Please, Christian, Don't Vote for Donald Trump

Pretty direct, isn't it? Kinda like Donald Trump himself, eh?

I'd be lying if I claimed I understood why people like Trump so much. Because he's a straight talker? Really? The guy's a salesman; the only feeling I get from him when he talks is, well, the oily salesman feel. Because he's an "outsider", and not part of the "establishment"? He may not be the political "establishment", but he's certainly not an "outsider". When I think of outsiders, I think of people who genuinely do have grassroots campaigns, not largely self-financed campaigns.

But none of that is as important as what I'm about to bring up.

I'm not going to talk about policy proposals, or how "conservative" or "liberal" he is, or anything like that. What I'm bringing up, here, is his status as a Christian.

Fellow Christians, if you want a godly man to be  the President of the United States, then Donald Trump isn't for you. No, not because of his many marriages and divorces. No, not because of any shady business practices in his past. I don't know much about any of that.

No; this video is why you should not vote for Donald Trump in the primaries or the general election:

Okay. Wow. Please rewatch that if you are still liking Trump.

So...he's never asked God to forgive him.

No: first, he's way too busy trying to prove that he's a Christian. He gives "details" about this in the fact that he's a 1) Protestant, 2) Presbyterian, and 3) was under Pastor Norman Vincent Peale...who retired in 1984 and died in 1993. Oh. And Pastor Peale wrote "The Power of Positive Thinking". That's about all of the details he could give to sideline the question.

Really? You can't name your current pastor? You have to name a pastor who retired before I was born? Over 30 years ago? Who died in the early 90's? Really?

Oh it gets better, because he's still not answered the question of whether he's ever asked God to forgive him.

Answer? No. He's not. He just tries to "make it right"...

A Presbyterian said that.

Excuse me: a "Presbyterian".

Presbyterians are the most Calvinistic denomination we have today (sorry, Reformed Baptists). John Calvin. The Total Depravity Guy. But let's leave aside that.

He doesn't ask God to forgive him when he sins. 

Which I'm assuming means that he's never prayed the Lord's Prayer? "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who've trespassed against us..."

I'm pretty sure that that is one of the few things that absolutely all Christians believe one must do: repent.

And he doesn't repent.

And he is apparently not even aware of how much of a jaw-dropping statement that is to make as a "Christian".

What?

What?

There is no excuse for this. There is no explaining this away. Not only pandering, but demonstrably showing that he is unaware of the very core of the Christian Faith; how can he call himself a Christian?

Oh, and the video wraps up with that wonderful little statement at the end that he made about John McCain, an actual war hero who was captured and tortured for five and a half years in Vietnam:

"He's not a war hero...He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay?"

If I need to explain the horror of that quote, I'm not talking with a rational person.

On Super Tuesday, please do not vote for Donald Trump.

If becomes the GOP nominee, then on election day do not vote for Donald Trump.

Please.

Please.

Don't vote for Donald Trump.

Thanks for reading all of the way through; I hope you like my blog! If so, I'd love for you to check out my Patreon page and support me as I go through seminary. Oh? You don't know I'm in seminary? Well, I am! Yeah, if you wish you can check out my article on that, here. Be sure to check out my Facebook page, too! 

Oh! And I also run a podcast with my atheist friend, Xrys! It's called The Religious Nut and Hellbound Sinner Podcast, and we have a fun time discussing all sorts of topics: religion, politics, science, philosophy, movies, etc. Check out our Facebook page on that, as well! 

Hope for the Future: What the Primates' Decisions Mean for the Communion

Okay...wow. Praise God; I'd been praying that whole week that God would not let our Communion split. I sincerely believed that the Archbishop of Canterbury would do nothing about the Episcopal Church (and the Anglican Church in Canada; more on that, later),  leaving the conservative Primates to simply walk out on the Communion. That would mean about 80% of the Communion, the ACNA included, would leave.

Instead, we had the Primates vote to "not sanction" but face "consequences" (read: "sanction") the Episcopal Church for its formal endorsement of gay marriage.

