FIFTY YEARS OF ANGLICAN LIBERALISM
Enlarged August 31, 2017 (first published June 16, 2003)
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
BY DAVID CLOUD
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The worldwide Anglican Communion is composed of some 80 million members* in 164 countries, including the “mother church,” the Church of England, and the Episcopal Church in America. (* A large percentage of Anglican members are “invisible” because they are church members due to the fact that they were baptized as infants and perhaps catechized, but they do not participate in the functional life of the churches.) The Anglican Church is permeated with theological liberalism at every level. Consider some examples: In 1953, Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple, in his book Nature and God,
said, “... there is no such thing as revealed truth.”
In 1960, Episcopalian Bishop James Pike said the doctrine of the Trinity is
“outdated, incomprehensible and nonessential” (The Christian Century,
Dec. 21, 1960). (Billy Graham was a guest at Pike’s ordination on May
15, 1958 and praised the liberal bishop in glowing terms. Nine days
later, Graham invited Pike to sit on the platform during his
evangelistic crusade in San Francisco and had him lead in prayer. On
Dec. 4, 1960, Graham spoke in Pike’s pulpit at Grace Cathedral in San
Francisco.)
In 1961, Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey
said, “... heaven is not a place for Christians only. ... I expect to
see many present day atheists there” (London Daily Mail,
Oct. 2, 1961). That same year, Bishop James Pike called the virgin
birth of Christ a “primitive myth” and said that Joseph was probably
Jesus’ real father (Redbook
magazine, August 1961). He also said that Adam and Eve, the Garden of
Eden, heaven, and hell are myths. (Billy Graham invited Ramsey to the
platform during his 1975 crusade in Brazil and allowed him to speak to
the crowd (Fundamental Evangelistic Association News & Views, May-June
1975).
In 1963, Episcopal theologian Paul van Buren started the God-is-dead
movement with the publication of his book The Secular Meaning of the Gospel.
That same year, Anglican Bishop John Robinson said in his book Honest to God,
“The whole scheme of a supernatural being coming down from heaven to
‘save’ mankind from sin ... is frankly incredible to man ‘come of age.’”
In
1967, after heresy charges were brought against Bishop James Pike, the
Episcopal Church in America adopted a resolution declaring that all
heresy was out of date. That year, Canon Hugh Montifiore of Cambridge
University’s main church said, “Jesus might have been a homosexual”
(Christianity Today, Aug. 18, 1967). (Montifiore was the advisor for the
Cambridge Billy Graham Television Crusade.)
In
1968, the Church of England’s Lambeth Conference voted that Anglican
clergy are no longer required to agree to the denomination’s 39 articles
of faith.
In 1976, John Spong was ordained as the bishop of the
Episcopal diocese of Newark, New Jersey, even though he denied
practically every doctrine of the Christian faith.
In 1977,
Bishop Paul Moore of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in
New York City ordained lesbian Ellen Barrett as a priest. Barrett told Time
magazine that her lesbian love affairs gave her the “strength to serve God.”
In
1978, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said the Holy Spirit
shined through Mahatma Gandhi, who is a Hindu (St. Alban’s Cathedral,
Pretoria, South Africa, Nov. 23, 1978).
In 1980, Tutu said, “It may be that Jesus was an illegitimate son” (Cape Times,
Oct. 24, 1980).
In 1982, Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie said he was an agnostic as to
why Jesus suffered on the cross (Sunday Times Weekly Review, London, April
11, 1982). That same year, Episcopal Bishop John Spong, writing in the
Christian Century (Jan.
6-13, 1982), condemned traditional evangelistic and missionary
endeavors and said that biblical absolutism is “a vice.” (Billy Graham
was one of the honored guests at Runcie’s ordination in March 1980, and
Graham spoke highly of the liberal archbishop during his evangelistic
crusades in England in 1984 and 1989.)
In 1984, David Jenkins,
Anglican Bishop of Durham, described Christ’s resurrection as “a
conjuring trick with bones” (“English Bishop Calls Christ’s Resurrection
Conjuring Trick,” AP, St. Louis Post Dispatch,
Oct. 28, 1984). Jenkins also said, “The Christian is not bound up with
freak biology or corpses getting up and walking around” and “You don’t
have to believe in the virgin birth.” (On July 9, 1984, three days after
Jenkins was consecrated bishop, lightning struck his cathedral and
caused extensive damage. A spokesman for the fire brigade said that
though the roof was fully wired with lightning rods, none of them worked
that morning; the smoke detectors in the ceiling did not go off, even
though they were tested only a month before; and there was no thunder
accompanying the lightning. EP News Service, Dec. 21, 1984).
