'CHRISTA' IS NOT INCLUSIVE

The growing popularity of 'Christa', the female Christ, calls for orthodox refutation.

Christa is an idol; she is the invention of feminist theologians who smuggle her in on the back of Jesus' humanity. The thoroughly secular ideological assumption behind such feminist theologising is that Jesus' humanity, if it is to be truly inclusive, must acknowledge a feminine side. This feminine side to Jesus can be explored through 'theology' (in this case of the speculative kind) and through the creative arts.

Holy Scripture acknowledges no such person as Christa, but proclaims Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Reflecting the teaching of the Bible, the Nicene Creed, included in the service of Holy Communion according to the Book of Common Prayer, expresses the belief of the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in 'Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God, Begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made’. The Creed is clear that it was God the Son who ‘became incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man’ for our salvation.

For Nicene Christians the fact that Jesus was a man and not a woman is hugely significant. As man he was able to save both men and women. If he had been a woman, then he would have been able to save nobody.

That is because of the biblical significance of the first man Adam, whose effect on the whole of humanity Jesus has reversed. As the Apostle Paul argues in Romans 5:

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift of grace in that one man Jesus Christ abounded to many. And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ (Romans 5v15-17 - RSV).

As the first man, Adam was the federal head of the human race and brought it down with him. As the federal head of the new humanity, the man Jesus Christ brings all male and female believers in him the saving grace of God. The salvation the second Adam achieved for lost humanity is expressed beautifully by Cardinal Newman in his celebrated hymn:

Praise to the holiest in the height,
and in the depth be praise;
in all His words most wonderful;
most sure in all His ways.

O loving wisdom of our God!
when all was sin and shame,
a second Adam to the fight,
and to the rescue came.

The biblical logic is thus this: if Jesus Christ had not shared Adam's maleness, then the salvation he brings would not be inclusive. So thank the good Lord Jesus was a man and not 'Christa'.

CHRISTIANS EXPECTED TO DO THE COMPROMISING

The Sheffield Telegraph reported last week the accusation of 'appalling bigotry' against All Saints' Totley over its decision to withdraw the use of its church hall for a Tai Chi class. Here is your curate's letter in today's edition:

Refreshing refusal at All Saints' Totley
From Julian Mann
The Vicarage, Oughtibridge, Sheffield S35

The Revd David Rhodes and the leadership of All Saints' Totley have been accused of 'appalling bigotry' over their stand against Tai Chi sessions in their church hall.

Whether one takes a view of Tai Chi as a spiritually neutral relaxation activity or as absolutely incompatible with Christian faith, it is so refreshing to see an Anglican church refusing to kow-tow to the multi-faith agenda.

It always seems to be we Christians who have to compromise on our faith in the supremacy of Christ when there is a clash of convictions. If we don't, we are accused of bigotry.

IS UKIP ENTITLED TO THE CHRISTIAN VOTE?

The UKIP candidate for Stocksbridge and Penistone, Mr Grant French, has commented as follows on your curate's
post - UKIP: Christian schools 'must be allowed to do what it says on the tin':

Can I point you to what will most likely be my election address? (Teach our children English, Maths and Science - not sex.) As a father of 3 girls of school age. I will not allow their morality to be influenced by this sick government. My seven-year-old will not be attending sex education.

UKIP is certainly being vocal in support of Judeo-Christian values in education for which it should be applauded. Whether it is the right party for an orthodox Christian to vote for is another matter. There are two most helpful perspectives on the UKIP question in the letters section of April's Evangelicals Now.

Mr Fred Lush of Bideford, Devon, supports UKIP and argues that a vote for a minor party is not a wasted vote:

I believe that the idea of a 'wasted vote' is misleading, and encouraged by the major parties to enhance their share of votes.

If it is believed that votes for minor parties are wasted we shall at some time have an exclusive two party system.

Mr Graeme Kemp of Wellington, Shropshire, left UKIP in the late 1990s

as the party drifted further to the right. And, indeed, UKIP has increasingly adopted a much tougher stance on immigration. UKIP is obsessed with defending 'Britishness'.

Additionally, the party oddly blames the welfare state for educational failure, crime and family breakdown. A lot of people hit by the 'credit crunch' and unemployed would disagree with that kind of sentiment.

He concludes:

If we are to take the Bible seriously on social justice issues, and concern for the poor, then voting for fringe right-wing parties is not really an option for Christians, I believe.

