By Ralinda B Gregor, AAC
A recent Huffington Post editorial by Unitarian Universalist minister Debra Haffner noted this has been a "stunning year for LGBT equality in the life of the Protestant churches."
However, she lamented that the focus on "lifelong committed relationships" by the Lutheran Church (ELCA) leaves out single adults (including clergy) who choose to have sex outside of marriage.
It is within this framework that she presents her pitch for a "new sexual ethic" proposed by the organization she heads, the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing, which seeks to "change the way America understands the relationship of sexuality and religion."
Just how they seek to change it is outlined in the organization’s Religious Declaration which describes a new sexual ethic based on "personal relationships and social justice rather than particular sexual acts." The declaration states that "All persons have the right and responsibility to lead sexual lives that express love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent, and pleasure" and that right "applies to all persons, without regard to sex, gender, color, age, bodily condition, marital status, or sexual orientation." It calls for the ordination of "sexual minorities" and the blessing of same-sex unions. The declaration also calls on faith communities to advocate for "sexual and reproductive rights" including abortion.
The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) developed and released the declaration with 850 signatures in January 2000. Since then, the declaration has gathered more than 3,200 signatures from ordained clergy, professional religious educators, theologians, and staff of religious institutions.
Unfortunately, Haffner’s editorial and the Religious Declaration are not just the opinions of extremist liberal clergy who are far removed from the average biblically orthodox Episcopalian or Anglican in the United States. The AAC notes with concern that those endorsers include 263 Episcopal clergy, staff and professors of Episcopal seminaries, including several bishops, executive council members and a former presiding bishop, along with many of the well known advocates for sexual freedom in The Episcopal Church (TEC). By signing this declaration, they are not just advocating LGBT sexual "rights," but the holiness of all consensual sex between lay or clergy people of any age, marital status or sexual orientation. And because this degree of promiscuity may likely result in unwanted pregnancies, they also advocate for-and thereby bless-abortion.
The recent decisions by General Convention to allow "pastoral generosity" in blessing same sex unions and to overturn the moratorium on non-celibate homosexual bishops also suggest that this "new sexual ethic" permeates TEC. Both resolutions (C056 and D025) received overwhelming support by the bishops, clergy and lay deputies.
What is less obvious are the attempts to export this new sexual ethic to the entire Anglican Communion. The Consultation, a group of 13 Episcopal peace and social justice organizations that enjoy the strong support of TEC leadership, hopes to
export its vision of "baptismal ecclesiology"-all the sacraments for all the baptized-to the rest of the Anglican Communion. Although it stops short of openly advocating all consensual sex, the Consultation and its member organizations are on record as supporting marriage and ordination for LGBT individuals and abortion rights, and its leaders and members are represented on the list of Religious Declaration endorsers.
But it doesn’t end there. Even the Anglican Communion Office in London is collaborating with proponents of the new sexual ethic in programs that will affect the entire Communion. The Anglican Communion Office has accepted a $1.5 million gift from one of the signers of the Religious Declaration, retired TEC priest the Rev. Marta Weeks, to fund the Continuing Indaba Project, the next phase of the Communion-wide listening process. The Continuing Indaba Project will be monitored by the Satcher Institute’s Center of Excellence for Sexual Health (CESH) at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga. The sole clergy member on the CESH staff, Dr. William R. Stayton, not only signed the Religious Declaration, but he was part of the SIECUS Commission that wrote the declaration and sought endorsements for it. CESH Director, Christian Thrasher, could not sign the declaration because he is neither a clergy member nor a religious educator, but he teamed up with Stayton on the board of the Center for Sexuality and Religion to advocate for the same sexual ethic expressed in the declaration.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, made it clear in his reflections on TEC’s General Convention that the Anglican Communion cannot endorse this new sexual ethic, noting that "if society changes its attitudes, that change does not of itself count as a reason for the Church to change its discipline." Dealing specifically with the issue of homosexual behavior, he stated that "their chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church’s teaching sanctions," and he also condemned prejudice against homosexuals.
It is time for the Archbishop to back up his words with concrete
action . As a start, he can insist that the Anglican Communion Office sever the relationship with the Satcher Institute and ensure that all donated funds are returned to the Rev. Marta Weeks. To do anything less would be to render his words null and void and further shatter the bonds of communion.
View a list of TEC clergy, staff and professors of Episcopal seminaries that signed the Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing by
clicking here.
The full list of endorsers is located
here.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
