African Anglican Bishop Learns Bitter Lesson in Hands of Western Gay Imperialists
Western Anglican infiltration of gay agenda into Africa heats up
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
August 17, 2013
The Bishop of Southern Malawi and chair of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga learned a bitter lesson this week: If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.
The African bishop got a wake-up call that if you oppose the whole pansexual agenda of western pan-Anglicanism and then try to soften your stance even the smallest bit in order to get a job, you're history.
Thus it was that Dartmouth College in New Hampshire called Tengatenga to be Dean of The Tucker Foundation that pays for the college, but suddenly his name was withdrawn by the new Dartmouth College President Dr. Philip Hanlon. "The withdrawal of Bishop Tengatenga's appointment came on the heels of mounting controversy surrounding his past and current views on matters of human sexuality," said a PR blurb.
Apparently, Tengatenga wasn't inclusive enough on gay sex, gay marriage and gay bishops and has been critical of The Episcopal Church's consecration of Gene Robinson. Two years ago, he pushed for the excommunication of any bishops who vocally support same-sex marriage, and angrily claimed betrayal at the ordination of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire back in 2003. He cited Lambeth 1:10, GAFCON I (Jerusalem Declaration) and the Global South's negativity towards homosexual behavior.
He claimed that it was his duty to hold the Church together even as a split over same-sex marriages has became more and more problematic within the Church.
So far, so good.
When he was picked for the job to be president of the Dartmouth Foundation, he was immediately criticized by students for his anti gay attitudes and positions.
Tengatenga immediately started to back peddle.
He fired off a statement saying that "The dignity of all should be honored and respected. As is the case with many people, my ideas about homosexuality have evolved over time."
He had not evolved enough apparently as he was quickly terminated by the president of the College.
One would have thought that would have been an end to it. Not so. Who should come to his defense but none other than Michael Ingham, outgoing Bishop of New Westminster, the most liberal Anglican bishop in Canada who single-handedly started the war in the Anglican Communion over his consent to rites for same-sex blessings in 2002. The war has only gotten hotter over time.
He wrote in a letter to Hanlon, "I believe [the decision to terminate Tengatenga] is quite wrong. I have known him for several years. He is an African first, proud of his roots and culture, but also widely travelled, scholarly, wise, and sophisticated in his grasp of the complex realities of justice. He has a far greater understanding of how to bridge cultural differences towards the goal of reconciliation than most of us in North America."
Ingham praised Tengatenga and said he recently came to Vancouver as the keynote speaker at their annual (Anglican) convention. "I am not sure what you know of church matters, particularly here in Canada, but both I and our Diocese in this city have been at the forefront globally of the struggle for justice and dignity for the LGBT community. We have endured and fought against intolerance and homophobia in the Christian Church for almost thirty years.
"Tengatenga came here to build bridges between Africa and Canada on the contentious matter of homosexuality. He received three standing ovations. Mr. President, I can assure you no one with homophobic opinions would have received such a welcome here. His wisdom, humour, intelligence, and grace far transcends the narrow confines of a single issue."
With friends like Ingham, you don't need enemies. Apparently that didn't do the trick and Tengatenga is history. The basic lesson to learn from Tengatenga's troubles is that there is no middle ground. None.
Other African Anglican leaders are also trying to keep a foot in both camps. Archbishop Albert Chama of Central Africa (an archbishop who won't be attending GAFCON II, VOL was told) is the new chairman of the Anglican Alliance an advocacy group of Development, Relief & Advocacy across the Communion heavily funded by the Episcopal Church.
"I will draw from the life and witness of the Church in Central Africa in my new role as Chair of the Anglican Alliance board of trustees, Anglicans from all parts of the Communion, with expertise in development relief and advocacy."
Two of the board members include Anthony Radtke President of the Episcopal Relief and Development Agency and Kenneth Kearon Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council, the ultra liberal arm of the Anglican Communion.
