I think I would be failing in my duty as an Anglican blogger (i.e. to encourage Anglicans to talk) if I withheld encouragement to head to this post to read an engaging and unfolding dialogue.
It is a well written piece. Certainly our beliefs are shaped by our past and this indeed does lead us to debate issues in a biased manner until we understand and are self aware enough to realise how we have been influenced by our own background.
However, "This does NOT mean that I must conform myself more and more closely to the one righteous Godly position on any given subject"
No but we must conform ourselves to the renewing of the mind, which is perhaps the way the Holy Spirit re-creates us Christ, so that we can continue to be made Holy so long as we abide in Him. I believe this encourages us to continually seek understanding, to seek truth, to seek wisdom on God's position on given subjects which arise with the hope He will lead us into all truth. If we do it with all sincerity.
A practical example: A cafe, a friend ranting and raving about personally wanting to hang and quarter a police officer suspended for suspected gang rape. Too vehement for me to really offer anything that was likely to change a viewpoint. A day later, while contending with God about the same topic on a bus into work he hears God speak to Him simply "He who has not sinned cast the first stone." A long held historically shaped belief changed by the Holy Spirit - a little more significant as the friend while growing up was present when his female friends had been gang raped (not in NZ).
I loved this response by Bishop Kelvin to one of his resopndents on his blog:
"The basis of sin is ignorance; ignorance of ourselves and ignorance of others and ignorance of God. If we persist in our ignorance then we will be doomed to endlessly repeat the mistakes and do the harm that our great suite of unknown inner motivations drives us to."
Hi Ron Nearly all the comment below is fine but I am redacting a phrase or two which makes presumptions about the state of knowledge of someone. Comment on what people write not what we think is or is not in the mind of the commenter is my aim ...
For the general record: most conservatives commenting here whom I know personally also know quite a bit re homosexuality through friends and family ... yet their views remain conservative.
"Thank you for this link with Bishop Kelvin's blog, Peter.
I've already had my say about what Ms Rosemary Behan had the temerity to suggest in her voluminous comment therein.
[]
However, the comment I'm critical of seems []. To question the right of LGBT people to claim that their sexuality is a gift from God - the same as the writer would want to claim that her sexuality is also a gift from God - seems palpably ridiculous, if not outright scandalous.
No wonder young Gay people don't go near the Church which harbours such a lack of understanding and willingness to learn about their problems of being perceived in a different way from their friends.
Remarks like those from Ms Behan make me more sure that ACANZP is travelling in the right direction. []. "
It is a well written piece. Certainly our beliefs are shaped by our past and this indeed does lead us to debate issues in a biased manner until we understand and are self aware enough to realise how we have been influenced by our own background.
ReplyDeleteHowever,
"This does NOT mean that I must conform myself more and more closely to the one righteous Godly position on any given subject"
No but we must conform ourselves to the renewing of the mind, which is perhaps the way the Holy Spirit re-creates us Christ, so that we can continue to be made Holy so long as we abide in Him. I believe this encourages us to continually seek understanding, to seek truth, to seek wisdom on God's position on given subjects which arise with the hope He will lead us into all truth. If we do it with all sincerity.
A practical example: A cafe, a friend ranting and raving about personally wanting to hang and quarter a police officer suspended for suspected gang rape. Too vehement for me to really offer anything that was likely to change a viewpoint. A day later, while contending with God about the same topic on a bus into work he hears God speak to Him simply "He who has not sinned cast the first stone." A long held historically shaped belief changed by the Holy Spirit - a little more significant as the friend while growing up was present when his female friends had been gang raped (not in NZ).
I loved this response by Bishop Kelvin to one of his resopndents on his blog:
ReplyDelete"The basis of sin is ignorance; ignorance of ourselves and ignorance of others and ignorance of God. If we persist in our ignorance then we will be doomed to endlessly repeat the mistakes and do the harm that our great suite of unknown inner motivations drives us to."
Hi Ron
ReplyDeleteNearly all the comment below is fine but I am redacting a phrase or two which makes presumptions about the state of knowledge of someone. Comment on what people write not what we think is or is not in the mind of the commenter is my aim ...
For the general record: most conservatives commenting here whom I know personally also know quite a bit re homosexuality through friends and family ... yet their views remain conservative.
"Thank you for this link with Bishop Kelvin's blog, Peter.
I've already had my say about what Ms Rosemary Behan had the temerity to suggest in her voluminous comment therein.
[]
However, the comment I'm critical of seems []. To question the right of LGBT people to claim that their sexuality is a gift from God - the same as the writer would want to claim that her sexuality is also a gift from God - seems palpably ridiculous, if not outright scandalous.
No wonder young Gay people don't go near the Church which harbours such a lack of understanding and willingness to learn about their problems of being perceived in a different way from their friends.
Remarks like those from Ms Behan make me more sure that ACANZP is travelling in the right direction. [].
"