Posted on 01/26/2004 8:03:20 PM PST by ahadams2
ACA PRIEST CHALLENGES COLORADO ECUSA BISHOP TO DEBATE
Feast of St. Hilary
To: The Rt. Rev. Robert O'Neill St. John's Cathedral Denver, Colorado
January 14, 2004
Your Grace:
Inasmuch as an Archbishop of an Anglican Province in Africa has publicly declared his belief that "the devil has entered into" the Episcopal Church, and given that as you say "we have more in common than what divides us," I should like to challenge you to a public debate, me on the Affirmative and yourself obtaining the Negative, on one of the following timeworthy propositions, of your own choice:
{1} "Resolved: That it is deducible from the writings of the fathers and that Spirit of discernment granted as a gift to all believers in Christ [I John] that the Episcopal Church is invaded by the demonic power."
{2} "Resolved: That given that 'we have more in common than whatever may divide us,' a consensus should be reached by faithful Anglicans as to whether or not recent actions of General Conventions supporting the election of certain and future Bishops contrary to what the Church and Scripture has ever deemed worthy criteria for the Ordination of same, and advocating marriages contrary to natural law, could ever be rationally construed a the work of the Holy Spirit."
{3} "Resolved: That it is entirely appropriate for the faithful, for the sake of their own spiritual welfare and that of others, to resolve without external coercion within their own consciences, by the grace of God, whether the Episcopal Church has not fallen prey to that inauthenticity the fathers designate as 'prelest,' i.e., that form of spiritual delusion and self-deception engendered through the incensive power of the soul of the individual by demons."
The Affirmative is willing to debate the Bishop of Colorado on any or all of the above resolutions at the public venue of his own choice, within a suitable framework of time for the sake of mutual preparation, utilizing the debating rules of the National Forensic Society with impartial judges selected from university faculty agreed upon by both parties, and including extra time allotted for rebuttals that both sides might agree upon.
Throughout the history of the faith such debates and discussions have profited their hearers, remembering as we do the famous theological debates at European universities throughout the Middles Ages between e.g. Franciscans and Dominicans, the famous discussions during the continental Reformation, and those engendered in and out of council during the early centuries of Christianity, e.g. between St. Justin Martyr and Trypho, Tertullian and his interlocutors, St. Augustine and the Pelagians, etc.
May God in His wisdom grant to as such of the faithful, as well as ourselves, that Spirit of discernment without which the Apostle enjoins us to understand we cannot "test the spirits, to see whether they are of God or the world."
Respectfully submitted,
Fr. James C. Barlow St. Francis of Assisi Anglican Church 3480 St. Francis Way Estes Park, Colorado 80517
Bibliographical Indices (partial):
"Authenticity," Fr. Thomas Dubay, SM (1977)
"People of the Lie," M. Scott Peck, Ph.D. (1983)
"Texts of Commandments," St. Gregory of Sinai (Philokalia, 1951)
"A Different Gospel," D.R. McConnell (1988)
"Precepts," St. Simeon the New Theologian (Philokalia, 1951)
"How to Respond to Satanism," B. Frederickson (1988)
"Ascetic Discourse," St. Neilos (379)
"The Scale of Perfection," Walter Hilton (1388)
"On the Spiritual Law," St. Mark the Ascetic (425?)
"Texts," St. John of Karpathos (680)
"Confessions," St. Augustine (397)
"The Will to Power," Friedrich Nietzsche (Kaufmann, (1967)
"Goddess Unmasked," Hughes, (1996)
"On Discrimination With Respect to Passions and Thoughts," Evagrios (393)
"The Closing of the American Mind," Allan Bloom (1988)
"Unseen Warfare," Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli, CR (1589)
"Against Heresies," St. Iraenaeus (178)
"Ascent of Mount Carmel," St. John of the Cross (1579)
"Discernment of Spirits," Jacques Guillet et.al. (1970)
"Ignatian Discernment," John Futrell (1970)
"The Devils of Loudun," Aldous Huxley (1936)
"Faith: Its Nature and Meaning," Paul Surlis, ed. (1972)
"Epistle to the Romans," St. Paul (54)
"Le Discernement dans les ecrits pauliniens," Gerard Therrien (1973)
"Intellectuals," Paul Johnson (1990)
"The Second Epistle of Peter," Alois Stoger (1969)
"Elucidations," Hans Urs von Balthasar (1975)
"The Epistle of St. James," Otto Knoch (1969)
"Toward a Theology of Communal Discernment," Fr. Ladislas Orsy, SJ (1973)
"The City of God," St. Augustine (385)
"On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination," St. Diadochos of Photoki (451)
"The Culture of Narcissism," Christopher Lash (1988)
"On the Character of Men," St. Anthony the Great (291)
"Satanic Counterfeit," Gordon Moher (2000)
"On Watchfulness and Holiness," St. Hesychios the Priest (425)
"Satanization of Society," Mark Rossio (1994)
"On the Demon of Unchastity and the Desire of the Flesh," St. John Cassian (428)
"Demons Behind the New Age," J.D. Kallinger (1997)
"On the Guarding of the Intellect," St. Isaiah the Solitary (482)
"First Epistle," St. John the Evangelist (80)
"Second Epistle to the Corinthians," St. Clement of Rome (125)
"The difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception becomes discernible in whether the proclaimed word is heard or not." --Rudolf Bultmann
"We do not err because the truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable." --Alexander Solzhenitsyn
"The true prophet disturbs consciences, and most people do not like to be disturbed. The false prophet is popular because he soothes the consciences of the wayward with his easygoing teaching." --Bruce Vawter, The Conscience of Israel
Rob O'Neill would be a fool to take part in such a debate.
I'm afraid Fr. Barlow is the one who comes out of this looking the fool. I can't see how a public "challenge" like this can do any good. I know Fr. Barlow and respect him. I know some of the parishoners in at St. Francis and they are wonderful people. But public challenges such as this just make us (continuing Anglicans) look silly.
True. And that's one of the reasons O'Neill would be a fool to lend credence to a fellow who's doing Rob's work for him.
We orthodox folks too often assume that the apostates play by the same rules we do -- thus, Fr. Barlow assumes that O'Neill would be interested in a debate, in the name of discerning the truth.
In reality, the revisionists operate by political methods -- and ignoring those with no leverage is a time-honored political ploy.
What's foolish is Fr. Barlow's assumption that O'Neill cares about them, and that he has enough respect for Barlow to take his challenge seriously.
Barlow's challenge is rather like the fellow in the parable who selects a place at the head of the table, only to be sent down to the low end.
The challenge itself is essentially this: "Hey, Rob -- c'mon down so I can prove you're an apostate," which is sorta like asking him if he's stopped beating his wife.
O'Neill's refusal even to respond (which is what I would expect) is thus interpreted as a statement that Barlow's not worth his time, and it was a stupid idea to begin with.
Now, how would folks take O'Neill's anticipated response? Well, for those of us who already know about O'Neill, we already know he's an apostate. For those in O'Neill's camp, they already agree with him. So there's nothing new for us.
For those who don't pay attention to these machinations anyway, they'll never hear about the challenge at all or, if they do, they'll look at the proposed topics with bemused puzzlement -- again to Barlow's detriment.
The bottom line is that Barlow has set himself up for failure, which is what makes his challenge foolish.
Far better for him to have directly engaged (somehow) those folks who aren't currently paying attention.
Exactly!
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