A Tragically Misinformed Ruling

Last week, we were given yet another WTH moment as in a move of judicial alchemy, Federal District Judge Barbara Crabb issued an opinion that ruled 36 U.S.C. 119 unconstitutional. This is the federal statue directing our nation’s President to proclaim the first Thursday in May as a “National Day of Prayer”. In short, this statue simply states:

“The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May that a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups and as individuals.”

Judge Crabb, in addressing 36 U.S.C. 119 opined:

“(The Statue) goes beyond mere ‘acknowledgment’ of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context.” She added, “Recognizing the importance of prayer to many people does not mean that the government may enact a statute in support of it, any more than the government may encourage citizens to fast during the month of Ramadan, attend a synagogue, purify themselves in a sweat lodge or practice rune magic.”

This case was brought to the Bench by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a minority group that has busied itself in attempting to eradicate any and all expression of faith in American public life. Taking the foundation’s stated goals, it would appear that they’re bent on not only erasing 400 years of history, and using judicial tyranny as a weapon against communities of faith.

Though the Justice’s ruling may have passed the Political Correctness muster, its an abysmal failure as standing up to both a constitutional and common sense muster. In this statue, there is neither “establishment” of a “state religious body”, nor preference shown to an existing faith community. It simply invites and encourages those whose faith ethos includes prayer to a Divine personage to lift up prayer on behalf of our Republic. If this proclamation were to encourage turning to the Bible, Torah, Koran, Book of Common Prayer, Talmud, Catholic Missal, et al, then the statue would fall on its face before the establishment clause. Too, there is absolutely no coercion in this proclamation. Justice Crabb’s assertion that such a statement may be seen as “threatening” to the atheist is little more than a straw man. The idea that this minority group might be discriminated against is simply claptrap.

Considering the tense atmosphere that has gripped our nation in these recent months, preventing the Chief Executive from issuing a “call to prayer” simply leaves on scratching their head. The Cuban Missile Crisis aside, I know of no more perilous days than the ones where we find ourselves. If ever there was a time to pray for our Republic, now would certainly be the time.

Wednesday Reverie

An Audio cocktail to wind down with... Enjoy.

Wednesday with Molotov

A young dude who truly gets it...

For those who mourn in Mountcoal, WV

From the Book of Common Prayer:

O merciful Father, who hast taught us in thy holy Word that
thou dost not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men:
Look with pity upon the sorrows of thy servants for whom
our prayers are offered. Remember them, O Lord, in mercy,
nourish their souls with patience, comfort them with a sense of
thy goodness, lift up thy countenance upon them, and give
them peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

May the Almighty dry the tears of those who've lost friends and family in Mountcoal, and across this land today. And may we who've been consoled, bring consolation to the brokenhearted.

Why I am Anglican - Part Two

History

About a month ago or so, I had the pleasure of being in the historic church of the The Falls Church to hear a discussion by Archbishop Robert Duncan, Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACANA). During this discussion, the Archbishop described Anglicanism as an “adequate” expression of Christianity. Without disrespect towards his grace, I disagree with this as he seemed to almost be apologizing. No, Anglicanism is a majestic and powerful expression of historic Christianity. I’d be both arrogant and foolish to say that it is the only legitimate expression; its one of several. Where the Archbishop seemed to give Anglicanism a C+ - B-, I would grant the expression a rock-solid A. Frankly, I don't see an A+ expression until the bride is joined to her bridegroom, and we’re perfected in the image of the Almighty.

I my first essay, I discussed the the journey to my Anglican identity. Between that fateful Easter Sunday in 2005 and today, much has occurred. There was the resignation and surrender of my ministerial license with the Church of God. There was a long and protracted period of discernment and formation. And finally, there was the ordination to the office of vocational Deacon in November 2009. Suffice to say, this was a slow and deliberate process that wasn’t entered into without counting the cost and considering the vows of an Anglican cleric. Today, in Easter week 2010, four reasons for my being Anglican are Leading, History, Historicity, and continuity.

I place “Leading” at the top of the list for two very important reasons, First, I’m absolutely convinced that the hand of the Almighty was very present on the path from point a to point b. Though there were no burning bushes or talking donkeys, there multiple providential events that given careful thought, reveal Divine fingerprints. Too, there was the watershed when the celebrating priest broke the bread at the Fraction. I was filled with an overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit; my eyes welled with tears and my heart cried “I’m home”. Despite the fact that the Episcopal church was listing to the left and taking on water, there was a clear sense of being at the center of God’s will.

This faith is a historic faith, with her roots sinking deeply into the post-apostolic era when the Gospel was carried to the British Isles by faithful missionaries. She gave birth to Celtic Christianity and thrived for centuries until being eclipsed and absorbed my the Roman expression of Christianity. Even so, Anglo-Christians seemed to flow along different lines than their continental and eastern cousins. It was within the Anglo-Christian expression where the Spirit moved on proto-reformers like Wycliffe and Tyndale.

