Sorry, I respect your faith in God, and I truly hope you are doing well, but I find it hard to see, through my rage at the injustices and insanity being visited upon us, how anyone can worship a God that would, through omnipresence, sit and watch us suffer. I'll stop there because I'm too incandescent with anger to continue.
"Truth is not a thought, not a word, not a relationship between things, not a law. Truth is a Person. It is a Being which exceeds all beings and gives life to all." St. Nicholas of Serbia. Thank you Dr. Ashenden for affirming that Truth does live and will prevail under Christ.
I agree! I’ve found myself looking towards CS Lewis, Chesterton, Tolkien as well as Thomas A Kempis, The rules of St Benedict, the desert fathers and the great book itself. I feel like I’m being gently guided although I have a great deal of work to do on myself to get there. The moral relativism is sickening to the point I’ve ditched social media, I rarely watch TV and I get to find great content. I’m finding God speaks his truth quietly and u only need to listen to hear it.
I’ve said to my parish priest and others, “The world’s gone mad”. In the last several years in particular, I feel like we are living on some strange parallel planet in a parallel universe, where up is down, left is right and good is now bad. The socialist and oftentimes atheist left, has been insidiously poisoning minds and hearts from within. You are perfectly correct. The battle is spiritual and the solution - particularly the rosary - is God and prayer: ‘The eagle does not fight the snake on the ground. It picks it up into the sky and changes the battle ground, then it releases the snake into the sky. The snake has no stamina, no power and no balance in the air. It is useless, weak and vulnerable unlike on the ground where it is powerful, wise and deadly. Take your fight into the spiritual realm by praying, and when you are in the spiritual realm God takes over your battles. Don’t fight the enemy in his comfort zone, change the battle ground like the eagle and let God take charge through your earnest prayer. You’ll be assured of clean victory.’
It's like watching an accident happening in slow motion as the evils ripple out from Feminism, etc. Priorities are completely muddled these days. Children need boundaries and guidelines for their security and we are failing them in this respect.
Thank you for your eloquence and the beautiful clarity of your reasoning. What is going on in the world and even the Church is frightening beyond words. I pray you are right and there is a road back to sanity, truth and love but frankly, it will take nothing less than a miracle at this point
He said one thing that I noticed among many, "envy." The world has replaced equality with equity which is just a facade for "envy." Ironically, salvation is the most expensive gift you can recieve for free.
Yes your correct. There’s a great book by Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora called “Egalitarian Envy: The political foundations of social justice”. It discusses that very point 👍
@Mary Martin hierarchy, if the Christian world view is correct, and reality aligning to hierarchy happens, people, nations, and ideas will rise and fall. These things have and will continue to happen reguardless of intent. I don't strive to be above others, yet I am. I also fall well below others I admire, for admiration requires one to see better in others. I do not "envy" those with more. I strive to become them. Your questions are emotional in nature, and cannot truly be answered. I worship a loving God who can do what I cannot. I could have been born rich or poor, God be praised. I could have been still born or live to 100 years of age, God be praised. I could have become king or slave, God be praised. I am suspicious of your questions. Why, you may ask? They are leading. They elicit an emotional reaction which is animalistic. I should be angry that I am intelligent and others are not? I should value empathy for strangers over my selfish love and jealousy of my family? I do not have answers for your questions. I could answer them, but they would be mere opinions with little grounding. Envy is striving for what is not earned. Wanton disregard for effort, kindness, charity, generosity, hardwork, knowledge (and the list extends much father) is by all accounts and proven by all of history, fally of the highest caliber. God requires loyalty. Humankind requires loyalty. Envy requires waton disregard. I wish no ill will on anyone, yet humans are very capable of bringing about such destruction, and often in the emotional state of "for the good."
@Mary Martin Well I admit defeat. Facing off with someone who can change the common understanding and definition of words wins the day... Wish I could do that. Truth is, I don't feel the need to respond. My first two posts still suffice.
@Mary Martin That made me chuckle. I'm a libertarian. I laid out my arguement. Yes, things "could" be better, but the ones leading the charge are saying "equity" is at the bottom of a dry well in the middle of a desert. "For the betterment of mankind" is usually the front for nefarious words and deeds. My "ill-informed" and "thoroughly indoctrinated" arguement atleast did not belittle you. You have only proven my point that the questions you asked are emotional rather than logical By throwing salt at my character, rather than deal with my words, I again will say my first response suffices. Good Day.
You are putting your great gifts to use in the Church with reflections like these - thank you! I am very much praying you will soon have the opportunity to minister sacramentally.
The building of real communities and Nature systems is up to us no one is going to save anyone that is a metaphor we need to save ourselves and work together with Life lovers not hater, my view yet is the great apathy apeaser to non action and standing in our own divinity is waiting on a higher so called master like saviour . that book is only about 5% gems and rest misinterpreted. I feel and have Intuited, experienced and researched.
I have lost count of how many times I have returned to this presentaion Father Gavin. You reflect my own position throughout though I would not be able to articulate it in such a coherant way as you have done. I am so grateful that there is indeed a way back from the madness through Jesus Christ....." Holy Holy Holy is the Lord " and may our Christian men (of all colour )stand strong with men like you to walk beside them as we continue this current odyssey.
@@DrGAshenden I am sorry that this is not available as an interview because it is packed to overflowing. 30/60 with not a moment waisted and I am left with no opportunity to unpack it further because of (personal circumstances)...as you might say, this is perhaps not the moment to go into that. Why is it do you think, that the obvious is not being discussed by those who are in a position to know - that once a child has been sexualised the brain heart n soul of that child is radically changed ? And that we are universally, not simply condoning this but demanding it ?
Thank you so much Fr Gavin for sharing your thoughts with us in such clear conversation. You remind us that there is hope in this mad world for those who turn to God. Bless you for your continued ministry over the Internet. Many thanks, Arthur (South Africa).
I enjoyed every bit of this wonderful talk. I would like to add that I have faith that we will not be forced underground but will flourish! Already, the signs are here. Our local St Mary Student Parish which welcomes the local community of young families, and adults of all ages is the fastest growing Parish in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan. We are growing and vibrant!
A number of years ago the Archbishop of Canterbury announced that the Resurrection was not a real event, but just a sort of motivational analogy. For me, that marked the end of the C of E as Christian.
The phrase "revolutions eat their own" always reminds me of the first Revolution, the French, in the late 18th century. Interesting to note, that all its leaders, the most powerful men who had promoted it also died by it, executed on the very Guillotine they themselves had invented.
I just found your channel! What a delight you are! Your tone is spell bounding! John 14:6 - “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” God Bless You! To God Be The Glory!
@@DrGAshenden dr would you mind doing on femism , marxism , natural law and freedom of speech on law in the modern era .Alot of academics are quite on this and tend to avoid this also please do a video on advice for young men in an illogical world
Just like Adam n Eve did in the garden ….how is it that we imagine we can hide from God ? We are such children. Unfortunately we also have the car keys…..for now.
LOVE IT Time for us to STAND UP and FIGHT for our GREAT GOD. Womder if GOD is laughing at this world madness. Gates of hell shall NEVER PREVAIL AGAINST HIS Church.THANKS for GREAT work.
We live through many 'ages' (secula seculorem) and each has its 'last days', and we are not to deceived or concerned if these are 'final' as that knowledge is the Father's and whomever He wants to share that with. What must endure is our Faith through these trials (adversity, as said in the video) for sure, and the choices we make as Dr Ashenden has, to be enveloped in the safety of the fullness of Christ.
This is a wonderful video, it's interesting to hear things from a learned Christian perspective (other than my own). A lot of the things mentioned in this video are things that I have thought of myself in passing, but I have no one to bounce my thoughts off; nearly everyone around me is either agnostic, a "Casual Christian", or a Christian very uneducated on the topic of their own religion, and/or current events. It's nice to know I am not crazy for thinking these things, or at least there is somebody else crazy along with me xD
Bring it on! Love it! There is no better time to be a Catholic...they are indeed frightening times but there is a sense of exhilaration that is very bracing...