For those who do not know, the Episcopal Church has been in a downward spiral, spiritually, for the past three or four decades. It first began with the ordination of women into the priesthood (or...did it begin with the allowance of contraception? Yes, I just went there.), and continued with the ordination of women to the bishopric, then with the allowance of an actively gay man into the bishopric in 2003 (an alcoholic who eventually had to resign, and also "divorced" his "husband", the one he was living with for seventeen years after divorcing his wife in 1986...but yeah, he fit St. Paul's requrements to become a bishop; sure. Oh! And he's totes legit wildly conservative!!!!) and the promotion of gay "marriage" in the Church, then finally had the marriage rite changed last year (2015) to include gay couples.

So this downward spiral has been pointed out repeatedly throughout the years, with little consequential action done. It has caused many divisions within the Communion, most notably the formation of the ACNA. It's also caused an international alliance of conservative Anglicans, known as GAFCON, to push for more conservative reforms and discipline against those who've pushed for fundamental changes within the doctrines of the Church.

On the week of January 11th, 2016, the Primates of the Anglican Communion gathered together in Canterbury for a meeting on what to do to maintain unity within the Church. Somewhat surprisingly, my Archbishop Foley Beach was invited to the gathering as well by Archbishop Justin Welby. Why is that surprising? Because we split from the Episcopal Church, and are not considered "fully Anglican" by the Archbishop of Canterbury, although 80% of the Communion recognizes us as fully Anglican. Initially, my Archbishop was only going to be observing the talks, with no ability to vote for any decisions to be made. We'll get to that part soon enough.

Our church parish had been praying for the gathering ever since it was first announced last year. Many of us were concerned that the Primates gathering would be unable to come to a solution, which would cause many of the conservatives to simply leave the Communion. Thankfully, that did not happen; far from it. Instead, the Communion decided, by a 3/4's majority, that the Episcopal Church needed to "have consequences" (read: "be sanctioned") for its actions in unilaterally changing the understanding of marriage. For the next three years, the Episcopal Church is not allowed to represent the Anglican Communion in any official capacity, nor is it allowed to vote in matters of doctrine or polity. Archbishop Foley Beach was not only invited to the talks, but was given full allowance to vote on the issues at hand!

You should see this interview with Archbishop Foley Beach:

You should also see this (much longer) press conference with Archbishop Justin Welby and some other Primates:

This has been nothing but an amazing sign of God's Hand on our Communion; people don't know this, but the Anglican Communion is the third largest group of Christians in the world. We are also strongly conservative, despite the image that the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, and a few other groups have presented us as. There are some minor (and I want to stress, minor) problems with some of the decisions made, but I don't want to focus on those at all right now. This gathering demonstrated that the conservatives are still the majority in the Communion, that Archbishop Welby is not going to make the same mistakes as his predecessor, and that there is a real possibility for the ACNA to take the place of the Episcopal Church, if TEC does not repent of its sins (all signs indicate that it will not).

Who knows? We'll find out more within three years. For now, let's praise God for keeping our Communion together.


Thanks for reading all of the way through; I hope you like my blog! If so, I'd love for you to check out my Patreon page and support me as I go through seminary. Oh? You don't know I'm in seminary? Well, I am! Yeah, if you wish you can check out my article on that, here. Be sure to check out my Facebook page, too! 

Oh! And I also run a podcast with my atheist friend, Xrys! It's called The Religious Nut and Hellbound Sinner Podcast, and we have a fun time discussing all sorts of topics: religion, politics, science, philosophy, movies, etc. Check out our Facebook page on that, as well! 

Why I Lost My Relationship with Christ

Alright, it's time I came clean. I've been living a duplicitous life for a long time. I kept acting like I loved Jesus and was following His commands, but in reality I wasn't.

So, I've decided to no longer live a life of lies; I'm giving up my relationship with Jesus.

This revelation might disappoint some of you, while others might be happy about it. Hopefully, you all can appreciate and still love me after making this decision...


