Everyone Suddenly Discovers Presiding Bishop Schori. Diversity, not Jesus, saves says Presiding Bishop | Anglican Ink

Diversity, not Jesus, saves says Presiding Bishop | Anglican Ink:




'via Blog this'

This photo reminds me of a famous essay by John Knox.

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GJ - Ichabod readers have been reading about Presiding Bishop Katie Schori, The Episcopal Church, for many years. Suddenly everyone on Facebook is linking the article above. That satisfies the "isn't this shocking?" response of many people. The article will fuel a few newsletter articles and may get mentioned in some sermons, although many clergy will avoid offending the feminists.

The real solution is a steady diet of information about apostasy, not just some smelling salts waved beneath the nostrils.

Those who want to follow the Episcopalians should start with Virtue Online and be steady readers of that website.

Here is his description of the same sermon -

The odd couple - ELCA bishop Hanson and Episcopal bishop Schori have much in common.

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=17583#.UZyXDKIiqqg

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Denounces Apostle Paul in Sermon in Curacao 
Jefferts Schori lauds demonic possessed slave girl, says Paul failed to see her gift of "spiritual awareness"

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue DD
www.virtueonline.org 
May 21, 2013

In what one blogger described as "the worst sermon ever", the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church told listeners, in a sermon she delivered in Curacao, that the Apostle Paul betrayed his understanding of the faith he had been given and was guilty of bigotry in handling a case of demonic possession found in a slave girl.

The account in Acts 16 reads thus: "Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, 'These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.' And this she did for many days.

"But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.' And he came out that very hour. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities." Acts 16:16-19 (KJV)

Mrs. Jefferts Schori interprets the story of Paul and the slave girl by accusing the apostle of spiritual blindness and bigotry. She off handedly includes the issue of same sex relationships that the great apostle doesn't even hint at.

Jefferts Schori opined, "We live with the continuing tension between holier impulses that encourage us to see the image of God in all human beings and the reality that some of us choose not to see that glimpse of the divine, and instead use other people as means to an end. We're seeing something similar right now in the changing attitudes and laws about same-sex relationships, as many people come to recognize that different is not the same thing as wrong. For many people, it can be difficult to see God at work in the world around us, particularly if God is doing something unexpected.

"There are some remarkable examples of that kind of blindness in the readings we heard this morning, and slavery is wrapped up in a lot of it. Paul is annoyed at the slave girl who keeps pursuing him, telling the world that he and his companions are slaves of God. She is quite right. She's telling the same truth Paul and others claim for themselves.

"But Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness. Paul can't abide something he won't see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it. It gets him thrown in prison. That's pretty much where he's put himself by his own refusal to recognize that she, too, shares in God's nature, just as much as he does - maybe more so. The amazing thing is that during that long night in jail he remembers that he might find God there - so he and his cellmates spend the night praying and singing hymns."

VOL: The Presiding Bishop totally emasculates the text, making it mean what she wants it to mean; not what it implies or even says.

First of all, the text says nothing about same sex relationships. Nothing. The Presiding Bishop gratuitously throws that in just to let her listeners know where she stands and why The Episcopal Church is drinking the Kool-Aid on this subject. This is a complete abuse of the text and violates every hermeneutical principle known in theology.

Secondly, the apostle waged spiritual warfare against the slave girl. While he recognized that what she said was true; the source of her authority came from Satan, not from Jesus. Paul, unhesitatingly commands, "in the name of Jesus" that the "spirit of divination" come out of her. This happened. Paul let the possessed girl follow him around for several days before he cast out the spirit. Paul's ministry was being compromised and her cries were in fact counter-productive because he knew she was possessed by something evil, not something good. Paul heals the girl, freeing her from possession. In actual fact, it is not Paul doing the healing, but Jesus Christ whom Paul rightly invokes.

The Presiding Bishop will have none of that. She says, "Paul is annoyed perhaps for being put in his place". Say what. She is making the assumption that somehow it is Paul who is spiritually blind, culture-bound, and bigoted in not seeing "the gift of spiritual awareness" in her. She paints Paul as an intolerant, confused misogynist who needs to be put in his place from a latter day post Christian revisionist like Jefferts Schori. "Paul can't abide something he won't see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it," she said. She then makes the colossal statement that "She (the demon-possessed girl), too, shares in God's nature, just as much as he does - maybe more so." She says that Paul responds "by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness."

