Victimization is now the frontier of choice. Nobody is guilty of anything in TEC when it comes to sex. Only adultery is still unacceptable, all other sexual expressions, homosexual, lesbian, transgendered, even heterosexual fornication (D039) are now acceptable to The Episcopal Church. Dare anyone oppose God's new and approved, sexual self-disclosure and they face certain inhibition, deposition and it is out on the street they go.

Before they are gone, pansexualists raise holy hands to heaven declaring that orthodox Episcopalians are homophobic. Then the ace card of victimization is played and the orthodox are demonized.

These are the same priests and bishops who, while extolling the virtues of anal sex, believe in playing nice with Islam in the name of "interfaith dialogue", deploring any notion of evangelizing a religion whose hatred of Christianity is only matched by its hatred of Jews and the State of Israel.

It is no wonder that when a rather pathetic Pentecostal pastor in Florida with a church about as big as a geriatric Episcopal Church in Western New York, threatened to burn Qurans, outrage erupted among Episcopal and Anglican clergy in TEC and around the world. Senior bishops from across the Anglican Communion spoke out against plans by the small Florida church to burn copies of the Quran. The leaders, many in countries with sizeable Muslim populations, spoke out against the burning, labeling the proposed act as "disastrous", "ugly" and "deeply deplorable". Terry Jones was an easy target of course, vilified by military officials, and leaders everywhere including the President of the U.S.

That he would have stirred up a backlash among Islamic extremists from Afghanistan to London and from Pakistan to New York including Christian minorities in Islamic countries is undeniable. That he decided to withdraw his act of desecration is commendable. That it got way more media and Internet attention than he should have is also undeniable. That a single pastor with a church that does not even make the Yellow Pages in Florida excites Al Qaeda in Afghanistan shows how little Al Qaeda knows about churches in America or the nature of free speech. It is not as if the Washington National Cathedral had announced a Quran burning day in front of the White House. This guy is a nobody made suddenly famous by the Internet.

It is the Imam's comments, however, that must also come in for closer scrutiny. A quid pro quo that he might drop his demands to build a mosque near the downed twin towers in exchange for the pastor not burning Qurans was, we are now told, not in the cards. In fact, the Imam denies any deal was cut and refused even to meet with the pastor when he flew to New York.

Among the Imam's baggage of arguments to forge ahead and build the mosque is that if he canceled the building project, extremist Islamists would kill him. He had warned that a decision to move the planned Islamic center would only embolden extremists.

In other words, he has now become a victim.

"The decisions that I make-that we will make-will be predicated on what is best for everybody," said the Imam. Best for whom exactly? The 3,300 who died that day and the relatives who had come to mourn their loss on 9/11?

Nowhere in any of the outrage is there any thought for Christian missionaries or Christian minorities in Islamic countries who daily face persecution for just being Christian. Talk to Christians in Iraq, Indonesia, Turkey and Pakistan to name but a few, that is, those still alive after their families have been slaughtered and killed because they simply want to worship a Trinitarian God and not the non-existent god of Islam.

In Washington, Bishop John Chane expressed disappointment with the Obama administration's handling of the controversy. He and an Islamic scholar charged the administration with having "utterly abandoned" the cause of "religious freedom [for] Muslims around the world," even as it has defended the rights of American Muslims. "We haven't seen a whole lot of action" from the administration, Chane said. "This is not good news."

Chane recommended educating Americans on Islam. "We know so little of Islam in this country that this conversation would not play well in Defiance, Ohio," Chane said.

What about religious freedom for Christian minorities in say Saudi Arabia where you have about as much chance of building a church as selling Bibles in downtown Riyadh? Or how about educating his own diocese with the truth of the gospel and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ who stands over all history.

Chane won't do that because he doesn't believe it. He plays interfaith games of appeasement and absolutely does not believe in the conversion of Islamists to Christ (neither, by her confession, does Mrs. Jefferts Schori). Therefore, the persecution of Christians in predominantly Muslim countries is not his concern. In fact, he would rather they didn't evangelize Muslims and not cause him any further embarrassment, never mind that both Christianity and Islam are both vigorously evangelistic religions.

Convert to Islam, burn a Bible or two and you will be made welcome into the arms of Mohammed. Convert to Christ, declare that Jesus is the one and only savior of the world and watch while your family be killed before your eyes, face getting your eyes gouged out of your head while facing a mob ready with stones and bricks to crush your skull...all in the name of a "merciful" Allah.

Of course, these are the true victims in a world gone mad. Christians who quietly live lives of faith and share the gospel have become the real victims when they refuse to allow homosexuals to sleep together in Christian-owned Bed and Breakfasts, or are not allowed to wear a cross on board a plane, or... the list is endless.

Christians who oppose building an inflammatory Mosque that could be moved 10 blocks down the road are being falsely accused of Islamophobia. All the while videos of outraged Afghans float across the Internet at any thought of burning Qurans or moving a Mosque while the West sits silently by, acquiescent to their anger, and pouring billions of hard-earned tax dollars into Afghanistan to rebuild the country so extremists won't have their way.

The same thing is happening in Pakistan. The US pours tens of millions of dollars into a nation that builds a stockpile of nuclear weapons -- money that could have built dams to prevent out-of-control rivers from displacing 20 million of their people. America gets vilified when a single rocket kills a few Taliban and a few citizens. Did anybody complain when Winston Churchill took out Dresden to let the Nazis know they would not ultimately win? When 70% of Pakistanis say that to convert to Christianity from Islam is worthy of the death penalty, one has to ask oneself why such a truly nice, inclusive group of people are worth millions of American tax dollars.

We are in a world and in a church slowly going mad with self-delusion and lies. It grows worse by the day. Bishop Charles Bennison is a victim of his brother's sexual misdeeds. He himself is guilty of nothing and gets his job back. Bishop David L. Moyer is another victim because of a failed lawsuit that never had much chance of winning in the first place so he turns around and sues his lawyer.

Victimization is the new mantra of the allegedly downtrodden. They are milking it for all it is worth.

The other equally sad truth is that orthodox Christians are letting it happen. They are losing the battle, refusing to fight back, refusing the Elijah and Baal challenge (1Kings 18:22-24 b...) and letting themselves be walked over, fearful they might give offense if they should even raise their heads over the ramparts.

Edmund Burke is right, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

END

Christians attacked in Indonesia:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/christians-attacked-in-indonesia/story-e6frea7u-1225920852692