(Welcome Drell's Descants readers! Please pardon the mess round here; if I'd known you were coming I'd have cleaned up a bit. Or at least dusted. Feel free to poke around - I have some other posts on the Current Unpleasantness in The Episcopal Church (tm) that may be of interest.)
(And a special hello to the person (or persons) on TEC's Executive Council who read this during recent meeting.)
What? That sound? Oh, that's the sound of church pews emptying, which can only mean one thing - Bishop Katherine Jefforts-Schori, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (tm), has once again aired her views in public. But at least this time the damage is minimized - she said it to Bill Moyers on PBS, and we all know what their ratings are. And, she didn't bring up the Millennium Development Goals (peace be upon them).
Some choice excerpts:
BILL MOYERS: Well, many conservative, traditional Christians say that the homosexual life is not a holy life.
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: They would say that it's only holy if it's celibate. And I think we've got more examples out of Scripture even to offer in challenge to that.
But doesn't name any. And you traditionalists, not to worry; she does mention crucifixion:
BILL MOYERS: Is it fair to ask some aspiring gay or lesbian person who wants to become a Bishop, like Gene Robinson did in 2003, to wait?
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: Is it fair? No. It's not fair.
BILL MOYERS: But it's necessary?
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: It's a crucified place to stand.
So, being gay makes you.... more Christ-like? I had no idea. And what of those who disagree with her theological viewpoint?
BILL MOYERS: So you would concede that as people like you want to modernize the Canon, the tradition and the Scripture, the traditionalists who look back and say, "This is our sacred tradition," would not-- want to come along on that journey.
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: Absolutely. But I would take them back into that tradition to see within it far more complexity than they've been willing to admit.
See? We're just SO limited if we think this religion thing says what it says. Add some "complexity" and... presto! You can make it say whatever you want! Still got problems? A pesky sin or two remain? Throw in a little "context":
BILL MOYERS: If biology, as I understand it does, tells us that homosexuality is-- is a genetic given. And religion says homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God, can those two perceptions ever be reconciled?
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: How do we come to a conclusion that it's a sin in the eyes of God?
BILL MOYERS: Well, you're the-
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: What texts do we read that-
BILL MOYERS: But you know, all of your adversaries say that it is.
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: Well, I would have them go back to the very sources they find so black and white about that, and ask what's the context of this passage? What was it written to address? What was going on underneath it that this appears to speak to? And I think we find when we do some very serious scholarship, that in almost every case, it's speaking about a cultural context that looks nothing like the one in which we're wrestling with homosexuality today.
And that Bible thing says it, too, Bill, not just her "adversaries".
Before any of you brand me as "homophobic", stifle it. I'm not. My Faith informs how I live my life, not how I tell others to live theirs. Homosexuality is the issue that those who want to bring about a post-modernist, sin-less, Liberation Theology, Christianity have chosen as their battleground. I oppose the issue within the context of religion, not the person. In the secular realm, I would balk at any effort to criminalize homosexuality in this country. I do not oppose civil unions for gays and lesbians. Why? Those are civil matters. So why am I opposed to them in matters of Faith? Because the Christian Faith says they are wrong, and we should never demand Faith conform to the same values we apply in our secular life. It always amuses me that those who oppose any intrusion of Faith on the values in the public square have no problem encouraging the values of the public square to intrude into Faith. Seems that the "wall of separation" between church and state only works one way for some people. Nor do I oppose homosexuals participating in Faith. God calls us all to be reconciled to Him. We should welcome say, two gay persons living together into our church as members in the Body of Christ as we would, say, two unmarried heterosexual people living together. But in both cases my Anglican Catholic Faith says that to express sexuality in that context is wrong. A Sin. And persons living in what Faith has said is a sinful way should not be leaders of that Faith.
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