It is vitally important that Christians engage with this coming election and do not capitulate to the 'whatever' society, the politics of 'the shrug', as Ann Widdecombe terms it. We are facing a squeeze on our Christian liberties and this is likely to get worse whether the Conservatives or Labour get to power and even worse if we have a hung Parliament with politically-correct Liberal Democrats holding the balance.

Christ's servants must be seen to be concerned for the welfare of the earthly city in which we spend our time of exile, more concerned though we should be with our heavenly home. The Apostle Paul expresses our Christian hope so wonderfully in Philippians 3v20-21:

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (NIV).

THANK GOD FOR SPARING US LADY WARNOCK’S ‘HUMAN VALUES’

In a column about morality in yesterday’s Observer magazine, euthanasia supporter Baroness Warnock wrote:

Though many people derive their morality from religious beliefs, the morality that guides political decision-making must be separated from any idea of divine origin. For many, the idea of God is meaningless. If they are led to suppose that morality without religion is impossible, they will reject morality along with theism. We must be careful to allow that morality can be based on purely human values. But in a country steeped in a Judaeo-Christian religion, the outcome will not be so different.

At the risk of impertinence from a non-academic layman on moral philosophy, Cranmer's Curate would like to put this question to the former Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge: how did the ‘Judaeo-Christian religion’ which you acknowledge produces a moral outcome get ‘steeped’ in this country in the first place?

It certainly wasn’t home-brewed on these barbaric islands, where the indigenous ‘human values’ of the dark ages allowed human sacrifice and other forms of brutality. It was brought here by people with a firm belief in the transcendent, almighty God of the Bible. Those men and women were courageous enough to risk their lives for His Son Jesus Christ's gospel of eternal redemption from sin.

Thank God He gave those missionaries to the British Isles His message of love in their hearts. Otherwise, we would be relying on Lady Warnock’s ‘human values’ for our moral compass and bumping off our elderly relatives with dementia.

INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH STUCK IN PC TIME WARP

Cranmer's Curate thanks the Institute of Ideas very much for inviting him to be part of the audience at a 'Question Time' event at Sheffield University on Monday evening and for giving him a nice glass of wine beforehand.

Defying the cynicism of post-Christian Britain, the speakers went out of their way to be thought-provoking and unconstrained by political correctness. The evening was attended by students from various Sheffield secondary schools, who had been participating in a debating competition during the day.

'On the panel' were Dr Rhiannon Vickers, senior lecturer in politics, University of Sheffield; Kim Knott, professor of religious studies, University of Leeds; David Harsent, award winning poet and TV scriptwriter; Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education, University of Derby and founder of Academics for Academic Freedom; and Bill Carmichael, former news editor of the Yorkshire Post and now a journalism lecturer at Sheffield University. In the chair was Austin Williams, director of the Future Cities Project.

The subject of religion came up. Called by the chairman as the gentleman in 'the religious garb', a dog-collared cc tried to make the point that an evening of free speech like that occasion would be inconceivable without the English Bible - God's gift to the nation through an Evangelical Christian, William Tyndale. Your curate suggested that this fact was being airbrushed out of educational syllabuses by political correctness. How many school pupils have heard of William Tyndale? This comment was greeted sympathetically, a strong contrast to how similar comments are greeted at meetings of the institutional church.

Your curate recalls the atmosphere of disapproval which met his comment at a recent deanery synod that Evangelical businessmen who contribute generously to net-giving churches that generally disapprove of remarriage after divorce have nothing to be ashamed of. He also recalls the shocked reaction to a comment at a diocesan lecture at Sheffield University a few years ago when your curate drew attention to Article 18 and the fact that the Church of England officially teaches that Jesus Christ is the only Name under heaven by which people must be saved. Your curate was even accosted by a Church Army captain after a speech at a diocesan synod and accused of 'ruffling feathers'.

It seems that parts of the world are wanting to shake loose from the grip of political correctness whilst the institutional church seems to be stuck in a time warp of 1980s' student politics.

NOW FOR THE PRACTICALITIES OF THE LIVERPOOL AFFAIR

This by Cranmer's Curate first appeared on VirtueOnline:

Other writers including Charles Raven, Peter Ould and John Richardson have ably exposed on VOL the biblical infidelity and missional nonsense of Bishop Jones' pronouncement at Liverpool Diocesan Synod promoting diversity on sexual ethics. Now come the painful practicalities for orthodox Anglicans in Liverpool and beyond, for his stance is bound to open the floodgates to more trendy 'Evangelicals' of his Blairite stamp being appointed as bishops.

