The Church of England’s Imminent Death Brings Opportunities
According the article cited above, Anglicanism in the UK, Canada, and the US is dying and a major reason could be approval of non-Biblical sexual practices. Several other mainline Protestant denominations may share in the reasons of the decline. The following is quotated from the above article:
"At first, the changes came in a slow trickle, but once the dam burst, they flooded through—and there was no definitive tradition of doctrines or even an official interpretation of Scripture that was above the individual’s preeminence to decide on matters great and small. The individual’s authority to judge issues of sexuality and gender specifically had no logical limiting principle in a church which started by eliminating it.
"For American Episcopalians, birth control was approved in 1930. In 1967, they announced their opposition to all abortion restrictions. In 1976, they approved female clergy. And since then, every wind that blows in the sexual and gender realms leads to another monumental change, to the point where the only real doctrine on sexuality is “thou shalt not disagree with the latest sexual fad.”
"Leaders of the Northern Virginia church I grew up in wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post explaining why they were leaving the Episcopal Church for a conservative Anglican alternative, saying, 'The sola scriptura (by the scriptures alone) doctrine of the Reformation church has been abandoned for the sola cultura (by the culture alone) way of the modern church. No longer under authority, the Episcopal Church today is either its own authority or finds its authority in the shifting winds of intellectual and social fashion—which is to say it has no authority.'”
What do you think of the above analysis and the fate of Christian denominations in post-Covid world? How can we stay relevant when people are no longer afraid of hell and Pascal's wager?
According the article cited above, Anglicanism in the UK, Canada, and the US is dying and a major reason could be approval of non-Biblical sexual practices. Several other mainline Protestant denominations may share in the reasons of the decline. The following is quotated from the above article:
"At first, the changes came in a slow trickle, but once the dam burst, they flooded through—and there was no definitive tradition of doctrines or even an official interpretation of Scripture that was above the individual’s preeminence to decide on matters great and small. The individual’s authority to judge issues of sexuality and gender specifically had no logical limiting principle in a church which started by eliminating it.
"For American Episcopalians, birth control was approved in 1930. In 1967, they announced their opposition to all abortion restrictions. In 1976, they approved female clergy. And since then, every wind that blows in the sexual and gender realms leads to another monumental change, to the point where the only real doctrine on sexuality is “thou shalt not disagree with the latest sexual fad.”
"Leaders of the Northern Virginia church I grew up in wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post explaining why they were leaving the Episcopal Church for a conservative Anglican alternative, saying, 'The sola scriptura (by the scriptures alone) doctrine of the Reformation church has been abandoned for the sola cultura (by the culture alone) way of the modern church. No longer under authority, the Episcopal Church today is either its own authority or finds its authority in the shifting winds of intellectual and social fashion—which is to say it has no authority.'”
What do you think of the above analysis and the fate of Christian denominations in post-Covid world? How can we stay relevant when people are no longer afraid of hell and Pascal's wager?
