Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Howdy folks. I'm a little late this week, but we've got lots to talk about.

*Sigh*. I'm sure everyone's heard about the "incident" in the Episcopalian church. They've elected their first gay bishop. This is such a tragedy. It really wasn't enough that so many "Homosexual churches" were popping up everywhere. It wasn't even enough that many mainline denominations were marrying homosexual couples. Now a mainline denomination is electing a gay man to a very high level of leadership. What is it with Christians who take this "Me too!" kind of attitude with the world. They want so badly to look good in the eyes of the world, to look "enlightened" and "tolerant" and "accepting" that they'll accept everything the world says is appropriate (which is everything), and the Bible be damned. Jeez. A few biblical phrases seem to come to mind. "Wise in their own minds," "having a form of Godliness without any power," and so on.

People just don't get it. The Bible explicitly condemns homosexuality. Anyone who says otherwise is either ignoring the text or simply making it say what they want it to say. Paul made it clear that leaders in the church should be beyond reproach. Perfect? Sinless? No, but openly embracing and celebrating sin? That's a big problem.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying homosexuality is any worse than any other sin. But when one openly embraces a sin, that is a huge problem for a professing "Christian." When a sin so defines an entire persona that it is an inextricable part of who they are, that is a big problem.

I don't know what's going to happen in the Episcopal church. The Archbishop sounds like he's trying to smooth things over, telling everyone not to act rashly. But since he's approved of gay ordinations and marriages in the Episcopal church in the past, I doubt he's going to squelch the election of this guy. Ideally, that's what would happen. Plan B would simply be the leadership threatening to excommunicate (or however it works in the Anglican church) the diocese that elected this guy (Is diocese the proper word? I don't know how they district things). But more likely, the Archbishop is going to totter back and forth on this, trying to keep things together, followed by the conservative Anglicans of the world schisming out of frustration with their leadership and their denomination as a whole. I'll fully support them when they do it, but it'd be a terrible thing if it does happen.

Well, my sister is dying for the internet. Stupid dial-up. I guess you'll just have to wait for more angry ranting another time.

Hal

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