From Newsgroup: uk.religion.christian
On 08/10/2025 11:12, hermeneutika wrote:
Massive elephant in the room!! Dissent happens even in the Bible!!
Ac 15:39 And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
Are we allowed to dissent from the prevailing "orthodoxy" .......???
Lu 10:26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
Maybe we just have to move on to a looser association within the
provinces of Anglicanism. Perhaps centring on a shared history or
heritage rather than total agreement on every issue, which just ain't
gonna happen.
Look at your first scripture quote above, it shows that splits and
divisions happened almost right at the start! I have heard it said by
some people over the years, that these very splits helped to ensure that
the Gospel was spread more widely.
Then, there is your comment, "Are we allowed to dissent from the
prevailing "orthodoxy"". I think that's happened throughout history as
the Church has evolved. So yes, we are. Indeed, Jesus' very teachings
were a move away from the 'orthodoxy' at the time of His Earthly ministry.
Then your last quote: "Lu 10:26 He said unto him, What is written in
the law? how readest thou?"
Yep. 'How readest thou?'. IOW, how do we interpret and understand?
So, people interpret things in different ways, and perhaps more
importantly, they *prioritise* things differently.
Yes, we all know St Paul's talk about "It is shameful for a woman to
speak in church", etc. But some people say that is a hard-and-fast rule
for all time, where as others say it should be deemed to be culturally
(and perhaps even circumstance) specific.
We live in a very different time and culture, and today women are deemed
to be the equal of men and their 'traditional' roles have changed. In St Paul's time, women were often considered and treated more like property
than fellow human beings, and therefore didn't often receive full
education. These days they ARE properly educated, and therefore
absolutely fully capable of fulfilling all roles in the Church.
Personally, I think it is a good, rather than bad thing, that there are
so many expressions of 'church'. It means there is a home for everybody.
So if your church is too 'conservative', or too 'liberal', too 'high' or
too 'low', don't worry, there's another one just around the corner that
might suit you better.
My only regret is that Jeff has passed on, so we can't enjoy his
response to this development!
Tim.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2