You really wonder why? Now they are gathering in Columbus OH and some are hoping to avoid the big issue. They don’t want to bring further division by dwelling on ‘lesser important’ issues and deal with something less controversial.
At least the words are more revealing than they have been in the past. It is really about who will listen to God or to tradition and human reasoning.
How much weight to give Scripture, compared with church traditions and individual reasoning.
They may debate the issue but the decision has long ago been made.
Three years after the Episcopal Church (USA) consecrated its first openly gay bishop, it still struggles with issues affecting gays and lesbians and their rights within the church.
Tuesday, the church’s triennial General Convention opens in Columbus, drawing up to 10,000 bishops, clergy and lay people from around the nation and the world. Among the many proposals up for vote are measures to halt or limit the selection of gay bishops and prevent Episcopal churches from blessing same-sex unions.
Church leaders fear these issues will overshadow other important decisions, widen rifts between conservative Episcopalians and liberal ones, and between American Episcopalian leaders and many foreign Anglican leaders.
They claim they will “come out” united. That may very well be the case. But with whom will they be united? God or man?
Really it doesn’t matter at this point what the results will be. If they back off their decision they will not really support it. The activists who have steered the denomination toward the liberalism will just patiently wait for a more ‘appropriate’ time to radicalize the church further.
If they don’t back off those who actually take the Scriptures seriously will not be content with the ‘unified’ picture theory. They will continue the Scripture wars or split the denomination along conservative - liberal lines.
The worse case scenario would be that there is ‘no decision’. They must commit to one or the other. But really, if no decision is made one can easily take it as a decision in favor of more liberalization of the denomination. That might be code for who has left God completely.
1 Response
How odd that less than 2% of the U.S. population–and few of that tiny segment are really that interested in organized religion to begin with–can cause such a ruckus.
I have always been of the opinion that all the “gays in the ___________” flapdoodles have been about advancing the socio-political aims of homosexuality, under cover of whatever societal institution they claim legitimate access to.
I have never thought that homosexuals want to be soldiers, or clergymen, or anything else other than free to express their overweening sexual appetites.
Posted on June 12th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
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