Minority mania

British Army recruitment drive.  Source: Telegraph                               CREDIT: ARMY/PA WIRE

It has afflicted politics. It has afflicted the Church. It has afflicted schools. - the latest example here. Now it is afflicting the British Army. The advancement of minorities has reached absurd levels.

The latest government reshuffle boasted of fairness to women and fairness to ethnic minorities. With merit giving way to political correctness, some junior and middle ranking appointees must be wondering if, by upping the numbers of women in government and new ministers from ethnic minorities, their success had more to do with their colour or gender than merit. Selection should be based on merit not positive discrimination for political correctness.

Anglicanism is obsessed with sex and minorities while some schools seem set on confusing children even more than they need be when growing up by encouraging transgenderism which has resulted in alarming increases in gender dysphoria.  Toilet facilities which have stood the test of time are being changed to satisfy the sensitivities of a few transgender people and gender-neutral language has been introduced in place of gender specific pronouns to avoid making assumptions.

A new politically correct Army recruitment drive includes a series of films which ask "Can I be gay in the Army?" and "What if I get emotional in the Army?", in a bid to appeal to potential soldiers from different backgrounds. There is a clip explaining how space can be made available to allow Muslims to pray.

Retired Army officer Major General Tim Cross commented on the recruitment drive saying, "It happens to focus on the Muslim community; my point is we have Gurkhas, we have Sikhs, all faiths represented in the British Army, and what we don't want to be doing is isolating other people by focusing on these particular communities."

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said it was "neglecting the main class of people who are interested in joining" and will not solve the "recruiting crisis".

The head of the Army, General Sir Nick Carter, said that the rethink was forced by the fact that there are 25% fewer white 16 to 25-year-old males - a group that traditionally formed the force's recruitment base. He said: "Our traditional cohort would have been white, male, Caucasian 16 to 25-year-olds and there are not as many of those around as there once were, and our society is changing and I think it's entirely appropriate for us therefore to try and reach out to a much broader base to get the talent we need in order to stay in that combat effectiveness."

That sounds very much like today's Anglican Church. Ignore the main class and advance minorities regardless of the consequences. There is a wider issue here. One of normalisation, currently being used by progressives in the Church, familiarity brings acceptance.

Islam is a supremacist ideology. Anyone who watched 'House of Saud: A Family at War' on BBC2 last night should be left in no doubt of the seriousness of the problem of funding so-called 'extremists', often fighting each other for being perceived as the wrong sort of Muslim. They are not extremists. They are following their faith to the letter as they understand it. For many it is what they have been led to believe.

According to a UN study, "Young men who leave their homes to fight for terrorist groups in Syria mainly come from disadvantaged backgrounds, have low levels of education and 'lack any basic understanding of the true meaning of jihad or even the Islamic faith'."

Ironically the Quran cannot be verified and questioning the Quran is not allowed. In his articleWhat, Indeed, Is the Quran?(H/T Anglican Mainstream)the Rev James V. Achall, SJ writes:

"The Quran is a book that tells us of the life and mission of Muhammad, the prophet. The book specifically denies that Christ was the Son of God or that there is otherness in the Godhead. Yahweh and Allah is not the same God. In the Quran, Christianity as such is simply rejected as having no validity. It need not be totally suppressed if its members accept second-group citizenship and pay a tax. We may not like to hear this teaching, but no good Muslim, unless he is trying to deceive us, has any doubt that Allah is exactly as he is described in the Quran. The Quran is a book about man?S complete submission to Allah. It will gladly overturn the world to make this submission prevail. It will only fail if it is prevented."

By constantly embracing Islam's supremacist ideology it is being validated when it should be contested, explaining that it is Islam that has no validity and that failure to scrutinise the ideology condemns about a fifth of the world’s population to unnecessary servitude rather than God's mercy.

Read More

Fit for purpose?

Bishops of St Davids, Bangor, Swansea & Brecon (Archbishop), Monmouth, St Asaph and Llandaff.                                                              Source:Twitter

The bishop of Bangor, Andy John, must have thought himself most fortunate when, after 2,000 years of tradition and scholarship, it fell to him to findBiblical support for church gay marriages. A revelation that eluded doctors of the Church and biblical scholars for generations before him.

Of course the bishop could be mistaken but that would not occur to the episcopal pygmies who currently constitute the bench of bishops in the Church in Wales. For them the bishop of Bangor has provided evidence that the Church should conform to the world as they pursue their policy that 'It is pastorally unsustainable for the Church to make no formal provision for those in same-gender relationships'.

Why is there so much emphasis on same sex relationships in the Church in Wales? The bishops believe that the Church is out of step with society so the Church must change to conform with society. The crumbling edifice reveals the lie.

If the bishops taught the faith as they should, the Church would not be seen as irrelevant.

The bishop of Bangor writes:

Those who experience same sex attraction or orientation will describe how, in a committed and loving relationship, they find not only love but grace and peace growing in their shared life with their partner. They experience the very fruit of the Spirit identified by St Paul as a mark of God’s presence and blessing (Gal 5:22-23). Jesus himself provided a kind of litmus test: it is ‘fruitfulness’ which reveals the authenticity (or not) of any claim to communion with God and grace (Matt 5:16-17). If the fruit of a relationship is growth in godly character, in what sense can such a relationship could be considered ‘against the will of God’?

From Gal 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." St Paul continues: "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."

In the preceding verses Paul writes: "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh....So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

"The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Setting the tone of things to come in the Diocese of Monmouth following the appointment of the third woman bishop in the Church in Wales, the diocese has re-tweeted a Pride Cymru recruitment poster advertising a Volunteer Recruitment Day to be held on Saturday 25th January, the same day as that set apart for the consecration of Cherry Vann as the 11th bishop of Monmouth.

Such advertising goes way beyond sympathy for any perceived errors in the past. It is using the Church to further a Pride Cymru recruitment campaign, demonstrating the growing confidence of LGBT campaigners in the Church in Wales as they look forward to their next celebration in the so-called'Faith' tent.

No doubt the new bishop of Monmouth and her fellow women bishops, LGBT campaigners Joanna Penberthy and June Osborne, see this as the road to salvation. It is not. It is the reverse.

As chief shepherds, bishops should be leading their flocks to Christ not walking away from Him, thus putting the souls of the faithful in peril. By doing so they clearly demonstrate that they are not fit for purpose.

Postscript [21.01.2020]

Following the appointment of Cherry Vann as bishop-elect of Monmouth, the Church in Wales press office and the Diocese of Monmouth declined to comment on whether the cohabiting bishop-elect was in a partnered same-sex relationship.

There has been no such reticence following the meeting of the Sacred Synod. From a Provincial News update on the bishop's forthcoming consecration: "Bishop Vann lives with her civil partner Wendy and their two dogs, Macallan and Sadie", a point casually reported by BBC News as though it were a regular occurrence rather than a departure from established Church policy.

The bishops of the Church in Wales are clearly determined to create a sense of normality around same sex relationships despite the fact that their proposals were rejected in a consultation exercise and at Governing Body.

Read More