The local BBC news site had this story on its main page.
Andrew Rawding: Minister quits ‘homophobic’ Church of Ireland
The Reverend Andrew Rawding has been a Church of Ireland minister for a decade
IN THE BBC REPORT WHICH I REFER TO THERE ARE THREE VERY BLATANT LIES!
First lie: Rawding calls the Church of Ireland – “structurally, culturally and socially homophobic”.
Nothing could be further from the truth. This apostate denomination, has long been in fellowship and cooperation with the ‘Church’ of Rome, a religious body which the traditional Anglican ‘39 Articles’ condemns in the strongest of terms. We need only quote from Article 31, which says of that central doctrine of Romanism, The Mass “Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.”
Despite this declaration of faith, Anglicanism, of which the Church of Ireland is a part, has for over 100 years been in open and close fellowship with Rome as a denomination.
Such violation of its own doctrinal basis is evidence enough of its departure from God and His truth. Therefore to claim that it is “structurally, culturally and socially homophobic” is anything but true.
A Bible-based Church ought indeed to be such for that describes the Lord’s view of sodomy! The Bible depicts sodomy as something that God declares to be an ‘abomination’, a ‘hateful’ thing. That is not the position of the Church of Ireland which tolerated Rawding and his ilk for many years and continues to tolerate his like within its ranks!
Anyone who would live, believe and act so as to please God must seek to share the Lord’s disposition. David was described as “a man after his (God’s) own heart.” (see 1 Samuel 13:13-14). David testified: “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?” Psalm 139:21. He said that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit!
The heart of the Lord Jesus ‘hates’ wickedness, Revelation 2;6, 16. We would do well to heed the wise man Solomon with regards to what it is that the Lord hates. “These six [things] doth the LORD hate: yea, seven [are] an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness [that] speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren,” Proverbs 6:16-19.
That list covers every social evil abroad today, including that wickedness of which ‘Rev’ Rawding is so fond!
I have no doubt that within the Church of Ireland there are those who have voiced and manifested disgust at the lifestyle of the sodomite community, but that does not mean that the denomination shares the views and disposition of the Lord. Such disgust may be found amongst the patrons of most drinking dens!
The Andrew Rawding was “rector of Brackaville, Donaghendry and Ballyclog in County Tyrone. He announced his resignation in his three parish churches on Sunday morning. The Church of Ireland declined to comment on Mr Rawding’s resignation and comments when contacted by BBC News NI. Mr Rawding said that his parishioners were in shock and some were in tears when he said he was resigning. He told BBC News NI that many had “expressed sadness” that he was leaving his role.
He has been a Church of Ireland minister for a decade and has previously helped run Pride parades in the mid Ulster area.”
Those tears he refers to may well have been ‘tears of relief’!!
Mr Rawding assisted with the organisation of Mid Ulster Pride march in Cookstown
Here is another lie!
The report continues: “There are some kind and compassionate individuals but corporately, at best there is indifference, at worst there is hypocrisy,” he said. He also claimed that there was “an aggressive and proactive opposition to full inclusion and equality for LGBT+ people, with some people still weaponising Bible verses and using the language of condemnation and rejection”.
To quote the many verses in the Bible that declare the Lord’s hatred of the abomination of sodomy, is not ‘weaponising Bible verses’ any more than to quote the Scriptures regarding what the Bible has to say about sin in general, about the punishment of sinners that is revealed in God’s book or to urge repentance upon sinners as it is commanded of God!
Rawding, as is common amongst such apostates, rails against any portion of the Bible which condemns what he believes and practises!
Here is yet another lie!
“I have made a public stance in the past as a Church of Ireland rector to send a message to the LGBT+ community that it’s OK to be LGBT+ and to be a Christian and to show my full support for same-sex marriages within the Church of Ireland,” he said.
You can no more be a ‘CHRISTIAN’ and a sodomite that you can be a CHRISTIAN and be a heathen!
God damned Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin and gave the world a clear message of just what He thought of sodomy and showed that there was no room in His holy and heavenly kingdom for such.
Now there is a place for those who, though deeply stained and corrupted by the deepest of iniquities, of which sodomy is amongst the most vile, if they repent and believe the gospel!
I have often quoted Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. There the apostle outlines the path by which even sodomites are converted and made ready for heaven.
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
How our land is plagued not only by open wickedness but by the falsehoods and deceits of the like of Rawding!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
6th July 2021.