...oh, wait: you think I'm saying I'm no longer a Christian?! Well, how silly of you: of COURSE I'm a Christian still! I'm just getting rid of my former BAD relationship with Christ; that's all I was saying! Of course, EVERYONE has a relationship with God, whether it's a good or a bad one. Mine was bad. Like, I was periodically falling into the sins of lust  and procrastination; because of that, my relationship with Jesus was bad, so I had to get rid of it and start having a GOOD relationship with Jesus. That's all I'm saying, guys!


Last night I went to a college group that meets once a week at a church near where I live. It's a non-denominational group; the people there are good-hearted and many of them genuinely love God. I'm a cranky Anglo-Catholic, so part of my reason for going to it (as well as other church places, periodically) is to remind myself that people can genuinely worship God with low-church (read: rock n' roll Jesus concert) worship services. I may disagree with the form of worship, but I don't think it's necessarily unbiblical.

However, when I got there last night I walked to one of the seats and remained standing for the song (I was a bit late). The song was one I'd never heard before, so I couldn't sing the words to it very well. Thankfully, like any good modern worship service, there was a screen with the words to the song on it. When we got to the chorus, I read these words:

"I'm laying down all my religion

I'm laying down

I want to know you, Lord

I'm laying down all my religion

I'm laying down

I want to know you, Lord

I want to know you, Lord"

When I saw those lyrics, I had to leave the service. Part of it was anger, because (besides the fact that rejection of the Christian religion is both incredibly stupid and wrong) one of my pet peeves is the whole "spiritual but not religious" foolishness. I was going to have to talk to people about that song if I remained there, so rather than remain and cause contention during and immediately after a worship service, I decided to quietly and peacefully remove myself from the situation.

Yay for self-control! ^_^ .

 Now, for people who sing this song or songs like it, I'm sure many of you don't really mean, "I'm laying down my belief in God, the Deity of Christ, Jesus' death paying for my sins, the physical Resurrection of Jesus, our future physical Resurrection, the Church as the Bride of Christ, the authority of Scripture, belief that abortion is murder, understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman for life, etc.", when you say "I'm laying down my religion".

But guess what? When we tell people that we're "spiritual but not religious", or "laying down my religion", there's a really good chance that that's what they think we mean.

This is one of the many problems with my generation (myself included): we think that because we use a word in a certain way, everyone understands exactly what we mean by it. Perhaps it's a problem for every generation, but it seems much more pronounced today among my peers (once again, myself included).

United Pursuit performs the song "Simple Gospel", the one that I have a major problem with. I'm sure they mean well, but good intentions don't mean anything when your words lead people to reject Christ's teachings in favor of a do-nothing feel-goodism. Songs like this can lead people to a false faith that collapses the moment tribulation comes, leading them to hate God Himself.
(photo obtained from http://www.worshiptogether.com/worship-leaders/united-pursuit/ )

Words are important; when we use words like "religion" to talk about, well, "only bad, man-made, divisive religion", we run a terrible risk of coming across as meaning, "It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you have a good feeling when you sing songs about Jesus." to young Christians or to those interested in possibly becoming Christian.

It is especially bad if we simply make it a song and refuse to elaborate what we mean in the lyrics.

I'm sorry, but when we let go of Christian religion, "Simple Gospel" can very easily be confused with "watered-down gospel".

"Simple Faith" can turn into, "dumbed down blind and feel-good faith".

A watered-down "gospel" has no power.

A dumbed down poor excuse for "faith" that only works when things go well is worse than useless: it creates angry former Christians who've been let down by the lies a dumbed down blind faith promises. I know many people who fit that story, as I'm sure you do. Good Lord, I almost became that story a few years ago.

Our words are important.

Treat our words with the utmost care and respect.

Let's pick our worship songs carefully. Let's drop this one.

Thanks for reading all of the way through; I hope you like my blog! If so, I'd love for you to check out my Patreon page and support me as I go through seminary. Oh? You don't know I'm in seminary? Well, I am! Yeah, if you wish you can check out my article on that, here. Be sure to check out my Facebook page, too! 

Oh! And I also run a podcast with my atheist friend, Xrys! It's called The Religious Nut and Hellbound Sinner Podcast, and we have a fun time discussing all sorts of topics: religion, politics, science, philosophy, movies, etc. Check out our Facebook page on that, as well! 

