The Archbishop of Canterbury
Two recent interviews with Justin Welby, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, highlight his spiritual confusion and his unsuitability for the prominent position that he occupies in British religion. His background is weakly Evangelical, albeit of a charismatic variety. He has had a “conversion experience”; he freely expresses Evangelical-sounding sentiments – for example, “Christianity is just defined by faith in Jesus Christ” – he “adores the sacrament of the eucharist”; and he apparently prays in (so-called) tongues every morning, although he says that “this is seldom an ecstatic experience”.
Notwithstanding this more “spiritual” dimension to his religion, his application of Scripture seems to be extremely worldly. At the Trades Union Congress last September, he quoted the words of Mary in Luke 1:53, “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away”, but he failed to explain to the Conference that the “rich” were not necessarily those – mentioned elsewhere in his speech – who were imposing
zero-hours contracts on others, but were those who flattered themselves that they have all that they need spiritually, and who therefore saw no need of “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). In other words, he did not apply the words to the sinful unbelief of probably the vast majority of Conference members, nor to the nearly universal rejection of Christ among both rich and poor in British society. The evil of sin, and God’s impending judgement of it, have little place in his theology, and one fears that he is one who has been “sent empty away” from God, rather than “filled . . . with good things”.
His friendship with the Pope, whom he sees “quite regularly”, and with Cardinal Vincent Nichols – “Cardinal Nichols and I would describe each other as very close friends” – seems to be the friendship of fellow liberals. The Pope and the Cardinal do not believe traditional Roman Catholic theology, and the Archbishop does not believe Protestant theology, and they get on very well together. It is part of God’s judgement on Britain that people of this sort are among our religious leaders: “his watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark” (Is 56:10). DWBS
“Male and Female created He them”
The above scripture from Genesis 5:2 is increasingly being scorned by “enlightened” secularists who are expending great energy trying to impose a non-gender culture across our society. Indeed even “nature itself teaches” the folly of such an agenda.
It starts at an early age. Nursery carers are being told not to call children “boys or girls”: rather to greet children with, “Hello, everyone,” or, “Hello, children,” implying that to identify their gender is considered discriminatory. It is also deemed unwise to read stories about male characters – for example, stories like Mr Squirrel should be avoided (unless one leaves out “Mr”) – and words like mankind may be replaced by words such as humanity. Common everyday expressions such as man-made should become synthetic or manufactured or perhaps machine-made, while terms such as the common man must change to the average person or ordinary people. The pressure is on to use “pronouns such as they or them or theirs, instead of she or him or hers”.
These diktats come from the Care Inspectorate (CI) – a body funded by our taxes and set up to regulate and inspect, among others, registered childcare providers in Scotland. It has linked up with the group Zero Tolerance – which deals with male violence against women – to produce radical guidelines. The CI also insists on introducing “gender-equal play” so that girls will play boys’ games, and vice versa. The claim is that these recommendations have been brought in because “childhood and play is becoming more gendered and polarised between girls and boys. The benefits for children of
both sexes playing with a range of toys must be promoted.” Additionally children will now be shown images of same-sex parents in educational materials, while “posters displaying male ballet dancers are encouraged to break down gender divisions”.
The work of more and more schools is being permeated by this kind of thinking, as can be highlighted by a case in the Highlands where a pupil is in “transition” from female to male. Teachers were instructed to refer to the child by her preferred (male) gender and not by her previously-known (female) gender. If a “mistake” was made, as inevitably would be the case given the confusion, the teacher was to apologise to the pupil for calling “her” by the “wrong” pronoun. Doubtless this is replicated many times in schools across our country. The Evangelical Times reveals that “in one school alone 17 pupils are in the process of changing gender, and most of them are autistic”. The teacher reporting this wanted to remain anonymous, for fear of dismissal, but said that “schools and some politicians have ‘swallowed hook, line and sinker’ a politically-correct fallacy peddled by a powerful transgender lobby”.
In response to this sinful folly, one critic commented about the CI: “They’ve lost a degree of sanity and moved out of touch with the real world – they are living in a parallel universe. The Care Inspectorate are no longer about inspecting care standards; they’re about inspecting doctrine.” Scottish Conservative Early Years spokeswoman Alison Harris adds, ‘This seems like political correctness gone mad. These recommendations appear to be patronising in the extreme. Many parents will be concerned that this political correctness is replacing common sense”. As another critic asked, “Why can’t they just accept that boys and girls are different?” However Gordon Weir, interim chief executive of the CI will not relent, insisting that “the role that early learning and childcare can have in promoting gender equality can’t be overstated. That’s why we’ve produced this resource with our partners. This is about asking everyone to think about how they approach gender equality in play and early learning, and how we can support and promote it.”
The Daily Telegraph reports that the NHS is also seriously influenced by these ungodly principles. Hospitals provide for male patients to share female wards if they self-identify as women. Apparently anyone in England who decides to do so can, as England’s NHS Trusts “do not require a patient to have begun a physical transition, for them to be treated as their ‘preferred’ sex”. Worryingly, the newspaper also states that one NHS Foundation Trust allows children to share a single-sex ward with members of the opposite sex, even if it conflicts with what their parents’ want, stating, “Where appropriate the wishes of the parents must be considered, but in the case of young people,
their preference should prevail”. Spokeswoman for the lobby group Fair Play for Women, Dr Nicola Williams, concludes that “in an attempt to accommodate a minority, the state is sacrificing the needs of the majority at their most vulnerable”. Very clearly, as one MP states, “people with male bodies should be on male wards”.
At least one Scottish Health Board, in conjunction with LGBT groups, runs courses for senior managers on how gender-neutral language can be “normalised” in the Health Service. A senior figure in the Board has subsequently raised concerns with the course leader, warning that using such pronouns could offend older patients as “their dignity would be compromised, which goes against our core values of safety, dignity and respect”.
Those perpetrating these sinful views are determined to blur the God-given distinction between men and woman and are blatantly defying the Creator, who has made mankind male and female. Each have their own distinctive characteristics, to complement each other for His glory. How much we need an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to sweep away the folly and sin of this transgender agenda! KHM
Church Information
Committee Meetings
Synod committees will meet, DV, in Inverness, on Tuesday, March 19.
Jewish and Foreign Missions Fund
By appointment of Synod, the first of the year’s two special collections for the Jewish and Foreign Missions Fund is due to be taken in congregations during March. W Campbell, General Treasurer
Acknowledgement of Donations
Congregational Treasurers acknowledge with sincere thanks the following donations:
Edinburgh: Anon, £142 per General Treasurer.
Fort William: Communion Expenses: Anon, £20.
Glasgow: Anon, £142.28 per General Treasurer. Bus Fund: Anon, £20, £10. Eastern Europe Fund: Anon, £1000, £70, £60, £60, £70, £70, £65. TBS: Anon, £20.
Greenock: Bus Fund: Anon, £10. TBS: Anon, £40.
Inverness: N Pearce, Cymru, £140. Bus Fund: Anon, £10. Home Mission Fund: Mr A Reynolds, £59, £60. Jewish & Foreign Missions Fund: Mr A Reynolds, £59, £60.
Portree: D & D Wiffen, £3000; Anon, for church bus, £100. TBS: Anon, £100, £300.
Staffin: Sustentation Fund: Anon, In memory of a dear aunt, £1000 per Rev DMD.
Uig: Anon, for manse expenses, £100; Anon, £100, Anon, £500, Friends, £500. Communion Expenses: LMA, £100; SMK, £100; Anon, Uig, £40.