Ted Cruz denies biblical truth in denying Jewish responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus

As reported by World Israel News, January 15, 2026:

Republican Senator Ted Cruz lambasted claims by fellow Christians that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus, calling the accusation historically inaccurate, theologically false, and fundamentally bigoted.

On Wednesday, the senator hosted conservative pundit Ben Ferguson and former Auburn Tigers basketball coach Bruce Pearl on his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz.”

During the discussion, Pearl, who is Jewish, challenged antisemitism based on the claim that Jews killed Jesus, while appearing to affirm that Jews were indeed responsible.

“You could either look at the Jews and say, ‘Well, you all killed Christ…killed our God.’ Okay, well, was it not God’s plan to send his son to die so that you would be brought into covenant with him? Wasn’t that his plan?” Pearl said.

“Does it really matter who killed him?” he continued. “Jesus was Jewish.”

Cruz responded that the claim that Jews killed Jesus is factually incorrect, adding that it also contradicts Christian dogma regarding the death of Jesus.

“The week before Christmas, and Ben will remember this, I sent out a tweet and I said, ‘Two thoughts that drive the anti-Semites crazy in this Christmas season. Number one, our savior Jesus was Jewish in the line of David, and number two, Jews didn’t kill Jesus – I did. You did. He died for our sins’,” Cruz said.

The senator then castigated those blaming Jews for Jesus’ death as “antisemites,” adding that no argument is made to hold Italians responsible, despite the execution being carried out by Romans.

“That’s what the New Testament says, is that he willingly took the cross to die for our sins, and so the sort of antisemites who says Jews killed Jesus, well actually, it was Romans who drove the nails in. Is anyone mad at the Italians? Like that’s just stupid. It’s bad theology, it’s bigotry, and I will admit I was kind of happy with that tweet because it really did drive the anti-Semites crazy.”

Senator Cruz needs to take a closer look at the New Testament. I've already dealt with this subject, so rather than repeat myself, I refer the reader to my posts 50 years ago: Pope Paul VI promulgates Second Vatican Council's Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate) (October 28, 2015) and To deny the Jewish role in the crucifixion of Jesus is to deny the word of God (April 18, 2022).

Muslims and Indians in Manitoba team up against white people

A pattern has emerged in recent years of groups of non-white people who otherwise have nothing in common with one another coming together to oppose white people for the heinous crime of being white. One such example is the National Immigration Table, which may be the subject of another blog post, if I can ever get around to it. Another example is the one below, as reported by John Longhurst in the Winnipeg Free Press, January 20, 2025:

At first glance, Muslims and Indigenous people in Manitoba might not have much in common.

However, the two groups have experienced racism and the effects of colonialism, including efforts to convert them to Christianity.

“We are all living with the history and trauma of colonization,” Shahina Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services Association, said. “We have much in common from that experience.”

The association will hold the first national Muslim-Indigenous Solidarity Conference, which is happening at the Hilton Suites Airport Hotel on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26.

Siddiqui said the goal is to “strengthen the bonds between the Muslim and Indigenous communities through learning, sharing and healing circles.”

Indigenous elders, Muslim imams, community leaders, academics and activists are scheduled to make presentations.

Topics to be discussed include the legacy of colonialism for Indigenous people and Muslims in North America; the role of colonialism in gender-based violence; the role of the church in assimilation, education and Christianization of Indigenous people in Canada and Muslims around the world; the spiritual commitment of Indigenous people and Muslims to peace, justice and human rights; and the role of spirituality in healing for members of both groups.

In addition, there will be space for smudging and to speak to counsellors.

“The legacy of colonialism is still with us today in the form of racism and dehumanization,” Siddiqui said, noting many countries in the developing world that are home to Muslims — Egypt, Syria, Sudan, India, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Indonesia — were colonized by European powers such as Britain, France and the Netherlands from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.

“This is an opportunity for members of both communities to hear from each other how they are addressing the colonial legacy and racism, so we can share and learn together and build resilience,” she said.

The "efforts to convert them to Christianity" have had a fair amount of success when it comes to Native people in Canada, since most still identify as Christians of one kind or another. The statement by Ms. Siddiqui is more than a little disingenuous, given that Muslims make efforts to convert others to Islam, while trying to make their new homes into Muslim nations.

Ms. Siddiqui's comment about the spiritual commitment of Muslims to peace, justice and human rights is laughable. The Muslim idea of peace is a lack of opposition to Islam; justice means the imposition of Islamic law; and I dare anyone to name one Muslim nation that respects human rights. In the nations that she mentions, colonialism had the beneficial effect of suppressing the most unpleasant aspects of the native cultures, such as tribal conflict. When it comes to the "legacy of colonialism," the main legacy is everything that these peoples have that can be regarded as mmodern, especially technology.

YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg drops "Christian" from its name

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded by a draper named George Williams, and was a product of the 19th century movement known as Muscular Christianity, which promoted patriotism, masculinity, duty, discipline, and athleticism. The reader of the following article will notice that while the YMCA-YWCA's distinctive Christian characteristics have faded away, those running and using the Y's are content to sponge off the cultural heritage of Christianity, while scorning the source, resulting in an acronym with no meaning. That's what you're left with when Jesus Christ is removed: a meaningless jumble. As always, the wokesters are incapable of building any such equivalent organizations of their own.

As reported by John Longhurst in the Winnipeg Free Press, February 29, 2024:

The Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Association of Winnipeg has changed its full legal name to YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg.

The reason for dropping references to Christianity and gender is to both reflect the reality of the organization and remove any barriers or concerns some might feel because of those words, said president and chief executive officer Cordella Friesen.

“We are open to all faiths,” Friesen said Thursday, noting while the organization was founded on Christian principles and values in the 19th century, it hasn’t been overtly Christian in Canada since the 1970s.

“That has not been our emphasis for a long time.”

However, she was often asked about the role Christianity played in the organization, including when hiring new staff or when signing partnership agreements.

This is especially true when entering into agreements with Indigenous groups, Friesen said, noting references to Christianity in the former full legal name could be triggering and concerning for some.

Changing it to the acronym YMCA-YWCA “just reflects the reality of who we have been for decades and who we are,” Friesen said, noting the organization serves a lot of people from the local Muslim community.

This includes wanting to make sure the YMCA-YWCA is seen as being open and welcoming to members of the LGBTTQ+ community, she added. The organization is providing a universal washroom and locker room at its downtown Winnipeg location, although it will still have gendered change rooms and bathrooms.

“Having separate rooms for men and women is important for some faith groups,” Friesen said.

The end goal of the name change is to send the message the YMCA-YWCA is “welcoming to all,” Friesen said. “The Y will always be a safe place that promotes and celebrates diversity.”

The name change is part of the organization’s recently released 2024-27 strategic plan, developed by YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg’s board of directors over the past year.

The YMCA was founded in 1844 in London, as a response to the terrible working conditions facing young men in cities at that time. The first YMCA in North America opened in Montreal in 1851; the Manitoba branch opened in 1879.

The YWCA was founded in 1858 in New York City.

Ms. Friesen provides more evidence that you can't be a satirist anymore, promoting the Y as a "safe place" while providing a universal washroom, thereby making it "safer" for alphabet perverts to indulge their perversions. And yes, "having separate [change] rooms for men and women" is not only important for some faith groups (read "Muslims," since the views of Christians obviously don't matter to her), but to anyone with any grasp of reality.

Trinity Western University promotes events that divide rather than unite Christians

Anyone who thinks that evangelical universities and colleges are actually Christian isn't paying attention; it's becoming increasingly difficult to see any difference between these institutions and the world, especially as the world becomes more anti-Christian. Submitted for your approval, the following items from the events page of Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia (bold, links in original):

27/01/2023 - 10:00 :

Trinity Western University's Lunar New Year celebrations bring students, staff, and the community together at Langley and Richmond campuses

As a global Christian university, Trinity Western is a community of learners representing over 80 countries. This year, during Lunar New Year, a festival celebrated by many communities globally, Trinity Western's Langley and Richmond campuses are filled with activities.

On January 23, TWU's Intercultural Student Programs (ICP) kicked off a week-long series of events for students and the campus community, starting with a Korean Dinner hosted in the Global Lounge (Kuhn Centre) on Monday evening. Students shared laughs and good food while participating in dumpling wrapping and lantern making.

Wema Kibe is a student leader who helped coordinate Monday's community dinner. The third-year International Studies major explained that "Community dinners are a great place for people to not just learn about a culture but to also make new connections. Ushering in the new year with people from diverse places was a great way to do this."

The first activity of the evening was making dumplings, and Wema reflected on the intercultural exchange, "It was fun to see people at different tables creating different shapes. I talked to someone from Japan who made a dumpling the way they do it in her culture, and it was interesting to see that integration."

Student leader Anasthasia Anjanette led participants in making paper lanterns. The activity symbolized "letting go of our past selves" and getting ready for the new year. Wema explains, "Inside the lanterns, they wrote down their wishes for the new year." Prizes were given out to the maker of the best-looking lanterns.

