I’ve just read Nikki Gemmell’s latest contribution to The Weekend Australian, “Why the Anglican church must evolve or die”. At first, I assumed this must be satire, for the essence of her argument is that for Churches to succeed they need to become more like majority culture!
“the majority of Australians do support same-sex marriage. It feels like the archbishop is damaging his church and Jesus’s teachings of tolerance, gentleness and inclusivity. “
“The church has been on the wrong side of public opinion recently on abortion as well as same-sex marriage. It’s slowly killing itself by refusing to open its heart to others.”
Without question, Gemmell’s call to the Anglican Church sounds almost identical to what Jesus says, in a dysutopian Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy kind of way.
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18)
“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:19)
“When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8)
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36)
It’s almost as though Jesus is saying the precise opposite of Nikki Gemmell. Jesus doesn’t think the world is always the best measure for what is good and true. Indeed, it’s pretty obvious that Jesus is telling us that the world’s understanding of life is frequently at odds with God.
The wonderful paradox that is Christianity is that while the world’s beliefs oppose those of God in his word, and while God stands in judgment over a world that subverts his creational purposes, God still loves. “For God so loved the world”. This love is not a sign of moral alignment with our culture, far from it.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil”. (John 3:16-19)
To be like Jesus isn’t to support same-sex marriage, abortion, and a myriad of other popular moral messaging, but it does involve loving those who are different and to desire their good despite vehement disagreement.
Gemmell’s offering is such a silly argument. Only the majority are ever naive enough to believe that majority equals right. Majority opinion or minority opinion doesn’t establish a position as right or wrong, just popular or unpopular. In addition, being in opposition to majority opinion doesn’t make one’s own position any more correct. It could be the case that both groups are advocating stupid ideas. What makes Christian belief, well, Christian, is that it conforms to the Christian Bible, as rightly understood through the lens of Jesus Christ. In the case of Glenn Davies’ recent comments to Anglican Bishops, they may be uncomfortable and even sound intolerant, but Jesus and the Apostles also used pretty strong language toward leaders who attempted to subvert his Church with erring ideas. That’s the point, the Sydney Anglican Archbishop was calling out fellow bishops who have abandoned Christian doctrine in favour of popular culture.
Not only does Gemmell equate Church success with supporting what the majority of Australians believe, but she also makes another blunder by lumping everything she doesn’t like about Churches under the same umbrella of ‘bigotry’. This is poor theology and it is misleading sociology. For example, the Sydney Anglican Diocese believes strongly in mandatory reporting, whereas the Catholic Church does not support it. However, the former is an expression of Christian concern that arises from biblical principles, the latter is the result of longstanding tradition but not Biblical principles. Apples and Pineapples may share the same name but they are hardly the same fruit. As an Anglican, Gemmell should know better.
To be sure, Christians sometimes espouse Christianity with a distasteful tone. That is disappointing and dishonours the good news that is our message.
Nikki, Gemmell is correct about one point, and that is when she notes how Australians are confused about Churches and Christianity.
“The public image: a riven and confused church that doesn’t quite know what it stands for but is pushing people away in the process. Not only members of the congregation but non-churchgoing parents with children in Anglican schools.”
Yes, there is confusion. The average Aussie is confused because there are Churches leaders taking her advice and diluting the Christian message with the dominant moral posturing of Aussies. They are confused because there are ‘Christians’ redefining Jesus into their own image in order to support all manner of popular sexual revisionism. The answer, however, isn’t for Churches to give up Biblical Christianity and to adopt more of society’s moral inclinations. We need our Churches to be more biblical, not less. We need our Churches to be more like the Lord Jesus, not less. For what have we offer Australian society if all we are doing is preaching the society’s values back to itself? Could it not be the case, that Christian Churches are convinced that God’s design for human life is better and more satisfying than some of the alternatives that have currently captured the imagination of pop culture?
To quote one famous Anglican Bishop, who facing the unpopularity of 16th Century England, stood firm and found himself in a public firestorm, “Be of good comfort, and play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”
The major problem with Gemmell’s presentation is that she equates Christian gentleness and tolerance with agreement of current cultural norms. For Gemmell, to be the Church of Jesus Christ is to say yes to what the majority of Australian want in regard to sexuality and abortion. What a puerile thing to say.
Does she not realise from history that Churches who align with the values of majority culture are those most likely to witness decline? While Churches who believe, teach, and practice good old fashioned Christianity are more likely to experience growth. It is a demonstrable fact of history that people have been persuaded by the truth and goodness of Jesus Christ because Churches have stood out as distinct from the surrounding culture.
I’m still not convinced that Nikki Gemmell’s piece isn’t satire. If it is, I’m just slow to see the humour, then I apologise for my sluggishness; it is Saturday morning after all.
MurrayCampbell.net 
Isn’t the point you and Ms Gemmell agree on the most important issue?
