Canada
who want to impose their culinary will what’s on the menu, Christianity, or some
on everyone else. This is understand- other thing? Bishop Ingham states it well
Picky Eaters
able, and even praiseworthy because at at a recent conference in Ottawa:
least TECA has the courage of its con- ‘Today we have a better understanding
‘L
iberals,’ said Geoffrey Kirk to David victions to stand up for what it believes of homosexuality as a basic and natural
Virtue, ‘are like vegetarians. You to be right. SSBs are, for them, a crucial orientation experienced by some mem-
invite them to your house for dinner and matter of justice, of inclusion for all in bers of the human community (he then
they expect you to provide their kind of the Body of Christ. This means that the goes on to talk about animals)...and in
food, but when you go to their house local option is not really local at all, but Christian terms we must come to think
you won’t find them serving yours.’ The universal, as truth is bound to be. In the of this as not only natural but also God-
trenchant cyber journalist probably was end, ‘you eat your way and I’ll eat mine,’ given and good. But these developments
not in the habit of entertaining vegetar- is little better than subterfuge. Anything in social sciences...are still relatively new...
ians, but he got the point and a good one less is, for TECA, immoral, and it is ironic they have not penetrated the church’s
it was too. We are seeing the principle that the ageing proponents of the permis- understanding except on the edges... and
played out now across the Anglican Com- sive generation should have turned into greatly against its will.’
munion, with the vital difference that the the staunch puritans of today. Quite. One hesitates to wonder where
hosts are breaking the rules by insisting +Ingham gets his data. Dr Kinsey, per-
that the guests desist from picky eating A set back haps? Be that as it may, the issue’s clear,
and accept the fare on offer. This, as eve- At present, the liberals have been dealt a on the one hand we have the teaching of
ryone with a modem knows, is simply the set back, with Anglican moral consensus, the Church and her Scriptures, and on
Church’s teaching on human sexuality as as enunciated in Tanzania, nothing less the other, ‘social sciences.’ For Ingham
affirmed by the Anglican Communion than that of the Church throughout the et al, nothing could be simpler; social
at Lambeth ’98. Sexual relations, we are ages. No wonder, then, that the TECAns science wins every time. Immanence
told, are to be within the context of mar- are mad, for instead of the customary tofu trumps transcendence?
riage between a man and a woman. burger they have been offered the prover- Therein lies the rub; either we put our
bial chicken dinner along with everyone faith in God and his Son, in which case we
Weak stomachs else. The question is now, quite literally, adhere for dear life to what he has given
This meaty dish has proved unpalat-
able to the weaker stomachs of the North
American liberals and their allies. All they
want is a ‘local option,’ the permission to
go about things their way, conducting
SSBs where and when they like, whilst
other Anglicans go about their business
according to context. It seems reason-
able, after all. What’s good for San Fran-
cisco, Greenwich Village and downtown
Toronto might well be wrong for Lagos, St
Stephen’s, Lewisham, or St John’s, Calgary.
In the end, can’t we just agree to disagree
and concentrate on the things that really
matter, like the UN charter of civil rights,
the environment, or ending poverty?
It’s all rather as though we have entered
a bizarre Anglican version of the Miss
World contest, with the TEC Alliance
contestant coming up with the laughably
predictable, ‘All I want is world peace, no
more poverty, to stop AIDS and to end
the destruction of the rainforest.’
We’re all glad to see that our liberal
contender for the title of most beauti-
ful person in the world is aiming high,
albeit running long on stock in trades.
And, notwithstanding the strange simi-
larity between the vaunted MDGs (Mil-
lennium Development Goals) and the
MSGs (Mono Sodium Glutimates) that
make such a glutinous mess of certain
oriental cuisine, we have to admit an
apparent churlishness in opposing such a
well-meaning programme.
The problem with our beauty pageant
contestant is that she does not really want
a local option at all; on the contrary, TEC
Alliance is like our vegetarian friends
April 2007
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newdirections
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