The Anglican Alliance board will be developing its new program for action during the coming months for consultation and agreement early next year, said Chama. There is no hint that this is gospel driven, just an R&D arm of the communion that focuses solely on physical amelioration but offers nothing by way of spiritual sustenance. Chama likes to say that gay sex is okay in Western culture, but it is not okay in African culture. He is dead wrong. He, like Tengatenga and others, fails to read the absolutism of gay imperialism. Read the bellicose push of "inclusion" and "diversity" and the nazification language of revisionist sodomites who, if they hear just the slightest hint of antagonism towards their behavior, yell and scream homophobia and hate at orthodox Christians. (The destruction of churches in Egypt by Muslim Brotherhood extremists is nothing compared to the spiritual destruction of the church militant by activist homosexuals). The seduction through liberal pro-gay conferences (Cape Town and more recently Limuru, Kenya) drawing in Africans with large dollops of money is more proof that TEC is doing its utmost to twist the African Church into a sexual pretzel.
An astute observer noted that "it begins to look like this province (Central Africa) is a recruiting ground for 'useful' Africans." If so, it would mean that the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, which rolled over years ago to TEC's thinking on sexuality, and gets paid handsomely for it, now has a fellow province in Central Africa. Are Central Tanganyika and Tanzania far behind?
Witness Uganda archbishop Robert Ntagali's slam at The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada http://tinyurl.com/k45ubmc recently. He said gay clergymen don't belong in the Anglican Communion. The idea of having gay bishops is an "unbiblical decision" and a "spiritual cancer" in the Anglican Communion.
The whole idea of the Anglican Alliance is part of Lambeth's "soft power" strategy. Infiltrate, charm, pour tons of western money from liberal provinces into it and then turn the communion away from gospel proclamation to focus on social justice issues dealing with this life and not on the next.
The new Director for Mission at the Anglican Communion Office is the Rev. John Kafwanka, another African who is being seduced into believing that liberals will really go along with evangelism and church growth initiatives in the Anglican Communion.
To underscore the ACC's commitment to this aspect of work, the Rev. Robert Sihubwa, an experienced and passionate leader in ministry among children and young people, was appointed to join the Core Group to bring in relevant experience and strategic thinking.
Let me spell this out. African Anglican provinces like Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda don't need lectures or lessons from an organization like the ACO and their African patsies; they know perfectly well how to make their provinces grow. Dynamic evangelistic outreach is going on all the time with millions coming to Christ each year. Nothing the ACO office in London is selling can remotely interest them in buying. In fact, the ACO should be going to those provinces to learn how to do it.
Western Anglicanism has no ability whatever to attract youth, children or Millenials because they have "another gospel" that is no gospel at all. Nearly all the Western Anglican provinces like TEC, ACoC, the CofE, Wales, Scotland, Europe, NZ etc. are dying with no hope of spiritual recovery. Katharine Jefferts Schori has made it abundantly clear that personal faith is unimportant, nay unnecessary, for unbelievers. So the question must be asked, what is the point of the Anglican Alliance except to take in millions of dollars that will be spent on "structures" with small amounts going to assist people. This is nothing more than a repeat of the WCC and NCC and The Episcopal Church's own Relief and Development Agency.
The fact that the whole event was given a boost by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, who on the first day unexpectedly called on them and shared his passion for evangelism and church growth, won't change anything. I recall an occasion when Archbishop George Carey tried to share ALPHA in Hong Kong at an ACO/Primates meeting and got shot down when an ACO lay member who stood up and shouted "the Church has AIDS." Carey was effectively silenced.
TEC INFILTRATION INTO AFRICA
Angel Collie, a transgendered Yale Divinity School graduate and TEC member, spent this past summer working in Uganda rewriting exclusive theological narratives-globally and locally -- for what she calls "gender non-conforming folks" in this orthodox province.
She said most of those hours were spent working with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI) community in Kampala, Uganda.
In an e-mail to friends which VOL obtained, she raised up the murder of a gay activist named David Kato, which we now know had nothing to do with his being gay, but his refusal to pay his gay lover and got himself murdered for non payment of sexual favors.
She writes, "I felt bringing a pastoral care framework in an attempt to re-write exclusive theological narratives in Uganda would be effective because the country is overwhelmingly religious. In the most recent census, only 0.9% of as the population identified as non-religious while 82.6% identified as Christian. This 'on the ground' reality of religiosity has been a breeding ground for Western Evangelical missionaries' importation of homophobia and transphobia with few dissenting voices. As a Christian convicted in the belief that God loves and affirms the lives of queer and trans people, I felt called to bring that news here."
