Chinese communists ramp up 'sinicization' campaign, removing remaining Christian symbols



The atheistic communist regime in China has long sought to crush or, at the very least, control Christianity within its borders.

According to a new report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the communist campaign to forcibly eradicate "religious elements considered contradictory to the CCP's political and policy agenda" is ramping up under dictator Xi Jinping.

Although the report reveals much about the regime, it also signals a great deal about the Chinese people's perseverance and enduring faith. After all, the regime's desperation now is the result of its failure these past 75 years to crush the faith of Chinese Christians with torture, murder, propaganda, and imprisonment.

Captive to the Marxist notion that religion is an "opiate of the masses," the communist Chinese regime began taking over churches and temples in the 1950s; deporting missionaries; and closely monitoring religious groups.

Pew Research noted that during the Cultural Revolution, dictator Mao Zedong sought to eliminate religion outright, banning all religious activities, viciously persecuting religious personnel, and, in many cases, slaughtering Christian clerics and laypeople. While the regime drew blood and flattened churches, the faithful went underground.

'The government has implemented the coercive "sinicization of religion" policy, which has fundamentally transformed China's religious environment.'

While there was a relative easing of restrictions in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the regime has continued to subject Chinese Christians of all denominations to harassment, torture, detentions, and executions.

Breaking bodies hasn't worked, so the regime is trying harder now to break the Chinese Christian's mind.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's noted in its September report:

Under Xi Jinping's rule as the paramount leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the government has implemented the coercive "sinicization of religion" policy, which has fundamentally transformed China's religious environment. Sinicization, or the complete subordination of religious groups to the CCP's political agenda and Marxist vision for religion, has become the core driving principle of the government's management of religious affairs.

The report highlighted the regime's "Sinicization Work Plans," including for Protestants and Catholics, "emphasize patriotism, loyalty to the CCP and China's political system, and conformity of religious doctrines, sermons, rituals, and architectural styles of places of worship with the CCP's ideological requirements."

Authorities have reportedly ordered the removal of all crosses from all known churches and for images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary to be replaced with pictures of Xi Jingping. The regime also requires the display of CCP slogans over the entrances of churches. Religious texts have been censored or removed altogether.

Homilies are censored. Surveillance cameras installed on altars surveil all church happenings.

Blaze News previously reported that to ensure state atheism takes, people under the age of 18 are also barred from participating in religious ceremonies.

'Tens of millions of Christians have opted not to join these organizations.'

These sinicization plans appear to be primarily targeting the "official" churches and associations, such as the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, and the China Christian Council, which are all under the thumb of the regime. Meanwhile, the unregulated, underground churches continue to resist the regulation of the state.

According to the report, "while the state-controlled Christian religious organizations have pushed and enforced the state's restrictions on religion, tens of millions of Christians have opted not to join these organizations and instead worship independently."

Underground Catholics, for instance, "view the Vatican as the sole legitimator of spiritual authority, which the CCP views as a threat," and reject the CCP-aligned bishops installed without the Vatican's consultation and approval. Leaders in the underground Catholic church are often "disappeared."

"Independent house church Protestants face similar repression for not joining the [Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement], with the government detaining, arresting, and incarcerating independent Protestant leaders and laypersons," said the report.

A 2011 Pew Forum report indicated that the number of Christians, including Protestants and Catholics, exceeded 67 million. The Economist similarly indicated in 2020 that official numbers aren't reflective of the reality; that Chinese Christians and Muslims together outnumber the membership of the communist party (92 million).

According to the Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors, there are now an estimated 96.7 million Christians in China.

Open Doors indicated that the persecution level in China is "very high," ranking it as the 19th-worst offender worldwide. Freedom House, meanwhile, ranks China as "not free," giving it a score of 9 out of 100, with 100 being the most free when compared with other countries.

In its annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that the U.S. government re-designate China as a "country of particular concern" for "engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom." The watchdog further recommending imposing sanctions targeting those Chinese officials and entities responsible for such freedom violations.

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This year’s ‘Burning Man’ was full-on pagan worship



Burning Man is a week-long event that describes itself as being focused on “community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance” that’s held annually out West in the desert.

The event centers around the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy that is referred to as the “Man," and Allie Beth Stuckey is calling it what it is: pagan worship.

