The Rise of Victimhood Culture; Fuller Seminary Takes a Stand...more

The Rise of Victimhood Culture 
...The culture on display on many college and university campuses, by way of contrast, is “characterized by concern with status and sensitivity to slight combined with a heavy reliance on third parties. People are intolerant of insults, even if unintentional, and react by bringing them to the attention of authorities or to the public at large. Domination is the main form of deviance, and victimization a way of attracting sympathy, so rather than emphasize either their strength or inner worth, the aggrieved emphasize their oppression and social marginalization.”
It is, they say, “a victimhood culture.”

Victimhood cultures emerge in settings, like today’s college campuses, “that increasingly lack the intimacy and cultural homogeneity that once characterized towns and suburbs, but in which organized authority and public opinion remain as powerful sanctions,” they argue. “Under such conditions complaint to third parties has supplanted both toleration and negotiation. People increasingly demand help from others, and advertise their oppression as evidence that they deserve respect and assistance. Thus we might call this moral culture a culture of victimhood ... the moral status of the victim, at its nadir in honor cultures, has risen to new heights.”...

Anglican Church in Kenya Expels Priests Accused of Practicing Homosexuality  In an unprecedented move, the Anglican Church in Kenya on Sept. 10 expelled five priests for allegedly engaging in homosexual activity.

 

The priests, from the diocese of Mt. Kenya West in Central Kenya, were under investigation since mid-August. They were serving in the towns of Othaya, Karatina, Murang’a and Nyeri towns.

 

“That is the stand of the church … they have to be out of the ministry,” said the bishop under whom the priests served.

 

The five had earlier been suspended to allow a tribunal to probe the allegations made against them. Four of the priests are married while one is single. They are said to have had relations with other adult men for as long as 20 years...

For Pope’s visit, Obama invites a pro-abort nun, gay Episcopal bishop, and LGBT ‘Catholic’ activists ...LifeSiteNews has confirmed that Mateo Williamson, a biological woman who identifies as a man, and former co-chairman of the Transgender Caucus for Dignity USA, received an invitation to the White House when Pope Francis visits next week. Williamson declined to speak with LifeSiteNews about the invitation, instead recommending invitation organizer Vivian Taylor to LifeSiteNews.

Taylor is the executive director of the national LGBT advocacy arm of the Episcopal church, and a biological male.

CruxNow reports that retired Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, will also attend. Robinson "divorced" his gay partner last year, and previously separated from his wife of 14 years...

Fuller Seminary Takes a Stand
Fuller Seminary decided not to offer tenure to a New Testament professor, J. R. Daniel Kirk, whose view of marriage does not comport with Jesus’s view.

Although a decision such as this is never made happily or easily, I am grateful for the courage of senior faculty at Fuller Seminary in asserting the importance of a stance on sexual ethics that Jesus clearly regarded as foundational: a male-female requirement for sexual relations (Mark 10:2-12; Matt 19:3-9). Had Fuller set a precedent of embracing faculty whose position toward sexual ethics was so at odds with Jesus’s own, it would soon have ceased to be an evangelical institution...

UK Government ‘Planning to Force Religious Leaders to Join State Register’ ...The British government is planning to force all priests, rabbis, imams and other religious figures to enrol on a “national register of faith leaders” in a scheme branded “truly sinister” by Christian campaigners.

The Sunday Telegraph claims the scheme appears in a leaked draft of the government’s new counter-terror proposal. It says that state bureaucrats will “require all faiths to maintain a national register of faith leaders” and that the government will “set out the minimum level of training and checks” registered faith leaders must have.

The plans mark a new level of state intervention in religion and are likely to fuel fears that Christians with traditional beliefs are being slowly criminalised...

California wildfires: 23,000 people displaced from homes  ...The governor of California has declared a state of emergency after wildfires forced about 23,000 people to flee their homes in the north of the state.

Governor Jerry Brown said the fires, which have left one person dead, destroyed and threatened buildings in the Napa and Lake counties.

More than 1,300 people fled Middletown, north of San Francisco, as their homes were consumed by the flames...