@@DrGAshenden might I also suggest a title such as 'The Protest-ant Within' to examine the apostasy within our own RC parish communities? Where being a "good Catholic" is to not stand for the truth- thus dumming down The Truth in the name of fraternity and for fear of appearing judgemental?
Thank you. I find these videos so thoughtful, profound and informative. Aside from wanting to know where the opening music comes from, after watching this I’d love to see that idea of a public and private language unpacked further. How should we speak inside our circles and in the world out there? Once again, thank you so very much. God bless you.
Thank you very much for this. Gavin. You always succeed in setting out the arguments so clearly and logically. Slightly off the subject of this video, I would be interested to know whether, when you were considering your move away from the C of E, you had thought about the Orthodox Church at any stage? How does their theology differ, if at all, from that of the Western Church? A recent internet search showed me that a number of Orthodox congregations have been formed in the UK as a way of meeting the needs of distressed Anglicans looking for a new, safe and secure spiritual home. Your opinion please?
Dr Gavin did at one stage consider joining the Orthodox community, but finally decided on the Catholic Church. He has given a number of great interviews on his conversion where this is touched on, they're all online.
I did indeed consider Orthodoxy ( as some of my friends have observed.) I thin there are theological and cultural issues that determine our actions, but there is also the Holy Spirit. I have found the Holy Spirit directing me to become a Catholic. I nearly followed by friend Fr Michael Harper (a well known charismatic Anglican leader and theologian) into the Antiochean Orthodox Church - but could not fail to see that the Holy Spirit just wasn't having it. So one has to pray about it. But I think it is clear to most people of discernment that the C of E has sold out terminally and is beyond recovery. There comes a point where repentance institutionally is no longer possible.
@@gwenechotaylor96 Don't over think it. Probably just go to the nearest Catholic church and talk to the priest. Doesn't matter if he's a particularly "good" or "bad" one. You'll meet and recognise truth. That, at least, was my experience 40 years ago.
Thank you Dr Gavin for a very coherent, informative talk . Anyone who has been watching these deceptions unfold especially during the last 50yrs or so could not in their right mind disagree. Some people like yourself can articulate these truths others can only perceive them. IHMary God bless Harry
We stand on the rock of faith....we shine our light for all to see, we follow the Way , the Truth and the Life...we pray for Pope Francis as he seems to occasionally lapse into a studied ambiguity that can be unsettling for the seekers of truth...the Tower of Babel comes to mind !
Vintage Ashenden. Christianity is a ‘comedy’ in the classical sense that the protagonist prevails…. Thank you for the insight that the very madness of our age opens a horizon for the salvation that only the Divine Protagonist can offer… mediated through the Catholic Church (by His design).
It will probably be threatened that if it doesn't bend the knee, it will be stripped of its charitable status. It needs to stand firm. There is an agenda to get rid of Christianity. You, need to stand firm. 🧍♂️
Thank you Gavin for these excellent thoughts. I do wonder, though, why people who leave the Church of England have a tendency to go ‘higher’ to Catholicism rather than ‘lower’ to evangelicalism?
Thank you Gavin. May I mention a book which casts its net wider and goes deeper into the historical roots of postmodernity and the emergence of 'the modern self' than does the focus on feminism and neo-Marxism. I'm only half way through it, but I'm finding it really helpful. It is "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution", by Carl R. Trueman (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020).
Dear David, that's very helpful - thank you. I had a great deal else to say, and feel embarrassed at all that I left out, - but there is only so much one should put into a YT video. But thank you very much for this. I will try to get hold of it.
Excellent Speak of Truth! I do believe this would Never have Gotten to Such a Degree; If Our Lady had Not been So Looked Down Upon by The Protestant Movement! Which of course has been completely hatched by the Devil himself! Out of his Complete hatred for her! All of the total Lack of Respect and Down right denigration of OUR BEAUTIFUL and MOST HOLY MOTHER!!! This has caused such degradation of society! But OH BOY! I say; if they Only Knew How Wonderful IS THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR HER! And HOW WOUNDEROUS IS THE SON'S TOTAL LOVE FOR HIS HOLY and MOST LOVING MOTHER! The Spouse of The HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF!!!! She; I Believe; IS THE HEART of JESUS CHRIST; and HE IS FULLY WITHIN HIS MOTHER'S HEART AS WELL! How Could any WOMAN EVER DISLIKE HER FEMININITY??? Well; I suppose that those so called men; who are NOT TRULY REAL MEN AT ALL; who choose to pick on Women; ( the Mother's of their own children?) And their own children; Caused so much of the lesbian movement. By those women who have had to live terrified; most of the time! This has caused many women to; I Believe; harden their Heart's! And then the abuse's have just sky rocketed through the suffering children! Oh, my Most Beautiful Mother of All The World; Pray For Us ALL!
Thank you for another excellent talk. I would dispute that "if you chop a pie up, that men and women should receive the same portion". For instance, I eat 3/5ths, and my littler, other half eats 2/5ths. Reason and experience suggests that to do otherwise would leave me gaunt and her, gross. Moral equality does not direct the distribution of pies, but the standing and treatment of complainants before authority. God Bless You!
I am in agreement with your analysis. It's very good. I had to rise above the feminism of the '70's. One point to make, is the role the church took by suppressing the feminine role in the early historical church. As an artist, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a woman in Michelangelo's last supper. People are in denial about that, to the point of blindness. Women preached in Jesus ministry. Even Richard Rohr speaks of the infantilising of the congregation over the centuries, and lays it squarely at the door of the Vatican.
Da Vinci's Last supper, and it's a fresco. DaVinci was notorious for not finishing work and not priming surfaces, so the fresco started flaking off immediately, and has also been bomb damaged. Now it's a faded mess. How convenient for conspiracy generators tho. The whole Mary Magdalene malarkey was started by a fascist who claimed he was Merovingian Royalty ( ancient died out dynasty) and forged documents to "prove it" and because he was a "fraternal" promulgated the blasphemy of "Mary Magdalene's Jesus sired child" who was the 1st of the Merovingian Dynasty, attack on the Church, and it was linked with the Cathars and other heresies with much ludicrous "sacred geometry". This gnostic propaganda Dan Brown built his puerile drivel around a generation later, Brown so sloppy in his research and whose grasp of counting is so poor he claimed there was an extra hand in the fresco) So not just Anti Catholic propaganda disguised as research, Brown took it all as scholarship! The figure is John, and Peter is possibly loudly and agressively asking him (as Jesus's confident) who is the betrayer? and John is blocking answering Peter (hands locked eyes downcast) Peter is extremely agitated, the irony being that he has lunged right past Judas! to question John. What the Catholic Laity actually hasn't been taught is that Catholicism only works if you work it, that has disarmed the Church, and made it superfluous day to day, much to our detriment.
I did consider age 15 that it might be possible to reduce all human interactions to a monetary value and a profit or loss based on this. I considered this for about 3 months weighing up the benefits and costs. Maybe it was Christmas that made me decide it was a bankrupt theory, sorry for the pun, but now decades later the madness of the concept is alive, well and seems mainstream.
Quite correct. However, we must not confuse the western world for the world at large. Thankfully, much of this madness is confined to the western world. Even though many are trying their hardest to promote this madness under the guise of 'freedom and democracy'.
Dr. Ashenden you have summed up the critical area of conflict in society dealing with third phase Feminism. Your references back to the church is fine for you but slightly over my head. We have three generations of working mothers and the results in society are far less than positive. The schism in families will become grater and almost universal. We breed this in schools. I look back at prayers and a hymn at morning assembly and it is clear that the words and quiet contemplation of them set those attending up for a day of trying to live up them. I consider that nowadays those children who never had these few minutes each day of prayer and hymn singing have defected from the church and sought a new religion.