The campus Korean club, Manna, took charge of the cooking and cultural explanations of the food.

On Tuesday, a lion dance troupe graced the foyer of the Reimer Student Centre. Boisterous music and drum beats accompanied the traditional dance performance, which was enjoyed by students, staff, and faculty. Wednesday evening saw student dorms racing through a series of stations across the Langley campus—each station presenting a different game or challenge—in a cross-campus dorm night.

Thursday brought celebrations to TWU Richmond's two sites in Minoru and Lansdowne. Activities included calligraphy writing, trivia games, pastoral care and prayer, and a student dance performance. Dumplings and snacks were served, and red envelopes with a treat and a note of Scriptural encouragement handed out. The MLA for Richmond Centre Teresa Wat attended as well, to share new year greetings with the Richmond campus community.

MBA student Merghani Ahmed expressed that he enjoys studying at TWU Richmond, where the community represents "a diversity of different faiths and nationalities." He also appreciates "the flexibility of classes, and good events, such as today's Lunar New Year event, which are good experiences for students from international backgrounds."

The festivities continued that evening in the Reimer Student Centre, where bubble tea was served by TWU's Student Association (TWUSA), and various booths offered games, conversation, gifts, and snacks.

A week of Lunar New Year events wraps up this Friday evening with a talent show at Block Hall.

30/01/2023 - 09:00

Black History Month 2023 at Trinity Western University

Trinity Western University honours Black History Month this February. Join us as we recognize the importance, impact, and contributions of Black history and culture on a global, national, and local scale.

Find out how TWU is celebrating Black History Month, and how you can participate.

See our month-long schedule of events below:

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Library Event and Book Display – Presentation by Aklilu Mulat, Senior Vice President, Business Operations & CFO, Trinity Western University
February 1 | 11:45 a.m. | Glass Room, Norma Marion Alloway Library

Topic: Blacks' Contribution to the TWU Family: The Ethiopian Connection

Mr. Aklilu Mulat's speech is inspired by his own journey and connection leading to Trinity Western, going as far back to the former emperor of Ethiopia (Haile Selassie), and the visible legacy that the connection created. Lunch provided.

TWU Afro-Caribbean Club (ACC) Games Night
February 2 | 8 p.m. | Global Lounge, Kuhn Centre

Join us in bringing TWU together, especially the student community, for a fun night of games, conversation, and friendship-building. Snacks will be shared.

TWU Chapel
February 3 | 11 a.m. | Enarson Gymnasium

Enjoy a special Praise Chapel worship experience with the TWU BHM Choir.

Black History Month Opening Event
February 3 | 5 p.m. | Kuhn Centre Lobby

Our Black History Month kick-off celebration features music by TWU's BHM Choir and the Kara-Kata Afrobeat Band from Vancouver, alongside talented TWU students Ose Obetoh, David Mutabazi, Eddison Bryan and Tamilore Awonusi.
Warm appetizers and Afro-Caribbean beverages provided.

TWU Chapel
February 8, 10 | 11 a.m. | Enarson Gymnasium

TWU President Mark Husbands continues the Chapel sermon series on Justice.

Black History Month Movie Night
February 15 | 6 p.m. | DeVries Auditorium

Movie: Hidden Figures
See the story of three African-American female mathematicians working at NASA—Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson—whose efforts served to launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a monumental accomplishment in U.S. and world history.

February 19
Black History Month Podcast Interview

Learning Matters: a Bridge to Practice – Episode #50

What do you get when a Communication Scholar, Historian, Geographer, and a Biologist walk into a room during Black History Month?

On the podcast Learning Matters: a Bridge to Practice, hosted by TWU's Scott Macklin, professors and scholars Divine Agodzo, Robynne Healey, Maxwell Ofosuhene and Laura Onyango discuss and celebrate intersections of black contributors to history and issues of diversity, inclusion and reconciliation across the full spectrum of our educational offerings and scholarship. Answering questions such as, What do you believe are some of the unique challenges facing Black students in Christian universities today, and how do you work to support and empower them? In your opinion, what can be done to address systemic racism and discrimination within Christian universities and communities? What are some books or movies that you consider helpful in exploring or learning about black history?

Black History Month Closing Celebration
February 27 | Front of Reimer Centre

Talk by Hon. Justice Olufunlola Adekeye, CON, CFR,JSC (rtd.) Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria 2009-2012
February 28 | DeVries Auditorium

Topic: The Place of Black Women in Leadership in the 21st Century—Experience as a Trailblazer

Hon. Justice Adekeye will share her Lordship’s experience as a Christian woman who helped to break the glass ceiling in the Judiciary of Nigeria. She was the first woman to rise to the High Court of Ondo and Ekiti States, and the second woman (and first in Southern Nigeria) to rise to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which is the highest court in the country.

Throughout the month of February: A display of books written by Black authors will be featured at the Norma Marion Alloway Library.

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Gender Cafe: EDID, Politics, and Christian Institutions

Christian organizations should be in the forefront of creating and advancing equitable, diverse, inclusive, and decolonized environments. It is a part of our DNA. So, why are we not leading in this endeavour? The problem is that we follow the political and cultural trends instead of forging faith-led approaches to achieving a just and humane society. How are Christians called to lead the work of shaping the Beloved Community?

Dr. Adkins’ talk will be followed by discussion and a question-and-answer period.

It's FREE and open to the public and refreshments are provided.

About the Speaker

Jennifer Adkins, PhD, is Vice President of Inclusive Excellence at TWU. An expert in diversity, equity, and inclusion, she is a key member of the executive leadership team, the University leadership council, and the strategic planning committee, and she provides strategic leadership and counsel to the University. She is advancing TWU’s work in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and helping to propel the University forward in pursuit of our shared vision to prepare graduates for faithful lives of excellence.

About the Gender Studies Institute at TWU

The Gender Studies Institute fosters interdisciplinary teaching, intellectual dialogue, research, and collaboration in all areas of gender studies. The interdisciplinary nature of the institute will enable TWU scholars to collaboratively address with students gender issues that come out of every discipline, such as domestic violence, child abuse, and gendered visions of care, exploring how categories such as class, race, and gender intersect, to train leaders who will enjoy and foster restorative gendered relationships. The role of our Christian faith in the working out of gender in all aspects of life will inform our teaching and research.

Lunar New Year has considerable worldly superstition and pagan content; from the article The Lunar New Year: Rituals and Legends at the site Asia for Educators (bold, links in original):

Preparations for the New Year

... Domestically there is a traditional cleansing as well. In decades past, the most thorough “spring cleaning” of the year was initiated as a ritualistic sweeping away of all the evil spirits feared to be lurking in dark corners behind heavy and rarely moved pieces of furniture. Today, the only consideration for the vast majority of Chinese is a spotless presentation of one’s home to the many family members and guests who will be welcomed during the holiday season. Windows are washed, or were repapered in the old days, and the courtyard gate or other wooden parts of the house might be repainted. The old agrarian calendar cites the 20th day of the 12th lunar month as the “day for sweeping floors,” and this date still marks the beginning of the major pre-holiday housecleaning projects in Hong Kong. In much of China, peasants waited until the 23rd (in South China) or the 24th (in the North) to pick up the broom and dust pan. It was on this day that the Kitchen God, or god of the hearth, was scheduled to depart to make his report concerning household activities to the Jade Emperor in heaven. So as not to unnecessarily disturb and possibly offend him, housewives waited until he was on his way before they started moving furniture and raising dust.

Sending the Kitchen God off to heaven was a matter deserving special attention. In residence year-round at the hearth, where he was represented by a prominently displayed picture, or in parts of the South by beautifully calligraphed characters for his name, the Kitchen God observed all the family’s comings and goings. Had they been generous to any beggar at the door? Had they wasted any hard-earned food, which some farmer had toiled and sweated to produce? Measures were taken to insure the kitchen god’s cooperation in giving a glowing report to the Jade Emperor, and thereby winning for the family a little heavenly favor. This included ritual offerings of candies or pastries and wine, and even smearing his lips with honey to make certain that he would only have sweet things to say about the family. Once this was done, the picture of the Kitchen God was torched, and he was off on his yearly journey, not to return until New Year’s Day. The dusting, washing, and scrubbing could then begin. Many believed they should sweep with inward strokes toward the center of the room so as not to whisk any of the family’s good fortune out the door...

...New Year’s Eve

By New Year’s Eve, family members, some of whom may have traveled long distances to return home, gather for a reunion. In preparation for his return from heaven on New Year’s Day, the new portrait of the Kitchen God is hung, as are the brand new door gods, the duilian (door couplets), and any other festive decor. Some southern families place stalks of sugar cane behind the doors. The height and section-upon-section construction of the sweet stalks represented the family’s hope for a ladder-like ascent to new levels of glory in the coming 12 months. Everyone dresses up, preferably in new clothes, and is on best behavior.

