False Choices

A video address by Fr. Hart - click here.

Conversion of St. Paul January 25

             
      CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR THE LINK

THE ONE SERMON OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

For the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

John 2:1-11

Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

Short and to the point, the Blessed Virgin Mary preached her only sermon. It is a classic. But, many modern Christians confuse what Jesus tells us to do with the instructions that come from the world, the flesh and the devil.

For example, many modern American Christians attend seminars or study teaching on how to become “leaders.” The great emphasis on leadership has been attracting Christians for over thirty years now. Everyone wants to be a leader.

But, Jesus said, “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  (Matt. 20:25-28)

For another example, in the great parable of the Sheep and the Goats before the throne of judgment (Matt. 25:31-46), our Lord told us how to treat the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison; indeed, to treat each one of the least of these as we would treat the Lord Jesus Himself. He tells us that He will take personally how we treat each one of the least of these, and that it will be the criteria for the final judgment. But we ignore Jesus in ignoring them. We think the Final Judgment will be a final exam in theology, or about whether or not you have been in the Onest and Truest of the all the One True Churches.

Meanwhile, desperate asylum seekers are imprisoned as if they were all dangerous criminals at the border of the United States, and often their children were even taken away. The poor in our country are denied healthcare and medicine. Children are murdered in the womb for convenience as a big business with lots of profit. Poor people face greater danger of incarceration due to corporate (for profit) prisons that corrupt the legal system. Great amounts of American wealth go to the weapons industry, providing such countries as Saudi Arabia the means to commit mass murder of noncombatants. I am glad that many American Christians are concerned about one of those categories (the child in the womb). But it is wrong that they merrily accept and even enable the evils done to those others, endorsing and parroting rationalizations that dehumanize so many ones among the least of these His brethren – His brethren by means of His Incarnation; “The Word was made flesh.” (John 1:14)  

Furthermore, when the poor and destitute call churches, or ask Christians for help, many merely provide rationalizations, worthy of the most greedy Libertarians, to silence the voice of the Lord in their consciences. Instead of being concerned about those who suffer needlessly and face premature death from poverty, they concern themselves only with their own advantages. The world, the flesh and the devil have arguments to provide rationalization. But what did Jesus say?

“Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” (Matt. 6:42)

For another example, Jesus told us to patiently suffer the persecution of an unbelieving world.

“…they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.  And it shall turn to you for a testimony.  Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:  For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.  And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:12-19)

But many modern American Christians are sure that they know better than Jesus. They embrace and support political strength as a means to be delivered from the cost of taking up the cross to follow Christ as His disciples. In choosing political power to this end, many of them have been deceived already. This is why their love is waxing cold in the face of Christ among us as hungry, thirsty, a stranger, sick or in prison. Especially, many choose to hate the presence of Christ in the stranger because they have swallowed the political propaganda of fear.

“Perfect love casteth out fear.” (I John 4:18)

“Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deut. 10:19)

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (II Cor. 13:5)

“If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

As the Blessed Virgin Mary said in her one and only, and very profound, sermon: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.”

Part of the ministry of www.saintbenedicts.net

Jill faces possible amputation of her only remaining leg (Doctors are deciding). Her S.S.I. case remains in seemingly endless appeal hearings. She is a mother of two with no income. When she is out of the hospital she will need to buy medicine and food. Please help if you can. Click on the link. https://www.gofundme.com/f/1vkvdzp4k0?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&rcid=4398194b746e4ed68091e1bafde0aef7

MISSION POSSIBLE

The following was delivered during the G4 Joint Synods in Atlanta GA. on Jan. 15, 2020

Talks About Mission for the 2020 Provincial Synod of the Anglican Catholic Church

The Rt. Rev’d Stephen C Scarlett, Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the Holy Trinity

Bishop Stephen C. Scarlett

Talk #1.

I. The Main Challenge We Face

I want to thank Archbishop Haverland for the opportunity to talk for a few minutes about the mission of our church. The topic of mission needs to occupy a larger and preeminent space on our agendas. We have been encouraged over the last few years by our movement towards unity. Unity is important and essential to our mission. We've been handicapped by both external and internal disunity and acrimony. In his high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus linked unity and effective mission (17:21). However, while our unity is a necessary foundation, it will not, in and of itself, create an effective mission. Thus, organic unity within the G-4 is not our most pressing challenge. Our most pressing challenge is to discover and develop our mission. 

