I mean, really?
The following video is from the Wall Street Journal regarding the Apostolic Constitution allowing for the corporate union of Anglicans within the Catholic Church.
To discuss this important topic the Journal gathered together three peas from the same pod. Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong, who by the way recently issued his manifesto on homosexuality which begins…
“I have made a decision. I will no longer debate the issue of homosexuality in the church with anyone. I will no longer engage the biblical ignorance that emanates from so many right-wing Christians about how the Bible condemns homosexuality, as if that point of view still has any credibility. I will no longer discuss with them or listen to them tell me how homosexuality is ‘an abomination to God,’ about how homosexuality is a ‘chosen lifestyle,’ or about how through prayer and ‘spiritual counseling’ homosexual persons can be ‘cured.”‘
Alrighty, we know where Spong is coming from, but what of the others? Next up we have Princeton professor Elaine Pagels. Professor Pagels has written a book that claims that St. Paul was actually a Gnostic and that the Pauline epistles are forgeries written later by anti-Gnostics. You can’t make this stuff up. Actually I take that back, you can, and she did.
Last and possibly least we have the Jesuit proverbial bad penny, Fr. Tom Reese. You will remember, of course, that this is the same Fr. Reese that while editor at America Magazine published editorials that were so far outside the realm of Catholic teaching that the CDF forced him out of his job. Fr. Reese has now set up camp at the aptly named Woodstock Theological Center. However his real job is as media “go to” Catholic dissenter.
So this little panel of dizzy malcontents is chosen to discuss this wonderful initiative of the Pope toward disaffected orthodox leaning Anglicans. You would think they could have managed to find one person for this panel that actually liked the idea? Perhaps one of the Anglicans in question? Or, at the very least, they could have actually invited a Catholic to be on the panel.
Anyway, watch the video and enjoy the stupidity. If you watch closely you can see these fossils slowly being encased in amber.
December 3, 2009 at 2:25 pm
This is wierd. There are several conservative Catholics at the Journal. I guess they didn't have any input on panel selections.
December 3, 2009 at 4:16 pm
As a New Jerseyan, I got to watch the fun firsthand whenever John Spong opened his mouth. Then-Archbishop McCarrick has had some entertaining smackdowns of the man's lunacy.
John Spong promoted wrong
His lackeys vent their spleen
And between the bunch of them
They've swept their churches clean
December 3, 2009 at 11:36 pm
I'm not a fan of Fr. Tom Reese, but I really didn't think he said anything wild, wayward or controversial until his last portion, when he said something like the clergy and theologians etc have lost control over the eccumenical movement because people were voting with their feet. Stooooooopid!
But Spong, as always, is a moron. At the begining he's pouting that how the "authoritarian" Vatican is welcoming these Anglicans. Then when Fr Reese says there are always people coming and going between the two churches, Spong concludes with, "and I think this is something that needs to continue". MORON! Any wonder why no rational theologian takes him seriously? None.
Lastly, did anyone catch that man-hating bimbette refer to "Professor Reese" as opposed to Fr. Tom Reese? I guess we can all be glad she took 9 minutes out of writing her "Wicca for Dummies" book.
December 4, 2009 at 3:51 am
Fr. Reese really wasn't off the reservation that much.
But this lineup…just boggles the mind. A unitarian pantheist (Spong)…and a Gnostic…and Fr. Tom Reese. I get that you want a Catholic and an Anglican/Episcopalian, but this was all they could manage?
Even Bishop Chane would have been an improvement.
December 4, 2009 at 4:00 am
Ugh. As a former cradle-Episcopal, guys like Sprong are the reason why I am no longer in the Anglican communion. I mean, REALLY? REALLY? How could anyone with ANY literacy of the Bible think that homosexuality is condoned? It is practically ALWAYS mentioned in the same breath as other sins like adultery, and is NEVER spoken of in good terms. Jeez loise… That panel is a joke. Good riddence the lot of them are unsaved!