'Supercilious' stepped into my ungrateful mind at the end of a thought provoking if provocative sermon. Otherwise, one was gratefully distracted throughout by an aimless husky meandering in the background as with the pleasant tinkling chimings of a clock or two. Thank you
I’m currently studying for lay ministry within the Anglican Church and am dismayed by the very feminist perspective that is taken. The seminars deliberately exaggerate the role of women in the Bible. The Anglican Church has been so influenced by Marxist ideology that it really seems to believe that Jesus was a Marxist. Feminism is essentially a Marxist ideology, in place of the industrialists exploiting the working class we have the notion that the patriarchy and men exploit women, especially white European men apparently. I believe that the feminisation of the church has been a huge turn off for men who are largely absent from congregations, from lay ministry training and from ordination. I say this as a woman. I know I am loved equally by God and my salvation is equal to a mans, yet my role as deemed by my creator is different to the role God intended for men. I fully accept and happily embrace the fact that Jesus, God and the apostles were all men and that was how God intended it, that as a woman God has a special but different role for me. Who am I to question this,to criticise God or to assume I know better ? The church seems to think it knows better than God, that God somehow got it all wrong when we created male and female and our distinct roles. It is an incredible arrogance.
@@DrGAshenden It is more than different perspectives yes, its like inhabiting a different universe where the "fleeting wisdom of the age" is replacing the outdated mores and values of the bible and it is considered wise and progressive to do so. We are studying mission for the next 6 weeks and amongst the 5 missions of the church are climate change and addressing structural inequalities. Although Saving souls and spreading the word is still regarded as a mission we are told it might not need to be the primary mission and why not climate change as the top mission? It attracts young people apparently and might bring them in to church. Now whilst I am all for clean water, reducing waste, treating God's creation with respect, I am bemused as to why it is thought possibly more important that the old fashioned missions of saving souls and serving them. I suppose saving souls no longer gives one that virtuous warm fuzzy feeling as its old fashioned and does not lead to cultural approval, whilst climate change activism is fashionable and has society's stamp of approval? It ahs become very political one of the recommended books for the module is "Here are your Gods, faithful discipleship in idolatrous times" by Christopher Wright. Fortunately God and being a faithful disciple chime perfectly with his own political opinions (remarkable really) So nationalism is a false idol but faith in unaccountable governing bodies like the EU and UN are not false idols and supporting them is part of good discipleship. If you voted Brexit its straight to hell!
The point connecting fevered madness to drugs may be expanded on elsewhere in these talks--I have just begun to listen--but even if so, it's hard not to notice that the legalization of pot, its increased potency and availability, along with a growing fondness for and usage of extremely intense psychedelics correlate very interestingly with massive cultural confusion. It is no surprise to me whatsoever to hear men are beginning to contemplate giving birth and "chest feeding": these notions assuredly stem from a fabric of reality within which they themselves are, directly or indirectly, "high."
Who will stand for the Lord said Joshua , many times Israel was confronted with that call ……..God or Baal said Elijah …….choose ………I stand for the Lord 🙏🏻
Wittgenstein was not too bad because with him you could agree on the terminology before discussing things. You had a common tool. Now the words are blurry and often meaningfree. How is it possible to have a conversation like that? With many people it no longer is.
I love your talk. However, the I in DIE, or DEI is equity, not equality, and equity means equal outcomes, irrespective of equal inputs, for those of the victim class.
Pleasure to listen to you but I feel you fudged the question of the ordination of women a little. Your criticism of Peterson was that he evaded questions he had not thought long and hard about and I felt you evaded women's ordination in the same way: you scattered a few platitudes on the ground then ran. I know this is not a theological platform but a balanced case for and against this question would have been a more honest response.
you didn't mention Fourth-wave feminism and its intersectionality component. By my observation cultural relativism has subsumed the church with the same tactics outside the church. Excommunication for all practical terms doesn't happen in the catholic or evangelical church. It is a pretty hard sell if the church is the same as the world. It confuses new Christians because we SHOULD be set apart.
I wonder how the non/extra-biblical concept of the Church as mother reconciles with Revelation 19 and 21, which portrays the Church as a pure, virginal Bride. A virgin bride cannot be a mother. Biblically speaking, God is our only parent, and he begets us by his word.
This [I would like to swear a bit but I cannot near a former royal chaplain, allow me to curtsy instead of cursing] gender madness is now apparently scientific (Help!!!). I keep on getting surveys from UNIVERSITIES where the list of genders is downright scary. I shiver in horror and go to renew my supermarket client card. The system offers me two options: MALE and FEMALE. It seems that supermarkets are serious places and universities aren't. O tempora, o mores!
Oh dear, I do not agree that what you're describing is feminism. Women simply want the freedom to choose their paths and not to be opressed or worse, abused by men. We do not believe men and women are equal at all. We are equal intellectually and should have equal opportunity in all aspects of society. No-one, man or woman expects equal outcome. That's up to circumstance. Everyone needs to be a feminist! It has nothing to do with an assualt on the Gospels. I'm Catholic and a feminist. I'm raising two daughters and acutely aware of the violence exerted on women and girls by men everyday. Domestic violence towards women has risen tragically high in the past 5 years. Men need to stop blaming women for their own insecurities and weaknesses that bubble up when women demand equal opportunity and respect for our minds and bodies. I was so happy to find your channel. But this is sooooo disappointing. Why on earth would you even lump feminism in with lgbtq rights? You're conflating all different sorts of ideas together in this talk. Feminism is not a post modern demand for power. I'm so sad to listen to this sad backwards view of women standing up for themselves 😒
@@joycedupuy8751 The original feminists were women though. I get what you are saying, but men can support and advocate for women without the label of ' feminist ' Thats my personal opinion. Rockefeller wanted Women in the workplace so he could tax them. Did you know that?...
@@ladysudaandthegoddessmorri3217 I don't like the label either, that's my point. This lecture about so called feminism was awful and mysoginistic. Women shouldn't be labelled simply because they are standing up for themselves. And I don't mind paying taxes if the services I'm paying for are of high quality.... But that's a whole other days topic! ☹️
I like Gavin Ashenden but his Power vs Love Matrix is actually holding us back in this present strife as it comes close to collapsing the Authority of the Believer. It is possible that he may intend for Power to be exercised through Love, although the Authority of the Believer is Real and it is a Power phenomenon, especially in dealing with the 'world, the flesh and the devil' and this was clearly understood and practised by the Desert Fathers in the 4th Century.
The word 'power' is inherently problematic - it's true. We need to distinguish between power in its more dangerous aspects like 'control' and efficacy through holiness like 'potency'. 'Power' needs as many redefinitions in terms of its usage as 'Love' does. We have to go on using it, but I agree that it needs to be done with care and and with refined definition.
Don’t like that demand for heroism so much. Any way to be comfortable and Christian? The old stories about the martyrs are edifying, or even relatively recent conditions like the penal laws in Ireland, or present conditions in China and elsewhere, but surely that’s all history or miles away. Surely we European/Western Christians can rest on our laurels, or our anscestors’ laurels. I really would like a quiet life!
