Posted on 05/15/2011 8:09:47 AM PDT by mkleesma
The United Church of Canada, which was formed 86 years ago with the grand vision to bring Protestants together “in one glorious national church,” is undergoing one of the most precipitous slides in modern religious history.
In the midst of a breathtaking erosion in its membership, the church is undertaking what some call a great experiment to redefine itself through an intense engagement with the surrounding secular world; whether it be through advocating for the environment, fighting for the rights of homosexuals to marry or taking on the cause of the Palestinians, the church has attempted to blur the boundaries between religion and the broader society.
Supporters believe this strategy will eventually right the ship because they are following the word of God to engage in the world. To others, though, the United Church is engaged in a self-destructive act, aiming to be so many things to so many people that it will morph into just another social advocacy group disconnected from 2,000 years of Christian tradition. Critics say there is a severe lack of orthodoxy, lax demands on belief and even too much latitude for ministers who can question the existence of God and the divinity of Christ.
Connie denBok, a United Church minister in Toronto, is among those who despair that the church has become so much of the world, so focused on popular issues, that it is evolving away from the core of Christianity.
“In the 1960s and ’70s we became embarrassed about Jesus. And so we distanced ourselves from Jesus, and the point is without Jesus there’s no point in having a church. iTunes has better music and the NDP has better policies; everything else we do now somebody else does way better. The only thing we can do is this Jesus thing,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at life.nationalpost.com ...
Religion without God is not successful?
What a surprise!
This is a trend in many mainline churches in the USA as well. The Prysbyterian Church USA just this week voted to endorse gay and lesbians being ordained into ministry.
The slide to sin continues.
Flash: This just in. The United Church of Canada buckled to its dyslexic members demands to change the name of the organization to The Untied Cruchh of Nacada.
The reason the church lives is because it doesn’t adapt itself to the world, but teaches the truth of God’s word.
It is precisely because of the sin of the world that God came to earth, and birthed the church. For the church to turn around and accept the very sin it is here to keep people away from is bizarre. A clear victory for the enemy of our souls.
Well thanks to the Catholic Church Christianity will carry on in the dark times ahead.
ANY church that supports sexual deviancy in their teachings and beliefs is not really a “church.” The term church denotes Christianity. There are many more than this one. These are simply atheistic leftists pretending to be Christian religious in order to erode real Christianity and it is working for many of the weak denominations and their adherents. Many will perish as a result. No church is immune from these attacks. All denominations are experiencing these attacks. Only the strong faithed will survive.
These loons don’t represent all the good non-Catholic Christians. The problem is that the loons take over these churches and get to keep the name. I wish there was a way that the conservative Christians would get to keep the name and the loons would have to call themselves something else.
And I agree with you about the Church.
Freegards
Read Matthew chapter 7
Seems pretty clear to me. Especially verse 23.
In the "visible" (temporal) church are both tares and wheat growing together.
The true Church is invisible. The gates of hell cannot "gain victory" over it.
“Our team is going to continue to play soccer, but we’re not really so interested in being confined by the requirement that we use a ball.”
Maybe they’ll change the name to “The United Unchurch of Canada and Ping Pong League.”
Like when the Catholics went hippie liberal.
Or, when the GOP moves away from the conservative base. Everytime the GOP goes to the center, they lose.
and to top it off, Canada is secularist and socialist hole, whose brave-new morality is written by the Leftist elites there. Any 'church' that cooperates or buys-into the present society in Canada is doomed and will be gone within a generation.
Funny that. Half of that statement is biblical. The other half is not.
Matthew 5:15
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
Do they at least believe in doG?
Really? Since when are the "Wheat" able to give light to the "Tares" in the visible church?
"But he said, `No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 'Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn" (Matt. 13:29-30; see also vv. 49-50).
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