Pride and Prejudice in the Episcopal Church

From The Wall Street Journal-

In an era of black and white arguments, it's an uncomfortable feeling to be caught in the gray middle.

Last week, the Los Angeles diocese of the Episcopal Church—my diocese; my church—elected the Rev. Mary Glasspool, an openly lesbian woman, to be an assistant bishop, an election that still needs to be confirmed by a majority of Episcopal dioceses in the U.S.

I have been a friend to gays both personally and politically all my life, and yet I believe this election was a foolish mistake.

Even in my youth I could never understand antigay prejudice. So different were their desires from the ones burning a hole in my adolescent brain that it seemed obvious they were naturally "other," and thus as God had made them.

Becoming a political conservative and a Christian has not changed my opinion. While the cruelty and decadence that brought hellfire down on Sodom and Gomorrah and the promiscuity that sparked the disapproval of St. Paul may both be real phenomena, they have nothing to do with the loving and committed relationships of many gays I've known. The tragedy of sin is the harm it does to the sinner and others. But in these relationships, where is the harm? Where is the sin? I have never met anyone who could convincingly answer those questions.

But if homosexuality is not a sure path to sin, there are other human qualities that are: self-righteousness, recklessness, pride most of all. I believe the diocese of Los Angeles is guilty of all of these.

The American Episcopal Church contains about two million of the 70 million congregants in the world-wide Anglican communion, of which Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is the spiritual head. Since many congregants belong to far more conservative churches in Africa and South America, the archbishop, undoubtedly a friend to gays, nonetheless joined with other leaders in a 2004 plea for the American church to stop promoting active homosexuals. His intent, clearly, was to avoid schism.

More here-

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704240504574586021678337980.html?mod=googlenews_wsj