David Virtue, online Editor of the controversial and popular website Virtueonline
by Peter Menkin
David Virtue of Virtue online says, “For the past 20 years I have
been the founder, editor and lead writer for VIRTUEONLINE the world’s
largest orthodox Anglican Online News Service.” His site is found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/index.php
. I asked a few basic questions of the editor/writer David Virtue. It
is a controversial site among progressives in the Episcopal Church, even
an anathema.What is your favorite story?
I would say my favorite story is the ongoing litigation of the Episcopal Church, $40 million dollars. About 80 lawsuits. Lawsuit with South Carolina (Diocese). They pulled out of the Episcopal Church and there is a remnant of dozen Parish’s property. They are fighting for the property and the name. This has been going on about a year. The theological and moral problems of the litigation. The Episcopal Church has fallen off the wagon on Homosexual Theology and the authority of the Bible. The Episcopal Church are sticking primarily to property issues. So far the Episcopal Church is winning. In South Carolina the Episcopal Church will lose, but every other place they have won.
Gene
Robinson, homosexual Bishop, more mainstream today than ever and more
outspokenly blatant in his practices and willingness to be proponent for
homosexual living and sexuality than ever. Mainstream press cites him
with respect and normality in their portrayal of the man. He seems
unquestionably normal by some standards in the press. So it begins to
appear.
Are you married; children?
I have been married over 27 years with two grown children with grandchildren. VirtueOnline is a 501c3. Nonprofit. I can draw a salary from that. I depend on donations. $`140,000 a year annual budget. I spend my day writing and working and attend Church every week. I to Christ Church Anglican on the mainline. Wayne, PA. There are 50 in the Church. It is a startup. The Reverend Adam Rick
.
Where is your site located and where do you live?
The site is in Philadelphia out of my home. My webmaster is in Virginia.
When did you start and why?
Started as Virtuosity and changed to VirtueOnline and due to a conflict of name interest: 1995. I started it because I was interested in the growing hypocrisies of the Episcopal Church and began writing stories. One day someone said to make a website. 4,000 visits a day now (current as of 2014).
These are viewpoints in accord with Virtueonline. Note the non-profit garners $140,000 a year in donations for information offered like this and other reports:
- Gay Sex in West Kills African Christians says ABC*Another Legal Win for DofSC*
- Kenyan Archbishop Blasts Gay Marriage*UK legalizes Gay Marriage Could Break CofE
- Ft.Worth Wins Property Battle* HOB tables TREC and Marriage*CofE GayMarriage Row
- Nashotah House Storm Continues re PB’s Visit*DofSC Finds New Ecclesiastical Home
- Complaint filed against PB*The Falls Church Loses to TEC*D of SC Seeks New Home
- LENT:Smudge or Ashes*Bethlehem Diocese no Audit Oops*Okoh to Ntagali”Stand Firm”
- Nashotah House to Host Jefferts Schori*Episcopal Priest in Sex Change Operation
- CofE Says No to Same Sex Marriage*Global South Primates say Yes to 5th Encounter
- PB to get Honorary Oxford Doctorate*TEC spends $40 million on lawsuits by 2015
- Archbishops in Global Row over Same-Sex Unions*TEC Sex Trafficking Blunder*More
In this interview David Virtue was sent his questions in advance in Word and wrote his answers.
INTERVIEW WITH DAVID VIRTUE BY RELIGION WRITER PETER MENKIN
- 1. Your site Virtueonline, found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/userinfo.php?uid=2 , draws 4,000 hits a day. if I am not mistaken. Further, as a 501©3 the non-profit takes in donations in the amount of about $150,000 annually. Tell us something of the why and the how of your success. What brings people to your website, and what brings them to give? Will you provide us with examples of why they come and your method of soliciting gifts?
ANSWER: Thank you for asking Peter. VOL’s success has been because we have stuck to the essentials of the gospel within the framework of historic, reformational, evangelical Anglicanism. We have never tried to hide our identity. We have also engaged the Culture Wars within the Anglican Communion and have not vied away from presenting sound biblical apologetics as we face critical theological, moral and social issues.
People give because they see VOL as a safe harbor for their views. They want to know that someone out there reflects their point of view. I was in Charleston, SC recently and met a priest for the first time. He said he lived in Western Washington surrounded by liberals far from other orthodox Anglicans. He said VOL was a daily lifeboat for him. He was able to read something that touched him and made him continue on the pathway he had chosen. I was very moved by this. About four times a year I go to a database I have and make a one-page appeal. I simply state my needs, no histrionics, no loud proclamations that I am the only voice out there. I do have more than 20 years of history now so VOL is a trusted source for the four million or so who go annually to the website.
- 2. They say you are a conservative or a traditionalist in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion. Give us some examples of what this means, and tell us what brought you as a man of faith to this kind of viewpoint. Can you give us a taste of your educational perspective, a teacher’s influence, or a class you took? Maybe even an experience in your life? Or you tell us in your own words.
ANSWER: Because of the political nature and overtones of the word “conservative” I have vied away from using that word. The word “traditional” has largely applied to our Anglo-Catholic brothers and sisters and I would not want to take it away from them. I prefer the word “orthodox” (small o) to explain my position. I have loved the word “evangelical” but it has been coopted by American Fundamentalists of late and, regrettably, it has lost much of its theological currency.
My own history began among a group called the Plymouth Brethren, a group better known in the UK than the USA. I got my solid biblical foundation there, but came under the influence of the Rev. John R.W. Stott at All Souls Langham Place in London in the 60s. While there have been some twists and turns over the years, my wife and I have been Episcopalians from the early 80s and have been associated with an evangelical charismatic Episcopal congregation in Paoli, PA till very recently.