Traditionally, on this last night of the year, the male head of the household led the family in making offerings to various gods of the house and to the ancestors. The ceremonies would begin by sealing the cracks around the door with red paper to prevent the last vestiges of the old year’s bad luck from stealing into the house, and any of the family’s good luck from escaping. Respects would be paid to the god of wealth, the gods of the well, the bed, the hearth, or any others with whom the family wanted to remain on especially good terms. The attention would then turn to the ancestors, to whom sacrifices of food would be given along with burning of incense. Each member of the family would kneel in respect before the ancestral tablets, symbols of many past generations, all the spirits of whom some families believed were in attendance that night. In wealthier households, an entire room might be devoted to use as an ancestral hall, complete with altar, while in poorer families, the ancestral tablets might occupy a modest shed in a corner. Just as important was to show respect to one’s living elders. Younger family members would ketou (kowtow) to members of each generation above them, in order, beginning with the eldest. When children showed respect in this way, they were rewarded with red envelopes (hongbao), which contained New Year’s money (yasui qian)...

...New Year Festivities

...It was at this time that the male head of the house in many educated households would write auspicious characters or phrases to be hung at the entrance to the home. Some also waited for this day to approach the ancestral altar for seasonal rites, and to perform ritual ketou...

...In the days after the new year, it is common to make pilgrimages to temples, especially nowadays for residents of Hong Kong. Theater groups and acrobatic troupes perform in the streets at marketplaces, on temple grounds, or at large public stadiums. Dragon dances, lion dances, stilt-walking performances, and folk pageantry are still particularly popular...

...The Lantern Festival

The 15th day of the first lunar month is known as the “Lantern Festival.” The name for this day on the traditional calendar is Yuanshao, which has come to mean the small round dumplings of rice flour conventionally eaten at this time. The Lantern Festival signals the end of the New Year festival period.

Originally, lanterns were said to have been used on this night to help see the gods by torch light. Each family would construct an elaborate paper lantern for this purpose. Now in many parts of China there is great emphasis on the craftsmanship used in making exquisite lanterns in a variety of shapes and styles, which are then often shown at public exhibitions.

All of the events mentioned above appeal to only certain segments of the population rather than the whole. Lunar New Year is of interest mainly to Orientals; Black History Month helps to perpetuate the separation of Negro history from general history; and "equitable, diverse, inclusive, and decolonized" is Orwellian Newspeak for "eradicate everything coming from white people, especially white males." I defy anyone to find anything distinctively Christian in these events--or in allegedly Christian institutions of higher education.

Antichrist Ambrose University presents Gilgamesh

Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta is the denominational school for both the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada and Church of the Nazarene Canada. Anyone who thinks that institutions such as Ambrose University are Christian isn't paying attention; they may be "evangelical," but they aren't Christian. According to Ambrose's events calendar (bold, link, photo in original):

Gilgamesh (Classical Theatre Production)

Ambrose Theatre Students

December 1-3, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. & Saturday, December 3, 2022 at 2:30pm

Tickets: $20 Adult; $15 Students/Seniors/Ambrose ID. Please reserve tickets at tickets@ambrose.edu or at the door. Not suitable for children under 10.

Date
Thursday, December 1, 2022

Location
Big Secret Theatre,
Arts Commons
#21 225 8 Ave SE
Calgary, AB

Ambrose Arts Performing Gilgamesh

From December 1-3, Ambrose Arts will be performing Gilgamesh at the Big Secret Theatre – Arts Commons.

We are pleased to introduce our designer, Lindsey Zess. Lindsey is a Metis director, designer, maker and art educator living and working on Treaty 7 territory, primarily Mohkinstsis/Otoskwunee/Calgary. She creates work for both film and theatre, specializing in scenography, directing, devised performance, physical theatre practices and puppetry. Her devising/design methodology places a strong emphasis on the material, mythological and metaphysical.

The production Gilgamesh is inspired by the discovery of the oldest library in the world. A 4000-year-old story, The Epic of Gilgamesh, begins with King Gilgamesh of Uruk leading a life of despicable actions. Finding an unlikely friendship with his rival Enkidu through combat, the two become inseparable, fighting all their battles together. Upon the death of his friend, Gilgamesh sets off on the quest for eternal life. Gilgamesh finds himself attempting to conquer death through treacherous missions assigned by gods and immortals. Laying eyes on his city once more, Gilgamesh comes to terms with his fate and chronicles it as a lesson to those after him.

For more information on the Epic of Gilgamesh, we recommend watching this video!

It's impossible not to notice that the announcement mentions the politically correct race of the designer,as if that's of importance to the production. What is important is the subject matter, which is not suitable for children under 10--ideal family fare for Christmas! It seems odd that a university that claims to be Christian would present a production celebrating Gilgamesh, who has been identified by sound biblical scholars with Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10), a tyrant whose kingdom was opposed to the God of the Bible. For evidence of this, see Nimrod by biblical archaeologist David P. Livingston at Christian Answers. Let's hear it, ladies and gentlemen, for your "evangelical" universities!

Jewish groups protest, praise U.S. Supreme Court's affirmation of high school football coach's right to lead post-game prayers

This has been a bad month in the United States for those who promote the idea of "Judeo-Christian" values, as recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have provoked responses that make it obvious that Judeo values are not necessarily Christian values. In 1962, Jewish organizations were opposed to mandated prayer as part of the public school day (see post below), resulting in the Supreme Court decision in Engel v. Vitale. In 2022, Jewish organizations are opposing voluntary prayer on the school grounds after football games, following another Supreme Court decision, 60 years and 2 days after the earlier ruling. As reported by Ron Kampeas of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, June 27, 2022 (links in original):

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Seattle-area football coach who lost his job after leading prayers on the field following his team’s victories, in a decision that could have ramifications for Jews in public schools and the military.

A number of Jewish groups say the 6-3 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton, issued Monday, could roll back church-state separations that have protected schoolchildren from religious coercion for decades.

“This is a significant change in how we approach prayer in public schools, and one that will have a negative impact in particular on students of marginalized faiths and non-religious students,” said Rachel Robbins, the chairwoman of the Anti-Defamation League’s Civil Rights Committee. The ADL, which joined a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the school district, said it was “deeply disturbed” by the decision.

The expressions of concern came despite reassurances by Justice Neil Gorsuch that the ruling was in line with a famous 1992 Supreme Court decision in favor of a Rhode Island Jewish family who objected to clergy leading prayer at their children’s public school.

Writing for the court’s conservative majority, Gorsuch quoted from that decision, Lee v. Weisman, in which the court held “that religious beliefs and religious expression are too precious to be either proscribed or prescribed by the State.” The ruling Monday in favor of Joseph Kennedy, an assistant coach in the Bremerton, Washington, school district, Gorsuch wrote, similarly protects First Amendment religious freedoms.

Jewish groups were not buying it.

“The Court’s see-no-evil approach to the coach’s prayer will encourage those who seek to proselytize within the public schools to do so with the Court’s blessing,” said Marc Stern, the chief legal officer of the American Jewish Committee, which had joined a friend-of-the-court brief on the side of the school district.

“That is no advance for religious liberty,” Stern added.

The Bremerton case centered on the activities of Kennedy, who started out by praying alone at the 50-yard line and did not call on others to join him. But soon after, students and others started joining Kennedy in prayer, alarming the school district. It proposed alternatives, including allowing him to pray after the game, but he declined and continued to pray to increased media attention. The school district decided not to renew his contract.

The court concluded, essentially, that by preventing a Christian high school coach from praying, the school district had violated his civil rights no less than had it forced other children to pray.

“Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a brief, quiet, personal religious observance,” Gorsuch said, emphasizing that Kennedy had not explicitly urged students to join him in prayer.

“It seems clear to us that Mr. Kennedy has demonstrated that his speech was private speech, not government speech,” Gorsuch wrote. “This case looks very different from those in which this Court has found prayer involving public school students to be problematically coercive,” he said, specifically citing Lee v. Weisman.

Lee v. Weisman involved a Baptist clergyman who said at a 1986 middle school graduation ceremony in Providence, “Please rise and praise Jesus for the accomplishments of these children today.”

Merith Weisman’s parents, Vivian, the assistant executive director at the local Jewish Community Center, and Daniel, a social work professor, were unnerved, and the prayer triggered a series of events and lawsuits that culminated in the landmark 1992 case.

That decision was 5-4. Antonin Scalia, the late conservative justice whom Gorsuch replaced, said for years it was wrongly decided, and the religious right agreed. President Donald Trump named three conservative justices, and with the new balance of power, the Supreme Court has in recent weeks ticked off a wish list for religious conservatives, from school choice to overturning abortion rights.

The AJC’s Stern said Gorsuch was cherry-picking quotes from the earlier decision to make his own opinion sound less far-reaching than it was.

“There’s a tendency to sanitize a practice, rip it out of its historical roots and look at it in splendid isolation, and so it [appears] not so terrible,” Stern said in an interview.

Kennedy, as an assistant coach, may not have the same power as the principal in the Rhode Island case who invited clergy, Stern said, but the coach still had coercive power over students, and it was disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

“Kids will do anything to get on a coach’s good side and get playing time,” Stern said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the liberal minority in the dissent, made a similar point, illustrating it with a photo of students surrounding Kennedy in prayer.

