New essays on gays and Christianity

An essay in the new Christian Century asks Christians to rethink homosexuality by looking to Isaiah for an example of a radical reimagining of divine grace as a supplement to scriptural exegesis.  And Commonweal has a reflection by an Episcopalian on the uneasy state of the Anglican communion in light of the ordination of Gene Robinson:

To my mind, the question of whether an openly and sexually actively gay person can serve as a bishop is not a matter of essential Christian faith, nor is the identity or faithfulness of Episcopalians threatened by such service. I respect those who feel differently, but I think they are confusing the essential with the inessential. I believe the identity and faithfulness of the church are threatened far more by those who think the Gnostic Gospels or The Da Vinci Code has more to teach us than the Nicene Creed or the central texts of the Bible. I wish the ECUSA had waited a bit longer to take the step to ordain a sexually active homosexual person as bishop, and I wish the opponents of that step were more willing to consider whether God may be doing something new in our own time. But I continue to be an Episcopalian because the arguments, the disagreements, and even the threats of schism are all part of a messy and all-too-human way of struggling together to glimpse the nature and actions of an ultimately unknowable and infinitely loving God.

As a former Episcopalian, I appreciate a certain dose of theological humility; I just wish there would have been a similar reticence in proclaiming what could only be considered a strangely perfect convergence between Christianity and lefty secular social policy.  (At least in our New York diocese, that is: see, e.g., here, here, and here.)

Rob