Kevin Kallsen, George Conger, and Gavin Ashenden talk about the insane response the members of the House of Bishops are having to their statement of Civil Partnerships. They also talk about Brexit and the violence which continues in African Provinces.
I recall an occasion when a former Anglican Archbishop of Sydney was confronted during a radio interview with the suggestion that his conservative position on homosexuality would make the church unpopular. After a pregnant pause, he said: “Well I hope so”. Good man.
This broadcast appears to contain material from a confidential discussion which was screenshotted and passed on in a clear breach of the confidentiality of the place where the discussion was. It is therefore based on someone being apparently deliberately dishonest. It is also not accurate in how it is being represented. We hope you may therefore remove the video or edit that section out. With thanks.
George mentioned radical Islam but he doesn’t define the term. We need to define the point of reference. Is this a person who is radical based on societal norms or a Muslim who does not closely follow the teachings of the Koran and other Islamic teachings.
For Christianity, for society in our post Christian age those Christians who follows the teachings of Our Lord and Saviour are being called radical and those who have bought the spirit of the age normal. Yet within the Church that follows Christ’s teaching the opposite is true
It seems to me that “radical” Islam can only refer to people who carry out (rather than simply enjoy reciting) all the instructions of the Koran. The way the term is used in public discourse is to suggest there are two types of Islam, corresponding to which are two types of Muslim: one who is a standard, peaceful follower of the prophet; and another who is a ‘radicalized’ version of the standard follower. The ‘radicalization’ process can, according to this folklore, be reversed by some counseling process, thus restoring the dangerous radical Islamic to the normal pattern, and so achieving his (or her) ‘de-radicalization’. However this is not the correct picture at all. Islam is inherently ‘radical’ and therefore (from Christian the perspective) not only anti-Christian in principle and in doctrine but also in practice.
The Oxford dictionary defines radical (adjective) as advocating a fundamental change. I would label what George calls radial, I would call them a violent faction of the Islamic faith. By using terms like radical as we do we are not recognizing what you said in your final sentence. That has been my feeling all along. In many peaceful Muslim countries Christians are at best tolerated and often violently discriminated against.