I had half a post written about this brilliant piece by Louise Perry in First Things that you should try to find a quiet moment to read, but I’m going to pick it up later because there is some late-breaking tiny world of Anglican News.
The ACNAtoo group came out with a statement and I want to go through it as carefully as possible before any more time goes by. I apologize if this is too ‘inside baseball’ but what they say has implications for every other denomination, as usual. And, let me say before anything, that there won’t be any sarcasm falling from my fingers this morning. It’s one thing to be irritated by the Washington Post, it’s another to be testy with people within one’s own church. That’s not something I’m interested in. For me, this is deadly serious. Let’s look at what they say, and I’ll try to fill in some context, as I understand it, as we go along.
The piece is called “Statement of Commitment to LGBTQ+ Abuse Survivors.” You might be able to see the problem in the title alone. ACNAtoo has set itself to investigate cases of abuse and to care for survivors within the Anglican Church in North America. On the face, this is an admirable thing to do. No one wants bad things to happen and then be covered up. No one is interested in any church being a place where malign abusers can run free hurting the vulnerable and cast down.
The trouble is that there are disparate factions within the ACNA who haven’t been able to agree on a definition of “abuse.” What are we talking about? Who? What is the standard being employed to judge whatever anyone says happened? Into the mix has been added an actual case of a bishop brought up on charges and the ecclesiastical court having to meet and examine the evidence. All this is still ongoing, and yet ACNAtoo says they know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what happened and who is to blame. Knowing all, as they do, they are going to provide services and advocate for those whom the church is—they know—treating badly. I don’t have the knowledge, myself, to offer a fair opinion about any of the particulars regarding any of what I have, so obliquely, named, but I do share the frustration of many others that ACNAtoo has taken a hard-line position on it all, and is employing one kind of standard of “justice” that many many other people in the ACNA (me included) do not share.
Then, instead of trying to find unity in Christ, ACNAtoo announces its plan to care for “LGBTQ+ Abuse Survivors.” Ok, but we need to go back and agree on the definition of “abuse” and then, for reasons that are beyond me to understand, we need to talk, again, about the L.G.B.T.Q.+. acronym even though we don’t need to do that, because—well, the ACNA was founded because of this very issue. Let’s look at the statement itself:
ACNAtoo seeks to walk alongside and advocate for people who have survived abuse in the ACNA or at the hands of ACNA leaders. In particular, we desire to be a safe haven for any survivors who have not found loving support inside the ACNA church community. We also realize that sweeping statements of inclusivity are not necessarily reassuring to marginalized people. Simply aspiring to provide a safe space does not make you safe, as we know from most of us being survivors of abuse in the very contexts (church and home) where we should have been the most safe.
You may have noticed that I’ve been jawing on about Matthew 18 for at least two days, and so allow me to say just one more thing. Matthew 18, besides being a practical and godly way to maintain intimacy in any kind of relationship, is also a “justice issue.” It is the process by which the church decides on difficult cases of sin. It establishes the manner in which justice will be done inside particular congregations. So anyway, ACNAtoo is rejecting this biblical admonition in the very first paragraph. Instead of sin being dealt with in the particular church communities, and within the ecclesial structures that everyone has already agreed to, ACNAtoo is giving people a way out to go do something else found in no text of scripture. They, and they alone, apparently, are going to be a “safe haven” for anyone who doesn’t feel loved inside the ACNA. I am sure they don’t intend evil, but in this declaration, they are undermining the true unity and love of actual congregations. This is not acceptable. We carry on:
In particular, the fraught ACNA political landscape means that ACNAtoo’s public silence regarding sexual and gender expression and identity amounts to a false “neutrality” that could lead some abuse survivors to wonder whether it’s safe to reach out to us. So as we continue to meet and work with LGBTQ+ survivors, we feel compelled to publicly clarify ACNAtoo’s commitments to them.