“Several parents reached out to the District saying that their children had participated in Kennedy’s prayers solely to avoid separating themselves from the rest of the team,” Sotomayor wrote. “No [Bremerton High School] students appeared to pray on the field after Kennedy’s suspension.”

The National Council of Jewish Women, also a signatory to a friend-of-the-court brief, said the latest decision was one in a series that eroded church-state separations, citing among others the recent decision directing the state of Maine to pay for religious schooling for students for whom reaching public schools is arduous.

“No student should have to choose between their religious freedom and being part of school activities,” Jody Rabhan, the group’s chief policy officer, said in a statement. “But today’s ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton could force children enrolled in public schools to do just that.”

Mikey Weinstein, the Jewish veteran who leads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which advocates for religion-state separations in the military, said the ruling will undercut his years-long efforts to remove Christian prayers from military academy athletic events.

The decision “will serve to utterly and expeditiously destroy the precious wall separating church and state in our country and especially the U.S. military,” he said.

For once, I hope Mikey "Whine"stein is correct, in his assertion that the Supreme Court's ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District will undercut his anti-Christian efforts. Go here to see the text of the Court's ruling.

June 28, 2022 update: In contrast to liberal Jewish organizations, an Orthodox Jewish group is praising the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. As reported by Ron Kampeas of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, June 28, 2022 (links in original):

WASHINGTON — Agudath Israel of America praised the reversal of a judicial standard that came about as a result of a Supreme Court ruling backing a public high school football coach who prayed on the fifty-yard line.

Abba Cohen, the Washington director for the haredi Orthodox umbrella body, said the group was pleased that Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the decision for the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, did away with a decades-old standard for assessing whether a government authority violated church-state standards.

Cohen clarified later that this did not mean his organization was praising the entire ruling. “Agudath Israel has long expressed concern about and opposition to denominational public prayer and the proselytization in schools,” he said.

The “Lemon test,” stemming from the 1971 Lemon v. Kurtzman decision, assesses whether a government action advances or inhibits religion. Orthodox groups have long said the test was overly restrictive.

“Rather than offering protection, ‘Lemon’ too often resulted in Establishment Clause hostility toward religion, which itself is constitutionally prohibited,” Cohen said. “The First Amendment is stronger with its demise.”

Gorsuch in his decision said the Lemon test should be superseded by more recent traditions that refer to “historical practices and understandings.”

“The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike,” Gorsuch wrote.

Monday’s ruling backed Joseph Kennedy, an assistant coach in the Seattle area who was let go from his job because he would not stop on-field prayers. The coach asserted, and the Court majority agreed, that his prayers were “private,” even though his players would join in. Jewish civil rights groups said the ruling put at risk a 1992 ruling banning clergy from praying in schools. That ruling, which the groups said protected children from proselytizers, was spurred by Jewish parents in Rhode Island.

The Orthodox Union, the umbrella body for Modern Orthodox groups and synagogues, declined to comment on Gorsuch’s decision, named Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), said he had mixed feelings about the ruling. Chabad has advocated for years for moments of silence in public schools, seeing them as a means for reflection and promoting more considered behavior.

But Shemtov said the coach’s Christian prayer was not quite the same. “A parochial prayer can present some real problems while a moment of silence is all but unassailable,” Shemtov said in an interview. A moment of silence “gives each individual the right to worship in the privacy of their own mind even in the presence of others.”

Pope Francis caves in to sodomites as part of reorganization of doctrine office

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:24-32

Pope Francis keeps providing ammunition to critics within the Roman Catholic Church who regard him as an antipope; as reported by Heather Bair of Newsweek, January 10, 2022:

Pope Francis on Monday demoted Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, the No. 2 official in the doctrine office, due to the belief that he is responsible for the controversial document that bars blessings for same-sex couples.

Morandi is believed to be behind the March 2021 document that declared the Catholic Church would not bless same-sex unions because God "cannot bless sin." The document stated that Francis had been informed and "gave his assent" to its publication.

The document outraged the gay community, to which Francis has since made several gestures of outreach, including to the gay Catholic community and its advocates.

He also wrote a recent letter to an American nun, Sister Jeannine Gramick, on her 50 years of LGBTQ ministry. He wrote a letter to Michael O'Loughlin, an American magazine national correspondent who is a gay Catholic, and commended him for reporting on the Catholic response to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Morandi was named bishop of the Italian diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla, which is seen as demotion, since he currently has the title of archbishop and will not be going to an archdiocese, but rather a small diocese. The Vatican said, though, that he would retain the title of archbishop "ad personam," meaning the title was granted to him personally.

Morandi joined the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) as an under-secretary in 2015. He was promoted to secretary, or No. 2, in 2017. The CDF is considered one of the most important Vatican offices, as it interprets doctrine for the universal Catholic Church, sanctions dissenters and handles cases of clergy sexual abuse of minors.

The CDF is currently headed by the Jesuit Cardinal Luis Ladaria, but he is expected to retire relatively soon since he turns 78 in April, three years beyond the normal retirement age for bishops.

Aside from Morandi, there are two "additional secretaries" in the CDF, including the American Archbishop Joseph Di Noia, who also is due to retire soon since he turns 79 in July. The other is Archbishop Charles Scicluna, but he has a full-time job as archbishop of Malta.

The impending retirements and transfer of Morandi suggest some management changes at the office, though they probably won't be announced until Francis releases the blueprint of his reform of the Vatican's overall bureaucracy, expected sometime this year.

By their vax mandates ye shall know them

As evidence of the deadliness of the Covid-19 "vaccine" mounts, some churches are showing their true colours by making acceptance of the death shot a condition of fellowship. As reported by Israel 365 News, December 29, 2021 (link in original):

During a CNN segment on Christmas Eve, CNN’s ‘faith contributor’ Father Edward Beck declared that “the unvaccinated” should be barred from attending church services.

Yep. I said it. I don’t think unvaccinated people should be gathering in churches for Christmas Eve / Day Masses. “Love thy neighbor,” says the Savior.

“There is no supply chain shortage of love and compassion. I think that what we’re trying to say to people is they you have a social responsibility if you do gather, you know Christian churches many are gathering this evening and some are still not requiring vaccination, which I disagree with,” Beck added.

“I think part of caring for one another, the dictum of Jesus who we celebrate his birthday, is love one another. Show compassion. Show mercy to each other” he said.

“So I think the lesson is that if we want to act like Jesus in these kind of times we take care of each other and if we’re going to gather in celebration we have to do so safely, comfortably and we have to give to one another that gift of peace and part of that is health and feeling like we’re gathering in a healthy environment.”

“I don’t think there’s a reason to say I’m not going to get vaccinated, maybe for a health reason, then you can’t come to church,” he continued.

"Father" Beck is not alone in equating forced submission to an experimental medical procedure, which in the 1940s was punished as a crime against humanity, resulting in the execution of the criminals, with obeying the Lord Jesus Christ's commandment to love your neighbour as yourself. This can also be found in other churches, as reported by John Longhurst of the Winnipeg Free Press, December 21, 2021:

One southern Manitoba church is now requiring proof of vaccination for its in-person Sunday services.

Elim Mennonite Church in Grunthal, located about 28 kilometres southwest of Steinbach, made the decision this month in order to accommodate members who were afraid to join community gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic, said lay minister David Wiens.

"We knew of members who wouldn’t come because of fear for their safety," he said, noting this includes elderly people and those with compromised immune systems. One is a resident of a personal care home who is not allowed to go to places where unvaccinated people might be present.

"We wanted to make sure we looked after the most vulnerable in our church," said Wiens, a local dairy farmer, noting everyone who attends the services also needs to wear a mask and follow social distancing guidelines.

While Elim, which is part of Mennonite Church Manitoba, has been doing online services through the pandemic, "That’s not the same as in-person fellowship," he said.

As soon as in-person services were permitted by the province, the church started meeting again, following public health guidelines — but not asking about vaccination status.

That changed at the beginning of December, when members were asked to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to enter.

Since almost all of the roughly 70 members of the congregation are fully vaccinated, most are very supportive, Wiens said.

However, a few "aren’t happy with our policy," he said, acknowledging the decision will exclude those who have chosen not to be vaccinated.

"We are exploring ways to make it possible for unvaccinated people to be included," he said, noting it might mean alternating between vaccinated and unvaccinated member services. "We don’t want to exclude anyone."

Whatever approach the church takes, "We want to be consistent in our understanding of what is a positive Christian witness," said Wiens. "Right from the start, we wanted to honour and be respectful of the mandates and protect everyone."

At the same time, the church isn’t "trying not to make a big statement about vaccinations. We’re just trying to do what is right for our church. We’re not trying to pass judgement on the unvaccinated."

For Erika Dueck, a deacon at Elim, the decision was about what is best for local seniors.

"They haven’t been able to meet in person, they’re feeling isolated and disconnected," she said. "The pandemic has been very hard on older members."

By going to vaccinated-only, the church wants to "rebuild a sense of community."

While the decision has made most church members happy, reaction outside the congregation has been less so.