In
1984, the Associated Press reported that only 20 of 31 Church of
England bishops polled insisted that Christians must accept Jesus as
both God and man.
In 1985, the Jesus Seminar was founded with the
help of Episcopalians, including Marcus Borg of Oregon State
University. The Seminar claims that Jesus spoke only about 20% of the
things attributed to him in the New Testament and that the Jesus
described in the Bible is largely a fiction. They claim he wasn’t born
of a virgin, didn’t walk on the water, didn’t rise bodily from the dead,
and had no intention of starting a new Christian religion. They also
claim that there was no Jewish trial of Jesus before the crucifixion,
and the Jewish crowd did not participate in his condemnation.
In
1985 the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis ran an advertising
campaign which included this slogan: “The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
Regardless of race, creed, color or the number of times you’ve been
born.” Twenty Episcopal churches in the Memphis, Tennessee, area ran an
advertisement which stated, “In an atmosphere of absolute right and
wrongs, here’s a little room to breathe. ... the Episcopal Church is
totally committed to the preservation of open dialogue and undogmatic
faith. We exist to tell the world about a God who loves us regardless of
what we’ve done or what we believe. Even if we do not believe in Him,
He believes in us. We do not suffocate with absolutes.” This, of course,
is not biblical Christianity; it is gross apostasy.
When Edmond
Lee Browning was elected “presiding bishop” of the Episcopal Church in
September 1985, he “made it clear that he disagrees with the church’s
official opposition to the ordination of practicing homosexuals”
(Religious News Service, Sept. 11, 1985). He stated, “I would sincerely
hope the Episcopal Church can say that there are no outcasts, but
embrace all people and all cultures.” He was one of 20 bishops who
signed a 1979 statement calling the church’s position on gays “a cruel
denial of the sexual being of homosexual persons” and a “condemnatory
judgment” that made them second-class citizens in the church.
In
1986, Anglican Bishop David Jenkins got a standing ovation from the
general synod of the Church of England when he defended his doubts about
the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of Christ (Associated Press,
July 7, 1986). Jenkins called the God of the Bible “a cultic idol”
(Ecumenical Press Service, July 16-21, 1986).
In 1987, a panel of seven Episcopal bishops dismissed heresy charges against
Bishop John Spong.
In 1988, Spong published his book Living in Sin: A Bishop Rethinks Human
Sexuality.
He said, “The time has surely come not just to tolerate, or even to
accept, but to celebrate and welcome the presence among us of our gay
and lesbian fellow human beings” (p. 199). That year Spong visited a
Buddhist temple and said, “As the smell of incense filled the air, I
knelt before three images of the Buddha, feeling that the smoke could
carry my prayers heavenward. It was for me a holy moment for I was
certain that I was kneeling on holy ground” (“A Dialogue in a Buddhist
Temple,” John Spong, The Voice, Jan. 1989).
In
January 1989, a committee composed of five Episcopal bishops
unanimously dismissed a second set of heresy charges that had been
brought against Bishop John Spong. Toward the end of that year, Spong
ordained the first openly practicing homosexual to the Episcopal
priesthood. The man, Robert Williams, was diagnosed with AIDS less than
two years later.
According to Integrity, a pro-homosexual
Episcopal group, at least 50 practicing homosexuals had been ordained to
the priesthood by 1991.
In November 1991, John Spong conducted a
seminar in Bangor, Pennsylvania, entitled “Exorcising Fundamentalism,
Sexual Phobias and Other Demons.”
In 1993, a survey of nearly
20,000 Episcopalians showed that seventy percent believed “faithful
Christians can be sexually active gays and lesbians” (Christian News, Nov. 1,
1993). Seventy-five percent approved of living with someone of the opposite
sex without marriage.
In 1994, it was reported by the Sunday Times (July 31) in London that at least
100 Anglican priests are atheists who do not believe in “an external,
supernatural God.”
In
1996, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey lashed out at
fundamentalists who place the Bible “above and beyond human inquiry” (Christian News,
Dec. 9, 1996). That same year, the doctrinal commission of the Church
of England said hell is not a place of fire and eternal torment. And
Episcopal Bishop John Spong wrote in his paper that the image of God in
the Bible is “no longer operative” (ENI, Dec. 6, 1996).
In 1997, a survey found that 31% of Anglican vicars in England do not believe
in the virgin birth (Alliance Life,
March 12, 1997). Actually that figure would probably have been much
higher had the survey attempted to discover the number of vicars who
believe in the virgin birth only in a figurative manner.
