Come to the Episcopal Church Roman Catholics

Now that the Pope welcomes unhappy Anglicans to the Roman Catholic Church - We Anglicans welcome those who are Roman Catholics who don't like the homophobia and sexism in their Church to come to our branch of the One Holy Catholic Church. The Episcopal Church Welcomes you! I think this is good evangelism for those of us who open our arms for all God's children.

Manifesto from Bishop John Spong

October 15, 2009

A Manifesto! The Time Has Come!

I have made a decision. I will no longer debate the issue of homosexuality in the church with anyone. I will no longer engage the biblical ignorance that emanates from so many right-wing Christians about how the Bible condemns homosexuality, as if that point of view still has any credibility. I will no longer discuss with them or listen to them tell me how homosexuality is "an abomination to God," about how homosexuality is a "chosen lifestyle," or about how through prayer and "spiritual counseling" homosexual persons can be "cured." Those arguments are no longer worthy of my time or energy. I will no longer dignify by listening to the thoughts of those who advocate "reparative therapy," as if homosexual persons are somehow broken and need to be repaired. I will no longer talk to those who believe that the unity of the church can or should be achieved by rejecting the presence of, or at least at the expense of, gay and lesbian people. I will no longer take the time to refute the unlearned and undocumentable claims of certain world religious leaders who call homosexuality "deviant." I will no longer listen to that pious sentimentality that certain Christian leaders continue to employ, which suggests some version of that strange and overtly dishonest phrase that "we love the sinner but hate the sin." That statement is, I have concluded, nothing more than a self-serving lie designed to cover the fact that these people hate homosexual persons and fear homosexuality itself, but somehow know that hatred is incompatible with the Christ they claim to profess, so they adopt this face-saving and absolutely false statement. I will no longer temper my understanding of truth in order to pretend that I have even a tiny smidgen of respect for the appalling negativity that continues to emanate from religious circles where the church has for centuries conveniently perfumed its ongoing prejudices against blacks, Jews, women and homosexual persons with what it assumes is "high-sounding, pious rhetoric." The day for that mentality has quite simply come to an end for me. I will personally neither tolerate it nor listen to it any longer. The world has moved on, leaving these elements of the Christian Church that cannot adjust to new knowledge or a new consciousness lost in a sea of their own irrelevance. They no longer talk to anyone but themselves. I will no longer seek to slow down the witness to inclusiveness by pretending that there is some middle ground between prejudice and oppression. There isn't. Justice postponed is justice denied. That can be a resting place no longer for anyone. An old civil rights song proclaimed that the only choice awaiting those who cannot adjust to a new understanding was to "Roll on over or we'll roll on over you!" Time waits for no one.

I will particularly ignore those members of my own Episcopal Church who seek to break away from this body to form a "new church," claiming that this new and bigoted instrument alone now represents the Anglican Communion. Such a new ecclesiastical body is designed to allow these pathetic human beings, who are so deeply locked into a world that no longer exists, to form a community in which they can continue to hate gay people, distort gay people with their hopeless rhetoric and to be part of a religious fellowship in which they can continue to feel justified in their homophobic prejudices for the rest of their tortured lives. Church unity can never be a virtue that is preserved by allowing injustice, oppression and psychological tyranny to go unchallenged.

In my personal life, I will no longer listen to televised debates conducted by "fair-minded" channels that seek to give "both sides" of this issue "equal time." I am aware that these stations no longer give equal time to the advocates of treating women as if they are the property of men or to the advocates of reinstating either segregation or slavery, despite the fact that when these evil institutions were coming to an end the Bible was still being quoted frequently on each of these subjects. It is time for the media to announce that there are no longer two sides to the issue of full humanity for gay and lesbian people. There is no way that justice for homosexual people can be compromised any longer.

I will no longer act as if the Papal office is to be respected if the present occupant of that office is either not willing or not able to inform and educate himself on public issues on which he dares to speak with embarrassing ineptitude. I will no longer be respectful of the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who seems to believe that rude behavior, intolerance and even killing prejudice is somehow acceptable, so long as it comes from third-world religious leaders, who more than anything else reveal in themselves the price that colonial oppression has required of the minds and hearts of so many of our world's population. I see no way that ignorance and truth can be placed side by side, nor do I believe that evil is somehow less evil if the Bible is quoted to justify it. I will dismiss as unworthy of any more of my attention the wild, false and uninformed opinions of such would-be religious leaders as Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Albert Mohler, and Robert Duncan. My country and my church have both already spent too much time, energy and money trying to accommodate these backward points of view when they are no longer even tolerable.

