In recent weeks I have been contacted by Atheists, Agnostics, Muslims and Christians to discuss the recent statements made by the priests and bishops of the Church of England (C of E). The recent announcement by the House of Bishops that they will change the teaching of the Anglican church to allow same sex unions to receive ‘a blessing’, the media coverage of the church’s first non-binary priest (based in my home city of Liverpool), and this week’s release regarding the use of ‘gender neutral’ terms to describe God has led many to ask two questions: first “What is going on with the Church of England?” and secondly, “Are Christians changing their view on these issues?”. To understand the ideological battle and changes that are taking place, we first need to examine the state of our culture and its influence upon these decisions.
Bingo Allison, the church of England’s first transgender priest
In ancient cultures, many people worshipped gods based upon different aspects of life: the life of the individual or the life of the community. Egyptians who were struggling to have children offered worship to Isis, Greeks who wanted success in marriage would petition Aphrodite, West Africans in search of financial success made sacrifices to Aje and Romans called upon Mars for victory in war. Gods such as these demanded sacrifice and loyalty, with many cultures going to great lengths to please them; time, money, blood and even child sacrifice are some of the acts of worship ancient peoples practiced to grasp their god’s promises of a good life and to ward off disaster.
Cities were dominated by buildings, statues and flags dedicated to these gods and worship of them shaped the cultural life of societies.
Our modern society is not very different to those of the past. Every culture worships its own idols and pays tribute with its own rituals and sacrifices. In the modern world you will find shrines everywhere; from the tower blocks dedicated to finance and business where people sacrifice their hours and energy for material gain, to the gyms and aesthetic shops dedicated to the worship of the body and appearance, and the sports stadiums where teams and stars are praised with joyful love songs, and offered the financial sacrifices of fans. Child sacrifice for the sake of prosperity is readily available at your nearest NHS abortion clinic. Our society still worships many idols. All of these idols are underpinned by the religion of our age and its many faced deity: the god of self.
The religion of self-worship is not a new phenomenon. A skim read of history and current affairs will demonstrate that self has been worshipped since ancient times; from Adam and Eve being ruled by their own desires in the garden of Eden to totalitarian rulers and governments oppressing anyone who disagreed with them. The god of self has long demanded worship in the lives of people. This god makes each and every person the ruler and judge over their own universe. It replaces the name God proclaimed to Moses at the burning bush “I AM” to describe Himself, with the individual human’s proclamation of “I am”, making each human a self-defining being.
The doctrine that emanates from this god is centred in personal feelings. Its pillars are personal happiness, satisfaction and self fulfilment. In practice, it can lead to narcissism and self absorption where personal feelings such as the desire to have sex with anyone you want or be whatever think you are can lead people to mistreat, abuse or exclude others in the service of themselves. It can also lead to people rejecting all forms of authority with the sole dictator in their lives being personal choice. A by-product of this is a disintegration of institutions, the demise of the role of the family and the rejection of all moral truths for the sake of personal taste. The desires, needs and wants of the individual trump everything else and manifest in the religion of self’s current preaching as sexual self-fulfilment, personal comfort and materialism at all costs, whatever the sacrifice.
At it’s core, this religion makes each individual a god. It was the German atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who infamously proclaimed “God is dead and we have killed Him”. He asserted that humanity had overcome its prehistoric need for a “God of the gaps”. Now we are free to empower ourselves through self definition. The problem is, humans make exceptionally poor gods. To try to satisfy our desires we go to great lengths and expend much energy trying to bend the universe to our will and find that we can’t. Even when we achieve the success that we hoped would be fulfilling, we find it empty or unsatisfying and are left chasing more- fighting for self-defining purpose and to leave our mark on this earth before we die. This leaves us frustrated and because of self worship, alone. Many in our culture live internally isolated and lonely lives due to their worship of the god of self, wrestling with a lack of true meaning, purpose and fulfilment.
Historically, in the western world, the enemy of the god of self has been Christianity.
It was Christ Jesus who preached, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”. The Holy Bible has been a bastion against the abusers and misusers of western history with kings, queens, governments and slave traders all being forced to yield to it’s eternal wisdom and authority. The church has traditionally preached the bad news of the eternal damage of self worship and the good news of Jesus Christ, the God who, through his love and self sacrifice, went to the cross to suffer the punishment we deserve for our self-worship, offering us new life and a restored relationship with our Creator. This has been the preaching and teaching of the church for over 2000 years.
When we consider the current trends of self worship which are manifested brazenly in the LGBTQ+ movement and its impact on society, we see that many have either embraced or affirmed this ideology as people being their “authentic selves”. They affirm making sexual acts and psychological states of mind right foundations for human identity and proclaim that this expressive individualism is liberation from the oppressive sexual ethics of the Christian religion. Christianity has upheld marriage between a biological man and woman as the God-given foundation in which humanity flourishes sexually and produces families. Biblical scriptures such as the following verses leave no room for the sexual self fulfilment or self-defining doctrines promoted by the LGBTQ+ movement:
“‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable” (Leviticus 18:22)
“God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:26-27)
“So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
The religion of self-worship and Christianity are at odds with each other. Their fundamental beliefs about life and self are irreconcilable. Yet it is this truth that has been treated as an inconvenience by the leaders of the Church of England. For centuries, they have called people, through Biblical teaching and preaching, to come as they are to Christ and be transformed by His love and grace to live as they were created to be. Now, this organisation wants to do away with the teachings of the Bible, and to promote the religion of self-worship, come as you are and remain as you are, no transformation needed.
These teachings blessing same sex relationships and sex outside outside of marriage, affirming transgender priests and proposing using gender neutral pronouns for God demonstrate that the Church of England has ceased to follow Christ or the teachings of the Holy Bible and has, instead, chosen to embrace the modern god of our culture, the god of self. The majority of its bishops, priests and laity have departed from the historic Christian faith and are seeking to make something new, a religion of self and Christ combined. It is here that it can be clearly seen that this ‘church’ of England, is lying to itself about following the God of the Bible.
Some may read this and consider me a bigot, homophobic or transphobic. I am none of these things, I am a follower of Christ and I am commanded by Him to love all people. The Holy Bible says that “love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13). In a self-worshipping world that increasingly hates truth and is inclusive of everything but Biblical Christianity I must stand firm and speak out against lies spoken by false prophets claiming to be Christians. I will end with the words of St Athanasius of Alexandria:
“If the world is against the truth, then I am against the world.”
Thanks Miles. A powerful and profound read, written by a clearly gifted blogger!
“ I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” Romans 1:16 🙏🏻
A good read brother miles, well written. Brooksy