What does an orthodox Anglican Evangelical ministering in a small parish church do at the Archdeacon's annual Visitation at the Cathedral where there is a service of Holy Communion? The e-mail has gone round that it is a canonical requirement for clergy to be there with their churchwardens to be sworn in. Clergy from the big Evangelical flagships can do what they have always done - ignore the archdiaconal directive with no consequences. But the Evangelical first incumbent who ministers in a non-Evangelical church cannot get away with being so cavalier.

'I was speaking at a church growth conference in the States' doesn't sound very convincing.

The practising homosexual 'priest' from the neighbouring parish, whose boyfriend has just moved into the vicarage, is sitting there with partner in the pew in front. The cohabiting vicar is there, whose girlfriend moved into the vicarage after his marriage broke up.

Representations were made to the bishop by the diocesan Anglican Mainstream group but he replied:

Just as the church over the last 2000 years has come to allow a variety of ethical conviction about the taking of life and the application of the sixth Commandment, so I believe that in this period it is also moving towards allowing a variety of ethical conviction about people of the same gender loving each other fully. Just as Christian pacifists and Christian soldiers profoundly disagree with one another yet in their disagreement continue to drink from the same cup because they share in the one body, so too I believe the day is coming when Christians who equally profoundly disagree about the consonancy of same gender love with the discipleship of Christ will, in spite of their disagreement, drink openly from the same cup of salvation.

Your new churchwarden - your only one this year because of the shortage of volunteers - goes up to take to take Holy Communion. What do you do?

Then comes the clergy chapter retreat with the senior staff to be briefed on the deanery review. Again, no problem for the boys from the big net-giving churches to diocesan funds. They can boycott it with virtual impunity. But again that is so much harder for the little guys. What do you do when it comes to the Communion service?

Ministry reviews with a member of the senior staff are a requirement under the new clergy terms of service. This in fact presents a dilemma for both big church and small church Evangelicals. Can you in conscience undergo a ministry review with a false teacher?

For those who decide that they cannot there will be a price to be paid and possible repercussions under the Clergy Discipline Measure. But it is clearly so much easier for ministers in large net-giving churches to negotiate a way round this.

Whatever stance is taken over the ministry review, it is surely the right thing to refuse to take Holy Communion with false teachers. But the price of faithfulness to Christ is going to be so much higher for small church ministers in turnaround churches.

The 'inside strategy' has in the past allowed Evangelicals to become ministers of non-Evangelical parish churches in the Church of England and turn them around by God's grace. But that strategy is now coming under severe strain. There are no easy answers for Evangelicals who want to move out of the bourgeois comfort-zone of big-church, suburban Evangelicalism in order to minister within the parochial system of the Church of the nation, which does allow for mission in a variety of socio-economic contexts.

The future is very uncertain, but as a small church minister in the, for Evangelicals, unfashionable north of England I am inspired by the passage from Hebrews I am preaching on, God willing, on Sunday - 'Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted' (12v3 - RSV).

AN EVANGELICAL CASE FOR VOTING LABOUR

Cranmer's Curate has been described in the national press as a conservative blog. That is partly but not wholly the reason why your curate would like to offer the youth group an Evangelical Christian case for voting Labour.

As a first principle, the Christian must cast his vote in what he honestly believes to be the national interest. That is because he is commanded by Jesus in the Gospels to love his neighbour as himself (cf Mark 12v31).

Tempting though it is to vote for a fringe party, it seems to cc that the national interest means voting for one of the parties most likely to get an outright majority - the Conservatives or Labour. It is manifestly not in the national interest to have a hung Parliament. The possibility of this has already impacted on the pound. In order to maintain our triple A credit rating and the attractiveness of the UK for foreign investment, a government with a working majority to reduce the inflated national debt by cutting public spending is sorely needed.

So why aren't you voting Conservative then?

Because cc is far from convinced that a Conservative government would be able to lead us into national economic recovery. It is far from clear that the current front-bench is sufficiently commerce-friendly. Your curate may be completely laughed out of court by close-to-the-action political journalists and maybe deservedly so for saying this, but he believes the current Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, has more ability, expertise and willingness to support enterprise than anyone in the current Conservative leadership. And he also honestly believes that the Conservatives are unlikely to show more moral courage in implementing unpopular spending cuts than Labour.

