Homosexualist Episcopal priest wants Africa cleansed of Christians

Ever since the Episcopal Church’s approval of the ordination of an openly practicing homosexual as a bishop of the church, I have been saying that EPUSA as a body is no longer a Christian body by any reasonable definition of the word (though of course many individual parishes and even dioceses have rejected that evil decision). It is also no secret that many homosexuals and homosexual rights advocates, including many priests and bishops of the Episcopal Church, are driven by a hatred of normality in general and of Christianity in particular. However, the true depth of their anti-Christian hatred can be astounding.

In a letter to the March Atlantic, an Episcopal priest says that if African Christians persist in rejecting the ordination of homosexual bishops, then African Christianity should be utterly destroyed and replaced by Islam. His letter was written in response to an article in the November Atlantic about the anti-homosexual Archishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, whose flock is under terrible siege from Moslem violence and terrorism in that country (not that the letter writer cares a fig about that):

If Philip Jenkins is correct in his analysis of Peter Akinola’s fury at the ordination of gay bishops—that the archbishop is in a battle with Islam over which faith community is the least welcoming to gay and lesbian persons—then Akinola’s motives are revealed to be political rather than theological, and anything he has to say regarding God’s desires for this world and human relationships is to be dismissed as self-serving manipulation for the preservation of his own political power.

I am an American, an Episcopal priest, and I repudiate everything Peter Akinola has to say regarding who is and who is not fit to be ordained in our Church. I would rather have a Christian church in Africa with only one member, if that member welcomed all God’s children equally, than an entire continent covered with Christians who decided who was welcome based on sexual orientation. If that’s to be the case, then let Islam have the whole thing.

The Rev. Dr. Alan C. Miller
Gainesville, Fla.

It is not clear what position Rev. Miller has in Florida. But surely Anglicans and other Christians could write to the Florida diocese expressing their outrage that a man who publicly wishes for the total destruction of African Christianity by Islam should be allowed to continue as an Episcopal priest.

In this connection, here is a speech by the bishop of the Diocese of Florida, Samuel Johnson Howard, on the current crisis in the church. Bishop Howard describes himself as an orthodox Christian and says he will never allow the ordination of a practicing homosexual in his diocese or permit any same-sex union ceremonies, yet he also calls for the usual Episcopal blather of endless mutual understanding, forgiveness, consultation, working out our differences, agreeing to disagree, blah blah blah. So, I’m thinking of asking him, are there any definitional lines to Christianity, or not?

However, he also makes the good point that people should not allow themselves to be so distracted by the current controversy, in the manner of spectators, that they forget the main thing, which is to live a Christian life. Here is Bishop Howard’s address:

The Diocese of Florida
325 Market Street
Jacksonville, FL 32202
888.763.2602
904.356.1328

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 07, 2004 02:16 PM | Send