In his 1991 book Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism,
Episcopal Bishop John Spong said the apostle Paul was “a self hating,
repressed homosexual.” That year, Spong ordained another homosexual
priest, Barry Stopfel. Lesbian Episcopal priest Carter Heyward delivered
the ordination sermon. When Stopfel’s male “lover” was introduced, the
audience applauded.
In 1998 Episcopalian Bishop John Spong said,
“I would choose to loathe rather than to worship a deity who required
the sacrifice of his son” (Christianity Today,
June 15, 1998). That same year, retiring Episcopal Presiding Bishop
Edmond Browning said, “It is time to move past using literalistic
readings of the Bible to create prejudices against our gay and lesbian
brothers and sisters” (Calvary Contender, May 1, 1998).
In 2002, Richard Harries, Anglican Bishop of Oxford, said Christians should pray
to “God the Mother” (The Times,
Nov. 3, 2002). That same year, retired Bishop Spong proposed a “new
Christianity,” which must be able to “incorporate all of our reality. It
must be able to allow God and Satan to come together in each of us. ...
It must unite Christ with Antichrist, Jesus with Judas, male with
female, heterosexual with homosexual” (World, July 8, 2002).
In April 2003, Episcopalian bishop Charles Bennison said that Jesus Christ was
a sinner (Worthy News, April 14, 2003).
On
June 7, 2003, the Diocese of New Hampshire elected the first openly
homosexual bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church USA. The
election was confirmed on August 5 by the General Convention meeting in
Minneapolis. Thirteen years ago the newly elected bishop, V. Gene
Robinson, broke his marriage vows when he left his wife and two young
daughters and moved in with his male partner, Mark Andrew. In a speech
in April 29, 2000, the day before a homosexual march in Washington,
D.C., Robinson said: “... we are worthy to hold our heads high as gay
folk--NOT because we’ve merely decided we are worthy, but because God
has proclaimed it so. That we are loved beyond our wildest imagining by a
God who made us the way we are and proclaimed it good. We proclaim
today that we too read our Bibles, and through the voices of its many
witnesses, we hear God’s voice--NOT saying ‘You are an abomination,’ but
rather, ‘You are my beloved.’ We lay an equal claim to a savior who
loves us as we are and who died to save us from our ‘manifold sins and
wickedness,’ which does NOT include our being gay. And we come here
today, laying claim to our full membership--our FULL membership--in the
Body of Christ.”
In June 2006, the national convention of the
Episcopal Church in America voted overwhelmingly against a resolution
stating “an unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the son of God, the
only name by which any person may be saved. More than seven tenths of
the House of Deputies rejected the motion. One of those who voted
against the resolution, a “Rev. McDowell” of North Carolina, told
VirtueOnline that “how one lives his life is the more important issue
than whether one affirms Jesus as Lord” and stated his conviction that
all men are already children of God.
The 2006 Episcopal
convention elected the ultra-liberal Katharine Jefferts Schori to be the
presiding bishop for a nine-year term. In her first sermon in that
capacity, she referred to “our mother Jesus,” claiming that he gave
birth to a new creation on the cross and implying that all are his
children. Later she told the Washington Post
that those who believe that the words of the Bible have only one
possible interpretation are guilty of idolatry. She said, “I’m
encouraging people to look beyond their favorite understandings”
(Douglas LeBlanc, “Two Minds in One Episcopal Body,” Christian Research
Journal, vol. 29, no. 5, 2006).
At
the same convention, Louie Crew and some other voting representatives
(called deputies) referred to the Holy Spirit as “she.” The homosexual
bishop Gene Robinson said the Holy Spirit “is that part of God that
refuses to be confined and contained in the little boxes we have for
God” (“Two Minds in One Episcopal Body,” Christian Research Journal,
vol. 29, no. 5, 2006). He said, further, “We don’t worship a God who is
all locked up in the Scripture of 2,000 years ago.” He quoted John
Fortunato, a homosexual author who claims that God visited him and
confirmed that homosexuality is fine if it is “loving.” He said, “God
smiled and said quietly, ‘How can loving be wrong? All love comes from
me.’”
