Accountability matters.

We need to be open about our faith and about the Truth. We have to stand up for righteousness in our churches and hold each other accountable for our behaviour. No more allowing church leaders who speak heresy to retain their positions (I'm looking at you, Spong and Ingham). No more allowing Christians who have power to abuse that power and the members of their parishes (I'm looking at every church that has just shuffled pastors or priests after someone has come forward regarding abuse).

We need to be open about our faith and about the Truth.

For too long we have ignored the need for justice to be meted out on those who abuse the sheep they ought to be shepherding--teaching and protecting. It is abusive to teach untruths to the people, just as it is abusive to engage in sexually immoral behaviour with parishioners (especially children). Yet we allow these heretical teachings to spread when we don't deal appropriately with the bishops who come up with them. Both Michael Ingham and John Spong have written books about their heresies, and both retained their bishoprics. This is untenable. I know that Anglicans pride themselves on the breadth of allowable beliefs across the Communion, but we should not be so inclusive that we become indistinguishable from the United Church of Canada or the Unitarian Church.

I know that it's hard to even imagine coming out strongly against Church leaders. It's vital that we do so. When there is a Synod with an election, make sure that your vote is cast for the person God is leading you to vote for--the person whose stated beliefs are grounded in Truth, not concealing the lie that we are good actually or that our true identity is found in anything but Jesus. Stand up for Jesus, as the song says.

I have had Keith Green songs running through my head since Saturday, when I listened to as much as I could find on YouTube. I highly recommend the practice, but I will leave you with just two that I think are applicable to this post and this entire series of posts. There is one more in this set and then I have another book review to share, and then I don't know where I'll be going here but it does promise to be interesting.

Enjoy the songs (well, the Sheep & the Goats isn't really a song so much as a story told over music), linked below, and may they speak to your heart as they speak to mine.

Peace & Blessings.

Asleep in the Light

The Sheep & the Goats