Battle Over Homosexuality in Episcopal Church is Over
By John Shelby Spong, Washington Post (H/T Stand Firm)
The battle over homosexuality in the Episcopal Church is over. The vote at the last General Convention was overwhelming. The sacred unions of gay and lesbian people are to be blessed and enfolded into liturgical patterns in the same way that the sacred unions of heterosexual people have been honored for centuries. The ministry of this church is to be open to gay and lesbian people who are qualified and chosen in the process by which this church makes such decisions.
I rejoice in this for many reasons. First, it is right. Homosexuality is not a choice anymore than heterosexuality is. It is part of our human individual identity just like skin color, ethnic background, gender and right or left-handedness. The discrimination of the past has been the result of prejudice based on ignorance. Second, it brings honesty to this church. We have blessed gay and lesbian unions for decades, but only secretly. We have had countless gay clergy and gay bishops, but pretended that this was not so. It was one of our worst kept secrets. We have in our past elected a gay bishop to be vice president of the House of Bishops. He was a talented, gifted and quite competent man and he served well. Of course, we knew he was gay, but we pretended not to. Some of our bishops who were most hostile to homosexuality have themselves been gay and when they were discovered in "improper" relationships or with an HIV infection, it was hushed up. Dishonesty has eaten at the soul of this church’s integrity, as indeed it still does in those churches where dishonesty still reigns supreme.
Those who are unable or unwilling to adjust to this reality, including the present Archbishop of Canterbury, will just have to become more and more irrelevant. This is a pity, but a leader who is on the backside of the tide of history will be constantly compromised and embarrassed. The Archbishop’s argument that this step is improper because the whole communion is not ready to move as a whole is a tragic misreading of history. The whole church was not ready to end slavery, apartheid or segregation, but significant part of it were not willing to continue these practices until their prejudices were finally overcome. In a similar manner parts of the church today will not postpone justice for homosexual persons until all of the homophobic and prejudiced-based ignorance is finally gone. That is not the way prejudice and ignorance ever die.
I am proud of the Episcopal Church and I am sure that if either the Diocese of Los Angeles or the Diocese of Minnesota elects one of the homosexual persons nominated, it will be because the delegates believe that this is the best candidate for the position. If that action offends homophobic Christians then so be it. I want my church united in truth. I do not want to be part of a church united in homophobia or one that pretends it can preserve unity by excluding any group of human beings.
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