“It’s about self-expression, self-reliance, self-discovery, self-fulfillment, self-liberation, and even self-worship,” Stuckey says. “Ultimately, that’s what all paganism is.”

“It’s no surprise that this event has grown in popularity over the years. It really is just a celebration of the carnal celebration of sex, drugs, perversion,” she continues, noting that attendees adopt “new names,” lay their burdens on the wooden effigy, and eliminate monetary transactions on the philosophy of shared resources when they enter the event.

“This is like an upside-down world of Christianity, that when we come into Christianity, we also become new creations, and we take on an easy yoke and a light burden when we follow the way of Christ, and we cast all of our cares upon the Lord because he cares for us,” Stuckey explains.

“This is a cheap and pagan imitation of that because it is pretending to offer its attendees freedom, while really attaching them and bounding them to the heavy burden and slavery of sin,” she adds.

Burning Man holds sessions that you can participate in like a rope-bondage suspension, orgies, marriages, crafting, and getting branded.

“You can get branded, you know, like a cow,” Stuckey says, shocked. “These people so badly want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, they want to be marked for something more, they want something indelible on them and even in their hearts and souls.”

“And they are looking for all of that in the wrong place, of course, which is exactly what Satan does,” she adds.


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Russell Brand explores what was revealed by the Olympics' symbolic attack on Christianity



Before cobbling together the first of several failed republics, French revolutionaries slaughtered Christian clerics, looted churches, banned Catholicism, and embarked on a campaign to altogether de-Christianize the country.

Some revolutionaries went so far as to attempt to replace the longstanding state religion with the atheistic Cult of Reason. To this end, cultists swapped out the remaining religious statues in Notre Dame Cathedral for secular busts, engaged in rituals mocking those once practiced on the altar, and paraded around hyper-sexualized women, including an actress meant to portray the goddess of reason.

In a similar spirit, the French kicked off the 2024 Olympics with anti-Christian mockery and substitution — although this time, they opted for men pretending to be hyper-sexualized women.

The ceremony's designer, Thomas Jolly, staged a scene for broadcast clearly intended to resemble Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." However, instead of faithfully depicting Christ and his apostles, Jolly had a cast of transvestites strike iconic poses on either side of a morbidly obese individual wearing a crown-like halo.

'They attempt, in fact, to obdurate the very principle of the divine.'

Later, a virtually naked man painted blue — who was apparently supposed to be Dionysus, the Greek god of wine-making and ritual madness — who was set upon the table on a plate in front of the mock apostolate proceeded to sing.

In a recent op-ed for Blaze News, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) noted:

In European history, conquerors often commemorated and widely publicized their victories by replacing the sacred religious symbols of the conquered with their own. In some cases, the conquerors obliterated the sacred landmarks and symbols, building new ones on top of those built and maintained by their predecessors. In other cases, the conquerors would commandeer pre-existing religious symbols and structures, making significant modifications to reflect the values and goals of the conquering authority.

Newly baptized actor and podcast host Russell Brand recently pondered precisely what symbols these would-be conquerors are attempting to advance as well as what is ultimately at the heart of the French's latest cultish display.

"I wonder when it became explicit that what we are engaged in is a type of spiritual warfare; that secularism, rationalism, and materialism themselves are kind of godless, not even pantheistic or pagan faiths," said Brand. "They attempt, in fact, to obdurate the very principle of the divine."

Brand noted further that he was struck by the "deliberate evocation of Christian imagery in order to what? Deride it? In order to what? Attack it? Undermine it? What are the values that are being proposed here? Is it hedonism? Is it decadence? Is it individualism? Is it that the self — your own personal set of decrees, desires and edicts are the apex and supreme hierarchy of ideologies? That there is nothing superior and supreme to which we have to surrender?"

Brand concluded that what is behind this propaganda is in line with the project of the Paris' 18th century cultists of reason: to "derail the sacred and engender a kind of state of nihilism where everything might be regarded as a truth."

While the podcast host later indicated he was not altogether convinced that the coloration of the Dionysus character in a corpse-like color and his presentation as a meal was intended to be a direct mockery of the Eucharist, he said the display was at the very least oriented toward "nihilism, unbelief, celebration of selfishness."

On the basis of Brand's comments in a video posted Wednesday to his X account, it appears he regards this nihilistic project as a trap for the soul.

