Today's Washington Post featured an op-ed piece co-authored by the rector of one of the churches that recently severed ties with the Episcopal Church.
Here are a couple of excerpts followed by my comments:
The core issue in why we left is not women's leadership. It is not "Episcopalians against equality," as the headline on a recent Post op-ed by Harold Meyerson put it. It is not a "leftward" drift in the church. It is not even primarily ethical -- though the ordination of a practicing homosexual as bishop was the flash point that showed how far the repudiation of Christian orthodoxy had gone.
Episcopal revisionism obliterates the very identity of faith. When the great truths of the Bible and the creeds are abandoned and there is no limit to what can be believed in their place, then the point is reached when there is little identifiably Christian in Episcopal revisionism. Would that Episcopal leaders showed the same zeal for their faith that they do for their property. If the present decline continues, all that will remain of a once strong church will be empty buildings, kept going by the finances, though not the faith, of the fathers.
In the disagreement, and in some cases full-blown war, over the place of homosexuals in God's kingdom going on in some major religious denominations, variations of the arguement in the last paragraph often surface. I have come to learn, however, that God is NOT limited to what's written in the Bible, and certainly not to any one person's interpretation of it.
God's revalation is a gradual one. Look at how knowledge of Him grew from the beginning of the Old Testament to the New Testament. Do you really think that all of God's wisdom can be contained in any book? The Bible is a guide to God, not the literal answer to every question. The writers of the op-ed piece in the Post appear to be limiting themselves to the written word, lacking the courage to seek understanding beyond it.
There is sooooooo much God wants to show us and teach us. We simply have to listen and be willing to learn.
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I personally think the most important truth not to dilute is the one Jesus gave and said it fulfilled the entire Law and phophets, and it's to love God, neighbor and self. People forget that if the church hadn't evolved beyond a fixed interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, Galileo Galilei would still be under house arrest for teaching the Earth revolves around the sun. I think in all of these splits and threats of splits, the people ought to ask themselves what their perceived righteous indignation comes from, and if the answer is pride, they need a serious immediate reevaluation of their stance. Pride has nothing to do with love, in fact it's a stench to God.
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