We are facing significant challenges. Many of our churches are aging and are not reproducing themselves with new spiritual offspring. However, when we gather as a church to do our organizational business we do a rather efficient job of ignoring this challenge. I want to urge and exhort us to change our priorities and place prayer for mission and dialogue about mission at the top of our agenda from now on.

II. The Origin of Our Challenge

It is easy to misinterpret our mission challenge as a criticism of the ministries of our churches. We have  good and godly people in ministry who are doing good and godly work. Our problem is that the mission we started with as a movement is no longer our mission. We have not adjusted to the changed cultural environment. Our original mission was to define and defend Anglican Catholic orthodoxy and differentiate ourselves from the heresy that arose in the mid-twentieth century within the Anglican tradition. The heroes of our movement took a stand and paid a price for the Truth. Because of that heroism, there was a church for me to return to when I went through a conversion in college in 1981. Because of that heroism we have a church and movement to sustain us as we wait for the fulfilment of  our blessed hope (Titus 2:13).

But this cannot be our primary mission any longer. We now know who we are, and we are who we are. The question now  is: How are we going to bear witness in more effective ways in the new world in which we find ourselves? This new world is dramatically different than the world we started in. How are we going to develop an effective ministry in it? How are we going to reach the lost and wounded of our culture? How are you going to reach at least some of the lost and wounded in the neighborhood or region of your church? They don’t know what an Anglican Catholic is and they don’t really care—unless an Anglican Catholic will love them and introduce them to Christ and to the community of Christ’s church.

When I began my ministry in the 1980’s, you could still develop a church by advertising our unique strengths to people who were looking for a church. You cannot do that in most places anymore. Fewer and fewer people are looking for a church. For many, church is either irrelevant to their lives or, worse, is a source of a deep wound because they have been hurt by a church. How do we reach out to people in this new setting? 

III. A Modest Proposal for a Starting Place

If we are honest, we will admit that we don’t know what to do. This can be a good thing if we embrace our vulnerability and our need to trust God in new ways. Moses did not know what to do when his back was to the Red Sea and his eyes were on the thundering herds of approaching Egyptian soldiers. But he found a new pathway forward for his people because he listened to God, prayed to God, and trusted God (Exodus 14:10-15).

I want to make a modest proposal for a starting place. Because we do not know what to do, we need to establish a corporate practice of fasting and praying for the mission of our church. In Acts, the early church waited and prayed in the upper room before the Holy Spirit came and led them into ministry (Acts 1:12-14). We need to enter into an extended season of church-wide prayer and fasting for the development of our mission.

About seven or eight years ago, Bishop Wilson visited our diocese. He told us, “If you want your churches to grow, you must fast and pray.” We listened and established Wednesday as a day of fasting and prayer for the mission of our church. We ask our people to fast in some way on Wednesday and to pray a "Litany for Mission" that we developed. I propose that we make this a practice of our entire church; a day a week on which we fast and pray for our mission. The activity of fasting and prayer for mission will put the topic of mission on the map of our church. It is a way to begin; something we can really do. If we cannot commit to regular prayer and  fasting for our mission, it means we are not serious about it.

As we fast and pray, we need to listen for God’s voice and  guidance and discuss the new things we might do; the new doors we might open into our churches; the new ways we might reach out to those who are not now our members; the new good works we might do. Prayer for mission and discussion about church renewal and mission need to be regular, weekly activities of our church. And these need to be the central focus of our energy when we gather for synods.

Talk #2

I. A History of Our Discussions and the Error of Our Approach

It is not as though we have never discussed the topic of mission. We used to have what were called “Evangelism Congresses.” These met in the off years between our synods. They were reasonably well-attended for the three or four times we met. They were based largely on the church growth literature, which had some applicable points, but they failed to ignite any significant renewal of our mission. One problem with these discussions was that the church growth literature is too deeply and subtly enmeshed with the consumer and marketing culture.

Part of the problem is the motive. Why do we want our churches to grow? My unscientific research has observed a sort of overarching attitude, which might be summarized in this way: We want our churches to grow because we like our churches and want them to continue. I was at one church where a vestry member said, “We need some new members to help us pay the bills.” The problem is that no one wants to join our churches to help us pay our bills.

