The fallout from gaylib (gay liberation) is gaining momentum. It has split the Anglican church in two, after 12 Anglican archbishops from around the world announced that they no longer believe the Church of England to be their 'mother church'. The General Synod had just voted to allow priests to conduct blessings of same-sex couples in civil unions. 80% of nominal Anglicans are British and settler colonies Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, so assuming the faithful there approve, the process can be argued as democratic.
But they are 'dead souls'.
Only 2% of British attend church regularly. In the 2011 census, 59% of the population defined themselves as Christian, down from 72% in 2001. One in four people said they had no religion, up from 15% in 2001. In sharp contrast, about two-thirds of Latin American Christians and 90% of African Christians (in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zimbabwe), according to the World Values Survey, said they attended church regularly.
2% of 80% is 1.6%. so 98.4% of the real Anglicans are now excommunicants until the 12 archbishops and the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) set up a functioning Anglican church of their own. The GSFA more modestly claim 75% of Anglicans worldwide.
Darwin to the rescue
Such a shock will only accelerate the decline of the church both in the mother and her flock, who will now be easy prey to well-funded American evangelicals, slowly replacing Catholic and Anglican missionaries in both Latin America and Africa.
The gaylib strategy was to go for the easy prey -- the decadent mother country, not the healthy offspring, say in Uganda, where 96% disapprove of homosexuality, despite dogged efforts by the US State Department to bully (read: boycott, etc) Uganda and other disobedient excolonies into submission. Pushing the mother church to legislate Truth was very neoliberal, very Darwinian. Like wolves attacking the sick deer to regulate the population. But the sick deer is the mother, and the healthy deer are very hard to catch. So you're left without the mother deer. The orphans are on their own and not interested in what the US social revolutionaries are peddling.
This attempt to get the third world on board was clumsy (stupid) and has blown back royally. Africans don't necessarily read (or like) Rousseau, and resent being 'forced to be free' by signing on to the new PC social contract. So the endgame here is not free gay marriages everywhere 24/7, but the death of the Anglican church and a bitter retrenchment of the real believers. Zero positive publicity for the new dispensation.
The church could soon lose its cushy status as state religion, and its orphan churches around the world will have to refloat the sinking ship. It's like a hapless Henry IX, not Charles III, is the new (last?) monarch. Time to loot and destroy the church again.
Jack boots in Westminster
The reform was personally announced by Archbishop Justin Welby last week, as he noted the Church’s “history of antisemitism, racism, slavery and collusion with evils of power.” The General Synod thoughtfully added a caveat: if you really, really don't like the idea, then you don't have to perform gay marriages. Wow. Now sin is a personal preference?! Reminds me of 'don't ask, don't tell' and we know what happened to that clever ruse.
Welby himself said he would not personally conduct such ceremonies due to his obligations to the global Anglican Communion movement, though he hastened to add that he supported the blessing of gay couples. Last month, the Church of England published a formal apology to the LGBTQ community for its previous 'hostile and homophobic response' to same-sex couples, saying it repents for the 'shameful' behavior.
Poor Welby. You can sense how he's walking a tightrope. Who knows what he really believes as he tries to square the circle. The real story is Welby had a gun pointed at his head the whole time. While in Ghana putting out gaylib arson fires, Welby said he was essentially pressured into supporting the move, claiming that many members of the Synod had been dismissive of his concerns about the reforms and their impact on those abroad in the Anglican Communion.
The concerns he raised during discussions about sexuality resulted in him being summoned to the British Parliament on two accounts, and 'threatened with parliamentary action to force same-sex marriage on us, called in England, equal marriage.' Yet another case of Rousseau's social contract, where you might have to be forced to be free, this time it's the mother that has to mend her ways.
Bible's fine print
The GSFA claimed that the Church of England had 'departed from the historic faith' and disqualified itself as the mother church of the Anglican communion. The archbishops who signed the statement insisted that the decision by churches in the UK, the US, and New Zealand to allow same-sex marriage or blessings had 'taken the path of false teaching.' Basically, they give the Synod an F in theology, embracing not only the sinner (in good Christian practice), but the sin as well. As if they hadn't bothered to read the bit about Sodom and Gomorrah.
This is bad news not only for the Anglican church, but for gaylib, as it is a clear sign that the even more reactionary (and powerful) rivals, the Catholics, Muslims, evangelicals and Orthodox Jews, will be sure to hold firm against apostasy. It is, after all, the death knell of any religion worth its salt.