On September 14, 2008, the Church of England officially
apologized to Charles Darwin for rejecting his theory of evolution. It
said: “Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth, the Church of England
owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first
reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still” (“Church
Makes ‘Ludicrous’ Apology,” The Daily Mail,
Sept. 13, 2008). The statement was written by Malcolm Brown, who sits
on the Archbishops’ Council, the Church of England’s managing body,
headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams). Its argument
that the theory of evolution is not incompatible with Christian teaching
is patently ridiculous. The Bible plainly says that the world was
created by God in six days, that the plant and animal life was made to
reproduce after its own kind, that man was made in God’s image, that he
sinned against God, and that the world was cast into fallen chaos. This
fits perfectly with the condition that we see in the world today as well
as the archaeological and geological records. If there was no divine
creation, if man is a product of evolution, then Genesis is a myth, the
fall is a fable, there is no purpose to life, no afterlife, and no
salvation. If the account of Adam is a legend, then Jesus Christ’s
apostles were deceived and the gospel they preached a delusion, because
they mentioned Adam seven times in their writings, describing him always
as a historical figure.
On May 16, 2009, the bells of the
Anglican Cathedral of Liverpool pealed out John Lennon’s atheistic song
“Imagine” three times. A spokesperson for the cathedral said, “We feel
this performance has inspired many people to think about their
relationship with God in their lives” (“Imagine That,” The Daily Mail,
May 17, 2009). Indeed, as we have seen, many members of the Anglican
Church have no problem imagining with Lennon that there is no heaven or
hell. John Lennon was anti-christ. His book A Spaniard in the Works
portrayed Jesus as El Pifico, a “garlic eating, stinking little yellow,
greasy fascist ****** Catholic Spaniard.” In this wicked book, Lennon
further blasphemed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the song “I
Found Out,” Lennon sang, “There ain’t no Jesus gonna come from the sky,”
and in his song “God,” he said, “I don’t believe in Bible. I don’t
believe in Jesus. I just believe in me.” In an interview with a British
newspaper Lennon defined God in these words: “All the energy is God.
Your own energy and their energy, whether doing god-like things or
ungodly things” (The Daily Sketch, Oct. 9, 1967). Lennon and Yoko Ono were
heavily involved in occultism. The books Hellhounds on Their Trail by Gary
Patterson, Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon by Robert Rosen, and
Lennon in America
by Geoffrey Giuliano describe how the Lennons purchased entire sections
of occult literature in bookstores; consulted tarot cards, astrologers,
and psychics;’ learned how to cast spells; sought magical power from
Egyptian artifacts; and believed in reincarnation.
Following a
vote in May 2009 by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to
approve the appointment of a homosexual pastor, Desmond Tutu, Anglican
Bishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, voiced his approval saying
that churches should not be discussing “who goes to bed with whom”
(“Desmond Tutu Endorses Homosexual Ministers,” LifeSiteNews.com, May 29,
2009). The homosexual pastor, Scott Rennie, was ordained the pastor of
Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen in 2008, but his appointment was
protested and brought before the denomination’s ruling body. Like Vickie
Gene Robinson, who was ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church of
America in 2003, Rennie divorced his wife to live carnally with a man.
This is a double sin. First, there is the sin of breaking one’s solemn
marriage vows before Almighty God. Second, there is the sin of sodomy.
Yet these men are so spiritually blind that they claim to hold the moral
high ground! (The Church of Scotland is not part of the Anglican
communion, but Tutu is.)
At its annual convention in 2012, the
Episcopal Church in America endorsed the blessing of “same-sex unions”
and voted in favor of “transgender clergy” (Rob Kerby, “Why Is the
Episcopal Church Near Collapse?” Beliefnet.com, July 13, 2012). Presiding
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori called God the “Big Man.”
In
2013, the Church of England “dropped its ban on gay clergy in civil
partnerships becoming bishops” and a study group proposed that the
Church “be able to recognize and celebrate same-sex marriages and
partnerships in church services” (“Church of England Proposes
Celebrating Gay Marriage,” Newsmax.com, Nov. 28, 2013).
In 2014,
V. Gene Robinson, the first openly homosexual bishop in the Anglican
church, announced that he is divorcing his “partner,” Mark Andrew. The
two “married” in 2010 when same-sex marriage was legalized in New
Hampshire (“First Openly Homosexual Episcopal Bishop Divorces,” OneNewsNow,
May 4, 2014). In 1990, Robinson broke his marriage vows when he left
his wife and two young daughters and moved in with Andrew.
A
YouGov poll conducted in August-September 2014 found that 17% of
Anglican clergy in England do not believe in a personal God. Only 24%
describe themselves as conservative in theology. Only 28% say that
Christianity is the only path to God. When asked “what you most rely on
for guidance,” only 12% said the Bible, while 33% said conscience or
reason. Retired Church of England clergyman David Paterson said, “I
preach using God’s terminology, but never with the suggestion that God
actually exists” (“Anglican Clergy Don’t Believe,” Breitbart, Oct. 28,
2014).
