More on the Episcopal Church

Notwithstanding his (unnecessary) apology, Michael's response to my earlier post is a good reminder for me not to so casually cast criticisms at my former church, so let me be more specific.  I'm not claiming that there no non-lefty grounds for favoring same-sex marriage or abortion rights, only that the broad panoply of social positions staked out by the New York diocese of the Episcopal Church is largely indistinguishable, in my view, from the pre-Clinton/DLC policies of the Democratic Party.  In other words, the church's political identity is wide open to the criticism that it is no more than a product of its surrounding culture (New York City).  A more serious problem is the diocese's apparent lack of humility in staking out some of these positions.  (E.g., the diocese refused to support a friend of mine as a candidate for the seminary -- much less hire him as a priest -- on the ground that he would not state his willingness to bless same-sex relationships.)  While I favor some of the diocese's positions (including supporting some sort of legal recognition for same-sex relationships), I wish there was greater space made for reasonable disagreement on the thorny task of translating the Gospel into workable and humane policies for society.  (Perhaps the Catholic Church is open to the same criticism on certain issues, but that's another story.)

Rob