GAVIN: In a way you and I know one another from 'banter' instigated through your appearances on 'Anglican Unscripted'. What I cannot help but discern here is your hugely negative attitude toward 'The World'. It is as though you have forgotten that God is the Creator, and Sustainer, of ALL. That means that - with regard to our little Planet - "the Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof". As a 69-year-old homosexual Christian, I have had to learn that the Church does not 'own' God: and - my goodness - have we learned that lesson through the various churches' capitulation to Caesar during the 'Time-of-Covid'. During my life I have seen God's Spirit working - outside of, and despite the Church - using the benefits of science, philosophy and (Yes! Relativism!) to make our 'western' societies into communitiues which are more humane than they were at the time of my birth in 1952. Some of those 'changes' may be see in the UK 'Royal' Family. Very early in your talk you cite the 'Ten Commandments'. As a scholar, you will know there are several versions of these in the Tanakh: but we are not Jews. We are Christians. We follow the teachings of a young Galilean Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Early Church records (Mt: 22; vv26ff) as replacing those 'commandments' with one instruction. Of course, all of his teaching, through parable and dialogue, elaborates on what his Father is like, and who our 'neighbour' is. I cannot help, but think, that you would prefer a thoroughly 'codified' society: yet Jesus' greatest reinterpretation of the faith of his forebears, was the 'switch' from a 'collective' form of relationship, between Tribe and Yahweh, into an 'individualistic' relationship, based on love, repentance, and forgiveness. Today, our societies appear to be like Babel: but we must not lose sight of the fact that the Father is still 'in charge. If only te Church would do some 'proclaiming': instead of 'listening', and attempting to improve its social cfedentials.
Thanks David - so much more succinct than I would have been. One might quote the temptations and Jesus description as satan as the ruler of this world in St John; to say nothing of the Book of Revelation.
@@davidrudd2215 NO! God is sovereign......as declared by Jesus during the temptations. Surely that is the point of these 'recollections' (for want of a better word). And, of course, the young Galilean male Jew would have spoken in the metaphors recognisable to the people he was addressing, and which formed part of his own 'thought-world', unless we wish to posit the idea that the cranium of Jesus, the man, contained a brain unlike our own? We are perfectly capable of utter evil, without needing to be 'tempted' by a third party.
@@Mark_Dyer1 Jesus would have thought in the mind-set of a ‘young Galilean male Jew’ - albeit one which was wholly and perfectly submitted to his Father. But his overcoming conflict with Satan was real, no mere construct of his own ‘thought world’ or dumbed-down means of connecting with his contemporaries. And, as St Paul has it, the ‘prince of the power of the air’ is still ‘at work in the sons of disobedience’. And would it not be truer to say that Jesus did not ‘reject’ but rather summarised God’s commandments. As St John says, ‘This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
Mark, as David said, Our Lord rather summarised the 10 commandments (Mark 12: 29-31); He did not reject them: Matthew 5: 17-18 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Pax Christi. ✝️🕊
Quite right Dr Ashenden - a wonderful talk... Thank you! ... Foucault and Derrida?? ... Stay away from these ungodly and perverted minds!! I find John Butler "Spiritual Unfoldment" a wonderfully stop to look into - and cheerily come back to (here on UA-cam) ... A reassuringly calm and Christian 'corner' in these rather sad and turbulent times - a still point in a turning world, indeed. God Bless you - I am so happy to have discovered your spot!
Thank you for this. Quite timely for me. A point and a question from me. My Catholic priest accused Angilcan clergy who converted to Catholicism of being afraid of women in positions of power in the church. He cited Mary the mother of God. Do you have a view on this? And my question is, as a lay person how do I defend belief in God and the death and resurrection of Jesus to the postmodern mind? Or maybe put the other way. How to promote?
There is often a good deal of pseudo-psychological ad hominem abuse in the gender wars. It's usually dealt with by asking if the critic has any concrete evidence. You cannot become a Catholic by running away from Anglicanism - you have to want to be a Catholic. If you become one you will immediately encounter some of the most powerful women in history. But their 'power' was spiritual and metaphysical, not political. Look at Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St Bridget of Sweden; Teresa of Avila etc. So, your Catholic priest is betraying his own silliness and prejudices and projecting them onto others. As it also happens, the experiment of feminism shows that both men and women become very badly corrupted by power - perhaps in slightly (but not very) different ways. As for the postmodern mind, I think one can only offer the Gospel when they are collapsing and desperate. Until then, they are well defended against coherence and sensible rationality. I think the best thing one can do is pray for the souls to be softened up, and be ready to give a faithful and succinct answer when asked,
@@DrGAshenden Thank you for responding. I think you make some interesting points. I agree there are numerous strong women in Catholicism. I forgot to mention he also mentioned that it is the Anglicans who brought politics into the mix - conservatism v progressivism and asserted that some years ago a Catholic priest was simply a priest without any attached political views and implications. Based on some of my experiences I think he has a point however I'm not sure he can even back this up with concrete evidence Thank you for your thoughts on postmodernism. I think it bound to fall apart for individuals and the pieces will surely have to be picked up.
@@daddycool228 I'm sorry to appear to be argumentative, but if you are reporting him correctly, priest is being unhelpfully selective. He is right in saying that Anglican priests have (in England at least) preferred politics to prayer; but in the 20th C Catholicism had its own attraction to right wing politics (even if it was in defence against Communism in the Spanish Civil War for example, and an equal attraction to the Left in Liberation Theology. So let us simply agree that whatever one's background taking refuge in politics is a diversion from the spiritual struggle we are called to acquaint ourselves with and engage with through prayer, sacraments and sacrficice.
Yes - for some reason God has chosen us to live through these last days. Its a hard calling, but a great honour; so stand firm and do not despair.
"Of that day or hour nobody knows, neither the angels in heaven or the Son..." But only if you believe that sort of thing. So you might be right
Sorry, I respect your faith in God, and I truly hope you are doing well, but I find it hard to see, through my rage at the injustices and insanity being visited upon us, how anyone can worship a God that would, through omnipresence, sit and watch us suffer. I'll stop there because I'm too incandescent with anger to continue.
@@lloydwaycott8178 we’ve got to trust Him. That’s what Jesus does on the cross. And we are to be like Him
I think it’s more likely the end of this age rather than the end of all ages. But it always could be the end of all ages too
It’s been looking like the last days for nearly 2000 years I think, but the world could end tomorrow, fair enough.
"the more the world has gone mad the more potent the gospel emerged as an antidote"
That's quotable.
"Truth is not a thought, not a word, not a relationship between things, not a law. Truth is a Person. It is a Being which exceeds all beings and gives life to all." St. Nicholas of Serbia.
Thank you Dr. Ashenden for affirming that Truth does live and will prevail under Christ.
Awesome, powerful, life-changing truth.
You are a truly courageous inspiration Gavin.
To Him be the glory indeed!
Maranatha
I agree! I’ve found myself looking towards CS Lewis, Chesterton, Tolkien as well as Thomas A Kempis, The rules of St Benedict, the desert fathers and the great book itself. I feel like I’m being gently guided although I have a great deal of work to do on myself to get there. The moral relativism is sickening to the point I’ve ditched social media, I rarely watch TV and I get to find great content. I’m finding God speaks his truth quietly and u only need to listen to hear it.
"If you see everything through the lens of power...you lose love..." is the key quote on what feminism is
A wonderful display of coherency and truth in this video. Thank you Dr. Ashenden.
I’ve said to my parish priest and others, “The world’s gone mad”. In the last several years in particular, I feel like we are living on some strange parallel planet in a parallel universe, where up is down, left is right and good is now bad. The socialist and oftentimes atheist left, has been insidiously poisoning minds and hearts from within. You are perfectly correct. The battle is spiritual and the solution - particularly the rosary - is God and prayer:
‘The eagle does not fight the snake on the ground. It picks it up into the sky and changes the battle ground, then it releases the snake into the sky.
The snake has no stamina, no power and no balance in the air. It is useless, weak and vulnerable unlike on the ground where it is powerful, wise and deadly.
Take your fight into the spiritual realm by praying, and when you are in the spiritual realm God takes over your battles.
Don’t fight the enemy in his comfort zone, change the battle ground like the eagle and let God take charge through your earnest prayer.
You’ll be assured of clean victory.’
