Neanderthals in Anglican Communion Not Just Anti-Gay

As if the controversy over gay clergy being fueled by knuckle draggers in the developing world - e.g., homophobe, Peter Akinola of Nigeria - is not bad enough, some of these assh*les in the Church of England are also anti-women. It's the Anglican version of keep them barefoot and pregnant. While I was only a member of the Episcopal Church for roughly a year and may not have standing to comment on another denomination, I view it as very sad that the rational element within the Church of England and the larger Anglican Communion are allowing themselves to be whip sawed by the worse elements within the Church who seem more focused more on who they hate and/or want to keep subjugated as opposed to preaching the Gospel and caring for those in need. I truly wish they'd tell the reactionaries in the Church of England (as well as Akinola and company) to go to Hell, literally and figuratively. The man is a monster, as are a number of his fellow African archbishops and bishops. My advice is to cast them adrift and have the western/moderate segment of the Communion keep its money and utilize it in non-wingnut areas. True, it may not be the most Christian thing to do, but eventually it might lead to an overthrow of the reactionary/Akinola crowd. Here are some highlights from the Independent on the increasing strife:

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Divisions appeared to widen yesterday between senior Church of England clergy on opposite sides of the debate over the consecration of women bishops, as the issue dominated the agenda at the General Synod.

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Traditionalists point to the Bible for justification. They say that since Jesus chose an all-male band of apostles as his first leaders, he must have seen the job as suitable only for men. Others simply protest that the Church of England would be going back on its founding principles. For a new generation of women in the church, however, the wait has already been too long.

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The Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin of Hackney, east London, was one of many female clergy who were concerned about the delay. "In 1994, when I was ordained in the priesthood, I remember a sense of excitement," she said. "I also remember the sense of overwhelming sadness etched on the faces of the women in their 70s who had served the Church over all their lives and were never allowed to exercise that ministry – and the great loss to the Church [that resulted].

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A related editorial piece in the paper sets out a number of my thoughts on not only the infighting within the Anglican Communion, but also for denominations like my own Evangelical Lutheran Church where there seems to be far too much pandering to the unloving hater crowd. If one is a true Christian, the hallmark of your faith should not be who you hate and loath as is the case with the James Dobson and Peter Akinola crowd, but rather love of God and love of neighbor. Too much is being yielded to those who have no love of anyone except themselves (and power and money). Maintaining unity at the price of casting aside what is morally right is simply wrong headed in my opinion. Here are some highlights from the editorial:

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The Church of England is fundamentally a theological peace treaty. As the Reformation plunged continental Europe into an ideological bloodbath, with Catholics and Protestants murdering each other by the million, England created a church that made the most remarkable claim for itself: both Catholic and Protestant. Sick of religious warfare, it invented the original big tent philosophy. Those of widely different philosophies could kneel together and worship God through the appropriately named Book of Common Prayer.

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Two things have undermined this vision: the British Empire and the internet. In the days of the Empire, missionaries from the English church made faith our most successful export. Global Christianity mushroomed in the 20th century, with Anglicanism leading the way. There are now 77 million Anglicans. But what did not get exported was the very idea of Anglicanism as a peace treaty. Transplanted into different soil, Anglicanism grew hotter and more ideological, re-exposing deep theological fissures between believers that the C of E had agreed to set aside for the greater good. With the growth in communications technology, these differences could no longer be hidden.

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Liberals were horrified to discover that some Anglicans were little more than fundamentalists in vestments; conservatives were horrified to discover that some Anglicans had gone native with secular humanism. Gay sex started it all. And the more the headlines rolled in, the more the cracks widened.

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In fact, the fight over homosexuality exposed a darker side to the English reticence to confront difference head-on. We all knew there were loads of gay vicars; we all knew there were many gay bishops too – but it was a form of knowledge communicated in nods, winks and church code. But the spirit of "don't ask, don't tell" kept many of them stuck in the church closet. It took an American bishop first to be open about having a partner of the same sex. Gene Robinson's crime was his honesty. Likewise, the idea that the gay "marriage" that recently took place in St Bartholomew's church was a first is simply not the case. There have been hundreds of such weddings. It's just that they have been – and what a very English word this is – discreet.

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But all that is over. The conservatives have decided that they can exploit the deep homophobia of many African Christians in order to stage a coup for the soul of the church. Suddenly, we are once again fighting the unresolved battles of the Reformation, with narrow-minded puritans seeking to impose their joyless and claustrophobic world-view on the rest of the church. The newly formed Federation of Confessing Anglicans (Foca) is seeking bridgeheads in wealthy evangelical parishes and the English ecclesiological peace treaty lies in tatters.

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All eyes now turn to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Is there anything he can do about these Focas? His track record isn't all that encouraging. Time and again, the Archbishop has given in to conservative ultimatums in the search for unity. And all that happens is that they come back for more. . . . But the current crisis needs him to care more about the condition of the Church of England. The open space that is the traditional mark of the English church is being undermined by a determined minority of well-funded extremists. It is time for him to fight back.