Some people "are angry. They think we are rejecting people or in cahoots with the government," Dueck said.

Transitional interim pastor at Elim, Norm Voth, said, as far as he knows, it is the only church (of roughly eight) in Grunthal to move to vaccinated-only in-person services.

"I expect this will be a topic of conversation at the next ministerial meeting," he said, adding Elim’s decision seems to have generated a "fair amount of conversation" in town.

The issue continues to be a lively one in the church, too, he said, noting there is a lot of discussion about ways to "maintain the unity of the congregation."

Through it all, the church’s goal is to "fulfill the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves," Voth said.

"If we take care of ourselves, including vaccinations, the mask-wearing, the social distancing, then we are caring for others."

The Orwellian use of language by the leaders of Elim Mennonite Church is breathtaking, but is increasingly typical of what passes for North American Christianity in 2021. Look at the phrases used--"we're not trying to pass judgement on the unvaccinated;" "rebuild a sense of community;" "maintain the unity of the congregation;" "fulfill the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves"--and look at the actions that are taking place. By denying fellowship to those who refuse the vaxx, they are in fact passing judgement on them. To have separate services depending on one's vaxx status would be to create an unbiblical division between believers, which destroys, rather than builds, unity and community.

There are biblical reasons for denying fellowship to professing Christians, such as leading an immoral life (I Corinthians 5) and being a heretic (Titus 3:10, Revelation 2:2-3), but these church leaders want to deny fellowship to people who are healthy and want to remain so. I for one, refuse to allow an experimental toxic substance to be injected into me by people whose motives I distrust. The evidence is mounting that the "vaccine" isn't saving lives, but taking them, and is much more dangerous than the illness it's allegedly supposed to prevent (The blog Vox Popoli, for one, has numerous posts on the subject). The people who've had the shots are the ones who are getting sick and dying, yet those of us who merely want to maintain our health status quo are treated as criminals and threats to public health. For church leaders to say it's "loving your neighbour" to promote a crime against humanity is something that God will hold them accountable for.

Hungarian Jewish organizations provide evidence that Judeo values are not Christian values

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:24-32

As reported by Cnaan Liphshiz of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, June 25, 2021 (links in original):

Jewish groups in Hungary have condemned a new law in the country that forbids sharing content on homosexuality with minors.

Called the “gay propaganda law,” the legislation passed last week in parliament follows similar moves in Russia in 2013 that define written or visual materials pertaining to sex reassignment or homosexuality as propaganda that should not be allowed to reach children.

The measure, which President Janos Ader signed Wednesday, has triggered a diplomatic spat between Hungary and other member states of the European Union.

The Golem Theater, a Budapest-based institution that deals extensively with Jewish subjects and has many Jewish members, said on Facebook that it “stands against the propaganda law.”

Mazsihisz, the largest federation of Jewish communities in Hungary, also criticized the legislation without naming it in the group’s statement. Mazsihisz defines itself as a religious community.

“The Mazsihisz, as a Jewish group, firmly believes that all people are inherently pure and their emotions do not make them unclean,” the statement read. “No one should be labeled impure, be discriminated against and certainly not outlawed simply because of their orientation or identity. Such classifications destroy social cohesion and our sense of belonging.”

Hungary’s right-wing government under Viktor Orban has clashed on several issues with Mazsihisz, which has warned that the government’s campaign criticizing Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros risks encouraging antisemitism, and that the government is facilitating Holocaust revisionism. Other local Jewish groups, including the EMIH Jewish federation, have disputed these allegations.

Black sodomite becomes United Church of Canada leader

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. II Timothy 3:5

Politically correct racial category? Check. Alphabet pervert? Check. Social gospel? Check. Well, then, this person meets the qualifications to lead the United Church of Canada in its continuing march into oblivion. As reported by John Longhurst of the Winnipeg Free Press, October 10, 2020:

As the first Black and openly LGBTTQ+ person to be appointed general secretary of the United Church of Canada, Michael Blair knows he is travelling a new path.

"My appointment sends a message," he said, noting he is not the first Black person to hold a leadership role in the church.

That message goes out to members of the church who are persons of colour, showing they are welcome as leaders and giving them "something to celebrate," he said.

At the same time, his appointment challenges all members of the church to "think through what it means to be an anti-racist institution" at this important moment in history, and "how to live into that reality," he said.

As a gay man, it tells all Canadians "the United Church is a unique kind of faith community," one where "sexual identity is not a barrier to ministry and leadership," he added.

Being the only Black and LGBTTQ+ person to lead a major Christian denomination may also "create spaces where conversation can happen" with other church groups, he said.

He acknowledges there is a bit of loneliness in that space, and there will be a focus on him as only leader of a major denomination in Canada who is Black and gay. At the same time, he hopes "it can be a prophetic call to others."

Blair, 64, was born in Jamaica. A father of two adult sons, he was ordained as a minister in Toronto in 1986 by the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec. When he came out as gay in 2001, he was asked to leave that denomination and began working for various United Church-supported organizations in the city.

Through those experiences, he became more intrigued by the United Church and, in 2008, took his first staff position with the denomination.

Over his time as a staff member, he was asked to lead number of different national programs. As a result, "I come into role with a strong understanding of the church," he said.

As he begins his new role, Blair is excited about the future of the 95-year-old denomination.

"We are on the cusp of repositioning ourselves to engage people of faith and society as a whole," he said, noting the denomination made a number of structural changes two years ago that "puts us in a framework to experiment and try new things."

This included setting up a separate corporation to help congregations deal with issues related to the management and sale of churches.

Called the United Property Resource Corporation and backed with a $20 million line of credit from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, it will provide local churches with professional real estate development and management expertise as they seek to convert their buildings for other community uses such as affordable housing.

While some have viewed all the buildings owned by the United Church as a liability, Blair sees them "as a gift. But we need the expertise and skills to utilize them."

Noting the United Church has committed to building 600 affordable housing units by 2025 and 5,000 affordable units by 2035, his dream is to see under-utilized church buildings being used to meet important needs in cities and towns across the country.

"We can engage communities through our property," he said, noting "we have many buildings that are bigger than we need. We need to re-imagine how we can use those spaces."

Another exciting program, he said, is The Edge, which aims to support innovation, pilot new programs, fund new initiatives and create a learning network for faith communities across the church.

"It was set up to think through new mission opportunities," Blair said of how it will support new ideas that "are outside the box. We want to find new ways of doing mission and ministry."

All of this is being done at a time when the denomination is getting smaller—it has just under 400,000 members now, down from over one million in the 1960s.

"The reality is we are declining in numbers," Blair said. "We can’t fudge that."

But, he quickly added, "numbers are not the only thing to measure. It’s harder to measure things like community connectivity, faithfulness, relationships, and nurturing faith formation. There is lots of energy in the church for that."

His goal is to "turn around the narrative of decline," telling stories that show how the church is making a difference in Canada and around the world through things like helping refugees, responding to the Beirut explosion disaster, addressing global hunger through its membership in the Winnipeg-based Canadian Foodgrains Bank, and playing a leadership role in advocating for a guaranteed basic income in Canada.

"We need Canadians to understand we are making a difference," he said. "But we need to do better at telling that story, sharing those stories of impact. We can’t just have stories of decline, decline, decline."

He hopes the new initiatives and ongoing programs will capture the interest of Canadians who will want to become part of the church.

"The United Church of Canada shares the values of Canadians in so many ways," he said. "It’s just a matter of figuring out how to tell stories of those values and invite Canadians to be part of our work."

That’s a challenge, he admits, given the declining state of religiosity in Canada. "Time will tell if we are successful," he said.

I have to chuckle at Mr. Blair's desire to "reimagine" how to use the church's buildings. The United Church is in a death spiral where the number of empty buildings is increasing because the number of people in the buildings is decreasing along with the amount of money coming in to pay for the buildings.

Mr. Blair is unusual in admitting that the United Church has been numerically declining, but this blogger predicts that continuing to promote the same "values of Canadians" that the United Church supposedly shares will be about as effective in reversing its decline as the promotion of "wokeness" has been for professional sports.

See also my posts:

Calgary Herald blasts United Church of Canada for advocating a boycott of Israel (May 15, 2012)

Canadian Senators warn United Church of Canada over proposed boycott of Israeli goods (July 6, 2012)

A secular columnist accurately assesses Canada's declining liberal churches (July 30, 2012)

United Church of Canada elects its first openly sodomite moderator (August 16, 2012)

50 years ago: United Church of Canada unveils Sunday School curriculum denying the truth of the Bible (August 1, 2014)

80 years ago: United Church of Canada ordains Canada's first female minister (November 7, 2016)

Amalgamation of congregations in Edmonton provides more evidence of the continuing decline of the United Church of Canada (January 31, 2017)

30 years ago: New Ager Matthew Fox delivers keynote lecture at Queen's Theological School (October 11, 2017)

50 years ago: United Church in Calgary experiments with modern music (June 15, 2018)

Mainline church leaders 50 years ago advocated methods used by "evangelical" churches today (November 6, 2018)

Atheist minister with United Church of Canada keeps her job after an agreement in lieu of a heresy trial (November 16, 2018)

50 years ago: Canadian Anglican traditionalists oppose union with United Church of Canada (June 21, 2019)

Campus Crusade for Christ Canada P2C follows its American counterpart into the social gospel

For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20:29-30

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. II Corinthians 6:14-18

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:6-9

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. II Timothy 3:5

"Most people are devoted to causes which are neither significant nor lasting."
--Howard Hendricks, from the promotional film for the Campus Crusade for Christ conference KC '83.