Of course, we want people to know Christ. But there is a subtle way in which our mission has been informed, the unspoken truth that we want people to come and help support this thing that is really valuable to us. We want them to help us. However, true mission works in the other direction. In authentic mission, we want to share Christ with others. Christ has changed our lives, forgiven our sins, made us members of his Body, and given us a meaning, purpose and a goal or telos for life. We want others to know him as we know him. We want others to have these things also. True mission is a desire to share Christ with others, not merely the recruitment of members to help sustain us.

II. Some Foundational Questions.

Before we can share our faith with others, before we can give what we have, we must first ask: “What do we have?” We tend to answer this question theologically. We have the faith defined by the councils and creeds. We need to begin to answer this question experientially. How do we experience the redeeming and sanctifying presence of Christ as a community? What is the experience of Christ that we want to share? As Alexander Schmemann says, “Of what are we witnesses?” (For the Life of  the World, Ch. 1, p. 21).

An honest assessment of our churches reveals that before we can develop a mission, we must develop our own spiritual life as a community. If we are to be witnesses to the power of Christ in our lives, then we must have a communal experience of that power. If we want people to come, there must be something powerful and compelling to invite them to come to. It won’t work to develop a great marketing campaign to get people to come to church if, when they come, they find a small group of discontented people who seem mostly to  complain about the world and each other, and whose mission is mainly is to keep the doors open.

III. A Reorientation of Ministry Around the Theology of the Remnant

Many of our churches need a reorientation of ministry. We need to start by focusing on our own spiritual formation. The truth is that while our church has its holy people, even its saints, we have been handicapped by spiritual and emotional immaturity among our clergy and lay leadership. Our greatest need is for clergy and lay leaders who are willing to reorient the ministry of our churches around spiritual formation. We need to develop ourselves in order to develop our witness and mission.

This is a reorientation we began four years ago at St. Matthew’s Church and in the Diocese of the Holy Trinity after some profound experiences of missionary failure. I realized that our mission efforts had been undermined by the emotional and spiritual immaturity of our missionaries. Rather than being witnesses to Christ in the world, they tended to succumb to the pressure and anxieties that came upon them in the church. This is a church-wide issue.

We began to reorient our ministry around developing our life of prayer and focusing on emotional health. Our new approach is heavily indebted to the Anglican writer Martin Thornton, especially in his book, Pastoral Theology, A Reorientation (with needed adaptation because our setting is different from his) and to something called Family Systems Theory, which is having a growing impact on many churches. It turns out that other churches are facing the same issues. We have channeled our energies away from marketing campaigns and promotion and towards the spiritual formation of what Thornton calls, “the Remnant.” The Remnant is not the grumpy core of traditionalists who are mad at the world. The Remnant is the core group in the church that is willing to be serious about its own life of prayer and spiritual growth. According to Thornton, this Remnant has a vicarious and leavening impact on the larger church and the world. It is the foundation for authentic mission.

We developed a year-long class that is focused on two things. Developing one’s life of prayer in the community in the church and cultivating emotionally healthy ways of interacting with other people—developing healthy ministry. The year-long class leads into a second year and a third year and culminates in membership in our diocesan “Order of the Holy Trinity.” We currently have sixty people participating at one stage or another and nine members of our diocesan order. I’ve never made any public announcement in church about these classes. All participants have been personally invited to participate. I’ve been influenced by a seminary professor who said, “Jesus did not ask for volunteers. He called people to, ‘follow me.’”

This approach has substantially reoriented our church around interior spiritual formation leading to outward oriented mission. Though the details of this approach may vary depending on the local setting, I believe that this framework fits our tradition as a way to reorient our ministry towards mission. It creates a parochial Benedictine spirituality in which mission is focused on hospitality and building relationships.

IV. A Mission Retreat Next Year

We want to share with others what we have learned because we believe that these themes are essential to developing the mission of our church. We are looking for conversation partners. We are not interested in starting a campaign to get the whole church excited about it. If it sounds unattractive to you or inapplicable to your situation, that is  fine. In keeping  with theology of the Remnant, we are only looking for those who are serous about mission and are willing to dedicate the time and effort that will be necessary to change their church culture. If you think you might fall into the category, talk with me.

We want to have a mission retreat next year, at around this same time, that focuses on this approach. We would like this retreat to be held at a location that is accessible to people across the country. We would like this retreat to become a regular gathering every other year when we do not have a synod. Let us know if you are interested in participating with us or if you have any questions. Thank you.

