Gays and the Church: loving all our neighbors
November 29, 2003
Last Saturday's "Religion and Family" page carried yet another article about the Episcopal Church and its divided mind on the subject of homosexuality. The headline read, "Strategy paper asks replacement for Episcopal Church due to gay bishop." Officially, the Church's General Convention did no more than confirm the Diocese of New Hampshire's election of an openly gay priest to be Bishop of New Hampshire. Implicitly, however, the Church determined to accept homosexual persons into her life on the same terms as heterosexual persons.
What does this mean for everyday faith? It means accepting the scientific evidence that up to ten per cent of the population, through no fault of their own, is predisposed to homosexuality. (The latest research indicates that human sexuality is neurologically hard-wired before we are born.) It means not contributing any longer to the social pressure which keeps homosexual persons unhealthily closeted out of fear or shame. It means loving all our neighbors, and not just those who are like us.
An essential aspect of this love is to uphold moral standards for sexual conduct, encouraging monogamy and discouraging promiscuity, encouraging commitment and discouraging license, encouraging respect for others and discouraging their use for our own gratification. In this, we are to stand by and kneel beside our gay brothers and sisters who wrestle as much as or maybe more than we do with what the given-ness of sexuality means for human identity and conduct. We are to live by Paul's words to the Romans, that "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (8:1)
I have just quoted Scripture, and that, as it should have been, was at or near the heart of the Convention's debate on the election of a gay man. Scripture, along with tradition and reason, is one of the three legs of the stool on which Anglicanism stands. This is to say that, along with tradition and reason, the Bible is authoritative for Episcopalians. So, allow me to quote some more Scripture for you.
"Whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death." (Exo 21:17) Hmmm.
"Whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be put to death." (Exo 31:15) Too bad for preachers it doesn't say anything about playing golf on Sundays!
"Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent." (1 Tim 2:11-12) Sounds as though our Sunday and parochial schools, as well as our parish councils, need reform!
Also, in regard to women, "[They] should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes." (1 Tim 2:9) Okay, ladies. Shall we inspect you for bracelets, necklaces, and earrings?
On a more serious note, "Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it." (1 Cor 7:21) You can bet there were a host of southern Christians who, before the Civil War, loved to quote this to the black men and women who were their chattel property!
The point, of course, is that one cannot make selective use of Scripture, and apply it uncritically to decide matters of individual and social morality. That's called "proof-texting," and it's usually done to uphold positions people have already taken. But the prevailing Anglican way (and the way that prevailed at the Convention) is to take into account the verse's context in the whole of the Bible, and the historical and social context of the Bible's various books -- their sitz em leben. We are concerned about their "situation in life," then and now. And, of course, the situation in life then was pre-scientific. The very few Biblical writers who address the issue at all had absolutely no concept of homosexuality as a human condition.
Meanwhile, we might ask the bracelet slogan, WWJD -- "What would Jesus do?" Our Lord had absolutely nothing to say directly on the subject. But in one of his encounters with the Pharisees, about who was doing the will of his Father, he told them, "The tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you." (Mt 21:31) In other words -- and this falls on all of us alike -- the first thing that disqualifies us for life in the kingdom is not our want of morality, but a self-righteous attitude. Self-righteousness -- the notion that I'm okay and you're not -- blinds us to God's claim on the love of all his creatures.
When it comes right down to it, I think of the Convention's decision for a gay bishop in terms of a prayer for the Church's mission: "Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you." This mission is proving painful and costly for the Episcopal Church. But then, it proved to be the same for our Lord, too.