Sites such as the blog Enemies Within the Church and the YouTube channel Conversations That Matter have done excellent work in recent months in reporting on the rapidly-increasing liberalism of the U.S. campus ministry Cru, formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ. Submitted for your approval, the following items from those sites and others:

Jeff Maples
Campus Crusade Social Justice Agenda Exposed in New Video (September 27, 2019)

The Social Justice Movement Takes Over CRU19 (September 27, 2019)

Conversations That Matter (Jon Harris)
The Month in Review: CRU, Josh Harris, SBC Seminaries, and Approaching Your Pastor



Trevor Loudon
The Social Justice Movement Takes Over CRU19 (September 27, 2019)



Conversations That Matter (Jon Harris)
CRU Goes Down the Woke Hole (September 27, 2019)



Breaking: Cru Leaders Soft-Peddling Homosexuality, Pushing Marxism (October 3, 2019)

Conversations That Matter (Jon Harris)
A Deeper Dive into Cru's Decline (October 3, 2019)



Internal Documents Prove Cru Leaders Officially Promoting Social Gospel (October 8, 2019)

Conversations That Matter (Jon Harris)
King David a Rapist? & Confirmed: Cru Endorses Social Gospel (October 8, 2019)



Cru’s “Social Justice Bible Studies” (October 15, 2019)

Whistleblower Speaks Out on Cru’s Leftward Drift (October 29, 2019)

Conversations That Matter (Jon Harris)
Former Cru Intern Shares Story about Ministry's Leftward Drift (October 28, 2019)



Giving Tuesday, Cru Staff Speaks Out, & Matthew Hall on CRT (December 3, 2019)
Conversations That Matter (Jon Harris)



It comes as a disappointment, but no surprise to this blogger, that Power to Change, (P2C for short), the Canadian offspring of Cru, is following its parent organization into social gospel apostasy. I've been warning about this since the Canadian organization announced its "new paradigm" in May 2006. I was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ as a student in the 1980s; I eventually developed misgivings about some of their methods and characteristics, but I have fond memories of my involvement with the movement and of the people I was associated with, and at least Campus Crusade was reasonably clear on what the gospel is.

In those days, there were separate Christmas Conferences in eastern and western Canada, with the exception of 1983, when there was one big North American conference in Kansas City known as "K.C. '83." I went to several Christmas Conferences in western Canada, as well as K.C. '83. The keynote speakers at all the conferences I attended were distinguished Bible teachers such as Ralph Alexander, J.I. Packer, and Howard Hendricks, and their talks generally consisted of examining characters from the Bible, and looking at characteristics that we should emulate (or avoid). The group sessions were on topics such as sharing your faith and having a successful discipleship group, i.e., topics associated with the gospel and the Great Commission.

Some years ago, P2C dropped the word "Christmas" from its conferences, and began calling them "Winter Conferences." Now, they don't even do that anymore, and just have one national annual conference. The one for 2019, known as "P2C Plus," is taking place in Toronto from December 28-31, with the apparent theme "first." A quick glance at the list of speakers and topics shows more emphasis on the social gospel and less on the true gospel and the Great Commission:

Workshops
Our workshops encourage students to take a deep dive into a broad range of focused topics that intersect faith and culture like: leadership and mentorship, spiritual growth and disciplines, prayer, discernment, discipleship, evangelism in local and global contexts, personal growth, relationships, mental health, gender identity, addictions, trauma, shame, suffering, grief and loss, healing, health, humanization, racism, world religions, financial stewardship, hospitality, vocation, technology and design, creativity, apologetics, and the church.

The "lesser" speakers (I don't mean that as a derogatory term) seem mostly okay, but some (not all) of the keynote speakers rang some alarm bells with me, such as the following examples.

Alison Buchan, MSW, RSW, CSAT

Alison is a recognized skilled clinical social worker, in the strengths-based approach in the treatment of mental health issues, addictions & trauma. She has been in practice for over 15 years and has assisted adults and adolescents experiencing a wide range of emotional, relational and behavioural difficulties...

...She has completed training at Toronto Institute of Relational Psychotherapy (TIRP), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute and The Ferentz Institute. Additionally she has enhanced training in trauma treatment in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing), cognitive behavioural therapy, Internal Family Systems therapy; and specialized training from the International Centre of Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and has received certification in smoking cessation from the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health.

In terms of her clinical orientation, she uses a insight-oriented cognitive-behavioural psychodynamic, solution-focused psychotherapy. Integrating mindfulness-based approaches in all her work.

"Mindfulness" comes from Buddhism. I see no Christian content of any kind in Ms. Buchan's resume.

John Van Sloten

About me

I am a pastor, teacher and writer who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. All I want in life is to know God more (and to read everything he’s written). For the past 20 years I’ve been exploring a worldview that seeks to discern God's voice in all things: the Bible, the arts, sport, science, film, music, literature, history, mathematics, nature and human nature. My first book, The Day Metallica Came to Church: Seeing the Everywhere God in Everything (Square Inch, 2010), listened for God's whispers in pop culture. My second book, Every Job a Parable; What Walmart Greeters, Nurses and Astronauts tell us about God (Navpress/Tyndale (US) and Hodder and Stoughton (UK), 2017), listens for God's words at work. I have been awarded two John Templeton Foundation sub-grants to explore the intersection of faith and science in the context of preaching, and am currently writing my third book on how science can help us know God more.

There are things that Mr. Van Sloten says that I agree with. However, it concerns me when I read that he's received grants from the John Templeton foundation (at least Mr. Van Sloten is honest enough to say where he's obtaining his funding--there are those in evangelical circles who aren't as forthcoming). Mr. Van Sloten's grants are for something called The Steam Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and Fuller Theological Seminary:

The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the Big Questions of human purpose and ultimate reality. We support research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and infinity to creativity, forgiveness, love, and free will. We encourage civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians and between such experts and the public at large, for the purposes of definitional clarity and new insights.

STEAM is also supported by Fuller Theological Seminary, the host organization also committed to the integration of Christian faith and science.

Jon Corbin

According to his website:

Jon Corbin is a Canadian hip-hop artist, spoken word poet, speaker, band leader, writer and DJ based in Milton, ON. Since 2001, first under the name The Runaway, Jon has blessed stages big and small with lyrical themes of faith, love, family, social justice, and personal growth.

Corbin is a veteran artist who has quietly carved a niche in Canada’s hip-hop community, collaborating with multiple Polaris Music Prize nominee Shad, Juno Award winner Caroline Brooks of The Good Lovelies, and many other revered emcees on both sides of the border.

As a speaker, Corbin speaks passionately on topics of identity, race and racism, mental health and community connections. As a musician, Jon provides a dynamic show that stays true to the basic tenets of hip-hop: peace, love, unity, and having fun!

I don't know if Mr. Corbin is a Christian or not, but I certainly don't see any Christian content on his site.

Katharine Hayhoe

Katharine Hayhoe, the wife of pastor Andrew Farley, is a climate scientist, who on her site, goes on and on about her qualifications until the MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) syndrome sets in. She's presumably at the conference to promote action on climate change as a priority for Christians. As I said in a recent post, if you're on the same side of an issue as Justin Trudeau and George Soros, I suggest you rethink your position; and Christians should beware of those who are on the same side as Justin Trudeau and George Soros.

Alyssa Esperaz

This young woman particularly inspires a negative reaction from me. According to her website:

I am Chinese-Filipino-Canadian and live in Toronto, Canada.

I am studying International Development at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Critical Development Studies.

Another alarm bell went off for me when I saw the name of the place where Miss Esperaz is studying. The word "critical" used in an academic context is usually a synonym for Marxist, and a quick glance at their website confirms my suspicions (look at the course content).

She has a blog; I read just two entries--this one and this one--and that was enough to give me an idea of what she's about. Miss Esperaz tells so many falsehoods that it's only the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that's restraining me from using foul language to describe this lying little [insert pejorative term here]. It would take too much time to go into a detailed account of Miss Esperanza's false propaganda, but one in particular sticks out at me, when she says that all kinds of people fought for Canada in two world wars. She's right in saying that Canadian Indians fought for the country, but it's absolutely not true to say that all kinds of people did, because the country wasn't composed of all kinds of people. The men who fought for Canada in World Wars I and II were overwhelmingly white Europeans, mainly of British ancestry, because that's what Canada was. They were fighting to preserve the country they had then, not to produce the non-nation that passes for Canada now. The "greatest generation" made the horrible mistake, a quarter-century after World War II, of handing the country over to Pierre Trudeau, who refused to fight in the war. He's the one who turned Canada into a multicultural monstrosity, which should really be renamed "Trudeaupia" to reflect its post-1968 reality.

