Is the Episcopal Church’s impeding schism
really about the theological rift that sprung up after the consecration
of its first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of
New Hampshire? Or, is the brouhaha really about a church in
battle with itself about how to be financially solvent and theologically
relevant in today’s competitive religious marketplace?
Last weekend, the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh
voted in favor of separating from the national church over theological
beliefs on homosexuality.
“What we’re trying to do is state
clearly in the United States for the authority of Scripture,”
Bishop Robert W. Duncan of Pittsburgh said after the vote. “The
vote was necessary, because the more liberal bishops now in
the majority in the national Church have hijacked my church,
and that’s how most of the people here feel.”
Duncan, a former seminary classmate of Robinson's,
is also the current moderator of the Anglican Communion Network
(ACN), a theologically conservative network of diocese and parishes,
working toward realignment by passing anti-gay initiatives.
And Duncan has been using the “authority of Scripture”
argument to fight his battle.
But “authority of Scripture” doesn’t
hold weight here because the Episcopal Church has always been
challenged on this issue.
In the 1970s, the argument for authority of Scripture
came up with the ordination of women – and so, too, did
the threat of a schism. But in 1989, the Church consecrated
its first female bishop – Barbara C. Harris. And conservatives
like Duncan were not only theologically outraged, but also racially
challenged because Harris is African American.
And just last year, gasps of both exhilaration
and exasperation reverberated throughout the Anglican Communion
when it was announced that Katharine Jefferts Schori would be
the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA. Schori not
only supports gay unions, but she also backed the holy consecration
of Robinson.
All this is not surprise, however, since the
Episcopal Church has a history of taking the moral high ground
on social justice issues.
On the theological rift concerning American slavery,
the Episcopal Church rebuked the Bible’s literal interpretation,
arguing that slavery violated the spirit of the Bible. Boston's
Old North Church, which played an active role in the American
Revolution, served as a beacon for Paul Revere’s “midnight
ride.” The Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Cumberland, Md.,
was a major stop on the Underground Railroad. And both Trinity
Parish on Wall Street, and St. Paul's Chapel, which George Washington
once attended, have become the spiritual center of Ground Zero
since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Episcopal Church prides itself on being an
inclusive, worshiping body. It even launched a national ad campaign
stating, “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You,” and
“ We’re Here For You,” to promote its message.
Its message is not for everyone.
But National Episcopal AIDS Coalition co-chair
Bruce Garner got the message. In his acceptance speech for the
first Faith in Action Award presented by the Atlanta Interfaith
AIDS Network in November, 2004, Garner offered this admonition:
“The signs that identify parishes of
the Episcopal Church bear the slogan, ‘The Episcopal
Church Welcomes You.’ Well, sometimes, probably most
of the time, that slogan is true. Too many times however,
that slogan is true with a qualification or two: The Episcopal
Church welcomes you ‘if’ or ‘perhaps’
or ‘as long as’ or maybe even ‘unless.’
These qualifiers might include, unless you are just a little
too gay or as long as you don’t look too ill with HIV
or even as long as you have the proper clothes.”
But the Episcopal Church’s real issue is
not Bishop Gene Robinson at all. And Robinson said so in the
pages of the Concord Monitor:
“I think for a long time white men have
ruled the world. With the emergence of people of color, the
emergence of the women's movement, with the emergence of gay
and lesbian folk standing up, … I think it's a threat
to the way things have always been with white men being in
charge."
And with the changing demographics, both nationally
and globally, of this ecclesial body, the Church’s once-upon-a-time
ruling “Frozen Chosen,” whose anti-gay initiatives
had a stranglehold on the Church’s governing future, find
that their efforts to maintain a respected voice among its constituents
is like that of today’s Republican Party – dead
on arrival.
In David D Kirkpatrick’s recent New
York Times Magazine article, “End Times for Evangelicals,”
he wrote:
“A younger generation of evangelical
pastors are pushing the movement and its theology in new directions.
... The result is a new interest in public policies that address
problems of peace, health, and poverty – problems, unlike
abortion, and same-sex marriage, where the left and right
compete to present the best answers.”
While many would like to believe that the financial
crisis in the Episcopal Church is brought on by secessionist
congregations battling with liberal bishops endorsing sodomy,
the church's coffers were bare prior to Robinson’s consecration.
And the reason? Decline in its membership over four decades,
the rise of its Third World bishops from countries in Africa,
South America, and Asia, and its egregious act of inhospitality
and exclusion of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
population.
Using Robinson as the reason for the church’s
problem IS the problem.
BlackCommentator.com Editorial
Board member, the Rev. Irene Monroe is a religion columnist,
theologian, and public speaker. A native of Brooklyn, Rev. Monroe
is a graduate from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary
at Columbia University, and served as a pastor at an African-American
church before coming to Harvard Divinity School for her doctorate
as a Ford Fellow. Reverend Monroe’s “Let Your
Light Shine Like a Rainbow 365 Days a Year - Meditations on
Bible Prayers" will be out in June, 2008. As an African
American feminist theologian, she speaks for a sector of society
that is frequently invisible. Her website is irenemonroe.com.
Click
here to contact the Rev. Monroe.