Category: Mainline Christianity
Posted by: an okie gardener
According to Mark Tooley at the Institue on Religion and Democracy, the visit to the U.S. by Pakistani bishop Alexander John Malik may be paying dividends among Mainline churches.
Amazingly, the recent Islamist atrocities in Pakistan have compelled some left-leaning church groups in the West to admit problems with radical Islam, a difficult admission for many. The current visit to the U.S. by a Pakistani Protestant bishop on behalf of besieged Pakistani Christians is helping to fuel the catharsis.
"Unfortunately, the (anti-Christian) mindset is not restricted to Pakistan but to the whole Arab-Muslim world," Bishop Alexander John Malik told the National Council of Churches (NCC) during a recent visit with them in New York. "It's the same from the Sudan to Somalia, from Iraq to Indonesia. This is the mindset of Muslims who consider their religion to be of the utmost importance." Malik represents the united Church of Pakistan, which is a merger of Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Lutherans.
Mainline agencies, viewing the world through the spectacles of Liberation Theology, have assumed that the Victimizer is always the First World, and the Victims always Third World. Perhaps a more realistic and nuanced view may develop.
Amazingly, the recent Islamist atrocities in Pakistan have compelled some left-leaning church groups in the West to admit problems with radical Islam, a difficult admission for many. The current visit to the U.S. by a Pakistani Protestant bishop on behalf of besieged Pakistani Christians is helping to fuel the catharsis.
"Unfortunately, the (anti-Christian) mindset is not restricted to Pakistan but to the whole Arab-Muslim world," Bishop Alexander John Malik told the National Council of Churches (NCC) during a recent visit with them in New York. "It's the same from the Sudan to Somalia, from Iraq to Indonesia. This is the mindset of Muslims who consider their religion to be of the utmost importance." Malik represents the united Church of Pakistan, which is a merger of Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Lutherans.
Mainline agencies, viewing the world through the spectacles of Liberation Theology, have assumed that the Victimizer is always the First World, and the Victims always Third World. Perhaps a more realistic and nuanced view may develop.
The increasing official openness to gay and lesbian clergy in the Episcopal Church continues to produce fallout. The latest group to leave are nuns, almost an entire order, who have moved into Roman Catholicism.
Most Americans probably are not aware that the Anglican Church has celibate, ascetic religious orders both of men and of women. Mostly dating from the 19th century, and never as important as in Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Anglican orders have nevertheless done significant work.
Most Americans probably are not aware that the Anglican Church has celibate, ascetic religious orders both of men and of women. Mostly dating from the 19th century, and never as important as in Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Anglican orders have nevertheless done significant work.
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