Tweet
From Right Wing Watch, yet more proof that progressive Christians need to step it up and quash this bullsh*t. Only a certain brand of “Christianity” meets the standard of the fringe whackadoodles like Michael Youssef, the head of Leading the Way Ministries and pastor of the non-denominational Evangelical Anglican Church of the Apostles in Atlanta. The rest of you “phony Christians” are hell-bound if you believe LGBTs have a right to worship in your church and be seen as equal in God’s eyes.
Episcopal Church: Christian?
Based on everything I am currently reading and what I experienced firsthand in that Church in the past, my answer to this question is a forceful, “No!”
Perhaps the last nail in the coffin of that once-vibrant Christian church came as no surprise to many of us when M. Thomas Shaw, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, kicked off the new year of 2011 by performing a lesbian marriage ceremony at St. Paul’s cathedral in Boston. Two “priestesses” of the church — Katherine Hancock Ragsdale (dean and president of Episcopal Divinity School, no less) and Mally Lloyd (canon to the Ordinary at St. Paul’s) — were united in homosexual bliss in the presence of 400 guests. The whole debate of homosexuality has deteriorated into an emotional argument on equality with total disregard to God’s created order that marriage should be between one man and one woman.
But how can one be surprised at this defiance of church cannons when the Episcopal leadership has defied God? Once the fear of God and obedience to His Word are trampled underfoot, then any sort of church resolution is not worth the paper it’s written on.
Back in 2004, the Episcopal Church, in an act of slight-of-hand (more likely a cunning maneuver), agreed to hold a moratorium in the practicing of all the sordid affairs of “ordaining, marrying, and uniting, and blessing” acts of sodomy. But that was merely a surface declaration. In reality, the blessing of same-sex marriage had been widely accepted in the American Episcopal Church before the time of moratorium.
Can anybody in his/her right mind believe that the Episcopal Church is the Church of Jesus — the Jesus who left the glories of heaven, came to our broken and dark world, died on the cross to redeem us and give us power over sin, and then rose again to assure us of eternal life with Him? The answer has to be a resounding, “No!”
The Episcopal Church is not Jesus’ church. The few…very few faithful ones left within this Church need to run for their lives lest they be held accountable for complacency on the Day of Judgment.
The Episcopal Church is a pitiful target to make this sort of specious claim. Youssef can draw a line in the sand based solely on acceptance of LGBTs when divorce is rampant among all Christian denominations, as well as a lot shellfish-eating and mixed fiber-adorned parishioners. And what about the breakaway Episcopal churches that left over LGBT issues? Are they sufficiently Christian? It’s tiring to read horsesh*t like this. It demeans good people of faith for no logical reason other than bigotry.
19 Comments
Yeah….…and I think he is Muslim just because his last name is Youssef (sarcasm)
One of each?Golly, given the rampant and celebrated polygamy (and concubinage, and begetting of children upon handmaids and slaves), it seems that at sure took God an awfully long time to work out the rules of Biblical marriage as just one man and one woman.
What was Solomon’s body count again? Yikes.
Oh wait, God changed His mind and refined the rules to be more loving? Well, ta-dah! Clearly time to do it again!
Now let’s talk pork.
HOOT! and ditto…But you know 'history' means 'only my eogmaniacal version' of history.
I BelieveI believe that if you asked this preacher if he thought Catholics were Christians he would have the same answer, if not for the same reason. Most fundies believe that only their church/denomination is the true church of Jesus, and only their members are true Christians. I had a Southern Baptist preacher tell me that Catholics are not true Christians and all Catholics were going to hell if they don’t repent and accept Jesus the way the Baptists do. They are not only bigoted toward LGBT folk, they are bigoted toward each other too. They just like to keep that in the background and join together to fight common hatreds, such as their hatred of LGBTs. And they do hate us no matter what they say. Actions speak louder than words.
WhoopdeedooThe fundies have been calling Catholics and Episcopalians idolators for the last 400 years. So what. These fundie nuts and religious bigots need to get a life.