There you have it in a nutshell. She then went on to say that Uganda is a country where homophobia, not homosexuality, is the Western import. For this reason, I believe the first step towards change is a new theology. She said she worked for two organizations: Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG) and St. Paul's Reconciliation and Equality Center (SPREC).
"Uganda is a lesson in fighting for a movement that acknowledges we have more work to do. I'm thankful that YDS is a place where we can learn, explore, and are supported to take up the call to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God-locally and globally."
Not true. Ugandan Anglicans, mostly evangelicals, have said such BEHAVIOR is unacceptable and people with all kinds of sins are welcome in the church, but tolerating any kind of sexual behavior outside of marriage between a man and a woman is totally unacceptable. That is Scripture; that is history; and they will not change the received text of Holy Writ to suit a handful of pansexualists trying to twist millions of African Christians into accepting a very small group of people with same sex attractions.
The lesson in all of this is this. If African Anglicans compromise their faith for short term monetary gains from North America, they will ultimately lose. The seduction of Africa by Western pan Anglican money will continue, but one hopes that Africans will see through this and not bow before the Moloch god of money and mercifully maintain the faith in the face of a vicious, trenchant minority out to seduce them with behaviors that will destroy them just as fast as it is destroying the West.
FOLLOW-UP...NEW VOICES
The ultra-liberal Bishop Ian Douglas of the Diocese of Connecticut, who has known Tengatenga for years and serves with him on the Anglican Consultative Council, a worldwide representative elected body, said that Tengatenga played a crucial role in keeping the Anglican Communion from splitting apart in the last decade, following Robinson's election and controversies over other issues.
"It's an incredible lost opportunity - I would go so far as to say a travesty to justice with respect to James and a compromise of what academic institutions are supposed to stand for with respect to trying to seek a higher truth through academic freedom and genuine conversation," Douglas said.
The Rev. MacDonald Sembereka, a leading activist on LGBT issues in Malawi said: "This is sad and defeatist news from some of us who are on this side of the divide because Bishop James is an astute defender of rights for all. In our part of the world an advocate of rights of PLHIV [people living with HIV] cannot afford to just advance one side of the argument because evidence has it that we need to defend all vulnerabilities. HIV provides a huge platform or stepping stone for advocates of LGBTI in Africa that you cannot dismiss Bishop James on the premise being advanced by the President of Dartmouth and the nay sayers. Further, none of those who said a lot against the appointment ever consulted us on the ground so much so that we may end up fighting our own allies.
Western Anglican infiltration of gay agenda into Africa heats up
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
August 17, 2013
The Bishop of Southern Malawi and chair of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga learned a bitter lesson this week: If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.The African bishop got a wake-up call that if you oppose the whole pansexual agenda of western pan-Anglicanism and then try to soften your stance even the smallest bit in order to get a job, you're history.
Thus it was that Dartmouth College in New Hampshire called Tengatenga to be Dean of The Tucker Foundation that pays for the college, but suddenly his name was withdrawn by the new Dartmouth College President Dr. Philip Hanlon. "The withdrawal of Bishop Tengatenga's appointment came on the heels of mounting controversy surrounding his past and current views on matters of human sexuality," said a PR blurb.
Apparently, Tengatenga wasn't inclusive enough on gay sex, gay marriage and gay bishops and has been critical of The Episcopal Church's consecration of Gene Robinson. Two years ago, he pushed for the excommunication of any bishops who vocally support same-sex marriage, and angrily claimed betrayal at the ordination of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire back in 2003. He cited Lambeth 1:10, GAFCON I (Jerusalem Declaration) and the Global South's negativity towards homosexual behavior.
He claimed that it was his duty to hold the Church together even as a split over same-sex marriages has became more and more problematic within the Church.
So far, so good.
When he was picked for the job to be president of the Dartmouth Foundation, he was immediately criticized by students for his anti gay attitudes and positions.
Tengatenga immediately started to back peddle.
He fired off a statement saying that "The dignity of all should be honored and respected. As is the case with many people, my ideas about homosexuality have evolved over time."
He had not evolved enough apparently as he was quickly terminated by the president of the College.
He wrote in a letter to Hanlon, "I believe [the decision to terminate Tengatenga] is quite wrong. I have known him for several years. He is an African first, proud of his roots and culture, but also widely travelled, scholarly, wise, and sophisticated in his grasp of the complex realities of justice. He has a far greater understanding of how to bridge cultural differences towards the goal of reconciliation than most of us in North America."
