In Brief: Where I Sit...

So, that brilliantly reasoned, sparklingly articulate, manifesto on the future of The Episcopal Church that I've been trying to get up here just isn't going to happen. The issues are too large and complex to be settled in any way by even a lengthy treatise. So, I'll just briefly sketch my position in this war over human sexuality.

I find the extremes on both sides of the debate over including LGBT people in the clerical orders of the church to be unpleasant, narrow-minded, and at the worst, willfully ignorant of Jesus' mission. It sounds harsh, but I'm absolutely bewildered at the way both the arch-conservatives and the more liberal element throw theological justification back and forth at each other, but seem to be hardly concerned about unity in Christ. The genius of Anglicanism (and in the past, TEC) is the focus on common prayer and life together in Christ (recently strengthened by the reclamation of the centrality of Eucharist in the liturgical renewal of the 60's and 70's) as the grounds for Christian unity, rather than agreement on the finer points of doctrine (I have trouble classifying the current debates over sexuality as doctrinal matters anyway, but that's beyond the point). The liberals who want to let the conservatives go, even if it means completely estranging TEC from the worldwide Communion, are just as blind to this as any conservative leader.

Do I believe LGBT people should be allowed complete access to the full life of the church, including ordination and positions of spiritual leadership? Absolutely. But I also firmly believe that any person who's not comfortable with that should remain in full fellowship as well. Such is the difficult position that the broad center of TEC (and I'd say Christianity in general) has to take. We only take such a difficult position, though, because we find it consistent with the example of Jesus. I understand the problem. Those on the right believe that homosexuality is a sin, and maybe even an especially bad one, while those on the far left have trouble classifying anything as sin. That's a gross overstatement of a caricature for both parties, but it still casts some light on the tension. I find myself of the opinion (and it's one I take in prayerful humility, I hope) that there's a lot of sin in the world, but it's hard for me to say that someone who is faithful to their partner, whatever gender, is an unrepentant sinner. At the same time, infidelity and promiscuity are always sinful, again regardless of the gender(s) of those involved. That's what I think, at least...

Well, that's enough for now. There's probably no way to stop my beloved church from splitting, even though I see it as a highly unnecessary outcome. My concern is where my family's spiritual home will be after the seemingly inevitable schism. I pray that the Spirit intervenes, but he's probably doing something much more important than attending to Christ's selfish, spoiled bride one more time.