                                                         

Urgent need for food

Part of the ministry of wwwsaintbenedicts.net
Litasha Louise is severely disabled for medical reasons and has three children to feed. They are out of food. Like so many others, her family’s food stamps have been cut back to the bone. Please donate to help us get them food right away.  CLICK HERE TO HELP

Baptism of Jesus

Sermon preached by Fr. Hart at St. Benedict's ACC on January 19, 2020, the Second Sunday after the Epiphany. CLICK HERE. 

First Sunday after the Epiphany 2020

Sermon preached by Rev. Dr. MichaelCarreker at St. Benedict’s ACC on January 12, 2020 * First Sunday after theEpiphany.  CLICK HERE

Part of www.saintbenedicts.net
One family needs $89.64 to keep their water from being cut off, paid no later than 5:00 pm Monday December 16. Needs for food and medicine continue. It doesn’t get any easier for them this time of year. CLICK HERE 

His Words and Creatio ex Nihilo

2ndSunday in Advent 2019 - Sermon preached by Fr. Hart on December 8, 2019 at St. Benedict's ACC in Chapel Hill NC. CLICK HERE

Hart thunders like Amos against cruel, incoherent religion.

Belief in an eternal hell relies upon a literal, which is to say static, reading of Genesis. To preach fire and brimstone one must first conjugate the triune God’s deliberation (“Let us make humankind in our image”) into the past tense. Creation from nothing, as church fathers like Gregory of Nyssa saw clearly, does not refer to God’s primordial act but to an eschatological one which witnesses to God’s ultimate—as in teleological—relation to creation.

Read it by clicking on the image 

THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

Sermon preached by Fr. Hart on Nov. 24, 2019 at St. Benedict’sACC. CLICK HERE

The Unforgiving Servant and You

Sermon preached by Fr. Hart at St. Benedict's ACC on November 17, 2019 - The 22nd Sunday after Trinity. CLICK HERE.

Benevolence Fund Update

Part of the work of our church; www.saintbenedicts.net
The needs continue, and we are already trying to help a very needy family with medicine and food. We would also like to provide them with a Thanksgiving dinner.

https://www.gofundme.com/6vdptx-benevolence-fund?utm_medium=more&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_nacp+share-sheet&rcid=e8f4d2d495024acb9fc86d117d4bcec7

ALL SAINTS DAY NOVEMBER 1

Rev. 7 * Matt. 5: 1-12

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

I recall my very first solar eclipse, probably about 1961 or 1962, when I could not have been more than four years old. I remember it well. My mother was very careful to tell me not to look directly at the sun, because it was very possible that I could go blind if I did. During a solar eclipse, we can look at the sun, not realizing that the infrared rays are every bit as destructive to the optic nerve as ever. Our eyes cannot take those rays in their full strength. So, I was told not to look up when the sky would darken, but to look down and so preserve my eyesight.

A cousin, who lived across the street, came over with a cardboard box, that, if worn like a helmet over the head, due to a hole cut in the back and a white sheet of paper as a viewing screen placed in front, could be used to see the reflection of the eclipse. It was a partial eclipse, and I recall that on the white screen I saw the sun with a dark round shadow in front of it, causing the reflection of the sun to appear like the moon, when it is only partly visible. The sun appeared shaped like a quarter moon, reflected inside the box-helmet. Even more strange, even before and after that contraption was on my head, on the ground a thousand such reflections appeared, little quarter-moon images of the sun. We could not look directly at the brightness of the sun with any safety, but we could look at the endless reflections all over the ground. I have never seen that particular effect from an eclipse on any other occasion since that day. But, I cannot forget what it looked like.

That is an illustration for us. In our condition as fallen creatures, subject in this world to sin and death, we cannot not look upon the undiluted glory of God in its perfection. It is not a danger, because it cannot happen; for if it happened we would be unable to endure it. It is true that Christ said, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.” He accomplished this by His coming to us as a man. Even on the Mount of Transfiguration it was His glory shining through the safe filter of His humanity that shined with the brightness of the sun in its strength. He made known His divine presence by everything He said and did, especially by defeating death when in His resurrection He ushered in immortality. But, never did He unleash on anyone a perfect glimpse of His divine nature, for to do so would not have been merciful, but rather terrifying. So, He took human nature in its fullness, and this became a part of Him forever by a loving and gracious act of His will. Human nature served as His icon, a perfect image of the Father for us to see. Similarly, His Presence here today is very real, but made food for us under “these shadows mean” of bread and wine.

