Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[CNN]

The Church of England owes Charles Darwin an apology for its hostile 19th-century reaction to the naturalist’s theory of evolution, a cleric wrote on an Anglican Web site launched Monday.The Rev. Malcolm Brown, who heads the church’s public affairs department, issued the statement to mark Darwin’s bicentenary and the 150th anniversary of the seminal work “On the Origin of Species,” both of which fall next year.

Brown said the Church of England should say it is sorry for misunderstanding him at the time he released his findings and, “by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand (Darwin) still.” The Church of England said Brown’s statement reflected its position on Darwin but did not constitute an official apology.

The church’s stance sets it apart from fundamentalist Christians, who believe evolutionary theory is incompatible with the biblical story of the Earth’s creation. Darwin was born into the Church of England, educated at a church boarding school and trained to become an Anglican priest. However, his theory that species evolve over generations through a process of natural selection brought him into conflict with the church.

The Church of England did not take an official stance against Darwin’s theories, but many senior Anglicans reacted with hostility to his ideas, arguing against them at public debates.

At an Oxford University debate in 1860, the bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, famously asked scientist Thomas Huxley whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed to be descended from a monkey. Critics included the Rev. John Stevens Henslow and Adam Sedgwick, both scientists who had taught Darwin at Cambridge. Sedgwick wrote that he found some of Darwin’s ideas “utterly false and grievously mischievous.”

Brown said that from a modern perspective, it was hard to avoid the thought that the reaction against Darwin was based on what would now be called the “yuck factor … when he proposed a lineage from apes to humans.” Brown called for a “rapprochement” between Christianity and Darwinism.

Read more here.

[From me]

Apologize for what? Darwin’s theory is just that a theory. If I found out that God used Evolution it wouldn’t destroy my faith but I see no where in Scripture where it talks about Evolution.  Genesis clearly says that God created the heavens and the earth and God created man.  It doesn’t say he created an Ape that became man. The church owes no apology but Darwin will answer for his terrible theory.

What do you think?

[BBC News]

A Church of England vicar accused of spitting at and intimidating his parishioners has been ordered to leave his Cambridgeshire post by his bishop.

Rev Dr Tom Ambrose, 61, of St Mary and St Michael Church in Trumpington, has been disqualified from carrying out any of the functions of his office. A church tribunal last year recommended the move citing “pastoral breakdown”. Dr Ambrose has issued a denial he ever spat at parishioners and said the allegation was never put to him. Dr Ambrose had clashed with parishioners over his plans to modernise the church.

The tribunal heard evidence of “arrogant, aggressive, rude, bullying, high-handed, disorganised and at times petty behaviour of Dr Ambrose”.

In the decision letter to the vicar and those who brought the tribunal, the Bishop of Ely Dr Anthony Russell wrote: “I am astonished and dismayed that there are recorded two occasions on which it is said that Dr Ambrose spat at parishioners, allegations which were not challenged in cross-examination.”

Read about it here.

[From me] 

Maybe it is way of baptizing his parishioners!

What to you think?

[BBC News]

A gay Christian who won a claim against the Church of England has been awarded more than £47,000 in compensation. John Reaney took the Hereford diocesan board of finance to an employment tribunal after his appointment as a youth worker was blocked. Bishop of Hereford Anthony Priddis has apologized and gay rights group Stonewall said the “substantial compensation” sent a clear message. Mr Reaney, from Colwyn Bay, Conwy, said he was delighted the case was over.

“Lesbian and gay Christians working within the Church of England are entitled to be treated with humanity,” said Mr Reaney, 42.

“I’m very grateful to Stonewall for supporting this case throughout.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

Why isn’t a church allowed to operate according to the teachings of the Bible?

What do you think?

[Yahoo news]

Eyebrows were raised in the House of Commons on Thursday when a motion calling for the Church of England to be disestablished was listed with the number 666, symbol of the AntiChrist.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Jenkins and LaHaye were unavailable for comment.  They are writing their new book-Left Behind in London.

[Christian Post]

The Church of England has expressed fear over a newly proposed law that could allow homosexuals to sue the church if they felt discriminated against by religious authorities.  Under the proposal, a gay individual could sue the church if he heard a sermon that condemned homosexuality. The law is meant to protect homosexuals from hostile or humiliating â??environmentsâ? as part of a revision of discrimination legislations.

The Lawyersâ?? Christian Fellowship in England further warned that an unrepentant, practicing homosexual could sue the church if it refused him membership under the proposed law.

Englandâ??s anti-discriminatory proposal is similar to the hate crimes debate raging in the United States.

Christian leaders and pastors in America are protesting the hate crimes bill in Congress that would add sexual orientation, gender and gender identity to the existing list of hate crimes protected under law.

Conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family warn that if a pastor preached against homosexuality and one of his congregants later commits violence against a homosexual, then the pastor could be charged for inducing a hate crime.

Read about it here.

[From me]

There are many groups in the US trying to get similar laws passed.   This is scary to me.  Why would someone want to join an organization that preaches the individual lives in sin.  I talked about this subject yesterday in my message on God’s design for family.  We don’t need the hate crime legislation because the ones who will be hated are Christians.

What do you think?