My pilgrimage can best be described as a growing disillusionment with free-wheeling, unstructured “happy clappy” Free Church evangelicalism (I am not totally opposed to praise choruses in small doses) and my growing need for a structure which the Book of Common Prayer provided. I once had a brief conversation with Archbishop Carey’s wife about her growing up in the Plymouth Brethren. Her pilgrimage seemed to parallel my own. The Rev. Dr. Ian Markham president of Virginia Theological Seminary echoed much the same sentiment and journey. My studies took me first to London Bible College, London University in the 60s, then on the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, then Regent College, UBC in Vancouver BC. I received a Doctor of Divinity from Laud Seminary. I have been deeply influenced over the years by men such as Bishop J.C. Ryle. John R.W. Stott, Dr. J.I. Packer and Dr. Michael Green.
- 3. Speak to us of our current American Presiding Bishop. She has been a controversial figure in many quarters and in some thought of as a special choice of liberalism and even popular among some. Why was she chosen Presiding Bishop in the Episcopal Church? Put on your Swami’s Hat and give us your thoughts on who we have coming next as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA, if you will.
ANSWER: Yes I believe she was chosen because the Episcopal Church was ready for a woman leader. The church had voted for an openly gay bishop – Gene Robinson of New Hampshire – so the church was ripe for change from an all-male leadership. She had a Ph.D. she was smart, but theologically thin. She was politically correct on all the hot button issues and she appealed to a wide swathe of Episcopalians who wanted to see a progressive figure at the helm of the church. She was a perfect for them. For orthodox Episcopalians it has been disastrous. The constant lawsuits over properties for over a decade now running an estimated $40 million, the inhibitions, her rejection of the need for a personal faith in Christ has galvanized orthodox Episcopalians into thinking that she cannot possibly hold the church together with its diversity. They see her as demanding capitulation to the church’s pansexual agenda and that has been a no-no to them. Women’s Ordination, once considered a matter of conscience is now the law of the church, no diocese may not ordain women to the priesthood. These lines in the sand have now made it impossible for Anglo-Catholic dioceses like Ft. Worth. Quincy, San Joaquin, South Carolina and Pittsburgh to stay in The Episcopal Church and so the Anglican Church in North America was born.
Who will be the next PB? My take is that at least two African American bishops have a shot at it. The first is the Bishop of Atlanta, the Rt. Rev. Robert Christopher Wright. The other is the Bishop of Maryland, the Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton. Among white candidates, Bishop Ian Douglas of Connecticut would be a contender as would Bishop Andy Doyle of Texas. They are all liberal in theology and ethos but far less strident and ideological than the present Presiding Bishop. My sense is that a new generation of bishops coming into TEC are far less ideological than previous bishops like Frank Griswold, Tom Shaw, John Chane, Jon Bruno, Jack Spong, Gene Robinson, et al. I believe the newer cast of bishops want to lower the tone of the debate in the culture wars and get on with the church’s mission to grow their dioceses. If they don’t most of them will be juncturing with other dioceses in the next 5 to 10 years. In recent months’ two dioceses – Central Florida and Pittsburgh – both elected evangelicals. This might be the beginning of a trend but I would not bet on it.
- 4. I just think that I’m not fair to our readers or even to myself if I fail to ask you about homosexual marriage. Where did it come from and how come it has become so prevalent? Why the tremendous success of this movement among Episcopalians and in the United States. Pick an area of this of your choice and speak to this for I know it is a favorite subject of your website. You are welcome to quote from your website here, if you wish.
My main points are that you cannot change the ontology or cosmology of human sexual behavior to satisfy a very small handful of persons whose inclinations are towards those of the same sex. I believe this is an aberration, albeit a cultural aberration that will not last forever. Meantime it has turned the Episcopal Church inside out, caused the fabric of the Anglican Communion to be torn and alienated the vast majority of Global South Anglicans resulting in abstentions from the Lambeth Conference and Primatial gatherings called by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
- 5. Thank you so much for your willingness to answer questions. I do hope you will answer anything you think I have missed, that is any matter on your mind you wish to comment on here. It has been a pleasure making your acquaintance.
Many have asked and many believe that schism is a real possibility in the Anglican Communion because the West’s proclamation and acceptance of pansexuality. I think the answer is that we now have a de facto schism but not a de jure schism. One of the phrases often repeated by Global South Primates is that “we don’t need to go through Canterbury to get to Jesus”. That is true. There is still nonetheless emotional and historical ties to Canterbury that will not soon be broken. The reason is that the Global South are in a holding pattern. They don’t need to do anything. They can simply wait it out. They are growing by the millions in Africa, (less so) in Asia and Latin America, while Western Pan Anglicanism is withering and dying. The Anglican Province of Nigeria has more than 20 million practicing Anglicans. By contrast the Episcopal Church has less than 700,000 ASA, the Anglican Church of Canada has about 300,000 ASA and the Church of England about 1.2 million.
The crouching lion is Africa. If they wanted to pounce and end it all they could, but they don’t want to do that. They will continue to comment on the state of things in the Anglican Communion as Kenyan Archbishop Eliud Wabukala does from time to time. Meantime they wait and pray. I believe the evangelical Archbishop Justin Welby has the best shot at healing the wounds of the Anglican Communion but he will have to be more definitive in his stand on moral issues. The road ahead is still strewn with theological and moral boulders.
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One Response to Interview: David Virtue of the American traditionalist website out of Pennsylvannia
Excellent interview, VOL an excellent website.
This work originally appeared Church of Englad Newspaper, London.
This work originally appeared Church of Englad Newspaper, London.