God is Not Your Boyfriend

I'm in my friend's house one Sunday afternoon, when I hear some cheering, followed by ecstatic giggling, coming from one of the rooms. The room belongs to my friend's roommate.

What? I wonder, then think it might be better not to know. However, curiosity gets the better of me, as it always does, and I decide to ask.

"Hey," I call out his name. "What the heck are you giggling like some little girl for?" (I'm blunt like that.)

"Oh, the Passion Conference is livestreaming right now, and I'm watching it."

"Oh, um...okay. Did you go to church this morning?" I knew the answer.

"No, but I'm watching the Passion Conference, so it's basically the same thing."

Seeing that he goes to a non-denominational church, one that I've been to, I could not disagree much with his logic.

For those of you so (un)fortunate (take your pick) to not know what the Passion Conference is, it's a conference (duh) that happens once a year in Atlanta, Georgia. Here's the promotional for this year's event, which happened just a few days ago:

Now, I've never been to Passion Conference, and I never plan on going to it. At all. Ever. I'm too old now, anyway.

I'm sure it's got good preaching; in fact, I know it's got some great preachers. Francis Chan is one of my favorite preachers, despite my disagreements with him on parts of theology, and he's preached at this conference.

While I've not been to the conference, I've seen enough clips from the sermons and music to get what it's about. I've also been to Passion City Church, which was...less than thrilling for me. Call me a cranky Anglo-Catholic, but I kinda got ticked when a bunch of teens and college students started "Christian mosh-pitting" in front of the stage for the Sunday night church service; that's what I called it, anyway. It's sort of like a mosh pit, without the actual moshing. It's like when people want to go crazy at a party, but not REALLY, so they kinda just waddle around.

Anyways, I'm getting off-point.

My reason for writing this article is not so much to critique Passion Conference itself, although I might do that for a variety of reasons, but to point out the problem that that friend's roommate has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate, along with a great many others in cultural Christianity: the infatuating of the love we are to have towards God.

I am NOT saying that our love for God should be without emotion; far from it. I've cried at services, both contemporary and liturgical. Nor am I saying that the people I am talking about are somehow not Christians. NOR am I saying that modern musical instruments or even modern genres of music are bad. I am saying that there is a real problem in how we, as Christians in the United States, often find ourselves whittling down the Faith to a feeling. A strong feeling, perhaps, but one with no substance.

I don't say this as a person who was never caught up in that mentality. I went through my own "relationship not a religion" "Jesus is my homeboy" stage not five years ago. I went to one of the big mega-churches in my town, and got caught up in the whole emotional-manipulation scheme, which is all it really was. For the moment it "feels right"...but it doesn't ever actually lead to repentance and a deeper faith.

Taken from http://terryivy.com/ 

That being said, this is what I have to say:

Stop it.

God is not your girlfriend.

God is the creator of the universe.

You should not have a feeling towards God that is pretty much the same feeling you had when you went to your Hannah Montana concert in 5th grade.

You should not ignore the intellectual part of Christianity, because you've confused the Holy Spirit with emotional manipulation.

You should not confuse an emotional high with spirituality.

Stop getting high on an entertainment atmosphere, thinking you're somehow closer to Jesus because of it. 

Jesus Christ had something to say about such things...

The hyper-emotionalism of modern American Christianity has no roots. It creates Matthew 13:20 Christians, nothing more.

God doesn't deserve infatuation.

God doesn't deserve a one-night stand.

God deserves your devotion in its entirety, not just in momentary emotional highs, but in your intellect and spirit and body as well. And if you're a pragmatist who "doesn't have time for that theological mumbo-jumbo", I have news for you: theology is INCREDIBLY practical, and affects your beliefs far more than you realize.

You don't have to be a theologian contemplating the mysteries of the Divine in ways that would make St. Thomas Aquinas' (for my Reformed friends, insert "John Calvin"; for my "Jesus Hippie Movement" friends, put...I don't know, John Piper or Joel Osteen or whoever) head spin.

But you do have to be a theologian.