Down with Putin! Down with religion!
Finally the gaylib reign of terror is being exposed, though it is still the law of the land in the collective West. It is a bit, no a LOT, like the gun pointed at Putin's head by gaylib sponsor-in-chief, Biden. Biden has vowed to take down the monster and is either salivating or frothing at the mouth in anticipation.
So many birds with one stone! Ukraine rising like a phoenix as the new neolib baby, birthed by good old American in vitro artificial insemination. A poster child for everything Biden and Nuland ask for: gay marriage, surrogate birth mothers,* bioweapon labs, ever more nukes aimed at Russia, soon itself to be dismantled and castrated, posterchild #2.
Who could possibly be against those nice little gay boys dressing up and playing house? Getting married in church? Having little kiddies just like everyone else?
Well, much like the war in Ukraine, where the dastardly Russian black appears to be white to Ugandans and most of the world, 'the word of God' in the backward, poor, starving world is still lily white too, even after the official condemnation of the (albeit reluctant) Archbishop of Canterbury.
What's wrong with these colonial losers? Why can't they be, well, civilized like the collective West? Hmm. Do I detect a touch of elitism, even racism, in this latest assault by the PC police?
The Church of England has also been deliberating the abolishment of gendered references to God from scriptures and services. Liberal Christians insist that the description of God as a man is a theological misreading and have called for more inclusive language in the church’s authorized liturgy. The abstract noun Man and the associated He's are to go (mostly to 'they', eliminating individuals altogether, though what to do about God is still a problem).
As if the PC police are suddenly experts on linguistics and are happy to play with theology, come hell or high water. And assuming the 98.4% of believers will go along with that.
They are merrily doing this in all literature, starting with children's books by Roald Dahl, considered by many as the greatest children's author ever. Roald Dahl has been the target of PC police for a while. While being (grudgingly) accepted as the most inspired and inspiring children's writer, he was also known to his critics as a homophobe and anti-semite. So the thought police get special satisfaction over disinterring Dahl and defiling his legacy.** No one even considers his unpopular views about gays and Jews might have some value too. But just saying that can land you in hot water now.
Playing God
The problem started when Pope Pius X quietly started earning interest at the Vatican bank,*** finally dropping Christianity's other major sin, usury, as the West became capitalist and needed a religion that lauded profit and interest. Once poverty and humility, the very foundations of Christianity, were discarded in favor of infinite expansion of wealth, Christianity lost its enchantment and it was a short step to discard other myths, such as the prohibition of homosexuality, and an even shorter step to abandoning other sacraments, including marriage.
There are good arguments for gay civil unions. Anything to try to tame the male sex drive. But forcing priests to violate their faith so that militant gays can have the 'real thing' – cui bono? Nobody. One can only feel sorry for Welby, clearly conflicted and just as clearly being terrorized by the Conservative government. It would make no difference if the newly gutted Labour party or the hopeless Liberal Democrats were holding the PC cattle prod.
Condolences to the very unhappy archbishops. They lost their church, their home. Now that the party's over, they must reconstruct an new Anglican church for the excolonies (settler-colonies need not apply). I wonder how long it will take for the evangelicals to clean up? They are happy with usury and capitalism, but will be happy to conduct an inquisition ferreting out any westernized African gay boys and trying to force them to convert. Their version of Christianity will continue to vex (but not much) the US in its ongoing project to recreate the world in its imago.
xxx
*In France, Italy, and Germany, all forms of using a surrogate mother are illegal. Surrogacy is popular in the US, and some of the top countries include Ukraine, Colombia, Mexico, and Georgia.
**The word black was removed from the description of the terrible tractors in 1970s The Fabulous Mr Fox. The machines are now simply murderous, brutal-looking monsters. Augustus Gloop, Charlie’s gluttonous antagonist in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which originally was published in 1964, is no longer enormously fat, just enormous. Faced by outrage, Penguin quickly announced it would publish two versions, including The Roald Dahl Classic Collection so 'readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl's stories they prefer.'
***As late as the reign of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), usury and speculation were condemned by the Catholic Church as harmful forms of lending and investment. Leo was famously a stick-in-the-mud on the wonders of industrial capitalism. He knew apres moi le deluge. And indeed, his successor Pius X started accepting interest on Vatican funds. The Vatican bank Banco Ambrosiano became a tool of US imperialism under Pope John Paul II, funneling covert United States funds to the Polish trade union Solidarity and to the Nicaraguan Contras.