It's like watching an accident happening in slow motion as the evils ripple out from Feminism, etc. Priorities are completely muddled these days. Children need boundaries and guidelines for their security and we are failing them in this respect.
Excellent - thank you Dr Ashenden.
Glory to the Lord God of Israel, to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the thrice Holy Trinity!
Thank you for your eloquence and the beautiful clarity of your reasoning. What is going on in the world and even the Church is frightening beyond words. I pray you are right and there is a road back to sanity, truth and love but frankly, it will take nothing less than a miracle at this point
Certainly, it will need God.
He said one thing that I noticed among many, "envy." The world has replaced equality with equity which is just a facade for "envy." Ironically, salvation is the most expensive gift you can recieve for free.
Yes your correct. There’s a great book by Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora called “Egalitarian Envy: The political foundations of social justice”. It discusses that very point 👍
@Mary Martin hierarchy, if the Christian world view is correct, and reality aligning to hierarchy happens, people, nations, and ideas will rise and fall. These things have and will continue to happen reguardless of intent. I don't strive to be above others, yet I am. I also fall well below others I admire, for admiration requires one to see better in others. I do not "envy" those with more. I strive to become them. Your questions are emotional in nature, and cannot truly be answered. I worship a loving God who can do what I cannot. I could have been born rich or poor, God be praised. I could have been still born or live to 100 years of age, God be praised. I could have become king or slave, God be praised.
I am suspicious of your questions. Why, you may ask? They are leading. They elicit an emotional reaction which is animalistic. I should be angry that I am intelligent and others are not? I should value empathy for strangers over my selfish love and jealousy of my family?
I do not have answers for your questions. I could answer them, but they would be mere opinions with little grounding.
Envy is striving for what is not earned. Wanton disregard for effort, kindness, charity, generosity, hardwork, knowledge (and the list extends much father) is by all accounts and proven by all of history, fally of the highest caliber.
God requires loyalty. Humankind requires loyalty. Envy requires waton disregard. I wish no ill will on anyone, yet humans are very capable of bringing about such destruction, and often in the emotional state of "for the good."
@Mary Martin Well I admit defeat. Facing off with someone who can change the common understanding and definition of words wins the day... Wish I could do that.
Truth is, I don't feel the need to respond. My first two posts still suffice.
@Mary Martin That made me chuckle. I'm a libertarian. I laid out my arguement. Yes, things "could" be better, but the ones leading the charge are saying "equity" is at the bottom of a dry well in the middle of a desert. "For the betterment of mankind" is usually the front for nefarious words and deeds. My "ill-informed" and "thoroughly indoctrinated" arguement atleast did not belittle you. You have only proven my point that the questions you asked are emotional rather than logical By throwing salt at my character, rather than deal with my words, I again will say my first response suffices.
Good Day.
You are putting your great gifts to use in the Church with reflections like these - thank you! I am very much praying you will soon have the opportunity to minister sacramentally.
I'm very grateful for you prayers. There is need of them.
Hi there, is he going to be ordained a Catholic priest?
Thank You for this! JESUS IS COMING BACK. Pray that he will come back soon.
The building of real communities and Nature systems is up to us no one is going to save anyone that is a metaphor we need to save ourselves and work together with Life lovers not hater, my view yet is the great apathy apeaser to non action and standing in our own divinity is waiting on a higher so called master like saviour . that book is only about 5% gems and rest misinterpreted. I feel and have Intuited, experienced and researched.
Thank you so much from a Roman Catholic
I have lost count of how many times I have returned to this presentaion Father Gavin. You reflect my own position throughout though I would not be able to articulate it in such a coherant way as you have done. I am so grateful that there is indeed a way back from the madness through Jesus Christ....." Holy Holy Holy is the Lord " and may our Christian men (of all colour )stand strong with men like you to walk beside them as we continue this current odyssey.
I'm very glad indeed it has been useful to you.
@@DrGAshenden I am sorry that this is not available as an interview because it is packed to overflowing. 30/60 with not a moment waisted and I am left with no opportunity to unpack it further because of (personal circumstances)...as you might say, this is perhaps not the moment to go into that.
Why is it do you think, that the obvious is not being discussed by those who are in a position to know - that once a child has been sexualised the brain heart n soul of that child is radically changed ? And that we are universally, not simply condoning this but demanding it ?
Thank you so much Fr Gavin for sharing your thoughts with us in such clear conversation. You remind us that there is hope in this mad world for those who turn to God. Bless you for your continued ministry over the Internet. Many thanks, Arthur (South Africa).
Fresh breeze off your analysis. Thank you for this. Glad I found your channel. Prayers and blessings.
I enjoyed every bit of this wonderful talk. I would like to add that I have faith that we will not be forced underground but will flourish! Already, the signs are here. Our local St Mary Student Parish which welcomes the local community of young families, and adults of all ages is the fastest growing Parish in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan. We are growing and vibrant!
A number of years ago the Archbishop of Canterbury announced that the Resurrection was not a real event, but just a sort of motivational analogy. For me, that marked the end of the C of E as Christian.
Thanks Dr Ashenden, looking forward to your next video! God bless you. Viva Cristo Rey! 🙏👑🌹✝️
The phrase "revolutions eat their own" always reminds me of the first Revolution, the French, in the late 18th century. Interesting to note, that all its leaders, the most powerful men who had promoted it also died by it, executed on the very Guillotine they themselves had invented.
Yuri Slezkine in House of Government talks in details about this
@@nmoriss exactly this also. And if you suspect Stalin was murdered that includes all the significant leaders of the Bolsheviks were eaten by it.
I just found your channel! What a delight you are! Your tone is spell bounding! John 14:6 - “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” God Bless You! To God Be The Glory!
Vintage Ashenden and one of his best ever videos. I've advertised it on my Facebook page. I like the dog in his background.
Thank you for your kindness and thank you for sharing it.
Loved this! Ended in just the right note.
Audibility has improved some. You are sweetly soft spoken dear
Dr. Ashenden.
Thank you for sharing this outstandingly insightful video.
I'm afraid I had a broken microphone earlier. I'm trying to replace it and meanwhile using an iphone
@@DrGAshenden dr would you mind doing on femism , marxism , natural law and freedom of speech on law in the modern era .Alot of academics are quite on this and tend to avoid this
also please do a video on advice for young men in an illogical world
I'm blessed to have found this Channel. Thank you Dr Ashenden.
Heather, I'm so pleased. We can thank God together.
@@DrGAshenden GOD bless and thank you for continuing to be a leading light. Many of us are lost right now 🌸
Thank you Dr Gavin.
I am observing people recoiling from facing truth,trying to hide from it,all part of God exposing things
Just like Adam n Eve did in the garden ….how is it that we imagine we can hide from God ? We are such children. Unfortunately we also have the car keys…..for now.
Excellent as usual. Thank you.
LOVE IT Time for us to STAND UP and FIGHT for our GREAT GOD. Womder if GOD is laughing at this world madness. Gates of hell shall NEVER PREVAIL AGAINST HIS Church.THANKS for GREAT work.
We live through many 'ages' (secula seculorem) and each has its 'last days', and we are not to deceived or concerned if these are 'final' as that knowledge is the Father's and whomever He wants to share that with. What must endure is our Faith through these trials (adversity, as said in the video) for sure, and the choices we make as Dr Ashenden has, to be enveloped in the safety of the fullness of Christ.
This is a wonderful video, it's interesting to hear things from a learned Christian perspective (other than my own).
A lot of the things mentioned in this video are things that I have thought of myself in passing, but I have no one to bounce my thoughts off; nearly everyone around me is either agnostic, a "Casual Christian", or a Christian very uneducated on the topic of their own religion, and/or current events.
It's nice to know I am not crazy for thinking these things, or at least there is somebody else crazy along with me xD
Thank you Gavin. God bless you.