We do hope to see God some day, and not only in the human nature taken by the Son, though never will it be set aside; And whenever we see God we cannot do so without seeing Christ Jesus, for the Trinity cannot be divided or dissected. The goal and hope of Christians is to see God as our Lord Jesus said: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." This one little line is the reason why this passage that opens the Sermon on the Mount is the Gospel for the Feast of all Saints. The Church long has used the word “saints” to speak of those we believe to have entered already into the perfect state that allows them to be granted the Beatific Vision. Its popular usage, though not its Biblical meaning, has become limited, over time, to speak of the Church Triumphant: That is, to see God as God, the final perfect destiny of the human creature by grace.

Because we are not ready for the Beatific Vision, we must, for now, see God the way I saw the sun during the solar eclipse in my childhood. What we see, that is the sight of God in Jesus Christ, is real. And, real also is what you see when I hold the Sacrament up and tell you to Behold the Lamb of God. We see that reality in a way given to us by God’s love, because He saves us by showing Himself. Jesus said to Nicodemus:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:15-17).”

We see Him in His human nature, lifted up on the cross. We see Him as the Lamb of God, ourselves not worthy that He should come under our roof, but asking that He speak the word only, and our souls shall be healed. Yes, what we see is real. And, what we see is granted to us in a way that saves us rather than destroying us, for He came to save us. Our sinfulness, our weakness and our foolishness is all taken into account by the Father, and so what remains hidden for now is due to His mercy. The fullness of Godhead dwells in Christ bodily, and the Holy Spirit is really and truly present within the Church- within us with all His gifts. But, our destiny is to behold the sun in its strength when our eyes are made able to endure the brightness, able to endure seeing God as God. We are meant to know Him as He is, to behold throughout eternity the Beatific Vision, a vision not stagnant because He is infinite, and our knowledge of Him will be ever perfected more and more, endless knowledge, joy and love.

Yet, we must never presume on God’s grace. Hell is the denial of this joy; not that God denies it to us, but that we deny it to ourselves unless and until His work is perfected.

Think of the words we call the Summary of the Law. The first and great commandment is the impossible call to be saints, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind, and then to love your neighbor as yourself. When you look at the Epistles of Saint Paul, in the opening of the Epistle to the Romans and the first Epistle to the Corinthians, you see that all of the people who belong to the Christ’s Body, the Church, are “called to be saints.”

I like the King James Bible, with that accurate translation “called to be saints.” That “called to be” part is missing from the understanding of a good many Protestant revivalists, fundamentalists and Pentecostals. They teach that every Christian is a saint just by, as they like to say, “accepting Jesus.” Meanwhile, the opposite error belongs to those who seem to think of saints as if they were comic book superheroes, people with special abilities like Superman born on Krypton, or Spiderman with his radioactive bug bite that enables him to do amazing things. We mere mortals cannot be like them, and it’s best just to be normal.

Well, the truth is that a saint is a holy person. That is what the word means. And, the truth is that everyone who belongs to Christ has the vocation to be a saint. We have not yet arrived at being perfected as saints, but neither are we supposed to leave that to a special class of superheroes. The scripture commands us to “follow on to know the Lord (Hosea 6:3).” As you read the word “saints” in the Bible, it is not limited to the Church Triumphant. In fact, it includes you and me in the here and now of this life; we were set apart, sanctified to God, by our baptism. So, in one sense we are already saints, that is, each of us is a holy person; in the other sense, that of vocation, we are called to become holy, called to be saints, by the continued work of the Holy Spirit through cooperating actively with His grace. That is the meaning of the sixth chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.

The most important thing that we Anglicans focus on during the Feast of All Saints is not the issue of devotions to the saints. Sure, it is possible, I suppose, to slip into idolatry and to worship saints and angels- and some people have. But, that is not a likely error for most Anglicans. I think we all know that only God is to be worshiped as God. The ancient practice of asking the saints to pray for us is not idolatry, and should not be condemned as if it were. I can make no guarantee that they have a more than merely human capacity to hear everyone, for that would indicate that they somehow shared the Divine attribute of omnipresence (which they simply cannot). I cannot place my faith in any one of them that way. But, I know that they must be praying for the Church Militant. For they have are ever perfected in charity.