This is sheer spiritual lunacy and a totally invalid interpretation of this Scripture. In fact, she turns Scripture totally on its head abusing the text and context to fit the Procrustean bed of her own "doctrines" of inclusion and diversity. 

One orthodox theologian wrote, "Paul is on his missionary journey reaching out to Jews and God-fearers, when he is accosted by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future (literally, 'a spirit, Python';). She is twice bound, spiritually and economically, for her masters are making quite a profit by exploiting her occult powers. Yet what engages Paul with her is her spiritual opposition to his mission. Day after day she follows Paul and his team, shouting (literally, 'crying out repeatedly'), 'These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved (literally, 'a way of salvation'). 

"This announcement both helps and hinders the mission. To Jewish ears, it rings of truth, using terminology ("Most High God," el-selyon) that they considered the Gentile way of referring to the one true God (Gen 14:18-20; Num 24:16; Dan 3:26; 4:32; 5:18, 21). But to polytheistic pagans, who were henotheists as opposed to monotheists, there were many "highest gods"; the title had been attached to Zeus, Isis (the mother-goddess of the kingdom of Lydia in Asia), and Baal. A pagan hearer would understand the term to refer to whatever deity he or she considered supreme (Trebilco 1989:60; contrast Levinskaya 1993:125-28). And "a way of salvation"? For the pagan, it was release from the powers governing the fate of humankind and the material world (Longenecker 1981:462). So though initially this declaration may seem to be a help to Paul as it attracts crowds and provides a good starting point for discussing the gospel with pagans, it has to be corrected each time and thus soon it becomes an annoyance (compare Acts 4:2). That a demon-possessed girl is the source of this true but potentially ambiguous statement is another difficulty (compare Lk 4:34, 41; 8:28). Such Satanic tactics have not changed in two thousand years. To counter them, the message of salvation must always be proclaimed in clarity and fullness, with its divine source unambiguously credited."

Paul's exorcism occurred via direct confrontation. He turned around and said to the spirit (authoritative command), "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her." The results are immediate: at that moment the spirit left (literally, "came out," compare the command). 

What the text also concludes is that the extension of God's kingdom can only be achieved through a liberation of those under Satan's authority (26:18). What must I do to be saved? Experience the liberating power of the Lord Jesus Christ, who not only opens but also cleanses hearts (15:9). We see parallels in Jesus's own ministry in the casting out of demons. Jesus brings release to the captives (Lk. 4:18). Jefferts Schori in fact denies that very aspect of truth that advances the gospel. It is she, not Paul, who is living in spiritual darkness. Her endorsement of the slave girl puts her closer in spirit to her than to Paul.

Paul's authority and ours is christocentric and derived. Jefferts Schori authority comes from General Convention and whatever crazy resolution is passed that the Episcopal Church wants or needs to embrace to fit a small coterie of pansexualists.

One must ask of Jefferts Schori: "Does God's nature really include demon possession?" The amazing thing is that during that long night in jail, Paul remembers that he might find God there - so he and his cellmates spend the night praying and singing hymns." 

The implication of Jefferts Schori's question is that Paul may have forgotten to take his amnesia meds or that somehow he had forgotten God in the first place. One blogger cynically observed that the P.B. had identified the earliest recorded case of Transient global amnesia.

Jefferts Schori goes on to cite from the lectionary Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20-21 where she falsely interprets the Scripture to say, "That the reading from Revelation pushes us in the same direction, outward and away from our own self-righteousness, inviting us to look harder for God's gift and presence all around us. Jesus says he's looking for everybody, anyone who's looking for good news, anybody who is thirsty. There are no obstacles or barriers - just come. God is at work everywhere, even if we can't or won't see it immediately." The PB did omit Verse 15 (left out by the lectionary editors) which reads, thusly, "Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."

St. John is clearly in sync with the Apostle Paul in identifying evil and demon possession while the PB twists it to make the text mean what she wants it to mean, in fact reversing it. Perhaps she was ashamed by the words "the sexually immoral" which would apply to a goodly number of bishops and clergy.

Later in her sermon, the P.B. reveals her deepest need to push the church's pansexual agenda in just the gentlest way when she says, "Looking for the reflection of God's glory all around us means changing our lenses, or letting the scales on our eyes fall away. That kind of change isn't easy for anyone, but it's the only road to the kingdom of God." Her hope, of course, is that we would see Gene and Mary and Louie and Ernest as the true sons of God that the rest of us need to catch up with and ultimately worship and adore.

END

Like all bishops of today, Katie gets even with those who question her.