Catholic voices: Case Not Closed

From The Living Church-

The report of the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops on same-sex blessings is now in the public domain, and some basic points need to be discussed punctually.

The first is what the timing of the report’s release tells us about the way in which the House of Bishops operates. The two affinity groups worked for two years before their report was ready. Their work clearly reflects this time and effort. Nevertheless, the bishops passed on the matter about which their theology group was to inform them before the report of that group was in hand. The justifying theology appeared after the fact it was intended to justify. The body charged with upholding the doctrine and order of the church has declared that it can act prior to the theological work it has commissioned.

There is also an issue about the format in which the report appeared. It reminds me of The PBS NewsHour: on any issue of importance, representatives of the two sides are allowed to speak. This arrangement is fine for the NewsHour, on which a level playing field prevails. Within the Anglican Communion, however, the playing field is not level, and properly so. On the NewsHour, generally speaking, the burden of proof does not lie on one side. Within the Anglican Communion, the burden of proof clearly lies with those who would change church teaching and practice on the matter of marriage.

The report does not make clear where the burden of proof lies, although those who would expand marriage are proposing changes not favored by the vast majority of Anglicans and other Christians, and certainly nowhere approved in Christian tradition. In accepting, perhaps even defending, the NewsHour format, the traditionalist identity group guaranteed a place in the report for a full presentation of its position. One can only say that, in the present environment, this is a huge achievement for which those who hold a traditional position should be grateful. In its present form, the report makes clear that within the Episcopal Church, those who hold traditional views are not an odd fringe group.

Nevertheless, the NewsHour format also does serious harm to the traditionalist position because, in adopting this format without clear insistence on the location of the burden of proof, the traditional identity group gave away much of the high ground it rightly occupies. Too often conservatives enter these conversations without insisting upon the location of the burden of proof and as a result assume a defensive position when they need not do so.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/4/9/catholic-voices-case-not-closed