Thank you Penny.
thanks a lot, Gavin, encouraging words....
Bring it on! Love it! There is no better time to be a Catholic...they are indeed frightening times but there is a sense of exhilaration that is very bracing...
Totally brilliant talk...
Thank you and amen.
Authoritative lecture. More on this.
Thank you so much for making sense of the world we are living in .
You are completely right. Thank you Mr. Ashenden.
A bit behind I am but bless you very much Fr Gavin.
Great stuff.
Greetings from Ireland 🇮🇪 thank you and God bless you. It might be interesting to do a piece on pop music and how it influences how we think.
You are so right! For that reason I have not listened to any for decades - and so am ill quipped - but great idea.
@@DrGAshenden might I also suggest a title such as 'The Protest-ant Within' to examine the apostasy within our own RC parish communities? Where being a "good Catholic" is to not stand for the truth- thus dumming down The Truth in the name of fraternity and for fear of appearing judgemental?
Excellent video Sir.
Thank you. I find these videos so thoughtful, profound and informative. Aside from wanting to know where the opening music comes from, after watching this I’d love to see that idea of a public and private language unpacked further. How should we speak inside our circles and in the world out there? Once again, thank you so very much. God bless you.
24:29 very insightful and unique perspective imo...
Bravo!
Thank you very much for this. Gavin. You always succeed in setting out the arguments so clearly and logically. Slightly off the subject of this video, I would be interested to know whether, when you were considering your move away from the C of E, you had thought about the Orthodox Church at any stage? How does their theology differ, if at all, from that of the Western Church? A recent internet search showed me that a number of Orthodox congregations have been formed in the UK as a way of meeting the needs of distressed Anglicans looking for a new, safe and secure spiritual home. Your opinion please?
Dr Gavin did at one stage consider joining the Orthodox community, but finally decided on the Catholic Church. He has given a number of great interviews on his conversion where this is touched on, they're all online.
I did indeed consider Orthodoxy ( as some of my friends have observed.) I thin there are theological and cultural issues that determine our actions, but there is also the Holy Spirit. I have found the Holy Spirit directing me to become a Catholic. I nearly followed by friend Fr Michael Harper (a well known charismatic Anglican leader and theologian) into the Antiochean Orthodox Church - but could not fail to see that the Holy Spirit just wasn't having it. So one has to pray about it. But I think it is clear to most people of discernment that the C of E has sold out terminally and is beyond recovery. There comes a point where repentance institutionally is no longer possible.
@@DrGAshenden Many thanks Gavin. That's most helpful and illuminating.
I also wish to make the move and am wondering the best way to go about it.
@@gwenechotaylor96 Don't over think it. Probably just go to the nearest Catholic church and talk to the priest. Doesn't matter if he's a particularly "good" or "bad" one. You'll meet and recognise truth. That, at least, was my experience 40 years ago.
Thanks Dr, so very much! ✡️✝️🇨🇦😘🇬🇧
you give me hope
The Truth…I have Eternal Life ☀️💛 God bless
Seeing Everthing through the lens of power you lose love…Yes!!!!
Thank you Dr Gavin for a very coherent, informative talk . Anyone who has been watching these deceptions unfold especially during the last 50yrs or so could not in their right mind disagree. Some people like yourself can articulate these truths others can only perceive them.
IHMary
God bless
Harry
Dostoevsky saw this over 100 years ago. He was already seeing the results of the "God is dead" belief.
We stand on the rock of faith....we shine our light for all to see, we follow the Way , the Truth and the Life...we pray for Pope Francis as he seems to occasionally lapse into a studied ambiguity that can be unsettling for the seekers of truth...the Tower of Babel comes to mind !
you have a beautiful dog.
Vintage Ashenden. Christianity is a ‘comedy’ in the classical sense that the protagonist prevails…. Thank you for the insight that the very madness of our age opens a horizon for the salvation that only the Divine Protagonist can offer… mediated through the Catholic Church (by His design).
I have a gut feeling that The Catholic Church in UK will be stripped of it's charitable status in the not too distant future.
It will probably be threatened that if it doesn't bend the knee, it will be stripped of its charitable status.
It needs to stand firm. There is an agenda to get rid of Christianity.
You, need to stand firm. 🧍♂️
Thank you Gavin for these excellent thoughts. I do wonder, though, why people who leave the Church of England have a tendency to go ‘higher’ to Catholicism rather than ‘lower’ to evangelicalism?
Would it be Henry VIII and his divorces? The Eucharist was made null and void by the Pope of the times. The True Eucharist is in the Catholic Church.
Thank you Gavin. May I mention a book which casts its net wider and goes deeper into the historical roots of postmodernity and the emergence of 'the modern self' than does the focus on feminism and neo-Marxism. I'm only half way through it, but I'm finding it really helpful. It is "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution", by Carl R. Trueman (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020).
Dear David, that's very helpful - thank you. I had a great deal else to say, and feel embarrassed at all that I left out, - but there is only so much one should put into a YT video. But thank you very much for this. I will try to get hold of it.
@@DrGAshenden Thanks Gavin: I didn't mean to suggest that you'd left anything out - just making folks aware an informative book.
Excellent Speak of Truth! I do believe this would Never have Gotten to Such a Degree; If Our Lady had Not been So Looked Down Upon by The Protestant Movement! Which of course has been completely hatched by the Devil himself! Out of his Complete hatred for her! All of the total Lack of Respect and Down right denigration of OUR BEAUTIFUL and MOST HOLY MOTHER!!! This has caused such degradation of society! But OH BOY! I say; if they Only Knew How Wonderful IS THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR HER! And HOW WOUNDEROUS IS THE SON'S TOTAL LOVE FOR HIS HOLY and MOST LOVING MOTHER! The Spouse of The HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF!!!! She; I Believe; IS THE HEART of JESUS CHRIST; and HE IS FULLY WITHIN HIS MOTHER'S HEART AS WELL! How Could any WOMAN EVER DISLIKE HER FEMININITY??? Well; I suppose that those so called men; who are NOT TRULY REAL MEN AT ALL; who choose to pick on Women; ( the Mother's of their own children?) And their own children; Caused so much of the lesbian movement. By those women who have had to live terrified; most of the time! This has caused many women to; I Believe; harden their Heart's! And then the abuse's have just sky rocketed through the suffering children! Oh, my Most Beautiful Mother of All The World; Pray For Us ALL!
Thank you for another excellent talk.
I would dispute that "if you chop a pie up, that men and women should receive the same portion". For instance, I eat 3/5ths, and my littler, other half eats 2/5ths. Reason and experience suggests that to do otherwise would leave me gaunt and her, gross.
Moral equality does not direct the distribution of pies, but the standing and treatment of complainants before authority.
God Bless You!
Simply put, reprobate minds!
A slip of the tongue speaks volumes: "The Garden of Even"
I am in agreement with your analysis. It's very good. I had to rise above the feminism of the '70's. One point to make, is the role the church took by suppressing the feminine role in the early historical church. As an artist, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a woman in Michelangelo's last supper. People are in denial about that, to the point of blindness. Women preached in Jesus ministry. Even Richard Rohr speaks of the infantilising of the congregation over the centuries, and lays it squarely at the door of the Vatican.
Da Vinci's Last supper, and it's a fresco. DaVinci was notorious for not finishing work and not priming surfaces, so the fresco started flaking off immediately, and has also been bomb damaged. Now it's a faded mess. How convenient for conspiracy generators tho. The whole Mary Magdalene malarkey was started by a fascist who claimed he was Merovingian Royalty ( ancient died out dynasty) and forged documents to "prove it" and because he was a "fraternal" promulgated the blasphemy of "Mary Magdalene's Jesus sired child" who was the 1st of the Merovingian Dynasty, attack on the Church, and it was linked with the Cathars and other heresies with much ludicrous "sacred geometry".
