Katie’s Beer

Update II: Ted Olsen has posted this update to the ECUSA website’s pagan worship liturgy. It is, indeed, the blogger’s year.

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With the world’s attention turned to them as they were chastised by their fellow Episcopalians, the Episcopal Church USA decides to announce a new liturgy for a woman’s eucharist. The service is taken from a clan of modern Druids “who seek to find common ground amidst all non-harmful spiritual loyalties, and who believe in the interconnectedness of all faiths.”

Ted Olsen of Christianity Today’s blog reports:

“Our ancient sisters called you Queen of Heaven,” says the Episcopal liturgy. That’s a reference to Jeremiah. And not a happy one. In Jeremiah 7, God complains, “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.” The liturgy’s reference to defiant women worshipping the Queen of Heaven with cakes comes directly from Jeremiah 44:

Then all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” And the women said, “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

In other words, it wasn’t their brothers and husbands that the women were defying: It was God.

And now Episcopal Church leaders want you to do the same. Defy God. Worship pagan deities. There is no other possible reading of this “Eucharistic” text.

And the ELCA is a full communion partner with this church! In looking through the ELCA website, it is easy to see that the groundwork has been laid (or the gates opened) for this type of service in the ELCA. In their Ecumenical Affairs section, I found the following explanation of worshipping and praying with non-Christians.

The second issue, worship and prayer with non-Christians, moves beyond the constituting identity of the ELCA but is very much a matter of concern in the religious pluralism of the present day and in the wake of events since September 11, 2001. Interfaith Relations and the Churches: A Policy Statement of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., can offer some guidance in these matters. Representatives of the ELCA participated in the preparation of this statement and voted for its adoption by the NCCC. This documents notes an underlying tension within Scripture. On the one side, scripture speaks of the uniqueness of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Colossians 1:19-20, 1 Corinthians 15:22); and on the other side, scripture also speaks of natural or general revelation (Romans 1:20) and asserts that “the Spirit blows where it chooses” (John 3:8). Taken together, Scripture invites Christians to be open to people of other religious traditions while at the same time witnessing through their lives of the liberating power of salvation through Christ. The NCCC policy document counsels Christians to respect the identity of others and to “accept their right to determine and define their own identity.” With this in mind, Christians eager to express the unity of all humanity affirmed by the Christian scriptures through prayer and worship should not force their agenda on those unwilling to take this step.

“On the one side, scripture speaks of the uniqueness of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Colossians 1:19-20, 1 Corinthians 15:22); and on the other side, scripture also speaks of natural or general revelation (Romans 1:20) and asserts that “the Spirit blows where it chooses” (John 3:8). Taken together, Scripture invites Christians to be open to people of other religious traditions while at the same time witnessing through their lives of the liberating power of salvation through Christ.”

Wouldn’t most Christians take this to mean that there is more than one way to heaven and that I shouldn’t force my “opinion” that Jesus is the way God has provided for us to join Him in heaven? Scripture is even twisted to prove the point that there is more than one way. I’m not trying to bash the ELCA or the Episcopals here; I am merely commenting on features from their official websites. People like to bash confessional Lutherans as being exclusive and judgemental, because we are following Martin Luther’s example in trying to hold the church to its original biblical teachings. Surely, there are ELCA Lutherans and Episcopals who are alarmed or even disgusted by the compromises of their church bodies. I pray that those individuals will speak out or take a stand by leaving. It took me ten years to leave the ELCA, my church home for 30 years, so I’m not holding myself up as an example. Concern for my own kids is what finally gave me the strength and courage to leave.
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Update I:

There is an interesting parallel article on the much more scholarly site maintained by the good confessional Lutheran men at Here We Stand.

Conservative Anglican Resources:

*Titus 1:9 (catchy blog name!)

*Virtuosity: The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism
VIRTUOSITY is the Anglican Communion’s largest Biblically Orthodox Online News Service, read by more than 1,000,000 readers in 45 countries each year. Challenging, controversial, never dull, Virtuosity exists to keep its readers informed about the worldwide Anglican Communion and to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

*Midwest Conservative Journal - posts related to this story can be found today. I haven’t read through them yet.

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