Ingham praised Tengatenga and said he recently came to Vancouver as the keynote speaker at their annual (Anglican) convention. "I am not sure what you know of church matters, particularly here in Canada, but both I and our Diocese in this city have been at the forefront globally of the struggle for justice and dignity for the LGBT community. We have endured and fought against intolerance and homophobia in the Christian Church for almost thirty years.
"Tengatenga came here to build bridges between Africa and Canada on the contentious matter of homosexuality. He received three standing ovations. Mr. President, I can assure you no one with homophobic opinions would have received such a welcome here. His wisdom, humour, intelligence, and grace far transcends the narrow confines of a single issue."
With friends like Ingham, you don't need enemies. Apparently that didn't do the trick and Tengatenga is history. The basic lesson to learn from Tengatenga's troubles is that there is no middle ground. None.
Other African Anglican leaders are also trying to keep a foot in both camps. Archbishop Albert Chama of Central Africa (an archbishop who won't be attending GAFCON II, VOL was told) is the new chairman of the Anglican Alliance an advocacy group of Development, Relief & Advocacy across the Communion heavily funded by the Episcopal Church."I will draw from the life and witness of the Church in Central Africa in my new role as Chair of the Anglican Alliance board of trustees, Anglicans from all parts of the Communion, with expertise in development relief and advocacy."
Two of the board members include Anthony Radtke President of the Episcopal Relief and Development Agency and Kenneth Kearon Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council, the ultra liberal arm of the Anglican Communion.
The Anglican Alliance board will be developing its new program for action during the coming months for consultation and agreement early next year, said Chama. There is no hint that this is gospel driven, just an R&D arm of the communion that focuses solely on physical amelioration but offers nothing by way of spiritual sustenance. Chama likes to say that gay sex is okay in Western culture, but it is not okay in African culture. He is dead wrong. He, like Tengatenga and others, fails to read the absolutism of gay imperialism. Read the bellicose push of "inclusion" and "diversity" and the nazification language of revisionist sodomites who, if they hear just the slightest hint of antagonism towards their behavior, yell and scream homophobia and hate at orthodox Christians. (The destruction of churches in Egypt by Muslim Brotherhood extremists is nothing compared to the spiritual destruction of the church militant by activist homosexuals). The seduction through liberal pro-gay conferences (Cape Town and more recently Limuru, Kenya) drawing in Africans with large dollops of money is more proof that TEC is doing its utmost to twist the African Church into a sexual pretzel.
An astute observer noted that "it begins to look like this province (Central Africa) is a recruiting ground for 'useful' Africans." If so, it would mean that the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, which rolled over years ago to TEC's thinking on sexuality, and gets paid handsomely for it, now has a fellow province in Central Africa. Are Central Tanganyika and Tanzania far behind?
Witness Uganda archbishop Robert Ntagali's slam at The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada http://tinyurl.com/k45ubmc recently. He said gay clergymen don't belong in the Anglican Communion. The idea of having gay bishops is an "unbiblical decision" and a "spiritual cancer" in the Anglican Communion.
The whole idea of the Anglican Alliance is part of Lambeth's "soft power" strategy. Infiltrate, charm, pour tons of western money from liberal provinces into it and then turn the communion away from gospel proclamation to focus on social justice issues dealing with this life and not on the next.
The new Director for Mission at the Anglican Communion Office is the Rev. John Kafwanka, another African who is being seduced into believing that liberals will really go along with evangelism and church growth initiatives in the Anglican Communion.To underscore the ACC's commitment to this aspect of work, the Rev. Robert Sihubwa, an experienced and passionate leader in ministry among children and young people, was appointed to join the Core Group to bring in relevant experience and strategic thinking.
Let me spell this out. African Anglican provinces like Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda don't need lectures or lessons from an organization like the ACO and their African patsies; they know perfectly well how to make their provinces grow. Dynamic evangelistic outreach is going on all the time with millions coming to Christ each year. Nothing the ACO office in London is selling can remotely interest them in buying. In fact, the ACO should be going to those provinces to learn how to do it.