Just as you would chastise me--and rightly!--if I were to say we should worship without emotion, you should consider yourself a theologian and worship God in THAT respect as well.

I will close this article with a very good quote I recently came across; it's attributed to Warren and David Wiersbe:

"When ministry becomes performance, then sanctuary becomes a theater, the congregation becomes an audience, worship becomes entertainment, and man's applause and approval become the measure of success. But when ministry is for the glory of God, His presence moves into the sanctuary."

Thanks for reading all of the way through; I hope you like my blog! If so, I'd love for you to check out my Patreon page and support me as I go through seminary. Oh? You don't know I'm in seminary? Well, I am! Yeah, if you wish you can check out my article on that, here. Be sure to check out my Facebook page, too! 

Oh! And I also run a podcast with my atheist friend, Xrys! It's called The Religious Nut and Hellbound Sinner Podcast, and we have a fun time discussing all sorts of topics: religion, politics, science, philosophy, movies, etc. Check out our Facebook page on that, as well! 

Fare Thee Well, 2015!

Wow, this year has been something for me!!! So many things have happened in 2015, both personal and public. I want to reflect on a few of them:

Two new nephews!

Okay, one of them was born late last December, but I didn't get to see either of them until this Thanksgiving. Both are adorable, and I love them to death. Now I have five nephews and one niece!!! They all live in Florida, and I live about fourteen hours away in Tennessee, so I don't get to see them nearly as often as I wish.

I became a Benedictine Monk!

This August I made my vows of Obedience, Stability, and Conversatio Morum ("conversion of manners" or "conversion of life"). I and my brothers at my parish pray and help our church with whatever is necessary for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

I'm...almost done with my undergrad degree!

Okay, I was supposed to graduate this past spring, but work wouldn't allow me to. Unless there are any unforseen problems, I'm graduating the summer of 2016, finishing my degree by taking two classes overseas in the U.K.; of course, I'm VERY excited about that! I just hope I have the finances for it. Prayers would be appreciated!

I launched a new Facebook page!

Yes, this year I decided that I should have a Facebook page dedicated to theology from an Anglo-Catholic perspective, so I started the "Barely Protestant" page. I've made new friends with it, and have had interesting conversations. The page keeps track of how many people view my articles, memes, posts, etc., and I am humbled by just how many people have read what I have to say. My articles have been read in the thousands, now, and my posts have on more than a few occasions reached in the tens of thousands of viewing per week.

There have been some setbacks, as well. I had to quit my job because of how much it impeded my ability to do school, opting instead for another job that is more willing to work with my schedule, but at a significant wage cut. That's not been easy, but God has provided time after time for me, bringing in money at the very last second. He is faithful.

I also had some relationship problems, specifically with three people in my life. Thank God that one of them reached out to me this Christmas Eve to make amends. That relationship may take time to restore, but I am confident that he and I will work it out. Another relationship, related to that situation, is still on shaky ground; pray for that one, that we both do what is right. The third one I see not being resolved, as the other person involved refuses to reconcile.

These three hurdles have retaught me the importance of forgiveness, letting go of bitterness, and admitting my own faults. Do not let pride get in the way of your relationships.

I also had to deal, most importantly, with three close friends who attempted suicide.  Thankfully, all three are alive today, but for one I thought he was dead for two or three days. Those days were horrific.  It's taught me that I need to be there for my friends even more, and not brush aside any concerns I have about their well-being. Two of the three are doing better now; I've not heard from one of them for about three or four months, unfortunately.

I'm continuing my journey through the Christian life, making progress each day. Thanks to my Benedictine Vows, I'm becoming more accustomed to daily prayer. My prayer is to still become a priest, but I want to make sure that I finish my undergraduate degree; this has become my priority.

I plan on blogging a lot more, and possibly starting a Youtube channel (I technically already have: check it out). All in all, I plan on doing a lot more with this, as I find time to; thankfully, I only have two classes this spring, and the two classes overseas this summer. Some of the ideas I have are:

Reviews of books

Critiques of horrible viral videos ("Why Jesus is totes legit okay with, like, just having sex with whoever you want or whatevs"-type videos; or any Buzzfeed videos that even mention Christianity, for that matter.)