I make these statements because it is time to move on. The battle is over. The victory has been won. There is no reasonable doubt as to what the final outcome of this struggle will be. Homosexual people will be accepted as equal, full human beings, who have a legitimate claim on every right that both church and society have to offer any of us. Homosexual marriages will become legal, recognized by the state and pronounced holy by the church. "Don't ask, don't tell" will be dismantled as the policy of our armed forces. We will and we must learn that equality of citizenship is not something that should ever be submitted to a referendum. Equality under and before the law is a solemn promise conveyed to all our citizens in the Constitution itself. Can any of us imagine having a public referendum on whether slavery should continue, whether segregation should be dismantled, whether voting privileges should be offered to women? The time has come for politicians to stop hiding behind unjust laws that they themselves helped to enact, and to abandon that convenient shield of demanding a vote on the rights of full citizenship because they do not understand the difference between a constitutional democracy, which this nation has, and a "mobocracy," which this nation rejected when it adopted its constitution. We do not put the civil rights of a minority to the vote of a plebiscite.

I will also no longer act as if I need a majority vote of some ecclesiastical body in order to bless, ordain, recognize and celebrate the lives and gifts of gay and lesbian people in the life of the church. No one should ever again be forced to submit the privilege of citizenship in this nation or membership in the Christian Church to the will of a majority vote.

The battle in both our culture and our church to rid our souls of this dying prejudice is finished. A new consciousness has arisen. A decision has quite clearly been made. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. Therefore, I will from this moment on refuse to dignify the continued public expression of ignorant prejudice by engaging it. I do not tolerate racism or sexism any longer. From this moment on, I will no longer tolerate our culture's various forms of homophobia. I do not care who it is who articulates these attitudes or who tries to make them sound holy with religious jargon.

I have been part of this debate for years, but things do get settled and this issue is now settled for me. I do not debate any longer with members of the "Flat Earth Society" either. I do not debate with people who think we should treat epilepsy by casting demons out of the epileptic person; I do not waste time engaging those medical opinions that suggest that bleeding the patient might release the infection. I do not converse with people who think that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans as punishment for the sin of being the birthplace of Ellen DeGeneres or that the terrorists hit the United Sates on 9/11 because we tolerated homosexual people, abortions, feminism or the American Civil Liberties Union. I am tired of being embarrassed by so much of my church's participation in causes that are quite unworthy of the Christ I serve or the God whose mystery and wonder I appreciate more each day. Indeed I feel the Christian Church should not only apologize, but do public penance for the way we have treated people of color, women, adherents of other religions and those we designated heretics, as well as gay and lesbian people.

Life moves on. As the poet James Russell Lowell once put it more than a century ago: "New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth." I am ready now to claim the victory. I will from now on assume it and live into it. I am unwilling to argue about it or to discuss it as if there are two equally valid, competing positions any longer. The day for that mentality has simply gone forever.

This is my manifesto and my creed. I proclaim it today. I invite others to join me in this public declaration. I believe that such a public outpouring will help cleanse both the church and this nation of its own distorting past. It will restore integrity and honor to both church and state. It will signal that a new day has dawned and we are ready not just to embrace it, but also to rejoice in it and to celebrate it.

– John Shelby Spong

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13: 11-12

I often wonder what it means to be an adult. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul suggests that adulthood is gained once our childish ways are left behind. But, do we ever truly achieve this thing called adulthood? We grow up, move out on our own, get jobs, and maybe raise a family, but do we ever really leave our childish ways behind?

If we are all honest with ourselves I doubt the answer would be favorable. Much like a child we constantly ask why, we constantly seek answers. We want everything to fit into categories, to be perfect. We are confused when people around us make mistakes and life gets difficult. We strive to know, to see, and to touch.

I hear people searching for a sign from God, an outward symbol of great love and grace. But is that not like the reasoning of a child. Sometimes I wonder if we are living a grown-up version of peek-a-boo. When God is not within sight do we forget God was ever there? When God appears are we surprised?

Today I offer a new definition of adulthood, and maybe even salvation.

The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise. Alden Nowlan

Growing the Beloved Community in Spite of Sinful Soil

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke often of something he called the beloved community. This was the title given to describe a reality in which freedom, love, justice, and reconciliation would reign. In many ways this was a mainstream way for Dr. King to speak of the kingdom of God being advanced within a sin-filled world. Today, there is still a need for the beloved community. The question becomes, though, “can there be a beloved community without a beloved church first?” Another question to consider would be, “can there be a beloved church without beloved children of God in intimate relationship with God through Christ Jesus?” These questions must be reflected on deeply if the church is to be a force of kingdom advancement in an increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural world.

