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Is gay bishop a fit religious leader?

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Thursday August 7, 2003

The Miami Herald, Aug. 7, 2003 (Opinion: Cal Thomas)
http://www.miami.com/

An Episcopalian friend of mine, reacting to the elevation of an openly homosexual priest to the office of bishop, said to me, “If you’re a heterosexual clergyman, and you’re having sex outside marriage, you can be expelled. But if you’re a homosexual clergyman having sex outside marriage, they rejoice.”

Most denominations that call themselves Christian take the Bible as their text for spiritual and relational instruction. Some in the Episcopal Church take a liberal view of the Bible, just as some do of the U.S. Constitution — for them, it must be constantly updated to suit cultural trends. This view lends itself to constant misinterpretation and confusion. Eventually, it leads to religious or political heresy.

Ancient Scripture sets out the parameters for all human sexual expression. To get around the restrictions that limit sexual activity between a man and a woman within a marital bond, liberal theologians have had to construct a theology that says that the Bible does not really mean 1 Timothy 3:2-5)

Members of the Episcopal Church are being asked to accept a bishop who is not qualified for the office (nor even for the priestly one he holds). Does the Episcopal leadership (and the leadership of the parent Anglican Church) want to send the message that the Bible says only what some people want it to say? Some of Robinson’s supporters call him a ”holy man.” What could that possibly mean since ”all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23)?

People who regard Scripture as having passed from God to man error-free have warned for years what happens when these texts are treated as something less than accurate. Once compromises are made, all things become not only possible but probable.

If God is not God, and if man says that God didn’t say what He said, then what standard is to be used to judge anything? It is more than a slippery slope; it is slippery theology with potentially eternal consequences. Who gets to decide, God or man? If man, then man becomes God, and God is diminished — at least in man’s eyes.

If a homosexual priest who divorced his wife and walked out on his children is deemed a fit leader for the Episcopal Church, its members might want to answer this question: Does their denomination represent the will of their God, and, if not, why don’t they abandon a church that has clearly abandoned Him?