"There are times when I've told you that I felt far for Christ," said Brand. "This is a verse that brought me back into connection with our Lord. It's from Isaiah. 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.'"

"My feelings of faith have altered lately because I've had the sense that through fear I might take back my self will, that I might, through fear, think I have to be in control of the situation," continued Brand. "If you feel that you are being attacked, if you are under threat, it seems obvious, rational, sensible, to take back control."

"But the sensation of faith — allowing Christ in His sub-molecular potency, right down to the granule, right out into the cosmological, to order all things, for we are dealing with the king of eternity," added Brand.

Brand noted that surrender to Christ means liberation from "the cubic reality afforded to you by materialism and rationalism, and into a transcendent realm where you are given grace — where once I have accepted sin and surrendered, and allowed Him to carry me, I am granted a new freedom. ... I don't belong to myself anymore and that is true freedom."

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'We are frogs in the kettle': Persecution watchdog sounds alarm on growing threat facing American Christians



Open Doors, the watchdog group born of an effort to smuggle Bibles into communist-occupied Poland, indicated in its latest annual report that one in seven Christians worldwide faces "high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith." That amounts to over 365 million Christians with targets on their backs. Things appear to be getting progressively worse, granted five years ago, the statistic was one in nine.

The 10 worst countries for Christians are reportedly North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, and Afghanistan in that order. While a Christian faces a good chance of torture, imprisonment, rape, and death on account of their faith in any one those oppressive nations, supposedly civilized countries further up the rankings are not much better.

China's 96.7 million Christians, for instance, have in recent years been subject to harassment, torture, detentions, and executions. Since Christianity is regarded as a foreign threat to the communist regime, churches are frequently desecrated, destroyed, or closely surveilled.

In India, anti-Christian attacks have spiked, frequently executed by Hindu nationalists. According to the Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, numerous pastors and and believers have been arbitrarily detained and savagely beaten while their churches are wrecked, especially in Uttar Pradesh.

Christian persecution is not just a foreign phenomenon. It's a problem in the United States as well and — according to another watchdog group — poised to worsen.

Forbidden prayers

Jeff King, president of the Washington, D.C.-based International Christian Concern recently suggested to the Christian Post that American Christians are right to get their hackles up.

"Basically, we are frogs in the kettle, and the bubbles keep coming up under us," said King. "Too many people are not aware politically, and they're so used to thinking of how things were that they can't figure out where these bubbles are coming from, not realizing they're being cooked."

King's sense that things are getting worse in the U.S. is reportedly informed, in part, by Staci Barber's case in Texas.

Barber is a teacher who has spent the past eight years of her 26-year teaching career at the Katy Independent School District near Houston. According to her lawsuit against the district, filed in March on Barber's behalf by the American Center for Law and Justice, she desperately wanted to create a chapter of Students for Christ at Cardiff Junior High, having previously sponsored a chapter at Alief ISD.

The principal, Scott Rounds, allegedly shut her down on multiple occasions. However, in the 2023-2024 school year, Barber and some Christian students prevailed in starting a Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, which Rounds apparently reluctantly approved.

In September, there was a prayer event on campus called See You At The Pole, which was scheduled to take place before school hours. Ahead of the event, Rounds allegedly sent out a memo stressing "district personnel shall not promote, lead, or participate in the meetings of non-curriculum-related student groups." The principal apparently also sent an email to Barber, stressing that she could not take part as she would be "on campus visible to students in [her] role as an employee."

Barber ultimately met at the pole to pray before work hours on Sept. 27, 2023, and was joined by two other teachers.

According to the complaint, the principal chastised Barber and "forbade the teachers from praying in the presence of students," indicating the purpose of the prohibition was to avoid the risk of students potentially joining in.

Following the prohibition, Barber apparently faced more antagonism from the administration.

"The Supreme Court has made it clear that student and teacher prayer, including prayer at SYATP events, is undisputedly a protected form of speech that school officials may not ban," says the lawsuit.

The American Center for Law and Justice said in a statement, "The primary goal of this lawsuit is to ensure that the school amends its policy to reflect what the Constitution actually requires. This school policy strips teachers and school employees of their fundamental right to express their faith freely, and must be struck down. We need your support in our legal battles for your right to pray."

