Under the Radar...and Over the Cliff

http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/3831/

[Stand Firm] 21 June 2007--For those of us who have participated in this debate for the last few years, and especially for those of us who have run the blogs which have helped change the nature of this debate, it is obvious why Mr. Naughton wants to "ignore this story until it slips back beneath the radar."

It's because our Worthy Opponents figured out long ago how to sneak the nose of the gay agenda's camel under the tent of mainstream Episcopalianism: Frame it in terms of civil rights and post-modern notions of tolerance and inclusion, while playing the soft but insistent background music of oppression and marginalization. But what they haven't figured out is how to sell to that same mainstream the fact that their agenda - gutting 2,000 years of Christian teaching on sexual morality in order to devise a "Gospel" that bestows the blessings of the church on same-sex unions - at best allows, and at worst requires, a profound alteration of the lordship of Jesus Christ. There are complex reasons why this is so, but stated simply, it is because it is extremely difficult to assert on the one hand that the Scriptures don't mean what they say about sexual morality, and on the other insist that they do mean what they say about who Jesus Christ is. Leaving open all manner of possibilities for the former requires that one also leave open all manner of possibilities for the latter. This is why the orthodox side of this debate continually insists that the real debate is not about homosexuality, but Christology - who Christ is, why He came to earth, and the nature of His revelation to us.

Mr. Naughton is a smart fellow, and he no doubt understands that if stories like Redding's get too much press, it may cause many more open minded Anglicans to notice the startling similarities between what The Rev. Redding thinks about Christ, and what the Presiding Bishop thinks about Him. And, by extension, what Integrity, Oasis, Via Media, Claiming the Blessing, and the rest of the drivers of the left's agenda either believe about Christ and wish to promote themselves, or are willing to tolerate in the name of sanctifying homosexuality.