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It’s a shock but not a surprise, if you get my drift. The Anglican Church in the United Kingdom has elected a new archbishop. The result has been a global division.

That the new archbishop is a woman is a cause for debate. Considerable ink will be spent on that. More serious is what she stands for on social issues—gender and sexuality, and abortion.

These, in turn, demonstrate what is unimportant to the hierarchy of the church. The sacredness of life. The sacredness of human biology as God created it. The sacredness of marriage as God intended it…

Of course, neither Sarah Mullally nor anyone else needs to be compelled to believe what God has said about these things, nor that He has spoken. She is a free agent. But that the institutional church chooses to ignore the significance of the issues she chooses to champion is reprehensible.

A Sobering Episode

Have you read Jeremiah chapter 44? It is a sobering episode in the history of God’s people.

You are probably aware that the book of Jeremiah is a rollercoaster of sin, judgement and grace, of darkness and of hope. Chapter 44 deals with the group of Judeans who fled the looming captivity in Babylon, choosing to make Egypt their safe haven.

God had already said that if people fled to Egypt, they would not escape the judgement He was bringing upon Judah. It was only by submitting to God’s discipline and serving the king of Babylon that they would escape with their lives.

But what God said was not a factor in framing their opinions and actions. They went to Egypt anyway.

The Judeans sheltering in Egypt totally misconstrued their situation. They were worshipping the ‘queen of heaven’ (probably Ishtar or Astarte), and things were going well. Safety, prosperity, and especially social acceptance. Egypt had welcomed them.

When confronted by Jeremiah, they pointed this out. Yahweh had brought invasion and death to Judah. Their new Egyptian god was a much better bet. So, no, they would not stop worshipping their new god or reduce their allegiance to Yahweh alone.

Truth is Not a Tradable Commodity

As in Jeremiah’s day, oppression and persecution can be averted by blending in, by adopting the culture gods of the society in which we find ourselves. The new archbishop has ticked the most important boxes: gender, same-sex marriage and abortion. With these, she’ll get a seat at the top table whereas to stick with the out-of-step ways of Yahweh will reduce her, and the church she steers, to being social pariahs.

And she’s not alone. One of the public voices of the Uniting Church here in Australia has said,

“It is accepted that everyone can have a faith or no faith, and there is nothing inherently wrong with any way of living… it is just a part of life and an expression of all of us doing, or being, ourselves.”

Seemingly, it doesn’t matter what you believe, or whether you believe anything at all, and it doesn’t matter what lifestyle you choose, which would include any expressions of sexuality; it is just a matter of being yourself. In this way, we blend in. We offend no one. We find safety and acceptance.

The gods of our land are various expressions of relativism. Whatever you choose to believe, and whatever lifestyle or activities emanate from that belief, are valid. Your truth. Your lifestyle.

That includes Islam. It is “a faith”. Even the Anglicans’ king is now head of all faiths, not just “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”

Of course, Muslims see it very differently. What naïve syncretism sees as just one more truth, Islam sees as a life-or-death reality.

What About the Little Ones?

Don’t get me wrong. The institutional church is not my great interest. My interest is in those who are being deceived by the ascendant fashion of clerical compromise. I recall Jesus said something about millstones when speaking of those who lead His little ones astray. What was it He said?

When the leaders of the people of God take refuge in blended ideologies, the persecution may stop, for a while at least. If they are not in opposition to anyone, what can possibly go wrong?

It is to misconstrue the situation in exactly the same way as the people of Judah did when they found safety and acceptance in their new compromised faith in Egypt. But God spoke, telling them that Egypt itself would soon be struck down, and they would die along with it. And it was.

The Attraction of Truth

In a recent devotional, Kurt Mahlburg wrote,

“Leaning into cultural hot topics doesn’t need to be a barrier – it can actually be a platform for the Gospel. When the Church speaks boldly, listens to the questions of our age, and answers with biblical clarity, hearts respond.”

Yes indeed! To speak boldly, listen and answer. To engage and respond to society with uncompromised truth.

For us, the lesson of Jeremiah 44 is to read the situation correctly and to recognise the utterly precarious nature of pursuing safety and acceptance through syncretism. In my opinion, the Anglican church in the UK and its new champion, Sarah Mullally, will discover this at their peril.

Our refuge is in Christ and Christ alone. If the world turns against us, let it be for the sake of Christ. If the world accepts us, let it be because they accept Him.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.