Thursday, June 26, 2008

Speaking Wisdom to a Double-Minded Man

James 1:5-8
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."


This biblical passage came to my mind as I read the response by J I Packer to the question of what he would say to Rowan Williams. Packer responded that he would call on Williams to resign. What interested me was his reasoning-- Williams has placed himself in a position of pretending to believe what he doesn't believe:
Before you became Archbishop, you went in to print cautiously approving gay relationships. It is known, and you don’t deny, that you have ordained at least one person who is a practising homosexual. Now you say that you are seeking to uphold the Anglican consensus of the Lambeth conference of 1998 which says that homosexual behaviour is absolutely off limits, but when asked whether you have changed your own mind on this matter, you say no. I cannot pretend to believe what I don’t believe and all of this of course is documented. He has been asked that question and that is the answer he has given.


No wisdom can come to a double-minded man. He will be unstable in all his ways. And if he is leading the Anglican Communion, the whole Anglican Communion will be like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

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