Blogger Vox Day's third law of social justice warriors is: They always project. This especially manifests itself in accusing others of what the SJWs themselves are guilty. SJWs love to hurl nasty names at people, so I'm pulling the Jerry Seinfeld trick of heckling the heckler. I accuse Miss Esperaz of not only being a liar, but a racist. She refers to her "Asian-Canadian identity" and supports racist immigration and refugee policies which favour those of her and other non-white groups, with the intention of making Canada less white, more like the lands of her ancestors, and less like the country that those who fought in the world wars were fighting to preserve (see above comment regarding Justin Trudeau and George Soros). I'm not going to mention that one of the countries of her ancestors--let's call it "China"--has never been known for being openly welcome to foreigners. From the SJW point of view, it's okay for Miss Esperaz and those of her ilk to support anti-white policies; but if I support policies designed to preserve the country I was born into, I'm a "racist," without Christian compassion. As a Canadian whose roots in this country go back more than 240 years, I can't tell you how much I appreciate Miss Esperaz, a "first generation Canadian," presuming to give lessons in history and tolerance to real Canadians. If this is what Campus Crusade for Christ Canada Power to Change has become, I want no part of it.

It should be kept in mind that Campus Crusade for Christ P2C conferences have traditionally been used to recruit people to go on summer projects, which in turn, are used to recruit prospective staff members; which is to say, these conferences are where the future leaders of the movement receive training in addition to that which they receive in their regular campus activities. If Campus Crusade for Christ Canada P2C continues in this direction, they'll end up as liberal--and irrelevant--as the thoroughly apostate Student Christian Movement of Canada, which is associated with mainline liberal "Christianity," is irrelevant to God's purposes, and is now ignored. If you're moving in the same direction, you'll end up in the same place.

July 19, 2022 update: Jon Harris conducts another interview with former Cru staffer John Anderson:



See also my posts:

Campus Crusaders, Sodomites, and Potheads Together (January 13, 2009)

Campus Crusaders and Atheists Together (March 1, 2009)

Campus Crusade's Power to Change's mission is to boldly go where the United Church of Canada has gone before (May 8, 2010)

More social gospel, works-based righteousness from Campus Crusade for Christ Power to Change: shaming people into supporting humanitarian aid (September 24, 2010)

Campus Crusade for Christ Power to Change Canada uses its 2019 Canadian summer project to promote contemplative spirituality (December 31, 2018)

Campus Crusade for Christ Cru19 staff conference promotes enneagram, contemplative spirituality, secular psychology, native spirituality, and social gospel (August 16, 2019)

Anglican Church of Canada will be dead by 2040, according to its own report

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. II Timothy 3:5

When Canadian journalist Ted Byfield was publishing the newsmagazine Alberta Report from the 1970s to the '90s, he often published articles about the apostasy of Canada's mainline churches, and wondered why, at their conferences, these churches spent a lot more time discussing social issues than their own aging and declining membership. Things haven't changed for the mainline churches since then, and the decline is now so much in evidence that the churches are now starting to acknowledge it. Submitted for your approval, the following example regarding the Anglican Church of Canada, as reported by Tali Folkins in the Anglican Journal, November 9, 2019:

The Anglican Church of Canada’s first reliably-collected set of statistics since 2001 show the church running out of members in little more than two decades if the church continues to decline at its current rate, the Council of General Synod (CoGS) heard Friday, Nov. 9.

“We’ve got simple projections from our data that suggest that there will be no members, attenders or givers in the Anglican Church of Canada by approximately 2040,” the Rev. Neil Elliot, a priest for the diocese of Kootenay seconded in 2016 by the national church to collect a new set of statistics, told CoGS. Elliot, who reported on 2017 data collected from all of the church’s dioceses, also told the group about ongoing efforts to expand and diversify data collection.

The current projection should be taken especially seriously by Canadian Anglicans, Elliot said, because it is suggested by five different sets of church data, all collected in different ways: older data from 1961 to 2001; Anglican Journal subscriber data from 1991 to 2015; and three sets of data from his own survey of the dioceses as of 2017: the number of people on parish rolls, average Sunday attendance and regular identifiable givers.

“For five different methodologies to give the same result is a very, very powerful statistical confirmation which we really, really have to take seriously and we can’t dismiss lightly,” said Elliot, who gave his presentation remotely with the use of videoconferencing technology.

Two other findings, he added, suggest different outcomes. Data collection on the pastoral offices of baptism, confirmation, marriage and funerals show an even faster rate of decline. However, a demographic study of a small number of parishes in the diocese of Kootenay, he said, suggested that—because of the age ranges that Anglicans fall into—the church could lose only 50% of its members by 2040.

In a response to a question on how other Canadian churches were faring, Elliot said data collected by the United Church of Canada also showed 2040 as a “zero-member date.” The Presbyterian Church in Canada, while declining, seems to be losing members somewhat more slowly, he said. For the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, he added, the projected zero-member date was around 2050.

Archdeacon Michael Thompson, general secretary of General Synod, told CoGS that senior staff of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada had given him a similar impression about membership decline in that church.

“Though I can’t quote the numbers, the lines look quite similar,” he said.

Introducing Elliot’s presentation, Thompson said he believed the substantial reduction in church membership since 2001 shown by Elliot’s data should not come entirely as a surprise to Canadian Anglicans involved in the church at a local level. The church they have been able to offer to God has been declining in size since the 1960s, he said, but they should not despair. Instead, Thompson said, they should look at this numerical decline in the context of other changes for the better.

The London, Ont., church in which he started worshipping in 1968, Thompson said, “while not filled to the point of discomfort, was full.” On the other hand, he added, “in all of the years that I attended that church…in all of the years I had attended church before then, and in all of the years that I attended church until I was in my 20s, I never once heard a sermon that made reference to God’s justice.”

He continued, “I never once heard anybody tell me about the residential schools. I never heard anything about the responsibility of the people of God to respect the dignity of every human being. It’s not that people didn’t care about those things, but those things were not tip-of-the-tongue discourse in the life of the church in which I was formed. Things are quite different now.”

In his report and in response to questions from CoGS, Elliot said he hoped the church would expand its data collection to be better able to monitor how specific aspects of its life, some of which may hold particular potential—home churches, Fresh Expressions, Messy Church and Book of Common Prayer services, for example—are doing.

Meanwhile, a working group of bishops, to be headed by Mary Irwin-Gibson, bishop of the diocese of Montreal, has been formed, Thompson said, “to say what are the things we should be counting…that will help us understand that, while the church we offer to God is smaller than it has been in the past, that’s not the only thing that’s true of it.”

In table group discussions after Elliot’s presentation, members of CoGS were asked to ponder four questions: whether the data aligned with their own experience; what surprised or stood out for them in the report; what they believed God was telling the church through the data; and where the “Good News” was in it.

Some table spokespeople said the data matched the experience of those at their table; some reported that at least one member of their group came from a growing or stable parish. Some groups expressed doubt that the church would run out of members by 2040.

“We actually don’t think there’s ever going to be a ‘zero person,’” one table spokesperson said. “I think what we will be offering to God in 2040 will be a different church, and a much smaller church, but it will still be a church.”

Another reported of his group, “Between the range of us there were some who found it hard to understand how everybody that they knew would either be dying or becoming apostate at 55, for the church to run out of members.” But he himself, the spokesperson added, was amazed to learn the church hadn’t lost more than Elliot’s report stated.

Some groups spoke to hope that the report would spur the church to change.

“Our group talked about the great hope, and good news, in the idea of taking more risks,” one said. “We see good news in the fact that several of us were noticing that lots of newcomers to the congregation were new Canadians as well…. Now we’re in this time of change, we can start addressing these kinds of trends.” And the emptying of rural congregations might mean more opportunities for ecumenical shared ministries, the spokesperson said.

Some groups were curious about whether data could be collected in other areas—such as how church buildings are being used. At least one group spoke to hope that the collection of the data, and possibly more data in the future, would not only help the church identify areas of growth; it would also help parishes and dioceses in numerical decline know that they’re not alone.

Elliot said one tool he hoped would be very useful for gathering this sort of detailed information is ParishOS—a kind of “electronic vestry book” that he had already used to gather information from some parishes. The national church, his report stated, is providing ParishOS free of charge to dioceses that want to use it.

A version of Elliot’s report had been leaked earlier this fall. In October, a link to it appeared in the Anglican Samizdat independent blog, after which it began to spread through social media. On Monday, Broadview, the former United Church Observer, published a story on the report.

After Elliot’s presentation and the feedback from the table groups, Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, noted the interest the report had generated outside the church after it was leaked.

“I have to tell you, there’s lots of interest outside this room in this conversation,” she said. “We had hoped to simply present [the information] here, have a conversation before it went public. Unfortunately, some of our colleagues were not so good at keeping things quiet, and it leaked into some media. And in fact I’ve had at least two or three requests for interviews prior to coming here, and even while I’ve been here in the last two days.”