The subject of devotions to saints is not our focus on the feast of All Saints. Our focus has always been the call that God has given to all of us, the call to become, by grace, saints ourselves in how we live. That is, we are called to be holy, to be faithful in every area of our lives, to press on to know the Lord, to confess the sins we fall into and repent of them in order to be forgiven, and also to be cleansed and delivered from the power of sin. We are called to develop the virtues, faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, prudence and temperance. Above all of the others charity, the bond of perfection.

In order to begin to answer the call to holiness, we must be thankful. And, that is the best reason to look at the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God, lifted up on the cross as Moses lifted the serpent on the pole in the wilderness. It is in thanksgiving that our hearts begin to render for Christ’s great act of love, that our souls are healed, not treating us as our sins deserve, but rather dying as our atonement. In that love we begin to see the reflection of Divine glory. Like that reflection I saw as a child, wearing a box as a helmet on my head, we see the glory of God the way I saw a projection of the sun. And like the innumerable reflections of the partial sun that I saw across the ground, we see radiant glory in the great company of saints, some here as well as those who have gone before, those with hearts made pure by grace to behold the glory of God. 

Some Bach: Toccata & Fugue in D minor BWV 565

"The purpose of music is the glory of God and the renewing of the mind."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET1eTAmjX_g

Jesus Answers a Lawyers' Objection

Sermon preached by Fr. Hart at St. Benedict’s ACC on Sept.15, 2019 – the 13th Sunday after Trinity. CLICK HERE

Theos Agape Estin

https://youtu.be/5qwSvuMubHI

Kittels and Quislings

On my Facebook timeline I have begun to employ a noun that is of my own devising. I refer to a kind of Christian, most often of a clergyman or theologian, as a Kittel. Just like the word Quisling, it is taken from the name of someone associated with the second world war. And, just like the word Quisling, it is not complimentary. Nor is it merely insulting. It is more in the nature of a very serious warning.

            At this very moment of history we are witnessing something that distinguishes people of conscience from the common herd. I say that fully aware of the danger of allowing myself to fall into the error of self-righteousness, or of comparing myself to others I see as sinners, in the manner of the Pharisee in our Lord’s parable. Nonetheless, that is not the only danger, and the danger of which I warn you, if I call you a Kittel, is consequential and frightening to the point where I must speak up.

            Earlier today I was informed that fifty-seven percent of white Evangelicals in the United States believe that only a Christian can be a real American. I began to think: One problem with their current state of mind is that denying status as an American has become one step away from dehumanizing people. I see dehumanizing, narrowly defining personhood, an exercise meant to deny personhood to certain other people, as the antithesis of what I believe as a Christian, and thus the opposite of what I preach as a priest and theologian. My Faith boldly teaches that “God became human so that man would become Divine (St. Athanasius).” That’s the opposite of dehumanization, and it adds a further link that connects love of God with love of neighbor. The refugee is my neighbor, the poor woman trying to feed her children is my neighbor (and, yes, the child in the womb is my neighbor too). Of course, even Donald Trump is also my neighbor- so, I pray for him (who needs it more?), largely praying that he will change. 

I don’t see this major theological belief of traditional Christianity that I have mentioned, the Incarnation, in the political and social apologetics of the Trump-supporting Evangelicals. I warn some of them (especially clergy who have become corrupted by Trumpism) that they are following in the footsteps of Gearhard Kittel. I feel like Jeremiah prophesying in the temple. Our Rabbi, Jesus, taught us that the two greatest commandments in Torah are the commandments of love for God and for neighbor.

        It is not only Evangelicals who are erring in this. I see the same online behavior in Christians of various different denominations, or I hear it in conversation. I have come across it even among some of my fellow Continuing Anglican clergy. One essential fact of life for us, if we believe our Faith as it has been handed down from Christ and His Apostles, is that our moral reasoning must be based on the Word of God, most clearly the teaching of our own Rabbi, our Lord. He laid it out very clearly, and we must read the Sermon on the Mount, the Summary of the Law (those two greatest commandments), the Parable of the sheep on the King’s right hand and the goats on his left hand, as well as everything else He said, without equivocation (as in, without “yes, but”). He warned, in closing the Sermon on the Mount, that if we hear His teaching and do not obey it, we will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand.