This gnostic propaganda Dan Brown built his puerile drivel around a generation later, Brown so sloppy in his research and whose grasp of counting is so poor he claimed there was an extra hand in the fresco)
So not just Anti Catholic propaganda disguised as research, Brown took it all as scholarship!
The figure is John, and Peter is possibly loudly and agressively asking him (as Jesus's confident) who is the betrayer?
and John is blocking answering Peter (hands locked eyes downcast) Peter is extremely agitated, the irony being that he has lunged right past Judas! to question John.
What the Catholic Laity actually hasn't been taught is that Catholicism only works if you work it, that has disarmed the Church, and made it superfluous day to day, much to our detriment.
I did consider age 15 that it might be possible to reduce all human interactions to a monetary value and a profit or loss based on this. I considered this for about 3 months weighing up the benefits and costs. Maybe it was Christmas that made me decide it was a bankrupt theory, sorry for the pun, but now decades later the madness of the concept is alive, well and seems mainstream.
Quite correct. However, we must not confuse the western world for the world at large. Thankfully, much of this madness is confined to the western world. Even though many are trying their hardest to promote this madness under the guise of 'freedom and democracy'.
If GOD is so great, why does he not help people sort things out?
He does.
Dr. Ashenden you have summed up the critical area of conflict in society dealing with third phase Feminism. Your references back to the church is fine for you but slightly over my head. We have three generations of working mothers and the results in society are far less than positive. The schism in families will become grater and almost universal. We breed this in schools. I look back at prayers and a hymn at morning assembly and it is clear that the words and quiet contemplation of them set those attending up for a day of trying to live up them. I consider that nowadays those children who never had these few minutes each day of prayer and hymn singing have defected from the church and sought a new religion.
'Supercilious' stepped into my ungrateful mind at the end of a thought provoking if provocative sermon. Otherwise, one was gratefully distracted throughout by an aimless husky meandering in the background as with the pleasant tinkling chimings of a clock or two. Thank you
I’m currently studying for lay ministry within the Anglican Church and am dismayed by the very feminist perspective that is taken. The seminars deliberately exaggerate the role of women in the Bible. The Anglican Church has been so influenced by Marxist ideology that it really seems to believe that Jesus was a Marxist. Feminism is essentially a Marxist ideology, in place of the industrialists exploiting the working class we have the notion that the patriarchy and men exploit women, especially white European men apparently. I believe that the feminisation of the church has been a huge turn off for men who are largely absent from congregations, from lay ministry training and from ordination. I say this as a woman. I know I am loved equally by God and my salvation is equal to a mans, yet my role as deemed by my creator is different to the role God intended for men. I fully accept and happily embrace the fact that Jesus, God and the apostles were all men and that was how God intended it, that as a woman God has a special but different role for me. Who am I to question this,to criticise God or to assume I know better ? The church seems to think it knows better than God, that God somehow got it all wrong when we created male and female and our distinct roles. It is an incredible arrogance.
Dear Vicki, your experience matches mine. I hope they don't give you too hard a time. I think the conflict is more than just different perspectives.
@@DrGAshenden It is more than different perspectives yes, its like inhabiting a different universe where the "fleeting wisdom of the age" is replacing the outdated mores and values of the bible and it is considered wise and progressive to do so. We are studying mission for the next 6 weeks and amongst the 5 missions of the church are climate change and addressing structural inequalities. Although Saving souls and spreading the word is still regarded as a mission we are told it might not need to be the primary mission and why not climate change as the top mission? It attracts young people apparently and might bring them in to church. Now whilst I am all for clean water, reducing waste, treating God's creation with respect, I am bemused as to why it is thought possibly more important that the old fashioned missions of saving souls and serving them. I suppose saving souls no longer gives one that virtuous warm fuzzy feeling as its old fashioned and does not lead to cultural approval, whilst climate change activism is fashionable and has society's stamp of approval? It ahs become very political one of the recommended books for the module is "Here are your Gods, faithful discipleship in idolatrous times" by Christopher Wright. Fortunately God and being a faithful disciple chime perfectly with his own political opinions (remarkable really) So nationalism is a false idol but faith in unaccountable governing bodies like the EU and UN are not false idols and supporting them is part of good discipleship. If you voted Brexit its straight to hell!
I am sure that the book has much to recommend it and I should give it a chance, but it seems very divisive.
The point connecting fevered madness to drugs may be expanded on elsewhere in these talks--I have just begun to listen--but even if so, it's hard not to notice that the legalization of pot, its increased potency and availability, along with a growing fondness for and usage of extremely intense psychedelics correlate very interestingly with massive cultural confusion. It is no surprise to me whatsoever to hear men are beginning to contemplate giving birth and "chest feeding": these notions assuredly stem from a fabric of reality within which they themselves are, directly or indirectly, "high."
How about women?
Who will stand for the Lord said Joshua , many times Israel was confronted with that call ……..God or Baal said Elijah …….choose ………I stand for the Lord 🙏🏻
Does this mean paganist religions luck out?
Wittgenstein was not too bad because with him you could agree on the terminology before discussing things. You had a common tool. Now the words are blurry and often meaningfree. How is it possible to have a conversation like that? With many people it no longer is.
I love your talk. However, the I in DIE, or DEI is equity, not equality, and equity means equal outcomes, irrespective of equal inputs, for those of the victim class.
Indeed
Pleasure to listen to you but I feel you fudged the question of the ordination of women a little. Your criticism of Peterson was that he evaded questions he had not thought long and hard about and I felt you evaded women's ordination in the same way: you scattered a few platitudes on the ground then ran. I know this is not a theological platform but a balanced case for and against this question would have been a more honest response.
you didn't mention Fourth-wave feminism and its intersectionality component. By my observation cultural relativism has subsumed the church with the same tactics outside the church. Excommunication for all practical terms doesn't happen in the catholic or evangelical church. It is a pretty hard sell if the church is the same as the world. It confuses new Christians because we SHOULD be set apart.
In what way set apart?
@@joycedupuy8751 Morally
I wonder how the non/extra-biblical concept of the Church as mother reconciles with Revelation 19 and 21, which portrays the Church as a pure, virginal Bride. A virgin bride cannot be a mother. Biblically speaking, God is our only parent, and he begets us by his word.
'A virgin bride cannot be a mother'? Mary?
This [I would like to swear a bit but I cannot near a former royal chaplain, allow me to curtsy instead of cursing] gender madness is now apparently scientific (Help!!!). I keep on getting surveys from UNIVERSITIES where the list of genders is downright scary. I shiver in horror and go to renew my supermarket client card. The system offers me two options: MALE and FEMALE.
It seems that supermarkets are serious places and universities aren't. O tempora, o mores!
Take up the cross of
Saint George.
DEUS VULT !!!
PAX DOMINI.
No not mad not crazy just Deuteronomy 28
King James Version re read it and know the truth
Oh dear, I do not agree that what you're describing is feminism. Women simply want the freedom to choose their paths and not to be opressed or worse, abused by men. We do not believe men and women are equal at all. We are equal intellectually and should have equal opportunity in all aspects of society. No-one, man or woman expects equal outcome. That's up to circumstance. Everyone needs to be a feminist! It has nothing to do with an assualt on the Gospels. I'm Catholic and a feminist. I'm raising two daughters and acutely aware of the violence exerted on women and girls by men everyday. Domestic violence towards women has risen tragically high in the past 5 years. Men need to stop blaming women for their own insecurities and weaknesses that bubble up when women demand equal opportunity and respect for our minds and bodies. I was so happy to find your channel. But this is sooooo disappointing. Why on earth would you even lump feminism in with lgbtq rights? You're conflating all different sorts of ideas together in this talk. Feminism is not a post modern demand for power. I'm so sad to listen to this sad backwards view of women standing up for themselves 😒
I would add, Jesus too was a feminist, just look at his beautiful relationship with Mary Magdalene !
