Now, in 2011, The New Puritans has been revised and brought up to date with a new title: Sydney Anglicans and the Threat to World Anglicanism: The Sydney Experiment. As with the earlier book, Muriel Porter acknowledges quite openly that she is "obviously not able to report on Sydney objectively and even-handedly."

The acknowledgement was unnecessary. Even without it, the highly polemical nature of the book - and a significant degree of distortion that inevitably arises from that - is obvious. The book is littered with unsubstantiated assertions introduced with words such as, "Some have suggested ..." and "I suspect the real reason ..." and "Perhaps ......."

Unfortunately, it is also littered with factual error, half-truth and the attribution of false or hidden motives to those with whom she disagrees. Sydney Anglicans might think they are taking a stand on the teaching of Scripture but in reality, she repeatedly asserts, their motivation is much more sinister.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Commentary • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Australia • * Culture-Watch • Books

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