Explanations of certain points of theology (Sacramental theology, soteriology, eschatology, etc.)

Answering your questions!!!

I've done a horrible job of that this year; my apologies. I was supposed to do a few articles, one specifically on the belief of Annihilation (as opposed to eternal conscious torment). I plan on making a series of that one, as it will take a while to explain and a few angles from which to do. Anyways, that's what I'm planning on for the coming year.

Thanks for helping make my 2015 memorable!

Thanks for reading all of the way through; I hope you like my blog! If so, I'd love for you to check out my Patreon page and support me as I go through seminary. Oh? You don't know I'm in seminary? Well, I am! Yeah, if you wish you can check out my article on that, here. Be sure to check out my Facebook page, too! 

Oh! And I also run a podcast with my atheist friend, Xrys! It's called The Religious Nut and Hellbound Sinner Podcast, and we have a fun time discussing all sorts of topics: religion, politics, science, philosophy, movies, etc. Check out our Facebook page on that, as well! 

Why Christianity is Better than Islam

There are a great many reasons Christianity is better than Islam; a great many, indeed. From Jesus being a MUCH better example than Mohammed, to the Sacramental theology, to being more historically accurate, to being allowed to have beer-battered bacon, Christianity is simply better.

Do you know what I like best about Christianity right now? Verses like these:

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."--Leviticus 19:33-34

Or Jesus' words about those in need:

"“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”--Matthew 25:41-46

Compare that to what the Qu'ran says: 

"And an announcement from God and his messenger, to the people (assembled) on the day of the great pilgrimage--that God and his messenger dissolve (treaty) obligations with the pagans. If, then, you repent, it were best for you (pagans); but if you turn away, you (should) know that you cannot frustrate God. And proclaim a grievous penalty to those who reject faith.

(But the treaties are) not dissolved with those pagans with whom you have entered into alliance and who have not subsequently failed you in anything, nor aided any one against you. So fulfill your engagements with them to the end of their term: for God loves the righteous. 

But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for God is oft-forgiving, most merciful.

If one amongst the pagans ask you for asylum, grant it to him, so that he may hear the word of God; and then escort him to where he can be secure. This is because they are men without knowledge."--Surah 9:3-6

Also, verses 7-8 basically say you can't trust "pagans," and that "their hearts are averse from you; most of them are rebellious and wicked." 

I mean, well, at least if you are willing to convert you can be granted asylum.

Anyways, I'm so glad I live in a country where Christians sound more like they are following the passages in the Bible than they are following passages in the Qur'an.

Because I'll bet that if a bunch of Muslim refugees were fleeing the Middle East, we as Christians would welcome them the way the Levitical Law and Jesus told us to.

Right?

Of course, it would be reasonable to intern them, with food and shelter, simply to make sure that there are no criminals and terrorists and Bernie Sanders-supporters amongst the refugees. But we'd bring them in, because that's what the Old Testament and Jesus Himself commands. Doesn't mean we'd simply let them loose once they get here; that'd be cruel, anyway. 

But yes; I'm just glad that I live in a country that loves Jesus so much that we don't outright reject 10,000 refugees (to pick a random number) without a second thought.

Because if we did, I'd be concerned that we were becoming more like that second religion, not that first one.

I'd be concerned that our view is we only help others of our own Faith...like the Qur'an commands, not like Jesus commands.

Praise God that's not a problem now for us in the U.S. Praise God we'd take refugees of war in, keep an eye on them, but also care for them, and show them the Love of Christ. 

Thanks for reading all of the way through; I hope you like my blog! If so, I'd love for you to check out my Patreon page and support me as I go through seminary. Oh? You don't know I'm in seminary? Well, I am! Yeah, if you wish you can check out my article on that, here. Be sure to check out my Facebook page, too! 

Oh! And I also run a podcast with my atheist friend, Xrys! It's called The Religious Nut and Hellbound Sinner Podcast, and we have a fun time discussing all sorts of topics: religion, politics, science, philosophy, movies, etc. Check out our Facebook page on that, as well! 