He also believes that David Milliband or Alan Johnson would make relatively decent Prime Ministers if the Labour Party decided after winning an election that a new leader was needed.

The political correspondents who have seen Labour's dark side in a way that cc has not are not offering themselves for election. As a voter, you can only choose from the array of candidates who are standing - to whatever degree they may resemble the Prince of Darkness.

But aren't you more worried about moral issues such as the devastating impact of the the permissive society and the undermining of heterosexual marriage than about the economy? Surely the Conservatives are more in tune with Judeo-Christian values than Labour?

Yes, British society desperately needs spiritual and moral renewal, but long-term economic instability would be very disruptive of re-Christianisation. The spread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ requires political, social and economic stability (cf 1 Timothy 2v1-7). It is far from clear that the Conservatives would be much different from Labour on moral issues. The Conservative Party backs civil partnerships - in fact its leader called same-sex unions 'marriage', which they aren't.

The Conservatives, it would seem, have all the zeal of a new convert when it comes to politically-correct morality. The Conservatives' Judeo-Christian values used to be personified in Colonel Sir Archibald Bufton-Tufton MC, MP, Privy Counsellor. But he is now becoming extinct by deliberate design.

Bufton-Tufton could recite the Ten Commandments, which the Padre made him learn in confirmation classes when he was in the school corps. He could recite the Lord’s Prayer and if you quoted to him ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled' (AV) he could tell you in which of his sermons Jesus said it.

Yes, he may have been lacking in Christian grace and humility in some of his pronouncements. He certainly did not have a monopoly of political virtue. But at his constituency surgery Bufton-Tufton's ire was fired to action by the small shopkeeper’s tale of the police response when his livelihood was ruined by thugs trashing his newsagents: we are concentrating police resources on tackling hate crime - in line with the new directive from the diversity and equality unit.

Bufton-Tufton had a firm conviction that he should do something about this man's plight. In practical terms, he was therefore a compassionate man.

But now the Conservatives have a new morality personified in Ms Joan Cool, Twitterer, dip. Public Relations, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, adopted by the central list. She feels passionately about equality and diversity. She hates bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Her ire has been fired by the letter from the 13-year-old girl at the faith school who came out as a lesbian to the chaplain but was advised not to become sexually active on the ground that ‘her feelings could change’.

The perpetrators must be dealt with firmly. The Conservatives are the only party tough enough to drive out dinosaur attitudes from 21st century European society, intones Ms Cool.

Your curate honestly believes Labour would be more inclined to give the orthodox Christian case a fair hearing than the new Tory PC zealots. He is not fully persuaded that he should support Labour, but believes that, in a fallen world awaiting God's new creation, there may be some wisdom in sticking with the devil you know.

ARMY PADRE BACKS CANON A5 STAND

Following the article in Saturday's Times about the ecumenical initiative against 'Islamophobia', Cranmer's Curate has received this letter from the Revd Brian Hunt, minister of St Paul's United Reformed Church in Harrogate:

Dear Mr Mann,

Bravo! May I applaud your stand against the 'Challenging Extremism' initiative by the Methodists and Anglicans in Sheffield? I am quite sure you will be pilloried for your stance, but I do think it comes down to this basic thing called Integrity. As you say, quoting Canon A5, this is what we believe. We are not forcing others, but this is our position.

You no doubt saw the various bishops and theologians who wrote to The Times last Friday to demand, on the grounds of equality, the right to celebrate civil partnerships in church. Again, I think it comes down to integrity. If we don't believe the Bible is God's Word - and Jesus said that not a jot or a tittle will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished - then we should take off our clerical collars and go and do a proper job. No-one is forcing us to do this job.

I am an Army Padre at the Army Foundation College here in Harrogate where all the 16-year-old recruits come for their time of Phase 1 training. Our task is not to proselytise, but of course we can say what we stand for. After seven years' teaching at the College, I can say that their minds are not as closed to the Gospel as we might be led to believe. Only last week I offered New Testaments to the Junior Soldiers. Very few refused to take them, and some of them stayed behind afterwards to ask about baptism. So long as we speak the truth in love, people will always recognise integrity. What people despise, however, is when people take the King's shilling but are embarrassed by him and temper his claims to follow the world rather than the Word.

So thank for your brave stand. Remember that only dead fish swim with the current.

God bless you and your congregation.

Very sincerely yours,

Brian Hunt

Published with permission