and then came Boris

“It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history….
[It is] the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism
on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom
and muzzle the self-expression of the people.”
1982 (in a speech to Britain’s Parliament)

I know that you know that it appears as if I’m always comparing life here in the
US to life in the UK…
And there is a reason for that…and no it’s not simply the fact that I appear to an Anglophile…
I’ve not been to England in over 25 years, so rest assured, there’s no obsession there…
not exactly.

Despite the fact that my DNA doesn’t lie and I just happen to be more ‘British’
then the Queen…my constant comparison’s reach much further than mere DNA.

I think it’s because A. I love our Nation’s history of conception.
From our founding to even much further back…all the way back to the inception of
the Anglo Saxon people.

And B. I feel very strongly about our two nations being kindred spirits…
still joined at the hip despite that whole tea party incident and revolution.

Maybe its because I see us both as mirrored bastions of democracy…
of which probably comes from what I know about our relationship during World War II,
A working tandem of the two chief chess-masters of FDR and Churchill—
all the way to the dismantling of an iron curtain with the power duo of
Reagan and Thatcher.

And so when I read the latest post from our other favorite across the pond cleric,
the Scottish pastor David Roberston, I couldn’t help but see a near-identical situation.

If you’ve kept up with any recent snippet of world news as of late,
then you obviously know that British Prime Minister Teresa May is out and
Boris Johnson is now in.

Brexit is the UK elephant in the room.

It has caused angst and upheaval across the nation,
leaving both friends and family members standing on opposite sides of the fence.
Much like our own support or hatred for our own President.
Throw in immigration and we are eaten up with angst.

And yes, Boris Johnson appears to be the UK’s version of our President Donald Trump.
There even seems to be a bit of a look a like comparison but I think its the hair.

Each man is a little flamboyant, unapologetic and not the most chaste of individuals.
Boris is hated by many and obviously wanted by many more.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

And as many of us here were left wondering, or fretting, over Trump’s election,
wondering if he was to be the man for the job at hand…the man God allowed to fill the bill,
many of our British kith and kin are left wondering the same about Boris Johnson.

Boris Johnson is no Winston Churchill and Teresa May was no Margaret Thatcher.
And of course, Trump is no Ronald Reagan.
But Johnson is the man, just as Trump is the man, who God has allowed to fill a void.
For reasons that currently elude our understanding.

US Christians have wrestled with their feelings for Trump now for over two years…
just as UK Christian are now left to wrestle with their own feelings regarding Johnson–
throw in Brexit and they are most likely mentally and emotionally exhausted.

We can certainly emphasize.

David lays out his thoughts about how a Christian is to go about their life
under Boris Johnson in a nice succinct plan.
Something I think Christians here in the US could utilize when considering life
with our own President.

I personally believe Trump is the man in place for a reason.
As perhaps Johnson is for the UK.

I also support our President because I have respect for the office.
Most of our progressive liberals have long forgotten the notion of respect.

And so David offers a post regarding a UK Christian’s response to their
new Prime Minister with the notion of respect being one of the key factors…

I think it would behoove us here in the US to consider the same outline when considering
our feeling for own President…and perhaps we should begin with respect…

Respect – He is God’s servant sent to do us good.
We are to respect and to submit to those in authority over us.
Not because of their character or their godliness – but because of their office.
At the end of the day Boris has a tremendous responsibility for which he will one day
have to give account to God.
Ultimately he is God’s servant – not the peoples.
We must respect him as such.
Respect does not mean that we agree with him, or that we like him,
or that we will do all that he says – especially when he goes against the law of God.
But it does mean that we honour him and seek to help.

Here is the link for the full post and list:

Boris – What should the Christian Response Be?

And remember, David has retired from St Peter’s in Dundee and is now going to our
favorite down under cleric 😉

forgotten

“God knows us better than we know ourselves, and he knows that if we would forget to worship,
little by little, we would forget who he is,
and if we forget who God is we will forget who we are.”
Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi

(Andrew Jackson’s old spring house on the back of his property at The Hermitage /
Nasville, TN/ Julie Cook/ 2018)

What a revelation Archbishop Rodi has offered us this morning.
And I for one now find myself nodding my head in total agreement.

For it seems that the crux of the matter is that we have fallen out of step with our worship
and in doing so we have forgotten who we, the very creation of God, actually are.
And in that, we have forgotten who we are in general…
that being created in God’s image.
Fallen yet so loved…so much so that an only son was given as a substitution for the
death sentence that was ours and ours alone.

Archbishop Rodi’s words offer an ah-ha moment of our times.

And yet you protest.

You protest because you are either a non-believer and find all of this babbling
irrelevant to you and your life or you protest because you claim
to be in step and not to have a forgotten…a single thing.

And this is where I beg to disagree…disagreeing that we humans are very quick to forget.
We forget that we each need to carefully reconsider the focus of our relationship as the created
to Creator…as the child to the Father.

Yet there will be those who vehemently exclaim that they do go to church and that they do worship
and that they do pray…

Yet I fear, for many of us, we are merely walking a fine line.

We are balancing one foot in the world while trying to point the other toward Heaven.

For you see the world is a very demanding taskmaster.
It vies for you and all of you.
All of your focus.
All of your attention.
All of your energy.
Because it is very good at vying for everything we have to offer while demanding even more.
Never being satisfied in its voracious appetite.

And I say all of this because I know it all to be very true.

My life has been so utterly hectic these past couple of months that I’ve not been able
to afford the proper amount of time for much of anything let alone pouring over the offerings
from both our friend The Wee Flea, Scottish Pastor David Roberston as well that of our favorite
rouge Anglican Bishop, Gavin Ashenden.
And in turn, I feel as if something is certainly missing from my spiritual plate.

That’s what life does to us…
it clears everything off of our Spiritual plates replacing our much-needed sustenance with a mound
of fluff and nothingness.

Bishop Ashenden recently returned from the GAFCON conference in Jerusalem.

GAFCON is a conference intended for those professing to be “authentic Anglicans…
“The GAFCON movement is a global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to
retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion.
Our mission is to guard the unchanging,
transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ and to proclaim Him to the world.
We are founded on the Bible, bound together by the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration of 2008,
and led by a Primates Council, which represents the majority of the world’s Anglicans.

David Roberston has returned after a three month long sabbatical in Australia where he was
very busy preaching, sharing and writing about God’s word.

In a recent article on his blog, David answered some questions and concerns regarding his sudden
departure with the Christian publican Chrisitan Today.
David answered those questions with a no he wasn’t fired and no he didn’t simply opt to quit…
He states that there are currently financial issues going on with the publication of which
he has ideas over as to why they are happening but that there were no secret or sinister reasons
or motives behind his being asked to no longer write his biweekly articles for the publication.

Yet David does recognize that our collective 21st-century Chrisitan media is walking a very
fine line…going so far as to wondering aloud whether or not Chrisitan Media isn’t actually
acting more like a Trojan horse…wondering if they have actually forgotten the Omnipotent God
of Creation and in turn forgotten themselves…

“I don’t believe that the Lord will prosper Christian organisations which
end up promoting anti-Christian teaching.
There is a warning in there for all of us.
The choice is not between being legalistic or liberal.
Christian media should not be the Trojan horse for heresy.
There is a better third way – the way of Christ.”

Is Christian Media a Trojan Horse for Heresy?

Only when we know Christ, when we accompany him on his paths,
when we have learned to recognize his voice, when he speaks to our life,
when we have encountered the risen Lord,
do we live out the mission to make the Resurrection present in this world.
Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
from Teaching and Learning the Love of God:
Being a Priest Today