Eipscop-Alien Gospel and The Need For "Fences"

Upon reading a blog post by Mark Driscoll on TheResurgence, I learned that the Episcopal (Anglican) Church has elected a female leader for their denomination in Katharine Jefferts-Schori. The pro-feminism, pro-homosexual marriage Jefferts-Schori is the first female leader of the denomination which has been in existence for approximately 500 years. If you want to read a bit more on her, you can check out the link I provided above.

However, if you do check out the post Driscoll, you may want to also check out another link provided in the "comments" section of that blog, of an article on Jefferts-Schori by Time Magazine. (Note: I am no longer typing the "Jefferts-" part of her last name...considering her hyphenation is probably some feminist attempt to remain independent of her husband.) In said article, there is some very revealing information when Schori answers questions asked of her by the journalist. I will post the ones that I think are most alarming:

• Question: What will be your focus as head of the U.S. church?
  Answer: Our focus needs to be on feeding people who go to bed hungry, on providing primary education to girls and boys, on healing people with AIDS, on addressing tuberculosis and malaria, on sustainable development. That ought to be the primary focus.
• Question: The issue of gay bishops has been so divisive. The diocese of Newark, N.J., has named a gay man as one of its candidates for bishop. Is now the time to elect another gay bishop?
  Answer: Dioceses, when they are faithful, call the person who is best suited to lead them. I believe every diocese does the best job it's capable of in discerning who it is calling to leadership.
• Question: Many Anglicans in the developing world say such choices in the U.S. church have hurt their work.
  Answer: That's been important for the church here to hear. We've heard in ways we hadn't heard before the problematic nature of our decisions. Especially in places where Christians are functioning in the face of Islamic culture and mores, evangelism is a real challenge. [But] these decisions were made because we believe that's where the Gospel has been calling us. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has come to a reasonable conclusion and consensus that gay and lesbian Christians are full members of this church and that our ministry to and with gay and lesbian Christians should be part of the fullness of our life.
• Question: What is your view on intelligent design?
• Answer: I firmly believe that evolution ought to be taught in the schools as the best witness of what modern science has taught us. To try to read the Bible literalistically about such issues disinvites us from using the best of recent scholarship.
• Question: Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?
  Answer: We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.
• Question: What is your prayer for the church today?
  Answer: That we remember the centrality of our mission is to love each other. That means caring for our neighbors. And it does not mean bickering about fine points of doctrine.

Though she claims Isaiah 61 is her favorite passage of the Bible, I don't know that Schori has read the rest of Holy Scripture.

Her primary...PRIMARY...focus is to feed the hungry, heal diseases, and provide education. These are good things for Christians to practice, but are they our primary focus? What happened to the worship of Jesus? Is it not the desire for Jesus to be worshiped and for his glory to be known - through the gospel - that Christians take action in the world? Without our foundation, there will be no fire that sends us out to do good works, that people might see them and "give glory to our Father who is in Heaven", Christians become humanists rather than Jesus-lovers, and the renown of Christ is belittled.

If a diocese elects a gay bishop, then their so called "discernment" is nullified and no one should submit to their leadership. Yet, according to Schori, there is no discrepancy between a diocese being "faithful" and their election of a gay bishop.

If gays and lesbians are indeed full members of the church of Jesus, well...then we have been deceived by the Bible: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. 6:9-10. The funny thing is...Paul says in that passage "do not be deceived"...thus, we know Schori is out of bounds in saying just the opposite.

If reading the Bible "literalistically" (I thought it was just "literally", evidently we must add "istical") disinvites us from scholarship...so be it. We are not here to reject the literal teachings of the Bible for the sake of being invited into a scholarly fraternity.

Here's the one that burns me (and Jesus) the most: To say that Jesus is the only way to God is to put God in an "awfully small box." To make little of the sovereign plan of God - in which he crucified his own Son to appease the wrath he had against us, adopting us into the family of God, securing for us an eternity spent with him - by calling it a "small box" is indeed blasphemous. Katharine Schori looks at Jesus and says, "What you have done is not big enough for me."

And to sum up her prayers for the church, she says that she would have us remember that the centrality..CENTRALITY...is to love each other. All this time...2000 some-odd years...and the church has been centered around the wrong thing. Thank you, Katharine Schori, for clearing that up. Our center is no longer Jesus. Our center is no longer the gospel. Our center is no longer the hope of having Christ as your portion forever. Nope...our center is a vague definition of love (see this post).

I plead with all who read this: Build fences around the gospel of Jesus Christ, who bore your sins. Protect it by establishing truths from the Bible. Draw lines when it comes to doctine. And over time, those who would call you unloving for doing so will no longer have a gospel. They will have their "feet firmly planted in mid-air". Be careful that your passion for unity does not truncate your REASON for unity: the gospel of Jesus Christ. Mind you...we are watching as the Episcopal denomination has declared itself higher than the very Word of God. Remind you of anything.....?....

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?

"But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'

"...she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate."

- Gen. 3:1,5,6