Monday, July 21, 2008

Bunkum and the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops!

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8678

[VirtueOnline] 21 Jul 2008--In its etymology, the word 'bunkum' finds its root in a one time controversy surrounding the congressman from Buncombe county in North Carolina of the USA. This controversy arose from a remark made by this congressman, who defended an irrelevant speech he made by claiming that he was speaking to Buncombe. As a result, any nonsensical, insincere or foolish talk has come to be known as bunkum.

It is less arguable that the whole notion in the current controversy surrounding this week's Lambeth Conference will be seen not simply as an in-house fighting within the Anglican Communion but as bunkum. The irrelevance of whatever may be the outcome of this once revered deliberation is the final nail in the coffin of Christendom. It is not merely an ongoing debate over homosexuality. But rather it is such bunkum that shows to the whole world the marked divergence between secular and biblical worldviews that cannot easily be reconciled.

The irony of this bunkum is that a country whose cultural contours have been shaped by church history now only desires to nod to that heritage.

But even at that, it is a deeper irony that the Anglican or rather the Christian tradition is tolerated, but not celebrated. Remember the tale of the great uncle at family parties, whose words used to be full of wit and authority but now seem antiquated and belligerent; although his presence is still required, he is often a source of embarrassment. This is where we are with the current Lambeth Conference and being drowned in the ocean of bunkum.

Furthermore, the insincerity or the mere lack of integrity in this Lambeth Conference if it cannot be qualified as bunkum cannot be merely reduced to just the intransigence of so-called traditionalists over the issue of homosexuality.

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