Forget the debate about who’s right and who’s wrong for one moment. If the infighting is causing believers to leave and is a barrier to new converts, it doesn’t matter who wins. The victors, if one side or the other ever does prevail, will be left to preside over a much diminished church.
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“Isn’t the point you and Ms Gemmell agree on the most important issue?”
No.
The most important point of the article is:
“We need our Churches to be more biblical, not less. We need our Churches to be more like the Lord Jesus, not less.”
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So if you’re a member of a church in which some adherents and leaders are, in your opinion, willfully unbiblical, and the powers that be show no inclination to bring them back to biblical principles; what are you to do?
Stay within a church tolerating heresy or leave and establish a better, more biblical church?
For some reason the latter option is unthinkable for Sydney Anglicans and their like-minded brethren. I’m just not sure why?
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I agree with this:
“We need our Churches to be more biblical, not less. We need our Churches to be more like the Lord Jesus, not less.”
But doesn’t this also mean that we should not focus on numbers in the church but rather on the message? It seems to me that too often articles like the one above assume/conclude that only growing churches are good churches.
I would rather conclude that a more biblical church, is a church that is willing to accept steady or even lower numbers for a while. Church should not become a numbers game, it is about the faithful preaching of the word and Jesus taught us about a narrow gate, didn’t He?
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It is by faith in the Word.Religion is man made for humans….robes, ceremony, rules, popularism, regulations etc. Jesus was very scathing of such practices. The Gospels are very clear, read them and choose, Christ or popularity……Simples!
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Could you make the text of her article available? I can’t read it on the Australian website.
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What is the Anglican Church becoming? What does it want to be to the people of Australia? I ask this as a woman who’s invested in Anglicanism but is heartbroken at the way this religion is being riven internally; indeed, it feels vandalised. And by some of its most esteemed church leaders, no less.
The Anglican Church must evolve or die. And right now it feels like it’s being hijacked by bigotry and intolerance in a travesty of Jesus’s teachings. The Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, has a definition of Anglicanism that is not mine and I am willing to speak out about it. Once, women wouldn’t. Once we weren’t meant to have opinions, we were reduced and silenced within the church; in some quarters still are. We were meant to leave it to those men who knew best, who always know best. They sometimes do not.
“Please leave us,” Davies recently proclaimed of those who support same-sex marriage. “We have far too much work to do in evangelising Australia to be distracted by the constant pressure to change our doctrine in order to satisfy the lusts and pleasures of the world.” The harsh words felt like a back turned to the fair-minded, thinking members of the Anglican flock. He has since clarified that he was speaking directly to the bishops and those who want to change the doctrine of his church – but the damage had swiftly been done. Anglican leaders who opposed his views spoke out passionately in response. The public image: a riven and confused church that doesn’t quite know what it stands for but is pushing people away in the process. Not only members of the congregation but non-churchgoing parents with children in Anglican schools.
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And of course, the majority of Australians do support same-sex marriage. It feels like the archbishop is damaging his church and Jesus’s teachings of tolerance, gentleness and inclusivity. Yes, I’m angry. Because I’ve seen the best of the church over many years – the selfless, compassionate, gentle best – which feels tragically removed from this intolerance. Does he want his church to become a haven for the fearful and angry; for the haters and the bigots? The Bible as we know it is open to interpretation – pick and choose at your will. All strands of faith do it, but some select hard lines of dogma and this feels fatal now in our rapidly changing world. Defensive, closed, on the back foot.
And all this comes hard on the heels of Melbourne’s Catholic Archbishop, Peter Comensoli, declaring he’d rather go to jail than report admissions of child sexual abuse made in the confessional. Where is this man’s sense of humanity, of empathy – towards children, no less? And right off the back of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Has the man learnt nothing? What flinched souls both church leaders are demonstrating.
The church has been on the wrong side of public opinion recently on abortion as well as same-sex marriage. It’s slowly killing itself by refusing to open its heart to others. “They [same-sex supporters] should start a new church or join a church more aligned to their views – but do not ruin the Anglican Church,” Archbishop Davies said. No, Your Grace, I’m not ruining the Anglican Church by my views; and no, Father Comensoli, I’m not helping to ruin the Catholic Church by questioning your recent declaration. You’re both ruining your own churches. And what would Jesus have to say about that?
Men like these two shining examples of empathetic church leadership are driving thinking, fair-minded women and men away. It’s a tragedy of their own making. My anger over what church leaders are doing to the faith in Australia will not disappear. And neither, I suspect, will those dwindling congregations. Your Graces and Eminences, why would this be so? Can you hazard a guess?
Nikki Gemmell
Columnist
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If this issue is being conflated into the debate on the future of Anglicanism in Australia, I feel Anglicans should make it abundantly clear they do not support the Catholic position on mandatory reporting in any way, shape, or form.
On this issue, the Catholic Church has gone rogue. Murray Campbell, speaking for most Christians, said he found its position “reprehensible“.
I mean, I know the Anglican Church is uncompromising in discharging its mandatory reporting obligations, but I’m not sure all or even most members of the general public do.
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