King told the Christian Post that Barber's case not only "highlights the depth of ignorance among school boards and even at the principal level of what rights the Constitution grants people" but also a wider hostility toward Christians.

"The big picture, and what people need to grasp, is that's what's going on here in the West, and that's what a lot of people who dislike Christianity are proposing and trying to push forward," said King.

Hated for His name's sake

King suggested that countries whose leaders are antipathetic toward Christianity and enjoy influence over a politically weaponized judicial system can suppress Christians' speech and even prompt them to withdraw from public debate.

The president of the watchdog highlighted how India, for instance, has religious freedom in its constitution, "but it doesn't matter."

"It's what happens in practice," continued King. "And so when pastors are often attacked in the streets or in the churches, guess who gets arrested? It's the pastor. What happens is you keep your head down. So this is what we're seeing in the States."

"People learn that you do not stick your head up, and you start being quiet because the process is the punishment," added King.

Extra to an increasingly antagonistic justice system, King suggested that Christians face legislators keen to shut them up or handcuff them linguistically. He cited as examples hate speech legislation in other Western nations as well as Democrats' proposed Equality Act.

The Equality Act, which resembles in spirit the recent Title IX rewrite announced by the Biden Department of Education, would have defined sex to include gender ideology.

"It's strategic, it's banana republic, and these are political enemies of Christianity," said King. "They've gained power, and they're using the very laws, the very power of democracy, to go against their political enemies."

While anti-Christian forces are advancing in legislatures and courts around the country, they are also active on the streets.

Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council, noted in a February report that between 2018 and 2023, there were at least 915 acts of hostility against American churches. The attacks ranged from vandalism and arson to bomb threats.

Blaze News previously highlighted Turco's finding that between January and November 2023, there were at least 436 such attacks — eight times as many as there were in 2018 — such that 2023 ended up being the worst of all six years reviewed by the FRC.

The FRC observed 315 incidents of vandalism last year; 75 arson attacks or attempts; 10 gun-related occurrences; and 20 bomb threats.

Tony Perkins, president of the FRC and a former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said of the observations in the report, "There is a common connection between the growing religious persecution abroad and the rapidly increasing hostility toward churches here at home: our government's policies."

In the way of a remedy, King thought beyond legislation or politics, stating, "This really comes down to revival, and it starts with us personally."

"We've all got to turn back and cry to the Lord about not the political state of our country, but the religious state," said the watchdog. "We desperately need revival, and that all starts with us personally looking to the Lord and saying, 'Call me back and I'm completely yours, whatever you would have me do. All of my life is yours.'"

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Is the Shroud of Turin legit? Here's one pastor's interesting take



Is there enough evidence to prove that the burial cloth of Jesus Christ — the Shroud of Turin — is real?

Glenn Beck thinks so.

“I think we all have unbelievable pieces of the puzzle, and one of those pieces I think is the Shroud of Turin,” he says, describing the shroud as “a reverse negative.”

“When his body came back to life, it’s like the burial cloth was a film, and it printed in a burst of light ... the negative of his body in that cloth, and nobody really knows how it was made.”

Prestonwood Baptist Church apologetics pastor Jeremiah Johnston is also a believer — although he used to be a skeptic.

“There has been a pejorative vibe towards the shroud by anyone who isn’t Catholic,” Johnston tells Glenn, though he notes that even C.S. Lewis took the Shroud of Turin seriously.

“Lewis said, ‘I needed a reminder every morning and every evening that my God has a face,’ and so we’re not talking about something weird or fringe here,” Johnston explains.

While some skeptics claim that there’s no way a garment like a burial cloth could last for 2,000 years, Johnston disagrees.

“When you are a student of history, you can see we even have a Tarkhan dress linen shirt, and guess what, Glenn? It’s 3,200 years older than the Shroud of Turin,” he says, adding, “given the right set of circumstances, linen will last forever.”

During World War II, even Adolf Hitler tried to steal the Shroud.

“They had to save it from Hitler’s hands,” Johnston says, noting it’s “the most studied cross-disciplinary artifact in the world.”

The shroud has also gone through a lot more than any average cloth.

“It’s not a hoax, there’s no pigment, there’s no ink, there’s no dye. The shroud has survived three fires, it’s been doused in water twice,” Johnston says.