I must once again direct you to this essential reading by John Ehrett. I know it sounds appalling to the modern ear, but no church is meant to be a “safe space” in the way that anyone today would understand it. Of course, churches should not be places of danger. You shouldn’t go there to be abused or mistreated. There is no open door for people who want to injure children, women, the cast down, the heavy-laden.
But also, God is not safe. If you come to hear the preaching of the word, and you are caught in some kind of sin, especially a sexual one, or one relating to your basic understanding of yourself, you are going to feel uncomfortable, nay, even unsafe. And that is how it should be. If the church is not able to preach against sin, there is no reason to bother, because no one will be able to be healed by the love and mercy of Christ.
ACNAtoo, as you can see, uses the l.g.b.t.q acronym without question. People who so identify, who feel themselves to have "gender expression and identity” are not being warned to turn to the loving arms of Jesus and forsake themselves for the mercy of the Gospel, they are being told to mistrust the churches they attend. They might be injured there. They might be “unsafe.” But ACNAtoo is standing in the breach to help. Again, this is dangerously unacceptable. Continuing:
Our team members hold a range of personal views on gender and sexuality, and we are a mix of sexual and gender minorities and people of primarily cisgender, heterosexual experience. Some in our group hold views that affirm same-sex marriage/partnerships and celebrate queer sexuality and a diversity of gender expressions and identities. Others in our group would fall within the range of theology held by those in communities sometimes called Side B, in which sexual minorities seek faithfulness within the Church’s traditions of celibacy and community while affirming marriage for one man and one woman. Some of us fall somewhere in between or are still discerning.
Who is “the team” for ACNAtoo? Let them make themselves known. This is not a Christian declaration. No one with any leadership in the Anglican Church in North America should “hold a range of personal views on gender and sexuality.” There is only one acceptable view—that sexual immorality is a sin and that you may not identify yourself with your sin. There ought to be no “sexual and gender minorities.” There should be not a single person who has any public platform who “holds views that affirm same-sex marriage/partnerships and celebrate queer sexuality and diversity of gender expressions and identities.” If you hold those kinds of “views” not only should you have no official role in the ACNA, you have actually set yourself outside the visible church. You are not even a Christian.
Observe also that the right-most position is “Side B.” If you want to read more about that, check out my long piece on Revoice from a couple of years ago, and my piece on Spiritual Friendship.
Whether or not your beliefs and experiences land within the spectrum of our team’s, if you are a survivor of abuse our commitment to you remains the same: to cultivate a space in which you will feel safe — and ultimately be safe — to reach out and share your story with us. To further clarify this commitment, we want to be clear that while the majority of our team members are Christians, and much of what we publish speaks to the relevant Christian context, we welcome equally survivors of any religious or spiritual affiliation, or no affiliation.
Why are there people who are not even trying to self-identify as Christian part of something that bears the name ACNA? Have these people been ordained by a legitimate ecclesiastical body and given an official blessing to carry on with this task? To whom are they accountable?
While our personal viewpoints are diverse, we all honor the dignity of people of minority sexual and gender experience and affirm that they belong in community with God and in the Church, if this is where they choose to be. We all reject the practice of reparative/conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ people and the theology underpinning it, including attempts to limit or police the self-expression of sexual minorities, such as the ACNA’s January 2021 Bishops’ Statement.
This is so shocking. The Anglican version of Christianity is not the kind where you can do what you like when you feel like it. Every single member of the church is placed under obedience to somebody. I obey my rector and my bishop. My rector obeys his bishop. Our bishop obeys the cannons of the church and submits to the other bishops. We do not have the freedom to reject anything our Bishops say. We can argue it out. We can ask for an exemption if our consciences our troubled. But when the rubber meets the road, in so far as those over us obey the scriptures, we obey them. When you factor in that what the Bishops said in 2021 is gracious, pastoral, Biblical, and faithful, for ACNAtoo to announce that they “reject” it is not the coup they imagine. This ought not to be.