Though we live in a world that is becoming more and more diverse by the day, the church in the United States of America is still one of the most segregated institutions there is. It’s funny how the church in the United States, through its many denominations, sees itself as a leader in world missions but can’t consistently develop churches that look like that world or the kingdom of God where we will live eternally. Though collectively financially resourced, the church is socially bankrupt when it comes to living outside of the race matrix of this nation. Why is this?

This reality of the segregated church continues for two reasons. One reason is, many are in denial that the Christian church in this country was planted in a soil of race and racism. The treatment of Native Americans and Africans in the beginning of what became known as the United States of America went against the very gospel message being preached by some Europeans carrying a Bible in their hands and racism in their hearts. We must explore this history on a regular basis so that we might re-plant the Christian church in this nation.

The second issue is that the church in this nation is still evolving on race-based soil, which creates people’s feeling of comfort in attending racially segregated churches. Though many people would not see themselves as racist, they attend churches based on race values even though they don’t realize it in most cases. The not realizing factor is true for many European-Americans. Many African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians proudly attend racially or ethnic specific churches. For many of them this is about being in a community of empowerment in a society where they collectively hold little power even in light of a minority president. Yet this reality is a major obstacle to the beloved community. There will never truly be shining examples of the beloved community as long as we Christians have a taste for the segregated church. As a pastor of church in a very diverse city, I cry out in the wilderness like John the Baptist. I cry out to prepare the way for a movement of churches that think and look like the kingdom of God and not the race-based society of this earthly realm. I cry out for the beloved church. What is your heart’s cry?

Living Stones

Come to Christ, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5
The communities of faith receiving this letter from I Peter are people living on the margins of society. They had no legal standing or political power. In verse eleven, Peter calls them aliens and exiles. Another translation identifies them as "transient strangers" and "resident aliens". The point is - the author indicates his understanding that they have been temporarily displaced from their homeland - they were non-citizens and landless. Indeed, they could not participate in the workings of society, they could not own land, or marry outside their class or ethnicity, sometimes they were forced into menial, dirty jobs and even drafted into the military.

Because they were foreigners, the languages they spoke, the clothing they wore, and their religious orientation exposed them to prejudice, abuse, and suspicion by the indigenous population. They were different - didn't belong or blend in. Does that sound even remotely familiar? The recipients of this letter, I think, must have heard words of nurture, assurance and comfort - and - words that were unexpected and amazingly different as well.

This text is an invitation for them, as individuals and a community, to come to Christ - the Living Stone and for them to become living stones - to be God's temple or God's household for those without a home. The writer encourages them to allow themselves to be built into a spiritual house. I Peter declares, that the Christians themselves are a home for the homeless.

The text is for us as well - thousands of years later. Because we have been "transient strangers" and "resident aliens" in our own country, we understand the power and importance of being radically inclusive and hospitable. Important also is to understand I Peter is talking about the community and the individual. Just as we are to align our community with Christ - the Living Stone - so our bodies are intended to be a home or temple for the spirit of God to dwell in.

I find this both comforting and disturbing - knowing the Holy Spirit of God dwells within me fills me with awe and determination to care for my body in ways that make it possible for the purity of God to live within me. Disturbing, though, because my determination is tempted and tried by the delicacies and distractions of the world. Comfort again, however, because even though my determination wavers God's does not which, of course empowers me even more to become a temple of God. I pray these words help and empower you to care appropriately for your temple of God.

Why do we go to Mass?

I do not go to Mass to make myself "better." I go because, in the dimmest reaches of my scattered, angst-ridden mind, there is something that wants me to get down on my knees and, in spite of my own suffering and all the suffering around me, give thanks. I go because I am beginning to believe that heaven is not in some other world, but shot through the broken world in which we live.

- Heather King, from her essay "Heaven and Earth"

Concerning Blessings

Barbara Brown Taylor in her new book An Altar in the World, which I already consider the textbook of 21st century Franciscan spirituality, observes, “Anyone can ask and anyone can bless, whether anyone has authorized you to do it or not…That we are able to bless one another at all is evidence that we have been blessed, whether we can remember when or not. That we are willing to bless one another is miracle enough to stagger the very stars.”