“Once the fear of God and obedience to His Word are trampled underfoot”God loves you, but you must live in fear. Nice…
The thought thatthe issue of LGBT dignity is tearing the Christian churches apart is something I find terribly satisfying. After a millennium and a half of persecutions, torture, mutilations and executions at the hands of Christian churches (not to mention all the horrific secular laws inspired by Christian doctrine) I like to think of it as our revenge. Slow but sweet.
He is the one who is not a ChristianYoussef is a ChristianIST, not a Christian.
And unless he shall repent, on the Day of Judgment he will surely be numbered among the goats (Mt. 25:31-46), because he has hardened his heart against the least of the People of God, and in his willful blindness he has cast away the central message of the Good News, delighting in false interpretations of oblique passages in Christian sacred scriptures that cater to his pernicious prejudice, when many of those passages are aimed at inhospitable macho misogynistists much like Youssef himself.
Francis Bernardone loathed lepers – but he discovered that he could not be saved unless he embraced them. The LGBT community is, for those like Youssef, the modern day test of caritas, of philia, and yes, even of agape. Simon Peter the Apostle, when questioned by Jesus, found only philia, and not agape. (John 21:15-19)
Perhaps Youssef does not understand the different shades of meaning in the Greek words translated as “love” in English. But then again, he is without love, and without love, power results in tyranny and injustice.
Exactly right!
am i mistaken…or are these fundies acting exactly like the medieval church that their ‘founder’ Martin Luther roiled against?
again, someone like their Jesus who did not want to found a new church but wanted Jews to be better jews, Luther only wanted chriistians to be better Christians?
Luther’s theses were an indictment of practices he believed were not in accordance with the heart of the church;
this fundie is fomenting schism and preaching that he and a few others are the bearers of special ‘indulgences’ and no one else. you know, like that governor yesterday in Alabama or someplace said that only his type of christian was acceptable.
i think that they all go against Martin Luther – specifically thesis #92. Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Peace, peace,” and there is no peace!
And yet…I somehow suspect that this guy would still describe the U.S. as a Christian-majority country. If you eliminate Catholics and any denomination with a level of LGBT acceptance equal to or greater than the Episcopal church…well, “plurality” just doesn’t sound like as good an excuse for hegemony as “majority”.
He’s no true Scotsman. Sorry, I meant ChristianNo true Scotsman fallacy
fill with LoveI pray that this mean spirited man, Michael Youssef, will be filled with the Holy Spirit and find Love for all his neighbors is his main priority. I hope that he will recognize the worth of every neighbor, regardless of their bodily fluid exchange preferences. May he discover the log of hate and Old Testament distortions in his eye and grant forgiveness for the speck in his gentle gender-different neighbor’s eye.
Age old problemEveryone thinks only their own poo doesn’t stink.
Sleezy!This scuzzbag looks like a failed bottom-of-the-barrel lawyer or used car salesman!
Where is his birth certificate?Isnt that what these right wing fundies demand of the President?
Well, if only hater groups are Christian, it is going to have to be considered a farily small denomination in the end since invariably they dont consider Catholics or Mormons Christian either. As for that guy, is he a christian or is that a snaeky atempt to get Sharia Law into the US?
He’s right…The Xtian god is cruel and intolerant. Everybody knows that.
Being Episcopal …to this twit I say “go up your Aunty !”
We’ve had the discussion, and I thank you for it, butIt ould fall under the fallacy if it were an unsupportable assumption. Unlike the qualifications for being a “Scotsman” (being born or naturalized as a Scot) the qualifications for being a Christian are somewhat mutable, depending on who is doing the defining.
Some fundies don’t include Roman Catholics as being Christian.
Many Christians do not see LDS as being Christian (and indeed, LDS is more like Islam, with added books – so if LDS folks are Christians, Muslims may also be Christians, and Jews, who have more than half the books, might be partly-Christians).
In this particular case, the man, claiming to be Christian himself, thinks of Episcopalians as being not Christian because they accept gay people.
Turnabout is fair play, especially when I can toss scripture at him, too.
The bald and unsupported statement that “he is not a real Christian” would fit the fallacy – but beef it up with enough other proof and it ceases to be a fallacy.