second helping

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Dec 25, 2006

We've already noticed how the Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola is perceived by the NY Times as the main cause of a split in the Anglican communion, although Archbishop Akinola holds fast to the beliefs shared and taught by Anglican prelates everywhere until this generation.

(Understand the logic here? If the foundation of your house settles, and beams shift out of alignment, you put the blame on those beams that remain at 90-degree angles. The solution is not to shore up the weakness in the foundation, but to bring the entire structure into a new conformity with the part that sagged. Understand? Good. No charge for the architectural consultation. Merry Christmas.)

Just in case you weren't clear as to which Anglican divines are wearing the white hats, the Times is back with a Christmas-Day story on Archbishop Akinola, the "anti-gay Nigerian."

Some bishops in southern Africa have also challenged his fixation with homosexuality, when AIDS and poverty are a crisis for the continent.

Actually that's two crises by my count. But nobody's arguing about poverty; homosexuality is the trump issue. And just how crazy must this archbishop be, at a time when AIDS is a crisis, to concentrate his energy on the issue of homosexuality?

I know, I know: "In Africa, AIDS and homosexuality are not closely associated." This argument frequently repeated, but rarely buttressed by facts. You might say it's an article of faith. And come to think of it, having discarded other shared principles of belief, that's something the newly liberated Anglican communion needs.