Thursday, June 09, 2005

"Putting Principle Above the Pocketbook"

From the daily e-mail reports of the Family Research Council comes this laudable account...

Anglican bishops in Africa are refusing millions of dollars from American Episcopal Church donors who have endorsed active homosexual clergy following the 2003 election of openly homosexual New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson. Refusing these "pieces of silver" from liberal American sources has put an especially heavy burden on the Rwandan dioceses, still trying to recuperate from the after-effects of the 1994 genocide in that country. However, as Rwandan Bishop John Rucyahana of the Diocese of Shyira put it, "if money is being used to disgrace the Gospel, then we don't need it."

Africa is the fastest-growing portion of the Anglican Communion, which includes the U.S. Episcopal Church. After Bishop Robinson was ordained, the archbishops of many African countries, representing close to half the world's Anglican community, declared they will not accept grants from Episcopal Churches that endorsed him. Ever since his elevation, Bishop Robinson's actions have given validation to the response from African countries. A few months ago, Bishop Robinson addressed a Planned Parenthood prayer breakfast where he "preached" to the pro-abortion crowd on how Jesus' lifestyle was similar to that of homosexual men and that the story of freedom in Exodus parallels the story of pro-gay pro-abortion liberals. I applaud the actions of the African Anglican churches. No amount of silver is worth sacrificing your duty to your congregation and to God. If you are able, I would like to ask you to help Bishop Rucyahana and the orphans of his diocese.