Western Anglicanism has no ability whatever to attract youth, children or Millenials because they have "another gospel" that is no gospel at all. Nearly all the Western Anglican provinces like TEC, ACoC, the CofE, Wales, Scotland, Europe, NZ etc. are dying with no hope of spiritual recovery. Katharine Jefferts Schori has made it abundantly clear that personal faith is unimportant, nay unnecessary, for unbelievers. So the question must be asked, what is the point of the Anglican Alliance except to take in millions of dollars that will be spent on "structures" with small amounts going to assist people. This is nothing more than a repeat of the WCC and NCC and The Episcopal Church's own Relief and Development Agency.
The fact that the whole event was given a boost by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, who on the first day unexpectedly called on them and shared his passion for evangelism and church growth, won't change anything. I recall an occasion when Archbishop George Carey tried to share ALPHA in Hong Kong at an ACO/Primates meeting and got shot down when an ACO lay member who stood up and shouted "the Church has AIDS." Carey was effectively silenced.
TEC INFILTRATION INTO AFRICA
Angel Collie, a transgendered Yale Divinity School graduate and TEC member, spent this past summer working in Uganda rewriting exclusive theological narratives-globally and locally -- for what she calls "gender non-conforming folks" in this orthodox province.She said most of those hours were spent working with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI) community in Kampala, Uganda.
In an e-mail to friends which VOL obtained, she raised up the murder of a gay activist named David Kato, which we now know had nothing to do with his being gay, but his refusal to pay his gay lover and got himself murdered for non payment of sexual favors.
She writes, "I felt bringing a pastoral care framework in an attempt to re-write exclusive theological narratives in Uganda would be effective because the country is overwhelmingly religious. In the most recent census, only 0.9% of as the population identified as non-religious while 82.6% identified as Christian. This 'on the ground' reality of religiosity has been a breeding ground for Western Evangelical missionaries' importation of homophobia and transphobia with few dissenting voices. As a Christian convicted in the belief that God loves and affirms the lives of queer and trans people, I felt called to bring that news here."
There you have it in a nutshell. She then went on to say that Uganda is a country where homophobia, not homosexuality, is the Western import. For this reason, I believe the first step towards change is a new theology. She said she worked for two organizations: Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG) and St. Paul's Reconciliation and Equality Center (SPREC).
"Uganda is a lesson in fighting for a movement that acknowledges we have more work to do. I'm thankful that YDS is a place where we can learn, explore, and are supported to take up the call to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God-locally and globally."
Not true. Ugandan Anglicans, mostly evangelicals, have said such BEHAVIOR is unacceptable and people with all kinds of sins are welcome in the church, but tolerating any kind of sexual behavior outside of marriage between a man and a woman is totally unacceptable. That is Scripture; that is history; and they will not change the received text of Holy Writ to suit a handful of pansexualists trying to twist millions of African Christians into accepting a very small group of people with same sex attractions.
The lesson in all of this is this. If African Anglicans compromise their faith for short term monetary gains from North America, they will ultimately lose. The seduction of Africa by Western pan Anglican money will continue, but one hopes that Africans will see through this and not bow before the Moloch god of money and mercifully maintain the faith in the face of a vicious, trenchant minority out to seduce them with behaviors that will destroy them just as fast as it is destroying the West.
FOLLOW-UP...NEW VOICES
The ultra-liberal Bishop Ian Douglas of the Diocese of Connecticut, who has known Tengatenga for years and serves with him on the Anglican Consultative Council, a worldwide representative elected body, said that Tengatenga played a crucial role in keeping the Anglican Communion from splitting apart in the last decade, following Robinson's election and controversies over other issues.
"It's an incredible lost opportunity - I would go so far as to say a travesty to justice with respect to James and a compromise of what academic institutions are supposed to stand for with respect to trying to seek a higher truth through academic freedom and genuine conversation," Douglas said.
The Rev. MacDonald Sembereka, a leading activist on LGBT issues in Malawi said: "This is sad and defeatist news from some of us who are on this side of the divide because Bishop James is an astute defender of rights for all. In our part of the world an advocate of rights of PLHIV [people living with HIV] cannot afford to just advance one side of the argument because evidence has it that we need to defend all vulnerabilities. HIV provides a huge platform or stepping stone for advocates of LGBTI in Africa that you cannot dismiss Bishop James on the premise being advanced by the President of Dartmouth and the nay sayers. Further, none of those who said a lot against the appointment ever consulted us on the ground so much so that we may end up fighting our own allies.
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