Response to Baldie the Limey's Open Letter to Me: on the Eucharist

Baldie the Limey is a friend I have acquainted myself with over social media. He is Roman Catholic, and is looking at becoming a priest. I am Anglican, and also looking at becoming a priest. He recently published an open letter to me on his blog, asking me about my position concerning the Eucharist.

He's also into anime, which is totes legit. I don't think I've asked him yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's a fan of Blue Exorcist.

HE NEEDS TO SEE SUCH AMAZING ANIME AS THIS.

Now, on to the response...

Just to be clear, I am NOT a Sacramentarian. I do not believe that Christ is only "spiritually" (in the modern sense where "spiritual" means "non-physical") present in the Eucharist.

The bread and wine used in Communion, at the moment of Consecration, become the Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

It is really, truly the Body and Blood of Jesus.

It is not a mere memorial.

It is not merely a symbol of the Body and Blood.

I am a cannibal because at Mass I am truly eating the Flesh of my Saviour, Jesus Christ.

I say that because it seemed almost as if you thought I held a Sacramentarian view, although you never do actually claim that of me.

Now that that is cleared up, let us move on to my problems with Rome concerning the subject:

Unfortunately, as much as I love the Council of Trent, it did anathematize almost every position outside of Transubstantiation, including the closest one to my own:

"If any one saith, that, in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denieth that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood-the species Only of the bread and wine remaining-which conversion indeed the Catholic Church most aptly calls Transubstantiation; let him be anathema."
--Council of Trent Session XIII, Canon 2

Now, this one is often called "Consubstantiation", Do I hold to Consubstantiation? No, because I don't commit myself to Aristotelian metaphysics. However, I do hold to the fact that the Consecrated bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ every bit as much as they are the bread and wine. Think of the Hypostatic Union: 100% God and 100% man. 100% bread/wine and 100% Body/Blood.

I wonder: am I anathematized for not holding to Aristotelian metaphysics, according to Trent?

Am I anathematized for not holding to Transubstantiation, according to Trent?

Now, as I understand it, according to Aristotelian metaphysics, the accidents of an object are not the object itself; only the substance of an object is (please correct me if I am wrong, Baldie). If the Consecrated Bread and Wine are only in accidents still such, how does this not commit the heresy of Monophysitism?

If I held to Aristotelian metaphysics, I would likely be a proponent of Consubstantiation. Not being committed to it, I am an advocate of merely Real Presence. It is truly both Body and Blood and bread and wine. One of my favorite Anglicans, both a priest and a poet, once said:

"He was the Word that spake it:
He took the bread and break it;
And what that Word did make it,
I do believe and take it."
--John Donne

Another problem I have is that Trent is not an Ecumenical Council. How could it be, when the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, as well as the Anglican Communion, did not weigh in on the matter? At the very most, we've only had seven Ecumenical Councils (all Ecumenical Councils pre-1054 Schism), but more realistically, we do need to understand that the Schism with the Oriental Orthodox needs to be reconciled as well. But let's just focus on the Great Schism for now at least.

Can an Ecumenical Council be had without the whole Church?

Does Rome decide if a Church Council is ecumenical?

Is Rome the decider of who is in and not in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church?

If Rome considers these branches to be without valid Apostolic Succession, why? Hopefully, Rome does not commit the Donatist heresy in its reasoning.

Either way, I think we can both agree with this quote from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard Hooker, on the subject of the Eucharist:

"This bread hath in it more than the substance which our eyes behold, this cup hallowed with solemn benediction availeth to the endless life and welfare both of soul and body; in that it serveth as well for a medicine to heal our infirmities and purge our sins, as for a sacrifice of thanksgiving; with touching it sanctifieth, it enlighteneth with belief, it truly conformeth us into the image of Jesus Christ. What these elements are in themselves it skilleth not; it is enough, that to me which take them they are the Body and Blood of Christ; His promise in witness hereof sufficeth; His Word He knoweth which way to accomplish; why should any cogitation possess the mind of a faithful communicant but this, 'O my God, Thou art true; O my soul, thou art happy!'".

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