Only Women can be feminists
@@ladysudaandthegoddessmorri3217 a feminist is an advocate for women's rights. Any person can do this!
@@joycedupuy8751 The original feminists were women though.
I get what you are saying, but men can support and advocate for women without the label of ' feminist '
Thats my personal opinion.
Rockefeller wanted Women in the workplace so he could tax them.
Did you know that?...
@@ladysudaandthegoddessmorri3217 I don't like the label either, that's my point. This lecture about so called feminism was awful and mysoginistic. Women shouldn't be labelled simply because they are standing up for themselves. And I don't mind paying taxes if the services I'm paying for are of high quality.... But that's a whole other days topic! ☹️
I like Gavin Ashenden but his Power vs Love Matrix is actually holding us back in this present strife as it comes close to collapsing the Authority of the Believer. It is possible that he may intend for Power to be exercised through Love, although the Authority of the Believer is Real and it is a Power phenomenon, especially in dealing with the 'world, the flesh and the devil' and this was clearly understood and practised by the Desert Fathers in the 4th Century.
The word 'power' is inherently problematic - it's true. We need to distinguish between power in its more dangerous aspects like 'control' and efficacy through holiness like 'potency'. 'Power' needs as many redefinitions in terms of its usage as 'Love' does. We have to go on using it, but I agree that it needs to be done with care and and with refined definition.
Gavin. Thank you. From an Evangelical perspective I like the use of Potency but what if that is bound up with "Kenarchy" - self emptying power.
Don’t like that demand for heroism so much. Any way to be comfortable and Christian? The old stories about the martyrs are edifying, or even relatively recent conditions like the penal laws in Ireland, or present conditions in China and elsewhere, but surely that’s all history or miles away. Surely we European/Western Christians can rest on our laurels, or our anscestors’ laurels. I really would like a quiet life!
GAVIN: In a way you and I know one another from 'banter' instigated through your appearances on 'Anglican Unscripted'. What I cannot help but discern here is your hugely negative attitude toward 'The World'. It is as though you have forgotten that God is the Creator, and Sustainer, of ALL. That means that - with regard to our little Planet - "the Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof". As a 69-year-old homosexual Christian, I have had to learn that the Church does not 'own' God: and - my goodness - have we learned that lesson through the various churches' capitulation to Caesar during the 'Time-of-Covid'. During my life I have seen God's Spirit working - outside of, and despite the Church - using the benefits of science, philosophy and (Yes! Relativism!) to make our 'western' societies into communitiues which are more humane than they were at the time of my birth in 1952. Some of those 'changes' may be see in the UK 'Royal' Family. Very early in your talk you cite the 'Ten Commandments'. As a scholar, you will know there are several versions of these in the Tanakh: but we are not Jews. We are Christians. We follow the teachings of a young Galilean Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Early Church records (Mt: 22; vv26ff) as replacing those 'commandments' with one instruction. Of course, all of his teaching, through parable and dialogue, elaborates on what his Father is like, and who our 'neighbour' is. I cannot help, but think, that you would prefer a thoroughly 'codified' society: yet Jesus' greatest reinterpretation of the faith of his forebears, was the 'switch' from a 'collective' form of relationship, between Tribe and Yahweh, into an 'individualistic' relationship, based on love, repentance, and forgiveness. Today, our societies appear to be like Babel: but we must not lose sight of the fact that the Father is still 'in charge. If only te Church would do some 'proclaiming': instead of 'listening', and attempting to improve its social cfedentials.
Of course God is Creator and Sovereign; yet still, in a Christ-rejecting world, "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one".
Thanks David - so much more succinct than I would have been. One might quote the temptations and Jesus description as satan as the ruler of this world in St John; to say nothing of the Book of Revelation.
@@davidrudd2215 NO! God is sovereign......as declared by Jesus during the temptations. Surely that is the point of these 'recollections' (for want of a better word). And, of course, the young Galilean male Jew would have spoken in the metaphors recognisable to the people he was addressing, and which formed part of his own 'thought-world', unless we wish to posit the idea that the cranium of Jesus, the man, contained a brain unlike our own? We are perfectly capable of utter evil, without needing to be 'tempted' by a third party.
@@Mark_Dyer1 Jesus would have thought in the mind-set of a ‘young Galilean male Jew’ - albeit one which was wholly and perfectly submitted to his Father. But his overcoming conflict with Satan was real, no mere construct of his own ‘thought world’ or dumbed-down means of connecting with his contemporaries. And, as St Paul has it, the ‘prince of the power of the air’ is still ‘at work in the sons of disobedience’.
And would it not be truer to say that Jesus did not ‘reject’ but rather summarised God’s commandments. As St John says, ‘This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
Mark, as David said, Our Lord rather summarised the 10 commandments (Mark 12: 29-31); He did not reject them: Matthew 5: 17-18 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Pax Christi. ✝️🕊
Quite right Dr Ashenden - a wonderful talk... Thank you!
... Foucault and Derrida?? ... Stay away from these ungodly and perverted minds!!
I find John Butler "Spiritual Unfoldment" a wonderfully stop to look into - and cheerily come back to (here on UA-cam) ... A reassuringly calm and Christian 'corner' in these rather sad and turbulent times - a still point in a turning world, indeed.
God Bless you - I am so happy to have discovered your spot!
Thank you for this. Quite timely for me. A point and a question from me. My Catholic priest accused Angilcan clergy who converted to Catholicism of being afraid of women in positions of power in the church. He cited Mary the mother of God. Do you have a view on this?
And my question is, as a lay person how do I defend belief in God and the death and resurrection of Jesus to the postmodern mind? Or maybe put the other way. How to promote?
Re. postmodernity: perhaps the challenge to us is that people should see Christ in us.
There is often a good deal of pseudo-psychological ad hominem abuse in the gender wars. It's usually dealt with by asking if the critic has any concrete evidence. You cannot become a Catholic by running away from Anglicanism - you have to want to be a Catholic. If you become one you will immediately encounter some of the most powerful women in history. But their 'power' was spiritual and metaphysical, not political. Look at Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St Bridget of Sweden; Teresa of Avila etc. So, your Catholic priest is betraying his own silliness and prejudices and projecting them onto others. As it also happens, the experiment of feminism shows that both men and women become very badly corrupted by power - perhaps in slightly (but not very) different ways. As for the postmodern mind, I think one can only offer the Gospel when they are collapsing and desperate. Until then, they are well defended against coherence and sensible rationality. I think the best thing one can do is pray for the souls to be softened up, and be ready to give a faithful and succinct answer when asked,
@@DrGAshenden Thank you for responding. I think you make some interesting points. I agree there are numerous strong women in Catholicism. I forgot to mention he also mentioned that it is the Anglicans who brought politics into the mix - conservatism v progressivism and asserted that some years ago a Catholic priest was simply a priest without any attached political views and implications. Based on some of my experiences I think he has a point however I'm not sure he can even back this up with concrete evidence Thank you for your thoughts on postmodernism. I think it bound to fall apart for individuals and the pieces will surely have to be picked up.
@@daddycool228 I'm sorry to appear to be argumentative, but if you are reporting him correctly, priest is being unhelpfully selective. He is right in saying that Anglican priests have (in England at least) preferred politics to prayer; but in the 20th C Catholicism had its own attraction to right wing politics (even if it was in defence against Communism in the Spanish Civil War for example, and an equal attraction to the Left in Liberation Theology. So let us simply agree that whatever one's background taking refuge in politics is a diversion from the spiritual struggle we are called to acquaint ourselves with and engage with through prayer, sacraments and sacrficice.
@@DrGAshenden some stock answers might be useful for those who were failed in catechism from the 60's on.