To learn more, watch the clip below.


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Holy Week Provides A Time To Offer Forgiveness — And Seek It Out

We forgive someone not necessarily because they deserve it, but because we want to bring out the best in them and in ourselves.

This ‘He Saves Us’ Ad Redeems Everything Wrong With The ‘He Gets Us’ Super Bowl Spot

Jesus preached a gospel of radical repentance, not tolerance or acceptance of sin.

Latin rapper Daddy Yankee says he's retiring to spread the gospel: 'To all the people who followed me, follow Jesus Christ'



Latin actor and rapper Daddy Yankee, 46, is retiring from an illustrious and lucrative career in music. Yankee, whose musical collaboration with pop singer Luis Fonsi, "Despacito," was the first Spanish-language song to crack the Billboard Hot 100 in over 20 years, indicated he will devote the rest of his life to Christ and spreading the gospel.

Yankee, the best-selling Latin artist of the 2000s, revealed his calling to fans during a farewell performance in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sunday.

During the show, which capped off his 2022 La Última Vuelta world tour, the musician, whose real name is Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, told the audience in Spanish, "My people, this day for me is the most important day of my life. And I want to share it with you because living a life of success is not the same as living a life with purpose."

Rodríguez indicated neither his fame nor his estimated $40 million fortune could remedy the "emptiness that [he] felt for a long time." Jesus Christ was, however, able to do so.

"What good will it be for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" said Rodríguez, quoting Matthew 16:26. "That is why tonight, I recognize, and I am not ashamed to tell the whole world, that Jesus lives in me and that I will live for him."

The musician indicated he will utilize his resources, platform, and popularity to promote Christianity and implored fans to join him in following Christ, reported USA Today.

"To all the people who followed me, follow Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life," he said. "Just like Jesus, with his mercy, allowed me to travel the world, in your mercy, Father, I hope you allow me to evangelize the world from Puerto Rico."

Notwithstanding his sunglasses, WNBC-TV indicated it was apparent that the rapper was crying toward the end of his declaration.

Long before his 2004 international hit single "Gasolina" and the 30 million record sales that ultimately followed, the so-called "reggaetón" artist had aspirations of playing professional baseball.

Rodríguez showed MTV Music where he watched, at age 6, a gunman charge a baseball field and gun down his coach, Juan Cintron, right in front of him. Although traumatized by the incident, the young Puerto Rican nevertheless maintained his aspirations of playing for the big leagues. However, years later a bullet came for him.

Around the age of 16, Rodríguez was reportedly in the process of recording a mix tape when he got struck by a stray bullet fired by an AK-47.

"It was in V.K. [aka Villa Kennedy in Santurce] — the place that I'm from," he recalled. "I was just vibing with the homies. And all of a sudden: Boom, boom! I saw the crossfire and I got caught in an exchange of bullets. I was running, running, running, running — but I got hit. It broke my bone, like, quick. In an instant: Bam! I went under a van when I was stumbling and that was the only reason I survived."

The future star's baseball dreams were over. His recovery took over a year and had him temporarily wheelchair-bound.

Despite the setback, he came to understand the incident as providential.

"I thank God for that bullet," said Rodríguez. "At that time, I didn't understand it. But right now, I give thanks to that bullet. That bullet made me be focused in music."

In his Instagram post concerning his new religious direction, Rodríguez wrote, "Tonight I acknowledge and am not ashamed to tell the whole world that Christ lives in me and that I live for him. This is the end of a chapter and the beginning of a whole new one."

The BBC reported that Rodríguez joins numerous other mega-stars who have left their music careers behind in order to devote themselves to Christ, including:

  • Al Green, who still preaches at the Full Gospel Tabernacle church in Memphis to this day;
  • Harlem rapper Mason Durell Betha, also known as Ma$e, who indicated he no longer wanted a hand in "leading people, friends, kids and others down a path to hell" and now is a pastor in Atlanta; and
  • Korn guitarist Brian Welch, who quit his band, got baptized in the river Jordan, then traveled through impoverished areas in India helping to build orphanages.

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Secular Multiculturalists Totally Whiff On Why Christians Celebrate ‘Day Of The Dead’

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Screenshot-2023-11-01-at-6.42.01 AM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Screenshot-2023-11-01-at-6.42.01%5Cu202fAM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]The Christian underpinnings of the Day of the Dead are what make it of interest to those who are uninterested in divisive multiculturalism.

