Christmas Present for the Rogue Episcopalians: Bishop Should Lock and Chain the Doors
Give rogue Episcopal churches a present: Padlocks and chains
Date published: 12/23/2006
IS IT REALLY so upsetting that a few intolerant people are leaving the Episcopal Church in Virginia? Do those of us who love our church and its inclusion of humanity's most vulnerable in our focus of faith really want to waste time on those who take a "holier than thou" stance like the Pharisees whom Jesus condemned? Is it not the case that whatever you do for the least of humanity, you do for Him?
Do we want to give any credence to people who wave the Bible, citing Leviticus' prohibitions on male homosexuality while ignoring the Leviticus passage that permits slave owning and slave trading?
Here we sit in Virginia where the ground is soaked with blood over slavery, whose proponents cited biblical law, but we evidently didn't learn a thing. Apparently, in Virginia, the will of God is still whatever fulfills your political agenda.
Just as Americans came to understand that human slavery was evil as we developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, some people, like the old Pharisees, cannot come to understand that homosexuals are the way they are because of a biological imperative. The term relating to this imperative is "androgen insufficiency." Homosexual practices have been documented in some 1,500 species in the natural world. Nature is chock-full of homosexuality. While homosexuality is not the "norm" in nature, it is normal in nature.
Next, I imagine, these Pharisaic holy ones are going to tell us that God did not create the homosexual part of the natural world--the devil did.
During a public ministry of sorts to protect gay people from being victimized because of their sexuality, I came to see them as human just like me--just with a different sexual orientation. I also found some aspects of gay behavior troublesome. The promiscuity of many gay men clearly is not good for them or for our culture. Promiscuity spreads disease, and in today's world of jet travel, disease flies at nearly the speed of sound.
No one in the Episcopal Church is saying, "Be promiscuous." Just the opposite: We are saying that a long-term, monogamous union is better for you and better for our culture regardless of your sexual orientation.
And bang that Bible all you want, but it does not specifically prohibit female homosexuality unless you want to twist the words of Saint Paul's "soft ones" to mean lesbians.
So Bishop Peter Lee of the Diocese of Virginia faces a dilemma regarding the church property of the apostate congregations. As a layperson who loves the church and especially its tolerance in the spirit of Jesus, as well as a security professional, my recommendation to him is this: Padlock the doors and hire security people to keep them locked.
The ground on which the breakaway churches sits is contaminated spiritually, so close those churches for good. Sell the property and use the funds to build new churches and consecrate the new ground.
Date published: 12/23/2006
IS IT REALLY so upsetting that a few intolerant people are leaving the Episcopal Church in Virginia? Do those of us who love our church and its inclusion of humanity's most vulnerable in our focus of faith really want to waste time on those who take a "holier than thou" stance like the Pharisees whom Jesus condemned? Is it not the case that whatever you do for the least of humanity, you do for Him?
Do we want to give any credence to people who wave the Bible, citing Leviticus' prohibitions on male homosexuality while ignoring the Leviticus passage that permits slave owning and slave trading?
Here we sit in Virginia where the ground is soaked with blood over slavery, whose proponents cited biblical law, but we evidently didn't learn a thing. Apparently, in Virginia, the will of God is still whatever fulfills your political agenda.
Just as Americans came to understand that human slavery was evil as we developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, some people, like the old Pharisees, cannot come to understand that homosexuals are the way they are because of a biological imperative. The term relating to this imperative is "androgen insufficiency." Homosexual practices have been documented in some 1,500 species in the natural world. Nature is chock-full of homosexuality. While homosexuality is not the "norm" in nature, it is normal in nature.
Next, I imagine, these Pharisaic holy ones are going to tell us that God did not create the homosexual part of the natural world--the devil did.
During a public ministry of sorts to protect gay people from being victimized because of their sexuality, I came to see them as human just like me--just with a different sexual orientation. I also found some aspects of gay behavior troublesome. The promiscuity of many gay men clearly is not good for them or for our culture. Promiscuity spreads disease, and in today's world of jet travel, disease flies at nearly the speed of sound.
No one in the Episcopal Church is saying, "Be promiscuous." Just the opposite: We are saying that a long-term, monogamous union is better for you and better for our culture regardless of your sexual orientation.
And bang that Bible all you want, but it does not specifically prohibit female homosexuality unless you want to twist the words of Saint Paul's "soft ones" to mean lesbians.
So Bishop Peter Lee of the Diocese of Virginia faces a dilemma regarding the church property of the apostate congregations. As a layperson who loves the church and especially its tolerance in the spirit of Jesus, as well as a security professional, my recommendation to him is this: Padlock the doors and hire security people to keep them locked.
The ground on which the breakaway churches sits is contaminated spiritually, so close those churches for good. Sell the property and use the funds to build new churches and consecrate the new ground.
posted by Patrick Townson at 11:22 PM
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