Eclectic Amateur

Chris Johnson continues to keep busy keeping worldwide liberal Anglicanism from executing its deathwish while unfisked.

The current doses of silliness come from this Telegraph article reporting that Evangelicals in England may withhold funds over the appointment of Canon Jeffrey John as Dean of St. Alban’s Cathedral.

Canon John’s former boss at Southwark Cathedral, Dean Colin Slee, attacked the threat of financial action.

“Scripture has a lot to say about the misuse of money as a weapon,” he said.

Perhaps God is doing a new thing.

Ease up, Dean Slee, and don’t be such a stodgy old fundamentalist.

[And Scripture is much clearer about certain other matters where “Scripture has a lot to say“, but somehow Dean Slee doesn’t seem to be quite so hot and bothered about them …]

“This is an attempt at coercion. They are highly organised as a lobby group within the Church. This is unscriptural and a misuse of money.”

Oh, my. I can’t decide whether to file this under the category of “pot, kettle, black”, “Big Lie™”, or “it’s an eeeeevil tactic (when conservatives do it)”.

Has any lobby group within Anglicanism (at least in the UK/Canada/USA) been so highly organzied or so successful as the gay lobby? I surely can’t think of one. They’ve provided a textbook example of how to organize to refashion a group in their own image while neutralizing all opposition. It’s impressive, and I admire it in the way that one can admire the effectiveness of, say, the German Blitzkrieg while abhoring the Nazis.

Oh, but that’s different. Organize LBGT committees in every diocese, play hardball politics at convention, and hold an iron grip over personel, and that’s just business as usual. And, of course, the actions of +Ingham, +Bennison, and +VGeR couldn’t possibly ever count as “coercive”.

But, let those who have been on the receiving end of this treatment, after many years finally say “you can have it your way, but not on my dime”, and it’s coercive and oppressive. Scripture has something to say about exactly whose money it is, too — and Deans of cathedrals do not have the first dibs:

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”