We also acknowledge that the Church has frequently perpetrated or enabled the abuse of queer image-bearers. LGBTQ+ people have been threatened, harassed, shamed, ostracized, fired, bullied, beaten, murdered, and subjected to exorcisms, shock therapy, and other inhumane acts — often by people who identify as Christian. Christians have also driven the culture wars that target and vilify LGBTQ+ people, enabling the spread of vitriol and hatred under a banner of theological purity. We denounce the ACNA’s refusal to oppose atrocities committed against LGBTQ+ people, as exemplified by ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach’s recent appeal to cultural relativism to avoid condemning Uganda’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act.
This is slanderous. Where are the cases of anyone—anyone—in Anglican Churches in North America being “threatened, harassed, shamed, ostracized, fired, bullied, beaten, murdered, and subjected to exorcisms, shock therapy, and other inhumane acts” let alone “the Church.” Or do they mean that sometimes people caught in sexual sin are not allowed to serve on staff in churches? Or those caught in unrepented sin are removed from the Table for their own safety? Either way, don’t say “the Church” without being very clear as to what, exactly, you refer. This is an absolutely appalling accusation to make.
Again, you are free to disagree with the steps that Uganda has taken, but you cannot say that their actions are “evil” nor indicative of “cultural relativism.” On the contrary, the Ugandan law is a pushback against the spinning decadence of the West’s unmoored theological and cultural relativism. You don’t have to enact those kinds of laws here, but you cannot say that they are wicked. No law derived from the law of God can be called wicked.
We believe that abuse advocacy in the Church demands naming and denouncing these cruelties, including lifting up the voices of all survivors who wish to speak to the harm done to them. Though we hold an assortment of personal views on gender and sexuality, we are united in our position of love and care for all survivors of abuse, with a particular tenderness for those facing social marginalization on top of abuse trauma.
If you are a sexual or gender minority and you reach out to us, here is what you can expect:
We will treat you with love and dignity.
We will honor your abuse story and hold it in confidence.
We will respect and use your pronouns of reference.
We will not engage in any type of proselytizing or judgment.
If you prefer, we will connect you with one of the fully affirming advocates on our team.
If you choose to publish your story with us, we will not pressure you to tell it in a specific way with regard to theology, religious affiliation, identity, politics, or preferred terminology, so long as it remains respectful of the personhood of those who may disagree.
People who don’t hold to this particular view of sexuality, gender, and yes, even “abuse” by merely disagreeing do not therefore treat people without love and dignity. In fact, people who hold to biblical views on all these matters are deeply committed to loving people no matter what those people think or how they behave. The question is what constitutes “love.” Driving a wedge between the sinner and Christ, between the believer and the Church is not loving. It is not even kind. It is selfish. It is dangerous. It is an anti-gospel. It ought not to be done.
I pray that those who have written this statement will go back, will turn around, will repent of all they have written here and all they have done to fracture Christ’s Body. There is still time. There is always time while Christ is patient. May it be so.
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When I first heard of ACNAtoo they were a small group centered in the diocese of the upper Midwest, and few if any were ordained. From what I understand now, those in the ACNAtoo are mostly if not entirely women, and include 30 female presbyters. I hope that I am misinformed on that, but if I am not, those 30 women should either resign their orders or be brought up on charges by their dioceses - or perhaps diocese, as there is one in particular that seems to be in theological drift.
At any rate, this group is indeed guilty of prejudgment. They may think they know what happened, but the matter has not yet been properly adjudicated and we do not know everything about it. From their assertions, the situation doesn't involve one or two congregations in close physical proximity, but is more widespread than that.
Satan is working overtime here.
Dangerously unacceptable, indeed!
This, to me, is the heart of the matter:
"There should be not a single person who has any public platform who 'holds views that affirm same-sex marriage/partnerships and celebrate queer sexuality and diversity of gender expressions and identities.' If you hold those kinds of 'views' not only should you have no official role in the ACNA, you have actually set yourself outside the visible church. You are not even a Christian."