In a July 2014 interview, Rowan Williams, former
Archbishop of Canterbury, said that he practices a combination of
Buddhist/Catholic/Orthodox meditation practices. Each morning he repeats
the same prayer while performing breathing exercises. Called the “Jesus
Prayer,” it consists of the vain repetition of the words, “Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” He said that
“exposure to and engagement with the Buddhist world in particular has
made me aware of practices not unlike the ‘Jesus Prayer’ and introduced
me to disciplines that further enforce the stillness and physical focus
that the prayer entails” (“Rowan Williams: How Buddhism Helps Me Pray,”
The Telegraph,
London, July 2, 2014). He says the practice helps him detach himself
from “distracted, wandering images and thoughts.” Practicing mental
imagining techniques, he pictures the human body as a cave through which
his breath passes. He says that practitioners of these techniques can
achieve “advanced states” and become aware of an “unbroken inner light.”
Unscriptural contemplative practices such as the Jesus Prayer,
visualizing prayer, breath prayer, and centering prayer are exceedingly
dangerous. Many who practice these things end up believing in a pagan
concept of God such as pantheism (God is everything) and panentheism
(God is in everything). Through these practices people typically become
increasingly ecumenical and interfaith in thinking. Contemplative prayer
is a major building block of the end-time, one-world “church.” For more
on this see the book Contemplative Mysticism, which is available in print and
eBook editions from Way of Life Literature.
On
November 14, 2014, the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., which is
part of the Episcopal Church, hosted a full-fledged Islamic service. It
was co-sponsored by Muslim groups with links to terrorism such as the
Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of
North America (ISNA). The Muslims were kept out of view of crosses,
since they are not allowed to pray “in view of sacred symbols alien to
their faith” (“National Cathedral Holds Friday Muslim Prayers,” Voice of
America, Nov. 14, 2014).
The liberal Episcopal Church has
demonstrated that it views Muslims more favorably than traditional
Episcopal congregations that hold to the inerrancy of Scripture. Larry
Provost reported the following: “In Binghamton, New York the Church of
the Good Shepherd broke away from the Episcopal Diocese of Central New
York over the issues of Biblical inerrancy. The Church of the Good
Shepherd continued to thrive despite not being able to keep the church
property they had once worshiped on. After some time the Episcopal
Diocese of Central New York put the church property in question up for
sale. The Church of the Good Shepherd was interested in buying their old
property and offered the Diocese of New York $150,000 dollars for the
property. The Episcopal Church refused to sell the property to the
Church of the Good Shepherd. Instead they sold it to a Muslim group. The
Muslim group offered only $50,000 dollars for the property; $100,000
less than the Church of the Good Shepherd offered. The Episcopal Church
was not done; a clause was added that the property could not be sold to
the Church of the Good Shepherd in the future. Apparently the Bible
believing Church of the Good Shepherd is more offensive to the Episcopal
Church than Islam. Congregations that choose to remain with the
Episcopal Church, often tied to our national soul, tend to shun the
whole Bible yet have a particular fondness for accommodating Islam”
(“Islamic Services in National Cathedral,” Townhall.com, Nov. 14, 2014).
In
July 2017, the General Synod voted in favor of “offering special
services to welcome transgender people to the Anglican faith” (“Anglican
Church set to offer,” The Guardian, Jul. 9, 2017). The motion passed by a
margin of 284 to 78. Proposing the motion, Chris Newlands, from Blackburn,
Lancashire, said: “I hope that we can make a powerful statement to say that
we believe that trans people are cherished and loved by God, who created them,
and is present through all the twists and turns of their lives.” The God who
created man created him male and female, so a transgender person is rebelling
against God’s created order. Gender is not an accident of nature. Psalm
139 says God creates the individual in the mother’s womb according to
His plan.
Paul Bayes, the Bishop of Liverpool, said, “LGBT
orientation and identity is not a sickness. And LGBT orientation and
identity is not a sin” (“Church of England votes to explore transgender
services,” BBC News, Jul. 9, 2017).
On the other hand, the apostle Paul described homosexuality as “vile affections”
(Ro. 1:26), “against nature” (Ro. 1:26), “unseemly” (Ro. 1:27), “error”
(Ro. 1:27), and “a reprobate mind” (Ro. 1:28).”
