Orthodixie

By MICHAEL COREN

Thank God for liberal clergyman. Because if they didn’t exist we would have to make them up. The stuff of humour for generations, one of the most amusing of the gang is Michael Ingham, Anglican bishop of New Westminster in Greater Vancouver.

As his church dissolves into a fringe group on the margins of North American society, the bishop has issued a statement calling for, “a more positive approach to sexuality.” Of course, when he speaks of being positive he really means doing anything in bed or out of it and telling God to mind His own business.

Which is fair enough if you don’t believe in Him and in Jesus Christ. But if you do, your options are less flexible. It’s really very simple. Christianity and non-Christianity are mutually exclusive. If you’re not a Christian you can behave as you like. But if you are a Christian you are supposed to behave as a Christian.

It would be outrageous, for example, for Christians to try to redefine atheism and declare that it now meant believing in God and attending church. It doesn’t. Nor does Christianity mean making things up as you go along about the faith. We’re here to follow rather than edit.

Not the funny bishop though. “We must challenge the church’s condemnations throughout the centuries of such things as masturbation, birth control, abortion, and homosexuality.” When I was a boy we had a word for people who approved of masturbation. Mind you, I think we also had a word for people who couldn’t think straight.

The whole story … H E R E.

HT: NewsForum

It has been said that fasting without prayer is only dieting and that prayer without fasting is only mumbling.

Source

Angels talk all the way while they’re flying you up to heaven. The basic message is where you went wrong before you got dead.

— Daniel, age 9

From one of those emails my wife gets from friends gone by. (Some of you, no doubt, recognize the Toll Houses 🙂

Gluttony makes a man gloomy and fearful, but fasting makes him joyful and courageous. And, as gluttony calls forth greater and greater gluttony, so fasting stimulates greater and greater endurance. When a man realizes the grace that comes through fasting, he desires to fast more and more. And the graces that come through fasting are countless.

— Saint Nikolai of Zicha

Source

Can Married Folks Be Saved?

Some people living carelessly in the world put a question to me: “How can we who are married and living amid public cares aspire to the monastic life?” I answered: “Do whatever you may. Speak evil of no one. Tell no lie. Despise no one and carry no hate. Do not separate yourself from the church assemblies. Show compassion to the needy. Do not be a cause of scandal to anyone. Stay away from the bed of another, and be satisfied with what your own wives can provide you. If you do all this, you will not be far from the kingdom of heaven.”

— St. John Climacus – The Ladder of Divine Ascent

My interview with John Maddex of AFR is now available.

Scroll to “Introducing the Orthodixie Podcast.”

Click the link above. THE coolest thing I’ve seen in a long, long time.

ABOUT.

HT: Ancient Church (note the “new” addy)

There are two kinds of fear: The Bible talks a lot about fear of God — fear in the face of something awesome. That kind of fear is the type of fear that makes someone want to change. But a fear of other people makes you want to stay the same, to protect what you have. It’s a stagnant fear; and it’s paralyzing.”

— Win Bulter of Arcade Fire [on their album Neon Bible].

Taken from the sidebar of THUNDERSTRUCK.

Image Source