Nicholls said she hoped that instead of trying to figure out why the church was in numerical decline, or get drawn into a “vortex of negativity” about it, Canadian Anglicans would instead focus on the church’s calling.

“We’re called to do and be God’s people in a particular place, for the purpose of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, and the only question is, ‘How do we need to share it, so that it might be heard by those around us?’” she said.

“I think we’re being tested about perseverance, endurance, creativity in the coming years,” she said. “At the end of the day, when we stand before the great judgement seat and have to answer for how we lived our lives as Christians, I think the question that will be asked is, ‘Were you faithful with what you were given?’”

Nicholls also said she was hopeful to see “green shoots” of growth in various areas around the country—some in the church’s traditional ways of being and some in its new ways of expressing itself.

She said Elliot’s report was a “wake-up call” to the church, a mirror showing it unpleasant truths that could act as a spur to action. She noted the excitement she sensed in the church about the potential of detailed statistics-gathering to give it a deeper picture of itself, and said she looked forward to his work continuing together with the newly-formed bishops’ working group.

“It’s my hope that when we leave here, the message we take is not ‘Oh no, the church is dying,’ but ‘Oh, we’ve got a challenge’,” she said. “But we’ve also got a hopeful way of addressing that.”

As reported by Ms. Folkins in the Anglican Journal, July 16, 2009:

Vancouver--In 2018, the Anglican Church of Canada experienced a fall in revenues due to declining contributions from dioceses, poor market performance and a decrease in giving, General Synod heard Monday, July 15.

The national church’s audited financial statements for the year show that overall revenue was $11.1 million, down by $800,000—7%—from 2017, Fraser Lawton, bishop of the diocese of Athabasca and a member of the financial management committee, told General Synod.

The decline in revenue was due chiefly to a decrease in proportional gifts from the dioceses—the money they forward to the national church every year, which makes up 83% of the church’s revenue. In 2018, proportional gifts sank to $7,898,264 from $8,416,738 the previous year—a total decline of $519,000, the audited financial statement for 2018 shows.

It was the largest decrease in proportional gifts the national church had suffered in a single year since 1994, Lawton said.

“This was a cause for some discussion, and certainly catches our attention,” he said. “Seven dioceses decreased their contributions to General Synod, and the evidence is that dioceses are struggling to meet their proportional giving commitments.” Although there is a set rate at which dioceses are asked to give to the national church, their contributions are entirely voluntary; some give less than the rate stipulates because they’re not able to give the total amount every year.

“Contributions from dioceses are a key driver for revenues,” Hanna Goschy, treasurer and chief financial officer for the church, told the Journal in an interview after General Synod. “When diocesan revenue decreases, the contributions to General Synod decrease. Some dioceses are struggling to meet their commitments, [so] they decreased over the prior year. Resources for Mission also decreased by $180,000, and there was an investment loss of almost $300,000.”

Goschy said the investment loss was due to stock market losses in 2018 and that the market had recovered in 2019.

Expenses in 2018 were $11.8 million—$400,000 more than the prior year, Lawton said in his presentation, citing rounded figures from the statements. Goschy told the Journal that this increase was anticipated and budgeted for. “There was a planned deficit on core operations of $522,000. The actual deficit was $442,000, which meant we did better than budget on core operations.”

The deficiency of revenues over expenses for the year, Lawton said, was $735,322 before transfers from internally designated funds in reserve. “There are reserves set up for major initiatives that are large and don’t happen every year,” Goschy said. “Two examples are the meeting of General Synod and the meeting of Sacred Circle. They’re both triennial events.”

Efforts to develop a strategy related to revenue losses also emerged at General Synod.
Lawton noted that General Synod had passed, on July 14, a resolution directing the Council of General Synod (CoGS) to address questions about what kind of work the national church should focus on given the financial difficulties faced by the dioceses, which support it. Similarly, a second resolution passed on the same day asks CoGS to undertake a strategic planning process to consider its own mission and ministry...

...Editorial Note: This story was updated on August 2, 2019, to include an interview with Hanna Goschy, chief financial officer, who clarified that the deficit experienced by the church in 2018 was anticipated in the budgeting process.

As reported by Terry Mattingly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 30, 2019:

...Elliot noted that a 2006 report suggested the final Anglicans would exit Canadian pews in 2061. The church's membership had peaked -- as it did for many mainline Christian churches -- in the early 1960s, with 1,358,459 on parish rolls. That number fell to 641,845 in 2001, while Canada's population rose from 18 million to 31 million.

In the 2017 report, Anglican membership fell to 357,123 -- with an average Sunday attendance of 97,421.

Meanwhile, the number of Anglican clergy in Canada rose -- from 2,380 in 1961 to 3,491 in this new report. But other numbers were sobering. For example, the church confirmed 1,997 new members in 2017, while there were 9,074 burials or funeral rites.

"There is no sign of any stabilization in our numbers; if anything, the decline is increasing. Some had hoped that our decline had bottomed out, or that programs had been effective in reversing the trends. This is now demonstrably not the case," Elliot said. "International comparisons suggest that the decline in the Anglican Church of Canada is faster than in any other Anglican church," although 2018 numbers from the larger Episcopal Church in the United States showed "an even greater rate of decline in attendance than ours."...

...Trends in Canada are part of a larger global drama, with Christian churches booming in Africa, Asia and elsewhere in what researchers call the "Global South." At the same time, membership numbers have stalled, declined or collapsed in many mainline and Catholic flocks in Europe and North America.

It's certainly true that Canada has become more secular, creating a climate of "intolerant progressivism" that has troubled many physicians, nurses, lawyers and others, said the Rt. Rev. Ronald Ferris, a veteran Anglican Church of Canada bishop who now helps plant missions for the conservative Anglican Network in Canada.

"You can still grow churches in Canada, but it's an uphill challenge," he said. "We grieve to see so many people leaving the church, but we also know that many are still seeking a spiritual home. ... We know the changes in Canada are real. The question is whether the church has to change its teachings to fit into that. We see no signs that making those kinds of compromises leads to growth, or even survival."

The articles above provide abundant evidence of the truth of Vox Day's second law of social justice warriors: They always double down. The Anglican Church of Canada was informed in 2006 that it would be dead in 2061. One might think that such a dire prediction would prompt the church to examine itself and take appropriate steps to reverse the decline. Did they do that? Nooo! They doubled down on their "progressive" ecclesiastical practices and social agenda to the extent that the speed of decline has accelerated. If the Anglican Church of Canada had merely continued at a steady pace in keeping with the 2006 prediction, it would now be 42 years away from extinction; instead, in the last 13 years, the predicted expiry date has been moved up by 21 years. The SJWs who run the church would rather destroy it than abandon or dial back their agenda. Liberal Anglicans such as Archdeacon Thompson seem to be economic illiterates as well as apostates, and it doesn't seem to bother them--if it even occurs to them--that they won't be able to enact their politically correct social agenda if there isn't anyone around to pay for it.

In the case of the Anglican Network in Canada, they should obey the command of scripture: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. II Corinthians 6:17

For further information, go to Mr. Mattingly's podcasts:

Canada's Anglicans are vanishing and RNS can't find any conservatives to debate the reasons why (November 21, 2019)

Why it matters that Canadian Anglicans are having a near-death experience (November 23, 2019)

See also my posts:

Baptists, Anglicans and Pentecostals team up to host Emergent speaker and writer Peter Rollins (February 26, 2009)

Calgary parish votes to leave the Anglican Church of Canada and join the Roman Catholic Church (December 6, 2010)

Anglican Church of Canada mulls open communion (March 9, 2011)

Dissident Anglican congregations lose their properties when the Supreme Court of Canada declines to hear their case (June 18, 2011)

Another dissident congregation leaves the Anglican Church of Canada (July 5, 2011)

More Canadian Anglicans break away to join the Roman Catholic Church (May 16, 2012)

50 years ago: Anglican Church of Canada adopts new Book of Common Prayer (August 22, 2012)

Aboriginal bishops in Anglican Church of Canada invoke "colonial occupation" in opposition to same-sex marriage (March 10, 2016)

Anglican Church of Canada votes in favour of sodomite and lesbian marriage--after changing the vote count (July 13, 2016)

40 years ago: Anglican Church of Canada ordains its first female priests (November 30, 2016)

50 years ago: Anglican Church of Canada abandons its opposition to abortion (December 18, 2017)

An Anglican Church of Canada priest who's an example of a pagan disguised as a Christian (February 28, 2018)

50 years ago: Canadian Anglican traditionalists oppose union with United Church of Canada (June 21, 2019)

Statement from Anglican Church of Canada Primate-elect shows the church to be beyond the possibility of satire (July 27, 2019)

Anglican Church of Canada General Synod votes overwhelmingly to remove prayer for the conversion of the Jews from the Book of Common Prayer (August 7, 2019)

Anglican Church of Canada will review its governance structure in order to remove those who stand in the way of the alphabet pervert agenda (August 22, 2019)

Anglican Church of Canada General Synod votes to endorse Chrislamic A Common Word Between Us and You (December 22, 2019)