Religion: Opinion

11:00 PM CDT on Friday, October 15, 2004

By KATIE SHERROD

Last year the Episcopal Church made news by electing as a bishop an honestly gay man living in a committed monogamous relationship, and by acknowledging that some clergy in the church are blessing same-sex unions.

We demonstrated to a broken, hurting world that the Episcopal Church is not only including more of the baptized in the full life of the church but also valuing and nourishing their gifts and ministries.

That this was such huge news and outraged so many Christians says more about the sad state of much of organized religion than it does about the Episcopal Church. Isn't this what Christians are supposed to be doing?

Bishop Douglas Theuner said at Gene Robinson's consecration that, because of who he is, Bishop Robinson "will stand as a symbol of the unity of the church in ways in which none of the rest of us can."

The Episcopal Church has made similar strides before, most notably in 1988 when Barbara Harris was elected the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion. This African-American woman made the more than half of Christendom that is female and persons of color instantly more visible in the church.

And indeed, her election brought threats of schism. Outraged conservatives called her "the church's final crisis" that would irreparably tear the Communion apart. Sound familiar?

The Episcopal Church may be breaking new ground again, but it is doing so with the aid of an excellent guide – Jesus Christ.

Jesus always is including and empowering outcasts and those on the margins. Jesus sums all the law and prophets: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

The part about loving God with all your mind is often overlooked.

The Episcopal Church used its collective mind, as represented by the bishops and elected deputies at its 2003 General Convention, to work through these issues in a thorough, thoughtful, prayerful effort to be true to these two great commandments.

It did not cave into the culture. Recognizing that gays and lesbians are "children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance and pastoral concern and care of the church" – first stated at the General Convention in 1976 and reaffirmed at last year's General Convention 2003 – is deeply countercultural. It still is not safe to be a gay American.

According to Dignity, an organization of Catholic gays and lesbians, in the past year 25 gays and lesbians were murdered in the United States because of their sexual orientation.

Two weeks ago, a 17-year-old Cleburne student was severely beaten at a party solely because his attackers believed he was gay.

It is to the shame of religious people everywhere that such attacks often are justified by references to the Bible.

What is at issue here is not the authority of scripture, but the interpretation of scripture, especially as it relates to issues of human sexuality.

Jesus says not one word about homosexuality. The few scriptural passages that address it do so within a framework of condemning specific acts – in the context of violent aggression, the violation of ancient purity codes or as part of cultic temple prostitution. Scripture has been used to justify slavery, the subjugation of women and anti-Semitism. We have learned that scripture sometimes is simply wrong. The world is not flat, epilepsy is not caused by possession and being left-handed doesn't mean you are demonic.

Those angered by the actions of the General Convention seem to have elevated their interpretation of scripture on issues of human sexuality to the status of those things necessary for salvation – something Jesus himself never does. Their worship of the Bible at times veers perilously close to idolatry.

Not only are they trying to hijack the Anglican Communion and turn it into some authoritarian confessional entity it has never been, they also seem to want to handcuff the Holy Spirit by insisting that no place in the church can do anything new or prophetic until it is OK with everyone everywhere in the Communion.

The Anglican Communion still is not in consensus on the ordination of women and many other issues. But we have managed to live within that tension of "right now – not yet" ever since Elizabeth I taught us to balance our Anglican identity as both Catholic and Protestant: "There is only one Christ, Jesus, one faith. All else is a dispute over trifles," she said.

The Holy Spirit calls us to be agents of transformation in the world and to invite all into wholeness with Jesus Christ.

This is not trendy. This is loving God with our whole hearts, minds and souls, and loving our neighbor as ourselves by demonstrating to the world that here is a place where we all are loved by God and embraced by a community of faith as we strive to grow in love and knowledge of Christ Jesus.

Katie Sherrod, a freelance writer and independent television producer, is married to an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Fort Worth.

Ms. Sherrod's article proves my point. She is thinking like a Samaritan! And she is wrong, like the Samaritans. She has devised her own canon of scripture. She has filtered certain moral issues through her dominant culture. She (like the Episcopal leadership) is building a different altar for a different religion.

It is untrue that the Bible subjugates women or endorses slavery. It is untrue that Jesus doesn't address homosexuality (Mark 7:21). Samaritans should actually read the Bible rather than quote their prejudice against it.

This issue has never been about inclusion and welcoming. The Episcopal Church has a long-standing tradition of welcoming everyone. But the Gospel begins, at least Jesus thought so, with the call to repentance – the key to unlocking the blessing and favor of God. He loves us just as we are, but too much to leave us as we are. The sexual wounds of the Samaritan woman (John 4) demonstrate what a mess our lives can become unless we heed the Bible's teaching in our personal and intimate lives.

And Ms. Sherrod's summary is quite Samaritan, too: "Scripture sometimes is simply wrong." Says who? Jesus didn't think so! She stands against 5,000 years of biblical and Judeo-Christian teaching on human sexuality, marriage, and common morality. Were they all wrong, too?

If the church truly wants to be prophetic, countercultural, and Christ-like, then we will not follow the culture of pleasure but lead people to repentance, healing, and transformation, just like Jesus did. And as a priest, a believer, and a lover of my fellow man, I am obligated to share the truth of the Gospel and invite people to measure their own lives against it. But to condone their Samaritan ways – now that would be simply wrong.