wonder what “the values of the gospel” are? Is that like the good news of Jesus being proclaimed to all the nations and people of the world? No wait, I feel like somewhere it says that the “gospel” is that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. This is certainly valuable information and does ultimately lead a person to live with greater faithfulness. It’s just that opening up one’s life to God—particularly this God—will mean leaving sinful sexual relationships and going on into greater faithfulness without them.
The road to capitulating to the zeitgeist, as we are daily discovering, is paved with lovely intentions to open up one’s life to God. No one wants anyone to be unhappy. And being told that what you most want will separate you from the kingdom of God forever is certainly a recipe for feeling deep levels of unhappiness—at first. It’s just that, God does exist and, because he made us, he knows what will make us happy forever. And that isn’t the worship of the self. That isn’t the devouring of other people. That isn’t twisting the gift of marriage into something else that mimics it but can never accomplish its fullness.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the wreckage of the Church of England, after making the very same distinction Pope Francis is trying to make, went ahead and “blessed” two women who are also, unaccountably, church clerics:
Rev Dotchin held their heads and said: “We give thanks for Catherine and Jane, to the love and friendship they share, and their commitment to one another as they come before you on this day, trusting you as the keeper of all goodness, strengthening their love by your love, and gladdening their hearts with your joy.”
He added that they are continuing on a “pilgrimage graced by your (God’s) blessing, with you as their companion in the dark where they can rejoice and hope in sustaining their love for all the days of their lives”.
Ms Bond, wearing a mustard yellow jacket and black trousers, and Ms Pearce, in a grey jacket and black patterned skirt, smiled as they stood in front of the congregation and received a round of applause initiated by Rev Dotchin.
I pray every day for all these leaders of churches walking in darkness will suddenly see a great Light, that those dwelling in the land of the shadows, upon them a light will shine. For the Lord, he is God, he is from everlasting and not a single thing you think you need to be happy can possibly compare with his goodness and mercy.
Have a nice day!
I’d love one of those copies of Nailed It. Not sure how to dm or email you 😩
"Is the Pope Catholic?" Not this one - but he is very much a Jesuit, extremely artful in the skill of casuitry.