My Roman brothers will contend that Anglicanism is rotted from its roots. They may contend that a lecherous murdering despot attended the birth of Anglicanism. True enough, that gout-ridden old goat was present but I contend that Anglicanism was born not because of Henry VIII, but in spite of him.

Again, providence was in play. While Mr. Tudor was playing the bad actor, the Holy One moved upon faithful men the likes of Doctors Cramner, Lattimer, and Ridley. Like their Reformation brothers on the Continent, they sought not to scuttle the faith, but to see it reformed of error and returned to a state of Biblical and Christian orthodoxy. Tides would ebb and flow. There would be a bitter blowback following the aborted reign of Lady Jane Grey and the ascent of the reactionary Mary of Tudor. Ultimately, the matter was settled in the reign of Elizabeth I. To this day, Anglicanism is expressed in three interwoven streams, these being Catholic, Reformed, and Charismatic.

The catholic stream sees Anglicanism as part of the universal church of Christ Jesus, in unbroken continuity with the apostolic church, and later medieval church. This is expressed through its subscription to the historic councils and creeds of the church, those being the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. The reformed stream has been shaped by the theology of the sixteenth century protestant reformation. This stream is probably best expressed in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. Its charismatic stream recognizes that without the leading, guiding hand of the Holy Spirit, its would be both completely ineffectual and powerless as a witness in the world.

So much of this flies in the face of American evangelicalism and pentecostalism, which finds its roots in Anabaptist thought and theology. Unlike the reformed or Anglican fathers, the Anabaptist fathers sought a complete break with the church. These seemed to think that the “gates of hell” had stood against the church, and the whole institution needed to be scrapped. In the contemporary, we see those who would try to reinvent the way they “do church”. There were even those in my former circles who seemed to convey the idea that the church lay dormant between the close of the Apostolic age, and the pentecostal revival in the 1880’s.

I believe that in this line of thought, much of American evangelicalism has unwittingly robbed itself of many blessings and unknowingly separated itself from historic, orthodox moorings.

Out of the Mouth of the Impeached Judge

In 1981, Alcee Hastings was charged with accepting a $150,000 bribe in exchange for a lenient sentence and a return of seized assets for 21 counts of racketeering by Frank and Thomas Romano, and of perjury in his testimony about the case. He was acquitted by a jury after his alleged co-conspirator, William Borders, refused to testify in court (resulting in a jail sentence for Borders).

In 1988, the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives took up the case, and Hastings was impeached for bribery and perjury by a vote of 413-3. He was then convicted in 1989 by the U.S. Senate, becoming the sixth federal judge in the history of the United States be removed from office by the Senate. The vote on the first article was 69 for and 26 opposed, providing two votes more than the two-thirds of those present that were needed to convict. The first article accused the judge of conspiracy. Conviction on any single article was enough to remove the judge from office. The Senate vote cut across party lines, with Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT) voting to convict his fellow party member, and Sen Arlen Specter (R-PA)(at that time) voting to acquit.

The Senate had the option to forbid Hastings from ever seeking federal office again, but did not do so. Alleged co-conspirator, attorney William Borders went to jail again for refusing to testify in the impeachment proceedings, but was later given a full pardon by President Bill Clinton on his last day in office.

I'm pleased to see that he is a man of consistency, and one who continues to make up his own rules as he goes along... Constitution be damned.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Why I am Anglican - Part One

My spiritual journey within the Christian faith over these brief 48 years have taken me on a path that would cause Marco Polo to chafe with envy. This path has, woven into its course, four of the seven Roman sacraments, a second baptism by “total immersion”, a total remonstrance of anything Roman, a decade behind a pentecostal pulpit, flirtation with the Calvary Chapel movement, and a brief exile within the Souther Baptist Convention. The sojourn took what might seem to onlookers as a sudden lurch left as on Easter 2005, I was found in St. Augustine-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Stafford Virginia. It was on that fateful morning that through tear-streamed eyes, I declared “I am home!”

Allow me to present some brief biographical information in order to lay down a foundation for this discussion.

The first ten years of my spiritual formation was solidly Roman Catholic. I received the sacrament of Baptism in the summer of 1962. There are many early memories of learning or reciting the prayers taught by all faithful Catholic parents. This responsibility lay on my mother’s shoulders as she represented the Catholic component to the family. My father was a cradle presbyterian was confirmed Anglican some years prior to my birth. At this young age, I knew nothing of Anglicanism and simply assumed that mommy took the children to mass and daddy was somewhere else on Sunday morning. It wouldn’t be until 1973/74 that I had my first cognitive exposure to the Anglican faith.

Though as early as 1980 I had identified myself as Episcopal, this was a nominal ascent at best. All of this would change as in the spring of 1981, I had a “conversion experience” with the Assembly of God church in Dover, Delaware. In these circles, I became exposed to some “church fathers” the likes of Jack Chick, Keith Green, Kenneth Copeland and the like. Chick, a benighted KJV-only apparent Independent Fundamental Baptist, had recently begun a series of screeds against the Roman Faith through his association with the con-man Alberto Rivera. Impressionable and ungrounded, I took his writings as gospel and violently repudiated my Roman Heritage, going as far as plastering windshields with Chick’s fish wrap. I can say, with some embarrassment, that after sinking roots in scripture and some garden-variety maturity, I can claim a counter-repudiation of Chick and his ilk. I do pray that the scales fall from his eyes.

