VirtueOnline - News:
Author of best-selling pamphlet "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You" withdraws Name from Publication
Original pamphlet no longer reflects real situation in the Episcopal Church, says Scott Tonk Publisher refuses to disclose actual sales, angers author
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
July 4, 2013
The author of the popular best-selling pamphlet The Episcopal Church Welcomes Youwhich started out as a parish evangelism tool for a parish in the Diocese of Western Michigan in 1976, was later translated into Spanish, and was a flagship product, says that the publisher Forward Movement (FMP) could no longer publish it under his name because The Episcopal Church has moved away from the faith once delivered for all to the saints. The pamphlet which has gone through 31 printings over 37 years and sold well over 400,000 copies was a runaway bestseller for the FMP.
The Rev. Athanasios [Hampton] Scott Tonk (aka H. Scott Tonk) told VOL in a series of e-mails that he had authorized Fr. Scott Gunn, President of FMP, to allow a revised version for Forward Movement (but without his name) since the pamphlet no longer reflects the actual situation in the Episcopal Church.
"Our church canons (rules) currently ensure that our church and all its ministries are open to all persons without regard to race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disabilities or age.
"This is probably the most sweeping and candid statement in the whole pamphlet. What it fails to say is 'and of every theological stripe.'"
Tonk blasted The Episcopal bishops saying that over the last few decades they have been busy chasing all the orthodox Anglicans out of the Episcopal Church, including charismatic Anglicans, evangelical Anglicans, Anglo-Catholic Anglicans and traditional Anglicans of every sort. The Episcopal Church, in short, is no longer tolerant. It has become intolerant, and it has even abrogated certain important aspects of due process of law in its new Title IV, the disciplinary title of the Canons.
"That, among other reasons, is why the last General Convention was able to approve officially of same-sex marriages. Had there been any conservative, traditional, evangelical, charismatic or Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians left in either the House of Bishops or the House of Deputies it would have been voted down on theological, dogmatic, Scriptural and Traditional grounds - not to mention pastoral grounds.
"All these factors make me appreciate more fully the meaning of John 8:31-32, 'So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in my Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.'" (ESV)
He cited three inaccuracies:
* By authorizing the ordination of women, the Episcopal Church diverged from the Catholic and traditional understanding of the Sacrament of Holy Order by attempting to change that Sacrament.
* At the 2012 General Convention the Episcopal Church authorized (whether on a trial basis or not, it does not matter) a redefinition of marriage allowing same-sex marriage, which is an attempt to alter the Sacrament contrary to Catholic Tradition and the Holy Scriptures.
* The statement that the Episcopal Church "re-committed to a catholic (universal) understanding of the faith, offering the traditional (sic) sacraments of the church using centuries-old prayers" is neither true in the Ordination rites nor in the (experimental?) rites for same-sex marriages.
The Episcopal Church can no longer claim to be "offering the traditional sacraments of the church..." Instead, it has substituted non-Catholic rites using un-traditional prayers that tickle the Episcopal Church's fancy as it gives evidence of having jettisoned the Tradition and the Scriptures in favor of capitulation to radical feminism, homosexualism, political correctness and theological relativism instead of the true Faith, which is not man-originated but which rests in the Revelation of God Himself - that is to say, is God-originated, he also noted.
"The Episcopal Church has embraced new gods. None of these new gods can save anyone. Only the true God can do that, because only He is the Savior."
Tonk excoriated the publisher Fr. Scott Gunn for not telling him the truth about the total sales of the pamphlet and said because of his duplicity, he should resign. He described the silence of Gunn as "petty" and "disrespectful to your best-selling author."
Tonk has since fled to the Roman Catholic Church.
END
'via Blog this'
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GJ - This story could be about ELCA, WELS, LCMS, and the ELS, with a few changes.
The Lutherans have jettisoned the Bible, Luther, and the Book of Concord. Emulating the modernist educators, they have dumbed down catechetical instruction to the point where children can graduate from a parochial high school and answer "Manual for a passenger plane" when asked, "What is the Book of Concord?"
Dumb sheep can be fleeced and led off the cliff, as they are today.
