Last night I heard the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, respond to questions at a Duke University Chapel forum co-sponsored by the Dean of the Chapel (the Rev. Dr. Sam Wells) and Duke’s Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgendered Caucus. As always, the bishop employed his great sense of humor to advantage and appeared actively engaged with those present.
Bishop Robinson believes that the Church is now experiencing the “beginning of the end of patriarchy.” I find his assessment reasonable and a sign of increasing justice in the world. Although many think the world, especially the West, less moral today than in mid-twentieth century, they tend to be, from my observation, people who would have then occupied and enjoyed positions of power. The proximity of the end of patriarchy, as people of power (primarily heterosexual white males) reluctantly open the table so that all voices are equally welcome and equally heard, has caused the huge outcry in response to his consecration rather than the issue of homosexuality, per se.
The Duke format did not allow time for in-depth theological engagement. However, Bishop Robinson threw out one tantalizing concept. Responding to a question from Dean Wells, Bishop Robinson wondered aloud whether God had become incarnate to know what it is like to be fully human. Could God have ever known the full gamut of feelings had God not spent time in a human body?
In spite of that moment of candor, the good bishop emphasized his theological orthodoxy several times. I wondered if he was being defensive, disingenuous, or like a great many Christians had simply not thought through all of the implications and connections of his various theological ideas.
The one point at which I found myself most strongly disagreeing with Bishop Robinson was when he optimistically hoped that the Anglican Communion would not split. The truth is that the Communion has already split in fact although not in name. The June Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem provides a convenient and identifiable point in time to associate with the Anglican Communion’s de facto split. The vast majority of bishops who attended GAFCON boycotted the Lambeth conference and do not intend to continue in communion with the Episcopal Church in the U.S., the Anglican Church in Canada, and those who hold similar opinions. Removing all references to the Archbishop of Canterbury from the canons of the Province of Nigeria further signifies the intent of the dissidents to disassociate themselves from historic Anglicanism’s “big tent” approach to Christianity. The schism results from actions the dissidents have taken; nobody has pushed them out of the Anglican Communion. We who remain in the Communion need to accept the reality of that schism, give those who leave our heartfelt yet sad blessing, and get on with God's business.
3 comments:
After reading all of the issues, the only consolation is that agnostics don't have these problems. The church politics and division over both minor and major issues drives people away from religion.
Agnostics do their ministry, if you can call it, through other organizations and volunteering.
Power, money, and ego runs many or most churches. Church followers will divide the church at the slightest provocation and forget why they are going to church.
The leaders fail put their faith above personal interpretations and fail to work with the people of the church, other churches, and communities.
Years of training and they have forgotten the Golden Rule.
After reading all of the issues, the only consolation is that agnostics don't have these problems. The church politics and division over both minor and major issues drives people away from religion.
Agnostics do their ministry, if you can call it, through other organizations and volunteering.
Power, money, and ego runs many or most churches. Church followers will divide the church at the slightest provocation and forget why they are going to church.
The leaders fail put their faith above personal interpretations and fail to work with the people of the church, other churches, and communities.
Years of training and they have forgotten the Golden Rule.
Religious controversy does, unfortunately, push people away from religion. However, that controversy begs the basic question of whether there exists a reality, a force, or power (generally called God). If so, the value of religion is its ability to aide people in cultivating a relationship with God and expressing that relationship through increased love for others.
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