Some years would pass and there would be a maturing in the Christian faith, along with real fruits of both repentance and the Spirit. While being a part of a Church of God (Cleveland, TN) church, I began to sense that the Almighty had placed a vocational calling on me. After a period of both personal and congregational discernment, Robin and I were set forth for the preparation for service. Following ministerial licensing in 1991, I served in what would be considerate curate and evangelistic venues for the next 12 years.

2001 was momentous year for many, but it also represented the beginnings of a theological crisis in my like. I want to stress that this wasn’t a crisis of faith; I was settled on what is constituent in historic, orthodox Christianity. No, rather, I began to see the faith statements, teachings and practical commitments of my church in the clear light of scripture. One by one, the shibboleths of the pentecostal churches began to melt in the face of Holy Scripture. Many of these were born out of bad hermeneutics or just cut from whole cloth. It became eventually clear that one licensed minister, without some extreme anointing or unction, could do nothing to lead that church out of error. I could no longer stand in her pulpits before her members, and feign acceptance of those things I knew to be patently wrong. Stepping away from my license and position, we went into exile in a Souther Baptist, then a Calvary Chapel. Retrospectively, these were so spiritually unsatisfying that they could be seen as “Church Lite” and a cult of personality respectively.

In the midst of this exile, the hand of the Almighty was at work. A man and his family had moved to the area, transplanted from the Charlotte area, and were quietly planting a mission under the auspice of the Diocese of Virginia. I didn’t know the man, but several times each week, I passed a billboard shilling for a church that billed itself as both “Episcopal and Evangelical”. Every pass of this sign caused a quickening within my spirit, and a healthy dose of conflict. Conflict? By this time (late 2004-early 2005), the Episcopal church well in its flat spin towards the earth. It had ordained a man who was clearly unqualified to serve as Bishop for a plethora of reasons. I couldn’t reconcile how or why the Almighty was drawing me towards on troubled church after being delivered from another. Happily, the Lord’s goad trumps clay feet; a series of events occurred that propelled us straight to Augustine-in-the-Fields.

At the end a 43 year journey, I knew that I was home and I knew definitively that I was Anglican. Today, I can type these words as a Vocational Deacon within a church and a faith that is mine.

In the following essays, I will attempt to express why I embraced this faith & why I pray for an Anglican resurgence in the US and in the World.

The Mighty Hand of God

My heart is heavy tonight. Though the event happened far and away, I can't get the horror of Jos Nigeria out of my head. The thought of the base, cowardly infidels slaughtering women and children followers of the way fills me with a roiling rage. There is a part of me that would pray that the Almighty would cause fire to fall from on high and consume these jihadists. Yet, I hear the voice of the Master saying "Andy, you know not what you ask for."

I'm also saddened by the fact that a young man is being remanded into custody and is starring down the barrel of a multi-year prison term in a Commonwealth that abolished parole. Though it was a "fair cop" and the young man has owned up to the offense, he will still step into an institution that either serves as a grad school for criminals, or a press that crushes men hoping to work out their debt to society.

In these sad scenes, the old Deacon (and the gentle readers) need to be reminded that regardless of the situation, the Grace of the Almighty is sufficient. The Grace, Mercy and Peace extended from on high is more than enough to daub the tears of Jos's survivors, and the family of that young man.

My prayers are lifted up for both circumstances; Intercessory prayers for family and survivors, and imprecatory prayers against those who struck the apple of the Lord's eye in Jos.

Prayers for Nigeria

Nicked from Google News...

JOS, Nigeria — UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Washington led calls for restraint on Monday after the slaughter of more than 500 Christians in Nigeria, as survivors told how the killers chopped down their victims.
Funerals took place for victims of the three-hour orgy of violence on Sunday in three Christian villages close to the northern city of Jos, blamed on members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group. Continued

Nigeria is often seen as a battleground of sorts for the seeming permanent impasse between conservative and liberal Anglicans is the US and Canada. The Church of Nigeria, has a strong beachead through the presence of majority Nigerian parishes and CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America).

While we westerners are busy defending or tossing brickbats at the Archbishop and his church, the saints within Nigeria are finding themselves in ever growing danger from jihadist infidels in the interior and northeastern corners of the nation. Eyewitness accounts from Sunday's slaughter of mostly women and children (Religion of Peace?... Bollocks!!) give clear testimony of the to the fact this is slaughter was the work (and fruit) if islam.

Western Anglicans, we need to speak in one voice here and loudly condemn this orgy of base cowardice.

I am, by logical extension, a Nigerian Deacon. These are my brothers and sisters, and yours too.