Leading Church of England archbishop draws ire after concern-mongering about the 'oppressively patriarchal' terms used in the Lord's Prayer



A top official in the Church of England has raised concerns about the wording of the prayer gifted to Christians by Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. In both accounts, he began the prescribed prayer with "Our Father."

Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York and the Anglican church's second-highest ranking prelate, suggested in his address to the CE's general synod Friday that references to God as "Father" can be "problematic," particularly for those who've had less-than-stellar parents during their tenure here on earth, reported the Times.

Cottrell, who previously underscored the need to "celebrate and affirm same-sex relationships," emphasized the fraternity of man, noting that all "sisters and brothers" are ultimately part of the same family with God as its head.

The archbishop then turned to the matter of the Lord's Prayer, saying, "If this God to whom we pray is 'father' — and yes, I know the word 'father' is problematic for those whose experience of earthly fathers has been destructive and abusive and for all of us who have labored rather too much from an oppressively patriarchal grip on life."

Cottrell proceeded to suggest that divisions between Christians were hazardous, adding, "At our peril do we underestimate the terrible damage our visible disunity does to our proclamation of the Gospel."

Cottrell's progressive critique of the Lord's Prayer was not well received by some fellow Anglicans who reckon Christ got it right the first time, reported the Guardian.

Canon Dr. Chris Sugden, a CE minister and chair of the conservative Anglican Mainstream group, said, "Is the archbishop of York saying Jesus was wrong, or that Jesus was not pastorally aware? It seems to be emblematic of the approach of some church leaders to take their cues from culture rather than scripture."

"If people have had a difficult relationship with their human fathers then the option open to them is to say you can rediscover the true nature of fatherhood through Christ," added Sugden.

Cottrell managed to strike a chord with revolutionaries inside the Anglican church.

Christina Rees, a minister and former synod member who advocated for female bishops, sided with Cottrell, noting that calling God "father" was "hugely problematic."

"There are multiple layers why the term 'father' is really difficult for people in the church. It's the way it's been set for so long and so we're stuck," said Rees. "Because Jesus called God 'daddy', we think we have to call God 'daddy'. And the big question is, do we really believe God believes that male human beings bear the image of God more fully and accurately than women? The answer is absolutely not."

Reuters reported earlier this year that the CE has been looking into whether to use gender-neutral terms to refer to God in prayers such as the "Our Father," ostensibly presuming an oversight on the part of Christ.

Fox News Digital indicated that Joanna Stobart, a CE vicar in Surrey, was among those who had pushed for "an update on the steps being taken to develop more inclusive language in our authorized liturgy and to provide more options for those who wish to use authorized liturgy and speak of God in a non-gendered way, particularly in authorized absolutions where many of the prayers offered for use refer to God using male pronouns?"

The Edina Community Lutheran Church in Minneapolis recently demonstrated how far the CE could go in terms of conforming Christian faith to modern designs with its "Sparkle Creed," wherein parishioners stake their belief "in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural."

Concerning the CE's contemplation of more gender-neutral phrasings, a spokesman for the church said, "Christians have recognized since ancient times that God is neither male nor female. ... Yet the variety of ways of addressing and describing God found in scripture has not always been reflected in our worship."

Conservative Anglicans stressed that "male and female imagery is not interchangeable," reported the Telegraph.

While the archbishop of York did not explicitly recommend a change to the Lord's Prayer in his remarks Friday, his provocative critique nevertheless comes at a time of great instability for the Anglican church.

In February, the conservative heads of numerous Anglican member churches renounced the primacy of the archbishop of Canterbury, citing the "recent decision of the Church of England's General Synod to legitimise and incorporate into the Church's liturgy the blessing of same sex unions" as cause.

The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches said in a statement that the "Church of England has departed from the historic faith passed down from the Apostles by this innovation in the liturgies of the Church and her pastoral practice (contravening her own Canon A5), she has disqualified herself from leading the Communion as the historic 'Mother' Church,'" and "has chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic biblical faith expressed in the Anglican formularies."

Despite the GSFA's renunciation earlier this year, Cottrell said in his remarks that the Anglican church was "not splitting" but does "face enormous challenges."

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