        I have for several years warned my own congregation, as well as many who “click here” to listen to my sermons, that if you are overly loyal to a political party or to a candidate eventually you will find yourself arguing to defend injustice and atrocity. As an American I appreciate a paradox our Founding Fathers expressed, that government is necessary, but also a hungry beast that we must, as Thomas Jefferson observed, “Tie down with the chains of the Constitution.” Political partisan loyalty is a hungry beast also. However, that kind of loyalty is not necessary at all, and should be treated like an insurance policy that you are willing to replace with one that appears to be better or more competitively priced. Political leaders, when they go too far and exercise power that is unrestrained by just laws, want to devour your conscience. They want to own and control it.

The heart of the matter is this: If you align your moral reasoning with political ideology and loyalty, you must betray Jesus Christ at some point. Instead, base all your moral reasoning on His word. For a long time we have rightly pointed out the error of those whose political loyalty causes them to look the other way at, or even champion, the destruction of children in the womb. Make no mistake: Abortion is a convenience for people who want to engage in sexual relations as if there should be no natural consequence, as if pregnancy itself is somehow a strange and unnatural event. Thus, they refuse to acknowledge what we know to be true. The child in the womb is thy neighbor; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. In the name of sexual immorality, or of worldly power masquerading as a just form of equality, they defend injustice. And, often, they do so only out of partisan loyalty.

But, the refugee at the border is also thy neighbor. Whether it is a father or a mother, or a little child too young to be separated from his parents, that refugee, that asylum seeker, is thy neighbor. Dehumanizing such desperate individuals as “illegals” (as if a person can be illegal), or justifying the neglect and outright abuse that observers have witnessed and reported, is also a great evil. Refusing to believe a member of Congress, not because she has a record of telling lies, but because you are at odds with her politics; spreading the lie that her testimony simply cannot be true despite the fact that 9,500 members of the Customs and Border Patrol were caught red-handed as members of the infamous “10-15” Facebook group (which makes Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s accusation more than believable, whatever arguments you may have with her on specific issues); making legalistic arguments about how properly to apply for asylum (mostly erroneous nonsensical arguments); parroting lies from the President that the adults are not really the parents of the children (for which he has no evidence); laughing when Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners that the asylum seekers are better off drinking toilet water because it’s a “step up for them (just as he once justified the atrocities at Abu Graib as “letting off steam”);” and generally reciting the talking points of the worst op-ed talking heads on FOX News, simply makes you a mouthpiece of evil propaganda.

Obviously, there are various arguments that can be made for how best to absorb the many people fleeing here from the dangers of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and, yes, for sending some of them back across the border. But to justify neglect and abuse is never morally right. Furthermore, you already know that, and you make arguments that can only sear your conscience with a hot iron.

Donald Trump, whatever achievements you may wish to give him credit for (something that can be argued another day), has grown a loyal following largely by  inciting fear, which leads to hate. He continues to do so as he goes into the next election. This political tactic is (as much as this name is invoked too frequently with no real justification) a page out of the Hitler handbook. He dehumanized a whole group of people in order to build his following on the fears and hate of prejudiced people. He was supported by some of the clergy, though opposed by many of them as well. The worst of the clergy who supported Hitler, and spread his propaganda, was Gearhard Kittel. I never use the phrase “The wrong side of history.” It is a silly term indeed. Nonetheless, do not let history brand you, some day, as a Kittel.

Looking Awry at Resurrection Bodies

by David Bentley Hart


James Ware has taken exception in these “pages” (or however one describes a web-journal) to an earlier article of mine on Paul’s metaphysics of the resurrection body in 1 Corinthians 15. Now, everything I said in that original piece was—let me brash up front—both entirely correct and entirely uncontroversial among serious scholars of late antiquity, as well as among good New Testament scholars who have a deep training in Graeco-Roman intellectual history. In a sense, I feel no need to defend myself in that regard. I do feel compelled, however, to point out that Ware in fact did not attack me for what I said so much as for what he imagined I was saying; and that, moreover, his misunderstanding regarding the import of my argument is a splendid example of precisely the kind of habitual misreading of Christian scripture I originally set out to expose. Because, as I said there, the principal difficulty we have today in understanding the exquisitely abstruse spiritual and speculative language of the earliest Christian writers is the result of our (almost inevitable) tendency tacitly to superimpose our modern categories on texts from an age that thought in very different forms.

Read the rest by clicking here